Remembering Ellen Willis — ‘Anti-Anti-Zionist’

At about the same time as television journalist Ed Bradley passed away at 65, Ellen Willis, New York University professor of journalism, radical feminist and cultural critic, died on November 9, at the age of 64. A self-described “anti-authoritarian democratic socialist,” her NY Times obituary notes that she was “leery of extremism” and “took some members of the American left to task for what she saw as anti-Semitism thinly veiled as political animus toward Israel.” Her essay, “Is There Still a Jewish Question? Why I’m an Anti-Anti-Zionist,” (included in the anthology, “Wrestling With Zion,” edited by Tony Kushner and Alissa Solomon, Grove-Atlantic, 2003) is a powerful essay that’s well worth the read.