Anti-Zionism, A Jewish History: Benjamin Moser with Rashid Khalidi | Cullman Center

Der Pulitzerpreisträger Benjamin Moser enthüllt eine weltweite Tradition jüdischer Dissidenten, die sich den moralischen und politischen Implikationen des Zionismus entgegenstellten – oft unter verheerenden persönlichen Opfern. Anhand von Künstlern, Rabbinern, Dichtern, Juristen, Aktivisten, Journalisten und Politikern zeichnet Moser eine monumentale Erzählung nach, die einen weit verbreiteten Mythos widerlegt: die Annahme, Antizionismus sei gleichbedeutend mit Antisemitismus. Über Kontinente und Jahrhunderte hinweg kreisen diese Stimmen – Menschen aus dem rechten und linken Spektrum, Reform- und Orthodoxen, Aschkenasim und Sephardim, Männer und Frauen, Homosexuelle und Heterosexuelle –, die sich in ihren Überzeugungen und Hintergründen stark unterscheiden, aber in ihrer gemeinsamen Warnung vor den Folgen eines auf Ausgrenzung basierenden nationalistischen Projekts einig sind. „Antizionismus: Eine jüdische Geschichte“ offenbart die ganze Bandbreite und Tiefe der jüdischen ethischen Vorstellungskraft und bekräftigt, dass das Judentum älter und umfassender ist als jedes einzelne politische Projekt.

Benjamin Moser arbeitete im Rahmen seines Stipendiums 2025/26 am Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers der Library of Congress an seinem Buch „Anti-Zionismus: Eine jüdische Geschichte“. Er wird sein Werk mit dem Bestsellerautor und Historiker Rashid Khalidi diskutieren.

Pulitzer Prize winner Benjamin Moser uncovers a global lineage of Jewish dissenters who confronted Zionism’s moral and political stakes—often at devastating personal cost. Through a cast of artists, rabbis, poets, lawyers, activists, journalists, and politicians, Moser traces a monumental narrative that dismantles a powerful myth: that anti-Zionism is synonymous with antisemitism. Spanning continents and centuries, these voices—people from the right and the left, Reform and Orthodox, Ashkenazic and Sephardic, men and women, gay and straight—differ sharply in belief and background, yet converge on a shared warning about the consequences of a nationalist project built on exclusion. Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History restores the full scale and depth of Jewish ethical imagination, affirming that Judaism is older and larger than any single political project.

Benjamin Moser worked on Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History during his 2025-2026 Fellowship at the Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He will discuss his book with bestselling author and historian Rashid Khalidi.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Benjamin Moser is the author of Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book of 2009. For his work bringing Clarice Lispector to international prominence, he received Brazil’s first State Prize for Cultural Diplomacy. He is also the author of Sontag: Her Life and Work, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2020, and The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters.

Rashid Khalidi is Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Arab Studies at Columbia University. He has taught at the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut, and the University of Chicago. He was editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, and served as President of the Middle East Studies Association. He has authored ten books, most recently The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017; Palestine: A Primer; and, with Tariq Ali, The Neck and the Sword: Palestine’s Unfinished Struggle. He is completing a book with the working title Britain, Ireland, Palestine, Israel.