The Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism in France (And What It Means for Us)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
6.125 × 9 SPINE: 1.0625 FLAPS: 3.5 $ 26.00 “ Weitzmann’s absorbing reckoning carries HIGHER IN CANADA urgent lessons and warnings for us all.” “Timely and richly reported, Hate is an investigation of the cross-pollination and — PHILIP GOUREVITCH FROM AN AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST, convergence of the dominant anti-modern, anti-democratic forces shaping A PROVOCATIVE, DEEPLY REPORTED EXPOSÉ twenty-first-century society and politics: far-right nationalism and Islamism. Cutting OF THE HISTORY AND PRESENT CRISIS OF across conventional categories of left and right, to put a surge of violent anti-Semitism ANTI-SEMITISM IN FRANCE — AND ITS in France in deep historical, cultural, and intellectual perspective, Weitzmann’s DIRE MESSAGE FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD absorbing reckoning carries urgent lessons and warnings for us all.” — PHILIP GOUREVITCH, author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families What is the connection between a rise in the number of random attacks against Jews on “I am in profound disagreement with the main argument of this brilliant, despairing FINALIST FOR THE the streets of France and strategically planned book. And yet despite that, I believe it to be essential reading, especially for those terrorist acts targeting the French population PRIX FEMINA who, like me, will ultimately remain unpersuaded by it. Because of course Marc at large? Before the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, Weitzmann may be right, and if he is, then we will not be able to say we were AND PRIX MÉDICIS the Bataclan theater, and others made interna- not warned! ‘Read it and weep’ is too often a cliché, but not here. For Hate is both tional headlines, Marc Weitzmann had noticed a magnificent piece of writing and a prosecutor’s brief—passionate, learned, a surge of seemingly random acts of violence and analytical at once, and as such a worthy descendant of the greatest of French against the Jews of France. This disturbing and twentieth-century polemics, such as Émile Zola’s “J’Accuse . !”, Julien Benda’s The eye-opening book proposes that both the small- Treason of the Intellectuals, and above all Marc Bloch’s Strange Defeat.” scale and large-scale acts of violence have their — DAVID RIEFF, author of In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies THE roots in not one, but two very specific forms of populism: an extreme and violent ethos of hate “Hate is that rare book that will make even those who feel they know the WEITZMANN MARC RISING TIDE subject reconsider it entirely. Alternating cool analysis and shoe-leather reporting, spread among the Muslim post-colonial sub- Weitzmann reveals the strands of a conspiracy that is nearly two centuries in the OF urban developments on the one hand, and on making. In a tale of lies and betrayals worthy of a Balzac novel, Hate begins with the other, the deeply rooted French ultra-con- a forgotten nineteenth-century orientalist plotter, whose attraction to Islam was its ANTI-SEMITISM servatism of the far right. Weitzmann’s shrewd potential to blow up modernity, and follows the poison down through the last on-the-ground reporting is woven throughout MARC WEITZMANN is an award- century to our own moment. Though it is uncomfortable to read about the darkness IN FRANCE with the history surrounding the legacies of the winning journalist who has published ten books overcoming the City of Light, all those who care about France, Jews, East-West French Revolution, the Holocaust, and Gaullist in France. He is a regular contributor to Le relations, and, indeed, our entire modern culture must read this book.” (AND WHAT IT “Arab policy.” Monde’s literary supplement and Tablet. He lives — TOM REISS, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Black Count and The Orientalist Hate is a chilling and important account in Paris. MEANS FOR US) from a single Western nation that examines a terrible trend on the rise in America and around $ 26.00 HIGHER IN CANADA ISBN: 978-0-544-64964-4 MARC JACKET DESIGN BY MARK R. ROBINSON the globe. AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH © OLIVIER ROLLER 1621840 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT HMHCO.COM 0319 © HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT PUBLISHING COMPANY PUBLISHING HARCOURT MIFFLIN HOUGHTON © WEITZMANN Weitzman_HATE_jacket_final_02_converted.indd 1 12/20/18 4:35 PM 6.125 × 9 SPINE: 1.0625 FLAPS: 3.5 $ 26.00 “ Weitzmann’s absorbing reckoning carries HIGHER IN CANADA urgent lessons and warnings for us all.” “Timely and richly reported, Hate is an investigation of the cross-pollination and — PHILIP GOUREVITCH FROM AN AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST, convergence of the dominant anti-modern, anti-democratic forces shaping A PROVOCATIVE, DEEPLY REPORTED EXPOSÉ twenty-first-century society and politics: far-right nationalism and Islamism. Cutting OF THE HISTORY AND PRESENT CRISIS OF across conventional