Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical w/ Shaul Magid

On this edition of Parallax Views, Shaul Magid, Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, joins Parallax Views to discuss his book Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical. Kahane was one of the most divisive figures in Jewish American political/cultural life. The founder of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), Kahane was a man of the Right who sought to utilize the tactics of militancy often associated with the countercultural New Left of the 60s and 70s to achieve his aims. Kahane was a fierce proponent of Jewish pride and anti-antisemitism as well as a reactionary critic of the American Jewish liberal establishment in the 20th century. Today, Kahane name has returned in discussions of his followers in Israel (referred to by Magid Shaul as neo-Kahanists). Magid, in contrast to this trend, attempts to understand Kahane within the context of his impact on Jewish American life and argues that it has been overlooked in ways that actually strengthen rather than dampen Kahane's influence.

In this conversation Magid Shaul and I discuss a number of topics including:

- Kahane as both Zionist and counter-Zionist; the subtle differences between the neo-Kahanists in Israel today and Kahane; the relationship of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook to those aforementioned differences; Kahane as a profoundly American figure and a "fish out of water" character in Israel

- Kahane and black nationalism including a discussion of figures like Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan as well as Magid's thoughts on the nature of radicalism and revolutionary politics from both the right and left; Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman's comments about Rabbi Kahane; Kahane and black antisemitism

- Neoconservatism, Bari Weiss, Ben Shapiro, Dennis Praeger and other thinkers/movements and whether aspects of Kahane can be seen in them

- The founding of the Jewish Defense League and Kahane's eventual break from the JDL

- The role of violence in Kahane's thought and why he could not leave violence behind in his thought

- Kahane as a critic of hypocrisy while being a profoundly hypocritical man himself

- Kahane's distrust and criticism of American liberalism; fear of assimilation and erasure of Jewish identity

And much, much more!