Publisher's Synopsis
If I Am Not For Myselfis a passionate, thought-provoking exploration of what it means to beJewish in the twenty-first century. It traces the author's upbringingin 1960s Jewish-American surburbia, his anti-war and pro-Palestinianactivism on the British left, and life as a Jew among Muslims inPakistan, Morocco, and Britain. Interwoven with this are theexperiences of his grandfather's life in Jewish New York of the 1930sand 40s, his struggles with anti-Semitism and the twists and turns thatled him from anti-fascism to militant Zionism. In the course of thisdeeply personal story, Marqusee refutes the claims of Israel andZionism on Jewish loyalty and laments their impact on the Jewishdiaspora. Rather, he argues for a richer, more multi-dimensionalunderstanding of Jewish history and identity, and reclaims vitalpolitical and personal space for those castigated as "self-haters" bythe Jewish establishment.
