Award Announcement: The worst article about antiSemitism ever written

The worst article about antiSemitism ever written:

“Progressive” Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism by Alvin Rosenfeld

Here we will look at one of the worst sentences in what is - far and away - the worst essay I have ever read. Now mind you I have read many essays in my career. I've read essays by students - one or more by some 6,000 students in the past 30 years. And add to that the thousands of scholarly books and essays that I have read. And add to that the popular essays in newspapers and magazines that I've perused and critically assessed.

And yes, this is the worst.

I actually could write a book discussing the errors of rhetoric, reasoning and fact in this article. But why would I squander my time on that?

Let's take a look at just one sentence from page eight of this travesty. Let's stop to imbibe just a sample of the idiocy of this calumny:

"Anti-Zionism, in fact, is the form that much of today’s anti-Semitism takes, so much so that some now see earlier attempts to rid the world of Jews finding a parallel in present day desires to get rid of the Jewish state."

"in fact" - the only "fact" here is that the author has a meshuggene opaque opinion that he wants to foist on us.

"the form that" - throughout the fog of this screed the author mixes up rhetoric with ideology with actions with terrorist attacks with anything negative about the Jews. His lack of clarity about terms is surpassed only by his obfuscation of logic.

"much of today's anti-Semitism" - Rosenfeld cherry-picks examples from the books and news reports he has scanned. "Much of" is a weasel term. "today's" is another. When did today start? After WW II? After 9/11? After midnight this morning?

"so much so that some now see" - who is the some, other than Rosenfeld and his awed compatriots at the AJC?

"earlier attempts to rid the world of Jews" - is that what antiSemitism is? Not discrimination? Not those activities that were sanctioned by formal policies? Just "attempts"? And what if they don't rise up to the "rid the world" threshold? Are they then not pernicious? This is the low point to be sure of any rhetoric I have ever witnessed.

"finding a parallel in present day desires" - so now we are talking about desires. Not arguments, not laws, not cultures, not terrorist acts, not political parties, but yes, "desires". Rosenfeld. Did you think that we were not going to read the words that you wrote and published? And "parallel"! Do you mean that in some sort of geometric, metaphoric, philosophic or perhaps in a kabbalistic sense?

"to get rid of the Jewish state" - the state, but not the Jews? Or is antiSemitismZionism the "desire" to "get rid of" the Jews that reside there? Or do you care that everything you say is beyond gibberish?

So that is one sentence. The article is twenty-two pages long. Every single sentence fails the test of critical reading and can be questioned in the same way.

Accordingly, and with due fanfare, this blogger presents to this essay by Herr Professor Doctor Rosenfeld the dubious award, "Worst article about antiSemitism ever written."

And I am pretty sure that this is among the world's worst articles about anything ever written.