Liberating Jewish History from its Zionist Stranglehold: Rediscovering Abram Leon

Abstract

Abram Leon (1918–1944), the Jewish revolutionary socialist who perished in Auschwitz, is best known for his manuscript, The Jewish Question, written during the Second World War and published posthumously. Leon analysed the Jewish trading role in medieval Europe. He developed Karl Marx's argument that it is economics rather than religion that has sustained Jewish history between antiquity and modernity. The essay demonstrates how recent Jewish scholarship has confi rmed Leon's approach – even though Leon himself is often ignored. The essay uses the historical evidence to throw new light on that lachrymose Zionist perspective on Jewish history in Europe that sees – in the words of Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) – only ‘Eighteen Centuries of Jewish Suffering’.