The Maiseh Review

13/12/2023

Shane Burley's upcoming book, co-authored with Ben Lorber, is a radical take on the fight against antisemitism!

At the same time as rising antisemitism has led to dangerous attacks across the world, organizations like the Anti-Defamation League are leveling accusations of antisemitism in defense of an increasingly deadly Israeli nationalism. How are we supposed to parse it out, and how can we build a real, intersectional movement against antisemitism?

The only thing that has ever kept Jews safe is solidarity with people experiencing oppression, and that is the future that is unpacked in this new book: Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism.

You can pre-order the book here and please share around information to get the word out! Both authors will be doing events and trainings next year and will be launching a newsletter on the same subject next week!

Pre-order: https://bit.ly/3v1ZwS2

03/03/2023

In this reappraisal of last week's panic over a neo-Nazi "Weekend of Hate," we look at how Countering Violent Extremism organizations like the Anti-Defamation League are structurally built to pump up "peak fear" in ways so detached from reality that the only solution is to bring in police.

If we want community-based responses then we need measured analysis that avoids hyperbole.

You may have noticed a panic brewing across hashtags and trending Twitter topics last week, one echoed in endless emails from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “White supremacist groups are trying to organize antisemitic activities as a ‘National Day of Hate’ throughout this coming weekend and...

11/02/2023

We first learned about Black Metal Rainbows a few years ago when they did a Kickstarter campaign to fund their book. The volume is an anthology of writing on black metal that takes a decidedly anti…

05/02/2023

For , we look at the revolutionary potential of trees: the same trees can be used to capture Palestinian land, and to fight back a police complex. When thinking about how we bond to trees, a deeper context is necessary, to see how those trees dot the atlas of our future liberation.

Like most things in Judaism, trees are rarely just imposing plants. The Jewish holiday Tu B'Shevat powerfully locates the pathway God takes through us, from this distant and unknowable force into the bittul, the transcendent materiality of our bodies and lives, taking root through Torah, wisdom, and...

02/01/2023

Antifascist podcast discussion between Shane Burley and Last Born In The Wilderness, talking about the role of community building, coalitions, mutual aid and relationships in general in community self-defense.

Also discuss Burley's new antifascism anthology, no No Pasaran: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis from AK Press, which features contributions from Tal Lavin, David Renton, Kim Kelly, Margaret Killjoy, and so many more!

https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/shane-burley-4

20/12/2022

Check out our recent interview with Emily Tamkin about her book, Bad Jews. Have you ever felt like a Bad Jew? Don't keep kosher? Haven't been to shul all year? Ate ham on Yom Kippur? Tamkin tells the history of "bad Jews" and reveals that we are just looking for our own way to be Jewish.

https://maiseh-review.ghost.io/solidarity-with-bad-jews-an-interview-with-emily-tamkin/

20/12/2022

Don't let the pro-Israel right capture the definition of antisemitism.

Despite conservatives in America feigning their undying support for “free speech,” when it comes to Israel, those convictions often vanish when it comes to even mild criticism of Israel. A recent Texas state bill was introduced that, among other things, barred any worker or company on a public s...

20/12/2022

What it takes to build a radical, antiracist, egalitarian movement history.

If there’s one word I never want to hear in a major news story ever again, it’s “antifa.” Part of this is because of the massive conspiracy infrastructure the right has built around it. It has created a new incarnation of an earlier Cold War panic blaming just

20/12/2022

Check out the best horror books from last month, including one forty-year old classic of Jewish horror that's making a necessary comeback.

This was a particularly strong month, and we are going to return to this month’s top pic pick shortly as part of our series on Jewish horror. As with the rest of the year, horror comics continue to outpace particularly short horror fiction, part of the momentary popularity of

20/12/2022

Recent literature on American conservatism reveals just how radical its ideas are.

As the ballots cast on November 8th reveal, our entire political system has been cast into a catastrophic state of flux. This may be most true for the GOP, whose search for identity continues to walk further into the previously fringe elements of their base. Backing their star quarterback (Trump)

20/12/2022

A new conversation with Dr. Max Strassfeld, the author of Trans Talmud, which unpacks gender non-conformity in the Talmud. We discuss how gender is dealt with in Jewish writing, how it challenges the dominant "Judeo-Christian" infrastructure, and what options it holds for a q***r, Jewish future.

