As the so-called 'antisemitism crisis' in the UK Labour Party hardens into an unassailable 'truth,' it becomes more important to challenge it. This book is the voice of a Jewish person saying 'no' to it; saying 'no' to the political leveraging of antisemitism which was part of a patchwork of disinformation largely designed to eradicate the possibility and hope of a deep seated change from a dominant economic ideology that has sustained grotesque inequality, wealth siphoning and asset bubbles that have ravaged our social fabric. Jews Did Count But for the Wrong Reasons is not only an account of one Jewish person's shock and dismay at the abuse of the meaning of antisemitism but also an account of a cultural shift that normalised disinformation on such a scale that it turned meaning and reality into a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. It is also a 'Lament' for what the author considers the loss, within the mainstream sector of the Jewish communities, of values of social justice, equity and the instinct for challenging the status quo that has been a significant historical marker for Jewish culture. It is also a 'Lament' for the way that an ossified sense of Jewish 'identity' has chimed in with a divisive populism. This short book, then, is one Jew raising his voice against the dominant narrative that there was a Labour 'antisemitism crisis.' It looks at the history of how the use of antisemitism as a charge has changed over the last fifty years and how language framing was used by the media and certain mainstream Jewish bodies to create a sense of crisis without underlying substance.
