"Not by Might, Nor by Power:" The Zionist Betrayal of Judaism

by Moshe Menuhin, Mark C. Miller, Adi Ophir

With a new introduction by Adi An early and fierce critique of Zionism from a Jewish child of Palestine who argued against nationalism and injustice.

Born in 1893, Moshe Menuhin was part of the inaugural class to attend the first Zionist high school in Palestine, the Herzliya gymnasium in Tel Aviv. He had grown up in a Hasidic home, but eventually rejected orthodoxy while remaining dedicated to Judaism.
 
As a witness to the evolution of Israel, Menuhin grew disaffected with what he saw as a betrayal of the Jews’ spiritual principles. This memoir, written in 1965, is considered the first revisionist history of Zionism. A groundbreaking document, it discusses the treatment of the Palestinians, the effects of the Holocaust, the exploitation of the Mizrahi Jewish immigrants, and the use of propaganda to win over public opinion in America and among American Jews. In a postscript added after the Six-Day War, Menuhin also addresses the question of occupation. This new edition is updated with an introduction by Israeli philosopher Adi Ophir, putting Menuhin’s work into a contemporary historical context.
 
Passionate and sometimes inflammatory in its prose, and met with controversy and anger upon its original publication under the title The Decadence of Judaism in Our Time, Menuhin’s polemic remains both a thought-provoking reassessment of Zionist history and a fascinating look at one observer’s experience of this embattled corner of the world over the course of several tumultuous decades.
 

Genres: History, Judaism, Nonfiction, Israel, Religion, Politics, Social Justice

868 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 7, 2017

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although written in 1965, this searing indictment of Zionism is as relevant today as it was when first published. It’s an astonishing polemic and considered the first revisionist history of Jewish nationalism and Zionism. Moshe Menuhin was born in Belarus into an Orthodox Jewish family in 1893 and moved to Palestine when he was 11. He died in 1983 and was a committed anti-Zionist throughout his life. He was also a proud Jew and this makes his book controversial in the extreme. I found it an exhilarating read which still deserves a wide readership as the points he makes are as pertinent as ever. Wide-ranging in its scope and continually thought-provoking, his passionate beliefs and opinions come through loud and clear on every page. A new 2017 introduction puts the book into its historical context. For anyone troubled by the Israeli/Palestinian problem, the book explores the origins of the conflict and Menuhin's anger will surely strike a chord in many readers.

[Oz · Rating 1 out of 5]

The existence of this book is infinitely more interesting than the book itself. I always enjoy seeing anti-Zionist Jewish perspectives, and this is certainly that, but it's also a very loose manuscript of uncited and often wrong history (various Crusade era myths about Islam crop up here), and then just often-contradicting insults towards Israel. The writer's absolute love of America is uncomfortable, especially as it combines with his apparent disdain for religious Jews. One point of interest - his Wikipedia says he edited something for a far-right German newspaper, and based on how he writes I'd not be overly surprised, but the reference just leads to the newspaper itself (not an archive or a list of contributors) and I can't back that up elsewhere, so I'm judging that as uncomfortable rather than uncomplicatedly dangerous.

[Hugo Wittorf · Rating 1 out of 5]

With the postscript, it could be two stars. As it adds what the first part is missing, in my point of view. That is, some structure for the readers mind to organize all its content. Please state your theory/perspective/hypothesis, support by the research or reasoning, and be explicit about how it supports the hypothesis. Much of the supporting arguments are just left out there for the reader to interpret, which is difficult with so much information packed in.

As for the content, most of it is really interesting. Some a bit internal (the American Jewish organizations power struggles) but overall, again, leaves the reader curious about what exactly is the point the author makes. One question that leaves me puzzles is, is the author categorically against nationalistic projects, and begin by criticizing the one closest to his heart. Or is he specifically against the Jewish national project in Israel. At times it seems he’s against Israel’s existence, at times he seems to criticize the way the nation conducts itself. Together, it becomes just somewhat random shots at Israel, wherever the opportunity to criticize his childhood home arises.