The No-State Solution: A Jewish Manifesto

by Daniel Boyarin, John Lescault (Narrator)

A provocative manifesto arguing for a new understanding of the Jews’ peoplehood

Today there are two seemingly mutually exclusive notions of what “the Jews” either a religion or a nation/ethnicity. The widespread conception is that the Jews were formerly either a religious community in exile or a nation based on Jewish ethnicity. The latter position is commonly known as “Zionism,” and all articulations of a political theory of Zionism are taken to be variations of that view.

In this provocative audiobook, based on his decades of study of the history of the Jews, Daniel Boyarin lays out the problematic aspects of this binary opposition and offers the outlines of a different—and very old—answer to the question of the identity of a diaspora nation. He aims to drive a wedge between the “nation” and the “state,” only very recently conjoined, and recover a robust sense of nationalism that does not involve sovereignty.

Genres: Judaism, Nonfiction, Jewish, Politics, Religion, Middle East, History

Audible Audio

Published January 31, 2023

About the author

Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture and rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. His books include A Radical Jew, Border Lines, and Socrates and the Fat Rabbis. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Reviews

[Eitan]

Book number two of this break that is aggressively relevant both to current events and also my Judaic studies course last semester.

From reading the preface I knew I wasn’t going to be fully on board with Boyarin’s argument, namely because he is a staunch anti-Zionist and I am not. However, wanting a good window into Diasporism and waiting to get my hands on the Magid book, I decided to go ahead. I was pleasantly surprised that there was a lot more that I liked that anticipated.

The Good:
Makes a very convincing argument for Talmud study!Same takeaway as People Love Dead Jews.

I like the idea of “the Jews” as a family being an option in the race vs. religion conversation.

The chapters arguing against Judaism as a race and Judaism as a religion, as well as the chapter about Judaite/Negritude were engaging. The relevance to my class on the political theology of the Jewish question was never louder than when Boyarin chose the exact same Fanon quotes in reading with Sartre as I did in my final paper.

The Not So Good:
A good chunk of the argument hinging on Boyarin’s essential glossing over of the significance of the land of Israel in Judaism and the Rabbinic tradition. He convincingly shows that the diaspora is not the big bad worst possible thing always ever, but he then goes a step further to essentially say the land of Israel doesn’t really matter at all, and he doesn’t back it up too well in my opinion.

I know he rightfully calls Kant an antisemite at the end, but when Boyarin says maybe we should accept Kant’s idea of the Jews in the second chapter when that text that he quoted laid the foundations for antisemitic German race science and denies the Jews a positive conception of faith, it really irks me.

The sort-of “gotcha” in the Zionism Without Israel chapter built on Shumsky falls a little flat- the distinction between a Jewish fully autonomous region within a large colonial empire versus a nation-state in a post-colonial region does not seem all too significant within the context of the argument of this book.

Finally, I am not so sure if Boyarin intended to provide a rationale for anti-Zionism other than being pro-Palestinian, but this book seems to completely the fact that Israel does in fact exist today, and it does not seem to meaningfully engage with the effect it would have on a positive construction of a “Diaspora Nation.” To completely take Israel out of the picture appears to be an argument of simply going back to the world before the birth of modern Zionism, and Boyarin completely ignores the global antisemitism that was its cause. He offers a practical step forward for a positive diasporic identity, but no practical steps forward for the actual state of Israel. Perhaps I would infer that it would be advocating for a single secular (maybe?) democratic state for Israelis and Palestinians, but I don’t remember him making the argument for this explicitly.

[EDIT: I am realizing now that what he does explicitly say he supports is the complete abolishing of nation-states, including but not limited to Israel.]

Also, the tone of this book was pretty academic with a flavor of casual author voice, including some wit. That wit was a bit annoying to me because it often tacitly built on something I disagreed with, but that’s neither here nor there.

