The Last Jewish Prophet
A short review of Gilad Atzmon's new book, The Wandering Who?
Gilad Atzmon, Another World Is Possible contributing writer, has just published a study of Jewish identity politics. The Wandering Who? chronicles his journey away from his Jewish identity, and by extension away from all exclusive identities, into an inclusive humanness. It's a painful journey, a brutally honest self exploration of these internalized tribal impulses. He emerges from the struggle deracinated but emancipated, freed of a destructive load of cultural baggage.
As the poet Allen Ginsberg said, "If you want to be a prophet, you have to tell your secrets." By being brave enough to expose himself in writing, Atzmon has become a prophet, and his prophecy, as I see it, is a completion of the Mosaic journey, but this time as a mass exodus from Jewishness and all other ethnic bondings that split humanity. After 40 centuries of wandering in the desert of chosenness and separation, Jews and Gentiles alike can finally enter the full humanness of one world family, a secular promised land free of divisive group identities.
Jews have been at the forefront of every progressive movement for the past 160 years, and now it's Atzmon's turn. The atrocities of nationalism, both Jewish and non-Jewish, have forced him to the forefront of a movement to abolish all these tribal groupings, starting with his own.
The Wandering Who? is a threat not only to Zionism, but to all religious, ethnic, national, and even gender identities to which people cling. It's a book of radical liberation and as such dangerous to every orthodoxy and structure of power that separates us into antagonistic camps. Atzmon is a true subversive. Much needed.
Now the survival of our species demands that also Christians, Muslims, Americans, Britons, etc. break out of their group mentalities. We can't suddenly erase these categories, but we can relegate them to the background where they no longer determine our identity. Our sense of self can then be based on qualities that unite humanity rather than divide it.
Thanks for showing the way, Gilad!
___________________________________________________________________________________
Gilad Atzmon's essays are widely published. You can find Gilad's articles on Another World Is Possible here. His novels 'Guide to the perplexed' and 'My One And Only Love' have been translated into 24 languages. The Wandering Who? can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com. Gilad Atzmon's Blog is here.
___________________________________________________________________________________
"Generations of Resistance to War" is a chapter from Radical Peace: People Refusing War by William T. Hathaway, which presents the experiences of war resisters, deserters, and peace activists in the USA, Europe, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Recently published by Trine Day, it's a journey along diverse paths of nonviolence, the true stories of people working for peace in unconventional ways. Other chapters are posted on Another World Is Possible and on a page of the publisher's website at Trine Day. William T. Hathaway's other books include A World Of Hurt (Rinehart Foundation Award), CD-Ring, and Summer Snow. He is an adjunct professor of American studies at the University of Oldenburg in Germany. A selection of his writing is available at PeaceWriter.
___________________________________________________________________________________
URL: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2011/09/19/the-last-jewish-prophet