categories of left and right, to put a surge of violent anti-Semitism ANTI-SEMITISM IN FRANCE — AND ITS in France in deep historical, cultural, and intellectual perspective, Weitzmann’s DIRE MESSAGE FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD absorbing reckoning carries urgent lessons and warnings for us all.” — PHILIP GOUREVITCH, author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families What is the connection between a rise in the number of random attacks against Jews on “I am in profound disagreement with the main argument of this brilliant, despairing FINALIST FOR THE the streets of France and strategically planned book. And yet despite that, I believe it to be essential reading, especially for those terrorist acts targeting the French population PRIX FEMINA who, like me, will ultimately remain unpersuaded by it. Because of course Marc at large? Before the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, Weitzmann may be right, and if he is, then we will not be able to say we were AND PRIX MÉDICIS the Bataclan theater, and others made interna- not warned! ‘Read it and weep’ is too often a cliché, but not here. For Hate is both tional headlines, Marc Weitzmann had noticed a magnificent piece of writing and a prosecutor’s brief—passionate, learned, a surge of seemingly random acts of violence and analytical at once, and as such a worthy descendant of the greatest of French against the Jews of France. This disturbing and twentieth-century polemics, such as Émile Zola’s “J’Accuse . !”, Julien Benda’s The eye-opening book proposes that both the small- Treason of the Intellectuals, and above all Marc Bloch’s Strange Defeat.” scale and large-scale acts of violence have their — DAVID RIEFF, author of In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies THE roots in not one, but two very specific forms of populism: an extreme and violent ethos of hate “Hate is that rare book that will make even those who feel they know the WEITZMANN MARC RISING TIDE subject reconsider it entirely. Alternating cool analysis and shoe-leather reporting, spread among the Muslim post-colonial sub- Weitzmann reveals the strands of a conspiracy that is nearly two centuries in the OF urban developments on the one hand, and on making. In a tale of lies and betrayals worthy of a Balzac novel, Hate begins with the other, the deeply rooted French ultra-con- a forgotten nineteenth-century orientalist plotter, whose attraction to Islam was its ANTI-SEMITISM servatism of the far right. Weitzmann’s shrewd potential to blow up modernity, and follows the poison down through the last on-the-ground reporting is woven throughout MARC WEITZMANN is an award- century to our own moment. Though it is uncomfortable to read about the darkness IN FRANCE with the history surrounding the legacies of the winning journalist who has published ten books overcoming the City of Light, all those who care about France, Jews, East-West French Revolution, the Holocaust, and Gaullist in France. He is a regular contributor to Le relations, and, indeed, our entire modern culture must read this book.” (AND WHAT IT “Arab policy.” Monde’s literary supplement and Tablet. He lives — TOM REISS, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Black Count and The Orientalist Hate is a chilling and important account in Paris. MEANS FOR US) from a single Western nation that examines a terrible trend on the rise in America and around $ 26.00 HIGHER IN CANADA ISBN: 978-0-544-64964-4 MARC JACKET DESIGN BY MARK R. ROBINSON the globe. AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH © OLIVIER ROLLER 1621840 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT HMHCO.COM 0319 © HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT PUBLISHING COMPANY PUBLISHING HARCOURT MIFFLIN HOUGHTON © WEITZMANN Weitzman_HATE_jacket_final_02_converted.indd 1 12/20/18 4:35 PM HATE Weitzmann_HATE_interior_final.indd 1 12/18/18 3:20 PM Weitzmann_HATE_interior_final.indd 2 12/18/18 3:20 PM HATE The Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism in France (and What It Means for Us) MARC WEITZMANN HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT Boston New York 2019 Weitzmann_HATE_interior_final.indd 3 12/18/18 3:20 PM Copyright © 2019 by Marc Weitzmann All rights reserved For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016. hmhco.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Weitzmann, Marc, author. Title: Hate : the rising tide of anti-Semitism in France (and what it means for us) / Marc Weitzmann. Description: Boston ; New York : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2019] | Identifiers: LCCN 2018042559 (print) | LCCN 2018042805 (ebook) | ISBN 9780544791343 (ebook) | ISBN 9780544649644 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: Antisemitism — France — History — 21st century. | Muslims — France — Social conditions — 21st century. | Jews — France —Social conditions — 21st century. | Muslims — Cultural assimilation — France. | Judaism — Relations — Islam. | Islam — Relations — Judaism. | Social integration — France. | France — Ethnic relations. | BISAC: HISTORY / Europe / France.