Progressive Jewish Thought and The New Anti-Semitism - The New York Times Story

The New York Times Story

While the essay was released in 2006, it didn't attract any major mainstream attention until it was covered in late January 2007 in a New York Times piece by Patricia Cohen.

Cohen wrote that Rosenfeld's "essay comes at a time of high anxiety among many Jews, who are seeing not only a surge in attacks from familiar antagonists, but also gloves-off condemnations of Israel from one-time allies and respected figures" and goes on to note that "bitter debates over anti-Israel statements and anti-Semitism have entangled government officials, academics, opinion-makers and others over the past year, particularly since fervent supporters and tough critics of Israel can be found on the right and the left." Cohen, in addition to summarizing Rosenfeld's essay and its context, also sought out and then devoted significant column inches to the angry reactions of many of those named by Rosenfeld in his essay.

Richard Cohen was quoted by the New York Times complaining that "the essay cherry-picked quotations. ' mischaracterized what I wrote,' said. 'I’ve been critical of Israel at times, but I’ve always been a defender of Israel.' He did add, however, that a wide range of writers were named, some of whom have written inflammatory words about Israel. 'He has me in a very strange neighborhood.'"

Tony Judt described to the New York Times that he believed the real purpose of outspoken denunciations of him and others was to stifle their harsh criticism of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians. "'The link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is newly created,' said, adding that he fears 'the two will have become so conflated in the minds of the world' that references to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust will come to be seen as 'just a political defense of Israeli policy.'" Judt, who advocates for a binational solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, states that he " know anyone in a respectable range of opinion who thinks Israel shouldn’t exist."

The New York Times also queried Tony Kushner for his reaction. "'Most Jews like me find this a very painful subject,' Mr. Kushner said, and are aware of the rise in vicious anti-Semitism around the world but feel 'it’s morally incumbent upon us to articulate questions and reservations.'"

The original article in the New York Times described the American Jewish Committee, the organization that released the essay, as a "conservative advocacy group." This characterization was promptly contested by the American Jewish Committee (with others also voicing their agreement that the original characterization of the AJC was erroneous). In response, the newspaper issued a correction making clear that " stance on issues ranges across the political spectrum; it is not 'conservative'."

Alvin Rosenfeld was highly critical of the New York Time's coverage alleging that the article on the whole was misleading and incorrectly framed his argument, the admitted mischaracterization of the AJC was just one example. The mischaracterization, according to Rosenfeld, even includes the title of the article, which describes the targets of his critical essay as 'Liberal Jews' when, Rosenfeld writes, "I never referred to liberal Jews, if you read my piece carefully you simply won’t find the phrase." Gershom Gorenberg concurs with this criticism writing that the "essay itself refers to 'progressives,' a group that overlaps with liberals but is not synonymous." The misleading coverage, Rosenfeld writes, "reduced my argument to a kind of Left-Right, Conservative-Liberal face off" and led to many people misreading the essay.