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Jews Don’t Count: A Times Book of the Year 2021 Hardcover – 4 Feb. 2021

by David Baddiel (Author)
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How identity politics failed one particular identity.

‘a must read and if you think YOU don’t need to read it, that’s just the clue to know you do.’ SARAH SILVERMAN

‘a masterpiece.’
STEPHEN FRY

Jews Don’t Count is a book for people who consider themselves on the right side of history. People fighting the good fight against homophobia, disablism, transphobia and, particularly, racism. People, possibly, like you.
It is the comedian and writer David Baddiel’s contention that one type of racism has been left out of this fight. In his unique combination of close reasoning, polemic, personal experience and jokes, Baddiel argues that those who think of themselves as on the right side of history have often ignored the history of anti-Semitism. He outlines why and how, in a time of intensely heightened awareness of minorities, Jews don’t count as a real minority: and why they should.

David Baddiel's book 'Jews Don’t Count' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 22-02-2021.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    144 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    TLS Books
  4. Publication date
    4 Feb. 2021
  5. Dimensions
    13.5 x 1.7 x 20.4 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0008399476
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0008399474
  8. See all details
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  1. Jews are the only objects of racism who are imagined – by the racists – as both low and high status. Jews are stereotyped, by the racists, in all the same ways that other minorities are – as lying, thieving, dirty, vile, stinking – but also as moneyed, privileged, powerful and secretly in control of the world. Jews are somehow both sub-human and humanity’s secret masters.
    Highlighted by 679 Kindle readers
  2. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, because the racists will smash in the door of your big house that they know you don’t deserve anyway and only own because you’re Jews.
    Highlighted by 420 Kindle readers
  3. But to these ears, the reflex need always to follow the phrase anti-Semitism with ‘and all types of racism’ is the left’s All Lives Matter.
    Highlighted by 280 Kindle readers
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From the Publisher

Product description

Review

‘Jews Don’t Count is a supreme piece of reasoning and passionate, yet controlled, argument. From his first sentence, the energy, force and conviction of Baddiel’s writing and thinking will transfix you…as readable as an airport thriller…a masterpiece.’
STEPHEN FRY

‘I don’t think I have ever been so grateful to anyone for writing a book. Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count is incisive, urgent, surprisingly funny and short. It’s also a beautiful piece of publishing. It needs to be read’
JAY RAYNER

‘Brilliant, furious, uncomfortable, funny. Essential reading.’
SIMON MAYO

‘I'm about a quarter of the way into this thus far and it's very well argued and written. It's a book you know the author HAD to write, and those are the best books’
JON RONSON

‘I only big up work I really believe is good and this is extra-ordinarily good. And important’
JONATHAN ROSS

‘This is brilliant – funny and furious, mostly at the same time’
MARINA HYDE

‘A convincing and devastating charge sheet’ Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times

‘It is so gripping – I read it in a single sitting’ Stephen Bush, The Times

‘A fascinating book, I urge you to read it’ Piers Morgan

‘I really think it’s a great book … the real triumph is its tone, its straightforwardness, and its spectacular tact and wit’ Adam Phillips, author of Monogamy

‘this short and powerful book shows, with remarkable humanity and humour, that no contemporary conversation about racism is complete without confronting antisemitism. An essential read – and a compulsory one too, if I had my way.’ Sathnam Sanghera

‘Funny, complex and intellectually satisfying – a really good piece of work’ Frankie Boyle

‘Just so brilliantly argued and written, I was completely swept along’ Hadley Freeman

‘David Baddiel is a brilliant thinker and writer. Even when I disagree with him – especially when I disagree with him – I feel profound gratitude for his intellectual and moral clarity. This is a brave and necessary book.’ Jonathan Safran Foer

Book Description

A Times Book of the Year 2021

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ TLS Books (4 Feb. 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008399476
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008399474
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.5 x 1.7 x 20.4 cm
  • Customer reviews:

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David Baddiel

David Baddiel

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
4,648 global ratings
Essential reading.
5 Stars
Essential reading.
I devoured this book in an afternoon it was so engrossing. It conjured up so many feelings about an issue that I thought I knew about but clearly didn't. How antisemitism is viewed as 'less' racist than other forms of racism, the role of identity politics and 'woke' culture in the discourse.If I'm being honest, me describing this book here would do it a disservice so read other reviews here and the endorsements above but one thing I can honestly and truthfully say is that its worth the buy, it will make you think and maybe, like me, challenge some of your held views.
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

Bilbo
5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth a read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 January 2024
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Most interesting book and well written , whether you are Jewish, a philosemite or just interested in his biographical experiences . Eye opening .
One person found this helpful
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Patroclus
5.0 out of 5 stars A tightly argued, eye-opening, necessary book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 February 2021
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David Baddiel makes a thoroughly convincing argument that modern, progressive identity politics - or, at least, many practitioners of it - has failed to treat anti-Semitism on an equal footing with other racisms. More than this, he proves successfully that anti-Semitism should be treated on an equal footing with other racisms. If anyone finds themselves objecting to this idea, scratch beneath the surface and you'll find the same disturbing justifications like 'because Jews are privileged' or 'because Jews are rich'. Not only are these prejudices demonstrably false, but they tap into the same logic that has seen Jewish people - including Baddiel's grandparents, who owned a brick factory in East Prussia - stripped of their wealth and forced to flee from their homes at various points in history. In other words, wealth is never, has never been, a protection against racism, and to suggest that wealth (and, as I say, the connection between Jewish people and wealth is a false trope) is a mitigating factor in racism is, well, racist.

