I had been circling the same problem from a different angle, in a conjoint thought experiment borrowed from market research. Construct two Jews, identical except for their position on Zionism. Drop them into a coalition. Ask which one the coalition protects.

The answer, on the progressive left and the populist right alike, is the same: there is no permanent “good Jew.” There are only Jews receiving temporary discounts for useful behavior. Bernie Sanders is the warranty. His is the Jewish name that certifies an anti-Zionist argument as something other than antisemitism. But a warranty is strictly conditional. If the market moves further, the warranty expires, and the man himself becomes a bad Jew too.

This is not a thought experiment anymore. In 2022, nine student groups at Berkeley Law, including the Women of Berkeley Law and the Queer Caucus, adopted a bylaw banning speakers who support Zionism; the dean observed that the rule would exclude him and, by his estimate, ninety percent of the school’s Jewish students. In 2017, the Chicago Dyke March expelled Jewish marchers for carrying rainbow flags bearing the Star of David. And Donald Trump has posted the other flank’s price list: Jews who vote for Democrats show “great disloyalty” and “should have their head examined.” Different rooms, same terms.

Benami’s biography is the story in miniature. He was inside the warranty. He worked for the man whose name certifies the product. Then the price of staying certified went up, and he walked. Benami describes what it feels like to be repriced. The conjoint experiment describes the mechanism.

Benami describes the moment when a Jew discovers that acceptance was never ownership. It was a revocable license, priced by people outside the Jewish community.

What 1996 Actually Was

I caddied at eleven at the Huntington Crescent Club, a course restricted to non-Jews by gentlemen’s agreement. The........

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