I think, in the end, this manifesto provided me with some confidence the idea of a positive Jewish identity in the diaspora, but was not convincing in the full argument and its ramifications. I am looking forward to reading Magid’s book.

Footnote:
The relevance to my course Political Theology of the “Jewish Question”
Authors read:
Arendt, Du Bois, Dara Horn, Walzer, Wilderson
Specific texts by authors read:
Fanon, Sartre, Lapidot, Shumsky, Kant, Mufti, Rosenzweig, Paul (the apostle)

Also:
Adi Ophir

Footnote 2:
This is book number two that I read on my phone. Again not the best experience although convenient. Would have preferred a slim little paper copy.

[EDIT 2: Linking this review/critique I enjoyed and thought interesting: https://jewishcurrents.org/two-paths-...]

[Shira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another chapter on my quest to unlearn some of my reflexive Zionism...

My experience with this book was the inverse trajectory of Shaul Magid's The Necessity of Exile in that I was a little put off by some of the early material (the entire 'what is "the Jews"' with that phrase consistently in scare quotes I found disorienting and uncomfortable), but by page 75 was like "HELL YEAH no more nation states!"

Here are some things I flagged (removing the flags so I can return this book to the person who lent it to me):
* Read Herzl's "Altneuland"
* Negritude / Judeaitude concepts - Black Skin, White Masks by Fanon - "to see what can be learned from putting Jewishness and Blackness in conversation with each other"
* Rosenzweig - substitution of genealogy for compatriotism "enables a kind of eternality precisely because it enables existence without prior essence..."

[Marcy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a lot of mental masturbation that never really gets at the heart of what the title of his book indicates the author might explore. While there may be some interesting moments of philosophizing about what it means to be Jewish - is it a religion? a nation? - there is no political point to those questions. Given that he claims to be motivated by the then most recent Israeli massacre on Gaza, it seems quite odd that he doesn't engage with the repercussions of Jewish statehood.

[Fabienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boyarin’s attempt at grasping Jewish identity as a diaspora rather than linked to a territory is extremely relevant in light of the extreme violence of the zionist project (although Boyarin - despite being explicitly anti-Zionist - even goes as far as to say that early zionist writings have been (consciously) misinterpreted and appropriated into a territorial concept rather than as a diasporic notion. I cannot verify this). His suggestion for conceptualizing Jewish identity, drawing on Négritude and the Black radical tradition, Butler’s theory of performance, the immagined community by Flood, and the Islamic ‘Umma, amongst others, is what he calls a “Jewish Diaspora Nation”, a deterritorialized community. While an interesting approach, his concept of “nation”, something like a “people”, delenienated from a religion, culture or race, fell a bit flat for me, as I found it just as instable as the other constructs of identity he critiques. Nonetheless, a valuable work to read, one of the strengths of the book for me is his critique of what he calls disembodied multiculturalism. It’s a bit dense with a lot of reference to theory as well as Jewish thought, if working through the whole book is too much for you, reading the introduction already gives a pretty good scope of the book, or, there are also a couple of podcast episodes featuring Boyarin talking about the content of the book that also do the job.

[michael]

I find this incredibly difficult to rate, so I just won't. This book is fairly radical, and poses an interesting proposition of a diaspora nation to maintain Jewish identity and personhood in direct opposition to a statist solution.

Much of the content is derivative — not negatively, but literally. Boyarin (conciously and explicitly) calls upon a number of intellectuals and scholars to both construct and defend his point throughout the book. Particularly interesting is his inspiration from Black thinkers and their thoughts on blackness, negritude, and personhood, and translating that to one's Jewishness. However, these moments can meander, and I would have liked for more of Boyarin's own musings rather than them in response to others' (he's a Talmud scholar through and through!)

The book can be slow and difficult to get through. The derivative parts can provide some interesting insights, but can also be exhausting. Boyarin seems to be, at times, more interested in proving his point to his own satisfaction than in providing a convincing argument to defend his point to the reader, building upon complex concepts and applying them to Judaism without doing enough work to develop the initial point.