Baddiel is uncannily good at anticipating the reader's challenges, too: if you find yourself wondering whether Jews are indeed a 'race', he makes the point that he, like many other Jewish people, is atheist, and that the actual practice (or absence of practice) of the Jewish faith generally makes little difference to whether Jews suffer anti-Semitism or not. And that's not even mentioning the unique tradition of anti-Semitism based on the supposed physical features of Jewish people.

The journalist Stephen Bush noted a flaw in the argument: namely, that Baddiel's language is couched in the very identity politics that he is criticising. Bush believed the book might have been more effective if it had tackled identity politics and its privilege-based understanding of prejudice head-on. This is a fair point but, by Baddiel's own admission, the book is not a critique of identity politics as a whole. Baddiel is merely showing that Jews have in particular been failed by identity politics, even by the very standards of its champions. Bush is right to suggest, though, that this failure may speak to deeper issues within identity politics. Maybe this will be the subject of a book in future.

I cannot recommend this book enough. The writing is tight, the pace exhilarating. Baddiel's tone is both journalistic and subtle, informal and eloquent. You can get through it in a single sitting if you have the time. My only hope is that those at whom this book is aimed end up reading it. I would, therefore, additionally recommend the book to those who are instinctively put off by its central premise.
16 people found this helpful
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Megan Rosslyn
4.0 out of 5 stars Challenging anti-semitism
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 December 2023
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I appreciate this book for how it gave me real food for thought about my unconscious biases and helped me understand some of nuances of the debate around antisemitism within left-wing political circles (of which I am in). It offered insights into political, media and celebrety standpoints that I had readily accepted and likely scoffed at the idea that they were antisemitic in nature. Yet, Baddiel's explanations hit home on several counts and certainly gave me a new perspective to consider in others.

About half to 2/3rds of the way in, I started finding some of the arguments being made for underlying antisemitism more challenging as they seemed to rely more and more on linguistic gymnastics and making assumptions about the silences. The silences, obviously, are a key theme to "Jews don't count" so I understood why those examples were included, but I found the ones in the first half of the text much more compelling.

The greatest challenge with the book is also part of its very nature. It is an exploration of a certain moment in time and history. It's trying to highlight perspectives that were not, and likely still aren't, being properly listened to. It's not offering solutions, just the insights. Which leaves the read feeling better informed and hopefully able to better recognise when a particular trope is employed, but no wiser on how to try and change the narrative. This is a frustration to sit with.
4 people found this helpful
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CN
5.0 out of 5 stars The racism experienced by Jews that doesn't count as racism.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 June 2023
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David Baddiel is a secular Jew with no interest in religion nor in the State of Israel. This excellent and thought provoking book explores the racism or anti-Semitism experienced by the Jewish community in Britain. He challenges this racism which is accepted and practised by people who are passionate anti racists. In recent times this has increased and several Jewish MPs have experienced huge amounts of hatred through social media especially. Primary schools have had to have a lot of security which in this supposedly tolerant society is wrong. There is of course a long nurtured myth linking Jews with the death of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was 100% Jewish but of course a long time ago you werent allowed to say that he was killed by the Romans, especially when Constantine decided that everyone should be a Christian. The book is well written and interesting.
3 people found this helpful
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Amazonian Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Informative & eye-opening
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 March 2022
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Jews Don't Count is a highly informative and extremely well reasoned explanation as to why antisemitism is often ignored or somehow considered a lesser form of racism. David Baddiel considers how opinions, ideas and stereotypes that are hateful and harmful to Jewish people and that would be instantly denounced if they were levelled against any other minority group, continue to be propagated and disseminated.

If, like me, you've been baffled by the ongoing accusations of antisemitism in the Labour party, this goes a long way to helping you understand it. Progressive people who abhor racism, sexism and any other -ism you care to mention often have a blind spot when it comes to the maltreatment of people with Jewish heritage. You don't have to go very far back in time to see the very worst of what can happen when this kind of bigotry is allowed to go unchecked. But likewise, you can also go quite a long way back and see that this particular persecution has a long history. And maybe this is why this specific flavour of racism is so endemic.

It's a short read that is vital and educational and opened my ignorant eyes to something I totally didn't understand.
6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Mike Morgulis
5.0 out of 5 stars Why we are hated by the left and right
Reviewed in Canada on 14 January 2024
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Baddiel does a superb job of capturing antisemitism from the left and right, from past examples to present day ones. At times it cuts deeply enough to require a moment to calm down. It goes a long way to describe the construct that no matter the consequences, Jews don't count, nor are they victims, and by the way, they're wrong... all at the same time. Great book, very self effacing as well.
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D. Howard
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye Opening
Reviewed in the United States on 28 November 2023
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I found this book challenging my assumptions quite frequently and insight into the UK political dialogues very very interesting. And while it is clear the author has strong views I never felt like he was s forcing them on the tea
5 people found this helpful
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Alan
5.0 out of 5 stars Profond
Reviewed in France on 26 April 2023
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Intelligemment écrit, pertinent et important.
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Rob Pinnington
5.0 out of 5 stars They do
Reviewed in Germany on 23 March 2021
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Very good summary of how things are biased against Jews
4 people found this helpful
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Maura Angel
5.0 out of 5 stars We are living in Historic times
Reviewed in the United States on 26 March 2024
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Great book, but he can definitely write a new one with everything that's going on
One person found this helpful
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