To many, last month’s brutal attack on a q***r nightclub in Colorado Springs, in which five people were killed and 25 were injured, was the logical conclusion of the Right’s increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric against the LGBTQI+ community. This tragic event came at the tail end of a string

09/11/2022

Shane Burley writing how antifa conspiracy theories are just the latest version in a long history of antisemitic conspiracy theories from the right.

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03/10/2022

In this recent review of the new book The Fisherman and the Dragon, we discuss the relationship between environmental crisis, worker dislocation, and far-right demagoguery. The three are more intimately linked than you might believe.

Halfway through August this year, something familiar happened. More than four hundred and twenty gallons of crude oil spread across Galveston Bay, a major water body close to Houston, which, while frightening, is still one of the smaller incidents in recent memory. The story largely disappeared beca...

03/10/2022

In our latest horror round-up we offer some recommendations for new folk, cosmic, and violent demonish horror. Highest recommendation for the month goes to The Gathering Dark, a groundbreaking folk horror anthology.

In reviewing new titles for September, we were able to check in on some great new releases from earlier this year and can highlight some especially notable releases. With the horror genres expanding so rapidly, and particularly sub-genres like New Lovecraftian and folk horror that were previously le...

12/09/2022

In this recent article, we unpack the recent controversy surrounding the near election of Laura Loomer in Florida, and why her candidacy made her a favorite for some white nationalists, and an enemy for others.

While figures like Blake Masters are turning heads with their open nationalist agenda and Marjorie Taylor Greene is trying to criminalize trans people on a nationwide scale, one far-right celebrity race has gotten lost in the shuffle. Internet personality and ultra-right candidate Laura Loomer ran f...

16/08/2022

Obviously people take breaks, people burn out—who knows how long I’ll actually last. But aspirationally, there's no end.

14/08/2022

No Pasaran is an antifascist anthology edited by Shane Burley and featuring Talia Lavin, Kim Kelly, David Renton, and more.

07/07/2022

In a new piece on the recent Highland Park shooting, Shane Burley discusses the underlying anxiety inside visibly Jewish communities that leads many to immediately wonder if antisemitism was the motivating factor in the attack.

Amidst the flurry of news about the Highland Park, Illinois shooting this 4th of July, one video stood out. The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band kept playing, uninterrupted as an increasingly frantic crowd ran the other direction, splitting on both sides of the float the band was nestled in. The klezmeri...

05/07/2022

31/05/2022

The dramatic rise of antisemitism on social media can be daunting to understand, that's why this collection was put together: it brings together the research into an accessible volume that helps you to actually use the information in building a plan for fighting back.

The world of Antisemitism Studies is a shifting terrain derivative of the political and social context that each individual journal, institute, or editorial board comes from. The Indiana University’s Institute for the Study Contemporary Antisemitism Studies and the The Vidal Sassoon International ...

31/05/2022

30/05/2022

In this interview with Mark Oppenheimer, we discuss his recent book on the Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh, the Tree of Life massacre, and how this community reflects the changing Jewish story.

If there is something that defines Jewish history it is less the continuity of rituals, which have changed and evolved over time, but instead the centrality of a good story. The Torah, more than just a list of laws that govern Jewish life, is a narrative about how the world

30/05/2022

In our recent review of two new books by literary horror scribe John Langan, we talk about why his work may stand out as the the cosmic horror "autobiography" we need right now.

Like most of the fantastical genres, horror literature has its own “inner circle''. Beyond the bestselling authors, there is a growing community of literary horror giants who many outside of the boundaries of genre publishing may simply be unaware of. Amongst the most celebrated is the Bram Stoker...

30/05/2022

The world of "fascism studies" is seeing its biggest shift in it's seventy year history: the world of Trump, and what comes after. With this idea in mind we review four books that take a range of perspectives on fascism.

This includes a now classic work re-issued, a comparison between Trumpism and the Second Era Klan, a sweeping study of the "identitarian" movement, and a brief look at "fascist lies."

https://maiseh-review.ghost.io/fascism-studies-after-trump/