In addition to wishing to hear more in Boyarin's voice, I wish he addressed how the concept of a diaspora’s dual loyalties (to him, inherent to diasporic identity) plays into that very same anti-Semitic trope.

Ultimately, it's a relentlessly positive piece that lays out a path forward for Jewish culture, personhood, and identity. Despite my many critiques, I do think this is a worthwhile read, particularly for anti-Zionist Jews trying to understand how to digest and conceptualize the future of Jewish identity alongside and in conversation with anti-Zionism.

[Esha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een pleidooi voor joods diasporanationalisme. Boyarin keert zich fel tegen kosmopolieten die particuliere identiteiten willen achterlaten in ruil voor een abstract en universeel soort wereldburger, maar universaliseert binnen zijn diaspora de vele joodse geschiedenissen, talen en culturen tot één wereldjodendom waarin een soort joods-engels de voertaal zou moeten zijn. Geen woord over kolonialisme, ook niet in zijn bespreking van vroeg zionisten, terwijl het vanaf de begindagen van het zionisme belangrijkste oorzaak van Palestijnse onteigening is. Maar serieus ingaan op kolonialisme zou leiden tot de constatering dat 'het joodse volk' ook een product is van Europese joden die onder diezelfde vermeende eenheid Arabische en Ethiopische joden assimileert, en helemaal niet zo verenigd is of hoeft te zijn. Juist de talmoedcentrische opvatting van Boyarin biedt geen ruimte voor Karaïeten of Ethiopische joden om deel uit te maken van de 'diaspora nation'. Al met al interessant maar een beetje losgezongen.

[Tucker Smith]

a rating out of 5 stars feels very limiting for a text like this, and i'm ultimately not sure what rating to give it. boyarin makes claims i already agreed with before reading his manifesto, claims i agree with because boyarin persuaded me, and claims i disagree with––but most of his claims are ones i find myself uncertain about. i am glad to be exposed to his ideas and appreciate the opportunity to give them more thought, and i look forward to returning to this book many times in the future.

[Yanan Rahim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not perfect, but a truly insightful read.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

this man is my rebbe

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The diaspora is so back.

B"H Boyarin is setting the stage for a new Jewish perspective, one that is rooted in solidarity for the marginalized, celebration of a new (yet informed by an ancient?) Jewishness, and a rejection of Western impositions.

Written in 2021 and published in early 2023, this manifesto has never felt more relevant. Boyarin has managed to distill the debilitating issues currently plaguing our people to a couple of very fine and well-researched (yet satisfyingly challenging) perspectives. Although literarily dense, his vernacular feels appropriate and purposeful, not pretentious or patronizing, and his justifications, rooted in Talmudic study and Jewish history, create a beautiful air of Judaïté (as he calls it). His subversive approach to the idea of a "nation" and his presentation of "Judaism" as a product of Protestantism are both incredible insights into the justification for how we've arrived to this current point.

Also, a huge fan of the ties drawn to Fanon's complex relationship to Négritude, Césaire's unique position on pluralism vs universalism, and Judith Butler's dissection of the relationship between sex and gender. Through these intersections, Boyarin paints a revelatory image and presents a clear message: imperialist narratives, entrenched into our cultures long ago, have done major damage, but they are not irreversible. Although they affect us all distinctly, our collective liberation lies in awareness of our history and a pure hope for our future.

It should be noted that I used to be really conflicted with the notion of circumcision, the rejection of patrilineal Jews and so on and so forth. I really appreciate that this book has highlighted that my discomfort with these concepts was inherently a projection of neoliberal + Western values onto traditions that are deeply symbolic of our people and culture, both of which are vastly older than "the West". If I've taken anything away from The No-State Solution, it's that this book has allowed me to stop looking at myself, and my Jewish siblings, through a Western lens that actively serves to strip me of my cultural identity.

