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Gilad Atzmon

The Wandering Who Paperback – September 16, 2011

by Gilad Atzmon (Author)

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An investigation of Jewish identity politics and Jewish contemporary ideology using both popular culture and scholarly texts. Jewish identity is tied up with some of the most difficult and contentious issues of today. The purpose in this book is to open many of these issues up for discussion. Since Israel defines itself openly as the ‘Jewish State’, we should ask what the notions of ’Judaism’, ‘Jewishness’, ‘Jewish culture’ and ‘Jewish ideology’ stand for. Gilad examines the tribal aspects embedded in Jewish secular discourse, both Zionist and anti Zionist; the ‘holocaust religion’; the meaning of ‘history’ and ‘time’ within the Jewish political discourse; the anti-Gentile ideologies entangled within different forms of secular Jewish political discourse and even within the Jewish left. He questions what it is that leads Diaspora Jews to identify themselves with Israel and affiliate with its politics. The devastating state of our world affairs raises an immediate demand for a conceptual shift in our intellectual and philosophical attitude towards politics, identity politics and history.

Print length

177 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Zero Books
Publication date

September 16, 2011
Dimensions

5.56 x 0.52 x 8.56 inches
ISBN-10

1846948754
ISBN-13

978-1846948756
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zero Books (September 16, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 177 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1846948754
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1846948756
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.56 x 0.52 x 8.56 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,177,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #801 in Jewish Social Studies
- #4,262 in Jewish History (Books)
- #5,986 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences

Customer Reviews:
194 ratings

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Gilad Atzmon
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5 star		75%
4 star		14%
3 star		5%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

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George C

Gotta love people calling the author ( an Israeli Jew ) a Nazi.

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2015

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there are some people to whom everybody is a Nazi, especially all Palestinians or all Arabs or all Muslims and so on ... these people will not enjoy this book.

there are also some people to whom Jews are a super-human race of "god's chosen people" who are absolutely 100% beyond reproach, can never do anything wrong, are always victims, must constantly be worshiped and given anything they ( Jews ) might want to ask ( like German made Nuclear submarines for free, US made F35 Jet Fighters before even US itself can have them and so on ) ... these people will not enjoy this book either.

but if you wish to look at the Jews critically, whether you are a Jew yourself or you are not - then you will more likely than not learn a few things in this book that you didn't know even if you have been studying Jews for a while.

the Author ( Gilad Atzmon, a Jew born in Israel himself ) does not hate Jews, but is extremely critical of them, and has dedicated his life to the kind of self-reflection that he ( correctly ) says most Jews are incapable of.

this is an important book for anybody aspiring to be considered a serious intellectual in the areas of politics and geopolitics. this book doesn't sugarcoat, or skirt around anything, and it doesn't hint on things but rather states them plainly. the ideas in this book will be extremely troubling to some people ... and that's OK - this book is not for them. this book is for people who have an intellectual backbone to deal with reality instead of trying to rationalize it away.

finally, the Author of this book is a successful Jazz musician and did not have to write this book to make money, rather, he had to write it because others wouldn't. while there are certainly other books critical of Jews they don't really look at the "Jewish Question" from the same perspective as Gilad does, namely that of self-reflection and treating the "Jewish Question" as a sort of a mental illness rather than criminal behavior. This perspective is fascinating if you're a serious thinker and i highly recommend this book.

35 people found this helpful

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Did you know a THIRD WTC building fell on 911?

EXCELLENT

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2020

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My Mom is older than Israel.
'nuf said.

2 people found this helpful

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Will Tuttle

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2017

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Excellent informative, and shines light on many problems in our world today.

7 people found this helpful

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Baguazhang

Most Sophisticated and Complete Assessment of Jewish Identity Politics that I've Encountered

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2016

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Just finished reading this fascinating book for the third time.

This is a text to be read and pondered. There's a lot under the hood here. One reading is not enough.

Is Gilad Atzmon right about everything he talks about? Probably not. But I think The Wandering Who? gives the most sophisticated and complete assessment of Jewish identity politics that I've encountered.

Because I'm a skeptic (I cannot buy into any one person or group's views on this issue) and because Atzmon's book raises a lot of good questions that I wouldn't have asked if I hadn't read it, I have been inspired to read more books on the subject. Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People and Alison Weir's Against Our Better Judgement will be next.

Is Atzmon a great writer? No. But he's engaging and offers a lot to think about. And the book is much clearer than some of his worst online interviews and videos where his English isn't that good. (Some of his online videos are excellent and go into greater detail. Some cover topics not covered in this book.)

Atzmon calls himself a philosopher and I generally agree with this self-assessment. Mainly because he is extremely curious and courageously asks a lot of probing questions. However, the way he uses Jacques Lacan, for instance, to bolster his argument is a bit sloppy at best.

Is Atzmon an antisemite? No. Not because the term "antisemite" is almost always misused (George Orwell warned us about Jewish use of "doublespeak" in 1984 and Animal Farm), but because it just ain't so.

