Marjorie Feld — The Threshold of Dissent - with Emily Tamkin

Watch author Marjorie Feld's book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

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Throughout the twentieth century, American Jewish communal leaders projected a unified position of unconditional support for Israel, cementing it as a cornerstone of American Jewish identity. This unwavering position served to marginalize and label dissenters as antisemitic, systematically limiting the threshold of acceptable criticism. In pursuit of this forced consensus, these leaders entered Cold War alliances, distanced themselves from progressive civil rights and anti-colonial movements, and turned a blind eye to human rights abuses in Israel. In The Threshold of Dissent, Marjorie N. Feld instead shows that today's vociferous arguments among American Jews over Israel and Zionism are but the newest chapter in a fraught history that stretches from the nineteenth century.

Drawing on rich archival research and examining wide-ranging intellectual currents--from the Reform movement and the Yiddish left to anti-colonialism and Jewish feminism--Feld explores American Jewish critics of Zionism and Israel from the 1880s to the 1980s. The book argues that the tireless policing of contrary perspectives led each generation of dissenters to believe that it was the first to question unqualified support for Israel. The Threshold of Dissent positions contemporary critics within a century-long debate about the priorities of the American Jewish community, one which holds profound implications for inclusion in American Jewish communal life and for American Jews' participation in coalitions working for justice.

At a time when American Jewish support for Israel has been diminishing, The Threshold of Dissent uncovers a deeper--and deeply contested--history of intracommunal debate over Zionism among American Jews.

Marjorie N. Feld is Professor of History in the History and Society Division at Babson College. She is the author of Lillian Wald: A Biography and Nations Divided: American Jews and the Struggle Over Apartheid.

Feld is in conversation with Emily Tamkin. Tamkin is a journalist and the author of The Influence of Soros, Bad Jews, and a forthcoming work on Holocaust remembrance. She is a contributing columnist at the Forward and regularly writes for the New Republic, Slate, and the Washington Post, among other publications. Previously, she covered foreign affairs on staff at Foreign Policy, BuzzFeed News, and US politics, foreign policy, and society at the New Statesman.

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Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online.

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