This manifesto is reclamation work at its finest. May it serve as an early, sincere and catalyzing step in the right direction for our Jewishness.

חֲזַק חֲזַק וְנִתְּחַזֵּק

[Benjamin Solidarity · Rating 3 out of 5]

While in general I'd recommend this work and agree with a lot of the ideas it is exploring on Jewish identity, even if the notion of a "Diasporic nation" seems a little forced. When the author adopted anti-Patrilineal Jew ideas without comment or exploration I was immediately insulted and turned off by him. Maybe that's a little petty of me but I am what I am. And I hate for such an interesting work to be soiled with such old bigotries. At the same time his discussion on Jewishness as a kinship built around a shared "performativity" in the Judith Butler sense gives a lot of opening for Patrilinial, Jews of Color, converts, and others, that he just doesn't explore properly. It's annoying the lost potential

[Elijah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book filled with love for self and for family. It starts with critiques of other perspectives on what “the Jews” is, but doesn’t dwell on them. It dwells on a positive, historically and culturally important vision of Jewishness. I hope more people who don’t feel confident about what it means to be Jewish in this day will read this and steel themselves to hold fast to what that means.

[Noam Weinreich · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit meandering to start, but so many valuable insights about the nature of Diaspora, Jewish collective existence, the nature of language, and an inspiring and provocative vision for a Jewish future.

[Leib Mitchell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book review
The No-state Solution
0/5 stars
"With prose like this, who needs waterboarding?"
******
Even as short as this book was, I couldn't get more than 15 pages into it.

Books published on University labels tend to be intensely boring, and so I have a little bit more patience with them.

But every man has his limits.

The takeaway message that I get from this book is: Even though they seem to be different, academics and Kollel avreichem really are on opposite sides of the same circle.

Both are excellent examples of what happens when people retreat into a "labyrinth of textuality, such that reality does not exist for them anymore."

What we have here, of all possible things is an academic that teaches Gemara.

What could possibly go wrong?!?!

In the mind of somebody that studies Gemara for a living, everything is floating abstraction and anything could be true or false.

So, that explains how A Jewish Man could come to the mental state to write a book about a "no-state solution."

Right in the introduction the author starts out with the word "social construction" and he also mentions the postmodern dogma that "there are no biological races." (And it's just a coincidence that all of the lowest HDI countries are all black African and all of the lowest performing people in the United States are black.)

Another way to look at this topic (I'm still not sure what it is, 12 pages in) is that: That which is can be.

If the circumstances make it such that the State of Israel can exist, then one can reverse engineer the answer to "what is Jewishness?" (When circumstances were not right for Israel to be reestablished, then Jews were The Diaspora Nation; Now that the circumstances are fitting, they can be a nation-state. If circumstances change again, then they can go back to being A Diaspora Nation.)

So, what difference do ab initio definitions make?

And what are we supposed to do with sentences like this? ("[Christian supersessionism] as has been shown in various works of post-colonial criticism, deeply informs modern colonial ideologies of Eurocentric progressivism.")
******
Verdict: EMPHATICALLY NOT RECOMMENDED.

$25.63 I spent for this piece of crap.

And the best I can get as a buyback is about $6 - - not even enough to reach the $10 threshold for somebody to cut a PayPal deposit.

Vocabulary:

bruit

[Orest Mercator · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this book started out really strong with moderate and insightful meditations on identity politics in the context of Judaism and Zionism, but it ultimately descends into a slightly ponderous consideration of too many different academic trends. Boyarin writes clearly, and his chapter have focus, but the whole does not fit together in the most obvious way -- making it hard to read this book casually and still piece everything together. His critique of cosmopolitanism (qua universalism) is compelling, and I share his distaste for some of Kwame Anthony Appiah's positions, but I find Boyarin less coherent in the wider-ranging discussions that occupy him as he tries to weave together three hundred years of critical theory.

