Judah Isseroff, at The Blogs

Judah Isseroff

Aug 12, 2022, 5:59 PM

In the aftermath of this most recent flare-up between Israel and Gaza, supporters of Yair Lapid have found the result to their liking and, they hope, politically auspicious. Israel’s pre-emptive strikes were tactical and precise and the resumption of...

Oct 5, 2021, 5:34 PM

Zionism’s Psychic Itch: Do We Really Belong?

In his recent debut speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett gave his audience a less hysterical rendition of the annual cage-rattling diatribe made famous by his indicted predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu. Compared to Netanyahu,...

Jul 2, 2021, 2:11 AM

Ilhan Omar and Cornel West: Interpreters of Jewish tradition

Ilhan Omar’s name is popping up across Jewish newspapers. Again. Commence the debates about whether what she said — this time an intimation that Jews (or just Jewish Congresspeople?) have been conspicuously absent from the fight for justice—crossed the line...

Jun 3, 2021, 7:42 PM

Hannah Arendt on antisemitism: It’s more about politics, less about hate

In the aftermath of the recent violence between Israel and Hamas, a surge in antisemitic events — from vandalism to assault — has caught the attention of the American media and political class. In addition to a spate of...

Jun 3, 2021, 12:07 AM

The Theology of Jewish Mob Violence

In the Jewish lynch mobs (I shudder to type those words) that roamed Israel’s cities during the recent violence, Hitler won a posthumous victory. There is a new distinctly post-Holocaust understanding of the Jewish theology of chosenness, which reared...

About Me

Judah Isseroff is a PhD candidate in Religion, Ethics, and Politics at Princeton University. His dissertation "Beyond Political Theology: Hannah Arendt's Jewish Theology of Givenness" gives a novel theological interpretation of Arendt's writings on Jewish politics and antisemitism. He lives in New York with his wife and their twins.