The past was worse (and we miss it) -- Jewish thought and postcolonialism: the geopolitics of a barbaric encounter -- The narrative of barbarism: Western designs for a globalized North -- Negative barbarism: Marxist counter-narrative in the provincial North -- Transitional barbarism: Levinas's counter-narrative and the global South -- Positive barbarism: Memmi's counter-narrative in a Southern network -- Barbaric paradoxes: Zionism from the standpoint of the borders -- After 9/11: new barbarism and the legacies in the global South -- Duped by Jewish suffering (dialectics of resistance)
Summary
"Decolonial Judaism: Triumphal Failures of Barbaric Thinking" explores the relationship among geopolitics, religion and social theory. It argues that during the postcolonial and post-Holocaust era, Jewish thinkers in different parts of the world were influenced by Global South thought and mobilized this rich set of intellectual resources to confront the assimilation of normative Judaism by various incipient neo-colonial powers. By tracing the historical and conceptual lineage of this overlooked conversation, this book explores not only its epistemological opportunities, but also the internal contradictions that led to their ultimate unraveling, especially in the post-9/11 world
