Editor’s Introduction

As identitarianism enjoys what seems an ever-increasing vogue in the humanities—whether manifested in balkanization, in labeling and branding, in litmus tests, etc.—it becomes increasingly important for critical thought to exercise its responsibility to imagine otherwise. This is an exciting issue to be putting out at this moment, when so many forces, both within the academy and without, seem to be pushing “Jewish” into an increasingly narrow, restrictive circulation. Nationalism is obviously one name, but not the only one, for this restriction. As international and campus politics alike show us how cultish obeisance to the protocols of ideological purity threatens to reemerge as an intellectual yardstick, particularly around concepts of Jewish identity and homeland, Dalia Kandiyoti and Dean Franco have gathered in this special issue essays that, collectively, work to show how purity operates as an impossible, and dangerous, standard. Concentrating on the long and complex history of crossings in the...