A Time to Speak Out: Independent Jewish Voices on Israel, Zionism and Jewish Identity (Paperback)

~ Anne Karpf (Editor), Brian Klug (Editor), Jacqueline Rose (Editor), Barbara Rosenbaum (Editor), Julia Bard (Contributor), Geoffrey Bindman (Contributor), Emma Clyne (Contributor), Stan Cohen (Contributor), Howard Cooper (Contributor), D. D. Guttenplan (Contributor), Abe Hayeem (Contributor), Anthony Isaacs (Contributor), Gabriel Josipovici (Contributor), Francesca Klug (Contributor), Tony Klug (Contributor), Richard Kuper (Contributor), Michael Kustow (Contributor), Antony Lerman (Contributor), Antony Loewenstein (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Jewish voices challenge the crude polarities of the Israel/Palestine debate. In A Time to Speak Out, a collection of strong Jewish voices, drawing on an established tradition of Jewish dissidence, come together to explore some of the most challenging issues facing diaspora Jews, notably in relation to the ongoing conflict in Israel-Palestine.

Nearly all contributors were associated with the Independent Jewish Voices declaration which, when launched in Britain in 2007, opened a floodgate of responses. This book bears witness to the urgency of that continuing debate.

With articles on such topics as international law, the Holocaust, varieties of Zionism, self-hatred, the multiplicity of Jewish identities, and human rights, these essays provide powerful evidence of the vitality of independent Jewish opinion as well as demonstrating that criticism of Israel has a crucial role to play in the continuing history of a Jewish concern for social justice.

At once sober and radical, A Time To Speak Out reclaims an often intemperate debate for those both inside and outside Israel who prefer to confront uncomfortable “truths.”

With contributions from: Julia Bard, Geoffrey Bindman, Emma Clyne, Stan Cohen, Howard Cooper, D. D. Guttenplan, Abe Hayeem, Anthony Isaacs, Gabriel Josipovici, Anne Karpf, Brian Klug, Francesca Klug, Tony Klug, Richard Kuper, Michael Kustow, Antony Lerman, Antony Loewenstein, Mike Marqusee, Jeremy Montagu, Jacqueline Rose, Anthony Rudolf, Donald Sassoon, Lynne Segal, Richard Silverstein, Gillian Slovo, Eyal Weizman, and Sami Zubaida.

Independent Jewish Voices is a group of Jews in Britain from diverse backgrounds, occupations and affiliations who have in common a strong commitment to social justice and universal human rights. Visit the Independent Jewish Voices website at http://www.ijv.org.uk/. .

About the Author

D. D. Guttenplan, journalist and essayist, lives in London. He has written on the Irving trial for Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and The Guardian.

Mike Marqusee’s books include Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the 1960s, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties, War Minus the Shooting, Anyone but England and If I Am Not for Myself. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian and writes a fortnightly column for the Indian newspaper The Hindu. He lives in London.

Gillian Slovo, author of the novel Red Dust, now a feature film, and co-author of the play Guantánamo, as well as a memoir and nine other novels, lives in London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 306 pages
• Publisher: Verso (September 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844672298
• ISBN-13: 978-1844672295
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #933,289 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A courageous, important declaration, December 10, 2008

By	James Shelby Tucker Jr. "Shelby Tucker" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My own view is, 231 years on from the American Revolution, 219 years after the French Revolution and 218 years on from the death of Emperor Joseph II, the terms `Jew', `Jewish' and `Jewry' should be reserved for adherents to Judaism, as `Christians', `Muslims', `Hindus' and `Buddhists' are reserved for adherents to those faiths. However, few, if any, of the 21 contributors to this sparkling collection of essays would agree. Some are religious (one is a rabbi), most are secular, some are Zionists, many not, two are Americans, two South Africans, two Australians, one a Swede, one an Iraqi, the others British, but all are proudly, resolutely Jews. They belong to Independent Jewish Voices, launched by Harold Pinter, Mark Leigh, Stephen Fry, Zoe Wanamaker, Eric Hobsbawn, Geoffrey Bindman, Nicole Farhi and others on 5 February 2007, and these essays are their testimonials. As Jews, they feel compelled to reject the claim of successive Israeli governments and self-appointed `community leaders' such as the Board of Deputies, American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, American Jewish Committee, Council of Australian Jewry and World Jewish Conference to repreŽsent them.

They have been criticized for `acting to deprive Israel of its means of defence'. `Legitimate self-defence', counters Jeremy Montagu, sometime president of West Central Liberal Synagogue, `does not mean oppressing a whole community or people. It does not mean demolishing their houses. Nor does it mean uprooting their olive trees, something that is specifically forbidden in the Torah (Deuteronomy 20:19-20). It does not mean preventing them and their children from getting to hospitals or subjecting them to humiliation. When I, as a Jew, see such things happening, how can I not speak out?'

They are told that they should be `ashamed to be Jewish'. `If they are ashamed of anything,' Anthony Isaacs counters, `it is of what is being done purportedly in their name.' Labelling Israel's critics as `Jews for genocide', malshinim (informers), `anti-Semites' and `self-hating Jews', adds Richard Kuper, are attempts `to reframe the debate' by rendering criticism suspect before it is voiced. Criticism `should be evaluated on the basis of evidence put forward', not on the presumed motivation of the critics.

They believe that the `Israel right or wrong' polemic of Alan Dershowitz, Melanie Phillips and other `ideologues' of the Zionist right serves neither Israel's nor Jewry's interest. Conflating Israel and Jews `spill[s] over into unjustifiable attacks on Jews as a whole.' They `find themselves increasingly the object of scorn, or worse.' `Have we forgotten?' asks Jeremy Montagu?

The South African contributor Gillian Slovo perhaps best sums up the view of the brave Jews who have spoken out in this book. `The tradition of ethics in which I was brought up says that it is not enough for you, and the people you love, to be safe and comfortable. It says that you must not close your eyes to the pain of others just because they do not have the same colour of skin, or the same religion, or the same ethnic background as you. It says that to argue against the injustice of Palestinians being walled into enclaves, or against the way that circumŽstances of birth dictate which roads can be travelled and which passes carried, or to point to parallels with apartheid, is not knee-jerk antisemitism [sic] (or self-hatred). Rather it is the responŽsibility we all have to make an effort to ensure equality and justice for everybody. It is for this reason that I am happy to be part of the Independent Jewish Voices initiative.'