He describes 3 categories of Jews. Category 1 & 2 are human beings who happen to be Jews. They're human first and Jews second. They're not so caught up in tribal collectivist thinking. The 3rd category Jews are made up of people who take their "Jewishness" -- whatever that is (usually an essentialist racial identity) -- to be their primary defining trait. Their connection to the remaining human race comes a distant second.

Arthur Aouizerat in his R&E Brest essay, "Zionism, Talmudic Judaism and Jewishness" agrees with Atzmon' but, I think, defines the 3rd category Jew more precisely as "Talmudic Jewish-Zionist practitioners, non-practicing Talmudic-Zionist Jews, secular non-Zionist Jewish leftists and even anti-Zionists." (For those who don't know, the Talmud is an extremely racist and just downright ugly text that is the core of Jewish "scholarly" thought--not the Torah. It was the writers of the Talmud who had decided which books were added to the Torah and which weren't. Fortunately, most Jews are not that familiar with the Talmud.)

Other people have left more detailed reviews than mine. However, I think the most important point hasn't been covered so far and that is to read the book, think for yourself and investigate further.

Many people have wrongly dismissed his arguments mainly out of self-censorship (political correctness) or because they have their own opposing political agenda. It's interesting that Gilad Atzmon doesn't see himself as political--just an independent thinker sharing his thoughts. Yet someone publically asking tough questions is itself political me thinks.

Rest assured: The fact that 21% of reviewers have given this book 1-Star (as of the date of this review) merely indicates that Atzmon has struck a nerve and makes this text ring all the more true.

19 people found this helpful

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David J. Edwards

Get Both Books!

Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2018

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Another great book that must be read along with Being In Time, Gilad's recent work.

5 people found this helpful

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Jim Coyle

Wandering Who?

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2018

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Gilad does a comprehensive study of his ex-tribes cultural identify.

2 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Incisive Critique, Mixed with Abuse

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2015

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Worth reading, this book is a refreshingly honest attack on Israeli political attitudes---blended with vitriol about "Jewishness as an ideology." I welcome the author's scorn for nationalism, particularly for the Nazi illusion, now echoed in the Israeli "right of return," that Judaism is an ethnic category, a folk genus, a race. It is none of these things. But the book seems almost entirely blind to the merits of particular Jews, of Jewish culture, and of Jewish texts.

6 people found this helpful

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Dr.Anthony Williams

The blind leading the blind into endless conflict.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2018

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This book should be compulsory reading for all children at school, in all the Worlds languages. It should also be compulsory reading for every Presidential candidate in every country Worldwide, and form part of the campaign under which political leadership is sought.
The whole rational world population knows the TRUTH of Zionism, and yet the media chooses to put lipstick on to a pig, and call it by another name, threatening defaulters with recrimination should they say something that might destroy the illusion. Gilad Atzmon is a very unusual Jew, brought up in Israel, and yet forced to live in Exile elsewhere because of the fear of his logic, and acerbic humour making ripples in the tranquil pond of illusion that has been created by the Zionists, with their massive worldwide media infrastructure tuned into everything but TRUTH.
This book is easy to read and to understand, and should be openly discussed at every level of school learning.
There will of course be counter arguments, put forward by those that are Zionist by conviction, but these arguments are countered at every twist and turn by the author, and the pure and simple logic of his narrative is profoundly refreshing to read. The question arises, as to what happens next ? and that is why this book should be read and learned by all young people around the world, who will in due course of time work those solutions into the future that they inhabit.

11 people found this helpful

Mr. Duncan Macfarlane

Honest, insightful , readable, never boring & makes original points but takes some arguments to illogical extremes

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2018

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This book is well worth reading both for being very well written and easy to read - and because it brings up facts and make arguments that others would be afraid to mention or make. Atzmon certainly gives original insights into how Jews - Zionist and anti-Zionist , left and right wing, Israeli and non-Israeli , think - and the historical and psychological reasons why. As well as the contradictions in their various ideologies. He is extremely brave in making arguments and bringing up facts others might balk at. And he shows up the hypocrisy and manipulative behaviour of some Zionist political groups in e.g lobbying for the US congress to recognise the Armenian genocide as genocide when relations between the Israeli and Turkish governments were poor, but then lobbying for it not to be recognised when Israel-Turkish relations had improved.

His book also includes a very readable summary of the 'The Invention of the Jewish People' by Shlomo Sand, which is an important book, but written in a tedious academic style. No one could accuse Atzmon's books of being boring.

That's the upside and why it's well worth reading. If that was the whole story, i'd have given it five stars. But it's not.

The downside is that Atzmon takes some of his arguments to ridiculous and illogical extremes which in some cases are pretty much anti-Semitic prejudice against all Jews, despite him being born a Jewish Israeli (or maybe because of that).

He talks about manipulative and hypocritical behaviour and arguments by some Zionist Jewish groups as if this is unique to them, despite such behaviour sadly being common to many political groups, of all ethnicities and religions and none.

