Jews Don't Count

I really enjoyed reading "Jews don't count", David Baddiel is a British and Jewish writer and comedian who has always been open about being Jewish and confronting progressive people and collective with their knowledge and position on antisemitism. And it is exactly what this book is doing: it is providing many examples where antisemitism is not considered in the same way we consider other forms of racism in progressive circles. One example given in the book is the musical The Color Purple from Alice Walker where the actress Seyi Omooba was removed from her role for homophobia but no one raised the antisemitic statements made by Alice Walker. With all these examples Baddiel asks: why are we considering antisemitism as a second-class racism? Why aren't we applying the same concepts to antisemitism than for other forms of racism? And what I really appreciated, is that the book aims at asking the questions more than providing answers. For instance, he raised the fact that while cis people playing trans gender role is seen as an issue, non Jewish people playing Jewish people is not, even when there is not a single Jewish actor in a Jewish play. And he isn't saying that we should apply all the concepts in the exact same way, but more that in doesn't occur to progressive people that we are not applying them. Having a short (100 pages) and provocative book raising these issues on the left is a really good thing to start conversations that should happen.

An analysis of the blind spot the pc-folks have with antisemitism. More acute than ever after WW II, now we see the Gaza protests intermingle with a virulent antisemitism covered up by (rightful) outrage at the Israeli military excesses. Strong point is that Baddiel sees it from the Jewish point of view, something which is self-evident with other types of racism but which is almost entirely overlooked in the case of casual (or not so casual) antisemitism or the ignoring of it.
He addresses eternal tropes as the hidden power of the Jews, their supposed dominance in entertainment and the financial world, their contradictory status as all-powerful puppet-players and the lowest of human lifeforms parasiting the good work of genetically superior races.
He also addresses more everyday forms of unaware antisemitism from his own work in entertainment. For instance, it remains a difficult question whether or not Jewish characters in a play could be played by non-Jews. To be honest, even a formidable actor like Peter Sellers is a bit cringeworthy nowadays as the Indian protagonist of The Party, so why would it be different for Jews? Or should we become less sensitive to this overall, and say, acting is acting? What about blackface then, or is this taking it to ridiculous extremes? This is the type of question Baddiel addresses (although not quite this line of reasoning), with great wit, but still very serious as antisemitism has proved to be one of the most murderous forms of racism and should never be shoved aside as irrelevant.