The Jews and the Left

And yet, as Batya Ungar-Sargon explains in The Jews and the Left, with its slogans about the destruction of Israel and elevation of antisemitic leaders, the Left has become a no-go zone for Jews unless they are willing to denounce their own people. Now the left has cheers when Zohran Mamdani says there shouldn’t be a Jewish state on this planet, and Bernie Sanders says Israel’s goal in Gaza is “extermination.” To explore how we got here. Ungar-Sargon takes readers through the long history of Jews in American political life, from George Washington’s praise for the Jews to the forgotten Jewish Founding Father, from the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to the lynching of Leo Frank, from the Civil Rights movement to the shock many Americans felt on October 7th when Hamas wasn’t universally condemned. Many Jews will insist that antisemitic violence has been more common on the right than on the left. The reality is far more complicated and far more troubling. This book analyzes a uniquely left-wing form of antisemitic hate. The Jews and the Left is a moving historical account of one of the most important alliances in American politics—and its breakdown.