Jews and the Left by Philip Mendes: A Review
Brenton Sanderson • May 9, 2019
Introduction
In 2018 I reviewed Alain Brossat and Sylvie Klingberg’s Revolutionary Yiddishland: A History of Jewish Radicalism, a shameless apologia for (and indeed glorification of) Jewish involvement in radical political movements in
the early- to mid-twentieth century. Jews and
the Left:
The Rise and Fall of a Political Alliance by
the Jewish Australian academic Philip Mendes covers much of
the same ground, rehashing many of
the same apologetic tropes.
Mendes, an Associate Professor at Monash University in Melbourne, describes his book, published in 2014, as “
the first publication to provide a systematic historical and political overview of
the relationship between Jews and
the left.”[1]Largely ignoring scholarly literature on
the subject emanating from non-Jewish and non-philo-Semitic sources, Mendes insists that “With
the exception of Arthur Liebman’s outstanding 1979 text, Jews and
the Left, there has been little systematic analysis of
the Jewish—Left relationship.”[2]
Such an
ideologically-selective survey of
the literature leads him to conclude that “
the phenomenon of Jewish radicalism seems to have been seriously under-researched by both general students of sociology and history, and Jewish studies specialists.”[3]
Unlike some of
the more egregious Jewish propagandists and apologists who have contributed to
the topic, Mendes makes no attempt to deny disproportionate Jewish involvement in political radicalism, stating:
The disproportionate historical contribution of Jews to the political Left has been well documented. Both as individual theorists and activists of the stature of Marx, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, Léon Blum and Emma Goldman, and as organized mass labor movements in, for example, revolutionary Russia and early—mid 20th century Warsaw, Amsterdam, Paris, Toronto, Buenos Aires, New York and London, Jews have been conspicuous for their socialist and communist affiliations.[4]
Indeed, Mendes points out that from around 1830 until 1970, an “informal political alliance existed between Jews and
the political Left.”[5]
Many Jewish historians and intellectuals are, however, reluctant to offer any discussion, let alone objective assessment, of
the dynamics of
the Jewish-Left alliance, its scale, causes, and
the extent to which radical Jews were motivated by explicitly Jewish concerns. Discussion of these issues being inhibited, he contends, “by concerns regarding
the use of
the alleged Jewish—Bolshevik conspiracy by
the Nazis and other anti-Semitic groups,” which is reflected in “
the associated concern by many Jewish writers to minimize
the role of Jews in radical movements.”[6]
Another factor contributing to
the Jewish reluctance to discuss
the relationship between Jews and
the Left is
the determination to absolve Jews of any responsibility for
the horrific crimes of communist regimes. In their book Revolutionary Yiddishland, Brossat and Klingberg assure us, for example, that
the militancy of Jewish communists “was always messianic, optimistic, oriented to
the Good — a fundamental and irreducible difference from that of
the fascists with which some people have been tempted to compare it, on
the pretext that one ‘militant ideal’ is equivalent to any other.”[7] So while tens of millions may have died because of
the actions of Jewish communist militants, at least they, unlike
the fascists, meant well. Kevin MacDonald notes that Jewish involvement with Bolshevism “is perhaps
the most egregious example of Jewish moral particularism in all of history.
The horrific consequences of Bolshevism for millions of non-Jewish Soviet citizens do not seem to have been an issue for Jewish leftists — a pattern that continues into
the present.”[8]
Maintaining a narrative of universal, trans-historical, and unparalleled Jewish victimhood is, of course, supremely important for
the cadres of Jewish “diversity” activists and propagandists throughout
the West, given
the status of “
the Holocaust” as
the moral foundation of today’s White displacement agenda. Free discussion of
the Jewish role in communist crimes undermines Jewish pretentions to moral authority grounded in their self-designated status as history’s preeminent victims. In contemporary academia there are, in addition, strong personal and professional disincentives for highlighting
the Jewish role in communist crimes, and it is therefore not surprising that non-Jewish historians and intellectuals are equally reluctant to recognize
the Jewish backgrounds of many revolutionaries and to explore how their Jewish identity influenced their beliefs and actions. Ron Unz recently observed how successfully
the Jewish-controlled media organs in
the U.S. have “conditioned most Americans to suffer a sort of mental allergic reaction to topics sensitive to Jews.”
The Jewish role in
the Bolshevik Revolution and
the governance and administration of
the Soviet Union and its satellite states is one such topic.
…
https://www.unz.com/article/jews-and-th ... -a-review/ 
