Anti-Semitism Reconsidered: Reply to Piccone and Berman

Piccone and Berman's hereafter P/B critique of the special issues of NGC devoted to Germans and Jews presents two major difficulties. First, their specific arguments offer very little evidence that they have even read many of the articles in question. More importantly, in addition to distorting the views of the contributors, they fuse very different articles and essays into an airtight position which is then conveniently characterized as that of the American left. NGC thus becomes an anthropoid, conjured up to create a stereotype out of considerably distinct views and arguments, many of which are at variance with each other. It should be clear from the outset, therefore, that these remarks represent only my own standpoint and not necessarily that of our contributors, who can only speak for themselves. The first part of my response deals with the distortion of points raised by the articles in NGC. The second part treats the broader problem of critical theory and anti-Semitism, as well as the significance of the reemergence of these issues.