Strange Hate: Antisemitism, Racism and the Limits of Diversity

Keith Kahn-Harris argues that the controversy over antisemitism today is a symptom of a growing selectivity in anti-racism caused by a failure to engage with the challenges that diverse societies pose.

How did antisemitism get so strange? Life-long anti-racists accused of antisemitism, life-long Jew haters absolving themselves by declaring their love of Israel. Today, antisemitism and philosemitism seem selective, as if Jews offered themselves up as a kind of buffet, in which non-Jews get choose the good ones they like and the bad ones they reject. In this passionate yet closely-argued polemic from a writer with an intimate knowledge of the antisemitism controversy, Kahn-Harris argues that the emergence of a selective anti-racism demonstrates how far we are from understanding what living in diverse societies really means. Strange Hate calls for us to abandon selective anti-racism and rethink how we view not just Jews and antisemitism, but the challenge of living with diversity.