He blames all Jews for the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, blockade of Gaza and war crimes there. He seems to believe that just by identifying as Jewish in ethnicity or religion, whether secular or religious, critical of Israeli government actions or supportive of them , they are responsible just by identifying as Jewish, whether as an ethnicity or a religion.

This seems to be based on his own view that ethnic identities are harmful and that we should only have a cosmopolitan, non-ethnic identity as a citizen of whatever country we live in. He also points to research by Shlomo Sand and others finding that modern Jewish ethnicity is a modern invention based more on myth than history (as are all modern ethnicities and nationalities). This brought to mind for me the quote from Oscar Wilde that "A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses." Replace "selfish" with Arrogance/arrogant and it seems to me fit Atzmon's attitude here. Not in choosing his own identity, but in condemning any person born Jewish who does not choose the same one.

Atzmon also seems to be blind to the political fact that the main reason non-Jewish critics of Israel can counter accusations that any criticism of Israel is motivated by anti-Semitism is that some people who identify as Jewish are also highly critical of many of the Israeli government and military's actions.

Atzmon also talks as if the Iraq war, the banking crisis and almost every inequality and war crime committed by the US or UK or their allies is the result of Jewish influence. He certainly provides evidence that some people who identify as Jewish and are very pro-Israel have been influential in both governments and in both pushing for the Iraq war and for the deregulation of markets that led to the banking crisis. But talking as if without them neither would have happened is a massive exaggeration. Paul Wolfowitz did not bring the Iraq war about on his own. Nor did Zionist groups. And Alan Greenspan and Milton Freidman did not bring about the banking crisis on their own, even if Atzmon's quotations of Friedman's belief that free market capitalism benefits Jewish people and is in line with Jewish ideology, with left wing Jews supposedly an abberation, is very interesting to hear.

The aims of the Israeli government and Zionist groups supporting it may have coincided with those of neo-Conservatives, big arms companies and big oil companies on the Iraq war - or at least they may all have believed it would be in their interests. That is very different from Zionists, let alone all Jews, having been the main cause of the war. They were not.

Worst of all Atzmon suggests that there must be a reason why there has been widespread hatred and prejudice against Jews throughout history. And seems to be strongly implying that manipulative dishonest and selfish behaviour by people identifying as Jews was the cause of it, with the Holocaust the result. This can only be described as anti-Semitic prejudice. And nonsense, as sectarians and xenophobes have never needed any logical reason to hate ethnic or religious minorities or outgroups. Only to identify them as "not us" to get votes or other support from their "own" identity group and make their own identity seem clearer as "not them".

Implying the Jews provoked the Holocaust is as irrational as claiming the Armenians provoked the genocide in Turkey.

I'd still advise anyone to read the book for all the interesting Jewish history he brings up - past and present - and his insights, as a Jewish born Israeli who now lives in the US, into the psychology of various Jewish people. But as much as I admire his honesty, intelligence, originality and insightfulness, I cannot agree with his over-reaction against Jewish identity and almost all Jewish people which is anti-Semitic in some cases.

4 people found this helpful

Amir

Excellent!

Reviewed in France on April 4, 2013

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Gilad Atzmon est un musicien de jazz, né en Israël et vivant à Londres, qui a petit à petit compris ce qu’était vraiment le sionisme et vers quoi il pouvait mener le monde. Se définissant lui-même comme un «Palestinien parlant hébreu» ou comme un «fier Juif-ayant-la haine-de-soi», il a écrit de nombreux articles et accordé de nombreux entretiens, essayant sans cesse de décortiquer l’idéologie qui soutient aussi bien les actes belliqueux ou racistes d’Israël que les postures de ceux qui, à travers le monde, se proclament Juifs antisionistes. Ce livre est ainsi le fruit de dix ans de réflexion sur les questions de l’identité face au regard de l’autre, sur le paradoxe dans lequel s’enferment les Juifs laïcs, et sur le retour au ghetto auquel a finalement abouti la création d’Israël. Des textes bibliques aux discours des représentants des lobbies sionistes poussant à la guerre, en passant par le culte de l’Holocauste, Gilad Atzmon brosse ici un tableau cohérent de ce qui est au cœur d’une judéité, qui ayant perdu sa dimension spirituelle sans renoncer à l’Élection, n’a pas réussi à forger une philosophie qui permettrait à la communauté juive d’intégrer tout simplement la grande famille humaine.

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rene harrison

I like Mr. Atzmon's use of humour and will continue ...

Reviewed in Canada on May 30, 2015

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I learned a lot about one's own view of their (my) identity politics period, no matter what one identifies as ie: gender, race, religion. It is quite freeing to not have to identifiy with any. I like Mr. Atzmon's use of humour and will continue to search him out. Also the book came within 3 days and in great shape.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Good book, mirrors some of my thoughts

Reviewed in Canada on March 22, 2019

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Well paced, touched on many details the casual observer might have missed, asks good questions

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