Overarchingly, he insists that we not collapse Judaism into Zionism, providing historical and philosophical arguments to this effect. Helpfully, he situates these debates within the evolution of concepts of nationhood (which only attaches to territorial ownership and sovereignty in modern times). Less helpfully, he draws on a ton of sources to make that argument, making his claim feel a little too piecemeal. His categorical rejection of nationalism grounds his anti- or non-Zionism. Ultimately, he also argues that Herzl, Jabotinsky, and Ben-Gurion undermine conventional Judaism with a political Zionism that the religion (a category he takes issue with) does not sustain. Along the way, he provides an interesting picture of a Judaism as a tertium quid, between religion and race, nation and people, that can defend the merit of preserving Jewish heritage without that preservation weighting Jewish lives over others. He also argues that exile (galut) is not historically a negatively charged term in Hebrew and thinks that Jewish religious tradition can support a position of exile as a virtuous state of being.

Lastly, Boyarin makes provocative (but in my opinion underdeveloped) use of Heidegger's concept of thrownness (geworfenheit) to examine the condition of Jewish being as an unchosen identity. I need to reread to get clearer on what he's trying to say here, especially since he speaks of thrownness not with Heidegger (the term's architect), but with Heidegger's contemporary Franz Rosenzweig.

[Ariadne Rodríguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I promise myself to write a review of every book I read. Why? To avoid reading without paying attention to it; to help remember the important bits of the book; and to work on my grammar.

This book is making me regret this. It is not a bad book, but for someone who, despite my interest in religion and Abrahamic theology, is new to "Jewish thought," this book packs a punch.

It is short, but in its shortness there is a large amount to unpack. First, there is the matter of how to define "the Jews" (the author doesn't like the word "Judaism") not as a religion, nor a race, but as a nation. Second, the author goes into depth of why Nation doesn't mean State nor territory; Nation means community, family (genealogy) and a shared mode of living that doesn't require a particular territory. Of course, this leads us to the third, and last, point the author wants to make: Diaspora as an alternative to the Jewish Question.

Personal Note: I need to read more about this topic.

[shmekl · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this start to finish and then immediately read it all again. it’s a lot to chew on. i have enjoyed and heavily cited boyarin’s work while i was doing my judaic studies degree but this is the first time i’ve sat down and read him outside of an academic context. this book is definitely a starting point, not a manual for a solution. But for a lot of jews, simply imagining the possibility of a jewish identity outside of zionist imperialism is a challenge, and this does an amazing job of opening up that framework. as a card-carrying diasporist marxist yiddishist, many of boyarin’s ideas were already very familiar and close to my heart, but he has lovely way of drawing out and connecting these concepts that had me nodding along and going “exaaacccttttlyyy”. it left me feeling a tiny bit hopeful, despite everything.

Also, obsessed with using “judéité” to refer to one’s jewishness. tres chic

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is trying to answer a very difficult question: are Jews a religion or are they an ethnicity/state? Written almost as a thesis, it presumes a knowledge of many who have written previously on this topic. It has a 10-page bibliography. It has 25 pages of notes, presented at the back of the text. Along with a difficult question, it is a difficult read. And in this perpetual state of war on the Israeli state, I am not able to push through this text. It feels like it should be able to be reduced to more accessible language but even the concluding chapter is tough.

[Serena Jampel · Rating 4 out of 5]

polemic but revelatory

[Kea Cranko · Rating 4 out of 5]

any book reccs on diasporic futures / world building would be very welcome 💛

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disjointed and full of silly ideas dressed up in overly intellectual prose.

[Thom Chowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

No as compelling as Unheroic Conduct but what can I say.. I’m a sucker for his anti-Zionist yet nationalistic reconfiguration of the Jewish question

[Akshay Seetharam · Rating 3 out of 5]

an oddly convincing argument against cosmopolitanism