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page 68
between German Zionists and the Nazis in 1933 to facilitate Jews being able to extricate a small portion of their funds from Germany. While there are legitimate grounds to debate the wisdom of this agreement – and many Jews did at the time – it was neither “confidential” nor ongoing and hardly constituted collaboration. Ultimately, the tropes and stereotypes on which the antisemite relies are the same, irrespective of the end of the political spectrum from which the hatred emanates. They can be grouped into three subsets: Jews are financially powerful; Jews are “clever” in a pernicious fashion; and Jews have political power beyond their number. Finally, bringing this all together as a conspiratorial plot, the anti-semite charges that Jews use that wealth, brain power and political leverage to advance their interests to the detriment of non-­Jews. I have focused on far-­right antisemitism in America, but it is important to avoid the delusion that this is strictly an American phenomenon. In the spring of 2020, Germany’s Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, noted regarding antisemitism that currently “the biggest threat is still the threat from the right”. In other European countries, for example France, most antisemitic incidents emanate from other sources, such as Islamist extremists. However, what is happening in the United States should not be ignored. The spread of far-­right ideologies across the Atlantic is likely, and to some extent is already happening. As that occurs, it is crucial to recognise that it is antisemitism that gives pseudo-­intellectual heft and legitimacy to the racial hatred. As we study these developments on the far right, we must fully acknowledge the symbiotic relationship between these forms of animus. Only then will we be able to understand this phenomenon and, even more importantly, combat it. ✾ 66 the jewish quarterly
page 69
The Israel letters Isaiah Berlin The philosopher and historian of ideas Isaiah Berlin met Robert Silvers, the long-­time editor of the New York Review of Books, in New York in 1964. Shortly afterwards, they began a remarkable correspondence, in which they exchanged views on politics, literature, philosophy, Judaism, Zionism and family; they shared gossip and confidences, consoled each other on personal losses, and discussed opera, theatre and books. The letters spanned four decades and continued until Berlin’s death in 1997. For years, the correspondence between Berlin and Silvers sat in a warehouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, as part of the NYRB archive. In 2015, two years before Silvers died, the archive was sold to the New York Public Library and the letters finally came to light. This selection, running from 1967 to 1984, is published here almost entirely for the first time, annotated by David Herman. When it begins, Berlin was at the height of his fame, an Oxford professor and one of the best-­known intellectuals in post-­war Britain, soon to publish one of his most acclaimed works, Four Essays on Liberty. Silvers had co-­founded the New York Review of Books in 1963, and it became an important home for Berlin. In December 1965 he the israel letters 67

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between German Zionists and the Nazis in 1933 to facilitate Jews being able to extricate a small portion of their funds from Germany. While there are legitimate grounds to debate the wisdom of this agreement – and many Jews did at the time – it was neither “confidential” nor ongoing and hardly constituted collaboration.

Ultimately, the tropes and stereotypes on which the antisemite relies are the same, irrespective of the end of the political spectrum from which the hatred emanates. They can be grouped into three subsets: Jews are financially powerful; Jews are “clever” in a pernicious fashion; and Jews have political power beyond their number. Finally, bringing this all together as a conspiratorial plot, the anti-semite charges that Jews use that wealth, brain power and political leverage to advance their interests to the detriment of non-­Jews.

I have focused on far-­right antisemitism in America, but it is important to avoid the delusion that this is strictly an American phenomenon. In the spring of 2020, Germany’s Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, noted regarding antisemitism that currently “the biggest threat is still the threat from the right”. In other European countries, for example France, most antisemitic incidents emanate from other sources, such as Islamist extremists. However, what is happening in the United States should not be ignored. The spread of far-­right ideologies across the Atlantic is likely, and to some extent is already happening. As that occurs, it is crucial to recognise that it is antisemitism that gives pseudo-­intellectual heft and legitimacy to the racial hatred. As we study these developments on the far right, we must fully acknowledge the symbiotic relationship between these forms of animus. Only then will we be able to understand this phenomenon and, even more importantly, combat it. ✾

66

the jewish quarterly

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