Benjamin Balthaser, Author at Contending Modernities

Narrating the History of the American Anti-Zionist Jewish Left (Part 2)

Francesca Freeman and Benjamin Balthaser
July 1, 2026

The old oppositions between “secular” and “religious” Jewish life are breaking apart, at least on the left, and perhaps, were never really what we imagined them to be to begin with.

Narrating the History of the American Anti-Zionist Jewish Left (Part 1)

Francesca Freeman and Benjamin Balthaser
June 24, 2026

What does the history of American Jewish anti-Zionism look like if one puts left-wing social movements at the center of that story?

Breaking With Formation: The Jew as Reactionary in American Media

Benjamin Balthaser
August 20, 2024September 30, 2024

The difference between the Jewishness of Sanders’s candidacy and Shapiro’s has less to do with who is more Jewish; it has a great deal to do with the way the idea of Jewishness has been constructed in the last few decades.

Articles written by Benjamin Balthaser

Narrating the History of the American Anti-Zionist Jewish Left (Part 2)

Narrating the History of the American Anti-Zionist Jewish Left (Part 1)

Breaking With Formation: The Jew as Reactionary in American Media