The No-State Solution

A Jewish Manifesto

By: Daniel Boyarin

Narrated by: John Lescault

A provocative manifesto arguing for a new understanding of the Jews’ peoplehood

Today there are two seemingly mutually exclusive notions of what “the Jews” are: either a religion or a nation/ethnicity. The widespread conception is that the Jews were formerly either a religious community in exile or a nation based on Jewish ethnicity. The latter position is commonly known as “Zionism,” and all articulations of a political theory of Zionism are taken to be variations of that view.

In this provocative audiobook, based on his decades of study of the history of the Jews, Daniel Boyarin lays out the problematic aspects of this binary opposition and offers the outlines of a different—and very old—answer to the question of the identity of a diaspora nation. He aims to drive a wedge between the “nation” and the “state,” only very recently conjoined, and recover a robust sense of nationalism that does not involve sovereignty.

©2023 Daniel Boyarin (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

Thought provoking!

Daniel Boyarin has presented a deep analysis of the matter of "Zionism" and the millennia-old reality of the Jewish Diaspora. This cannot be summarized in a few glib words. For my part, I can say that I feel affirmed in my identity as a member of the Diaspora who has realized that the Diaspora is my proper environment, not the sliver of land on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean.

A very important book

This book will make waves. An important understanding of and contribution to contemporary Jewish forms of life.

Very thought provoking

There are many good things about this book. Boyarin does a fascinating thing: he shows that our conception of religion is a deeply Christian one. By this, he allows Judaism to transcend simply “doing” or “belief”, but also a “being”. However, he also veers into biological essentialism, saying that it is inherently male to have a penis and therefore circumcision when as a rabbi he should know that Judaism has eight genders. Overall a good book though.

Interesting ideas, annoying postmodern language

As a longtime admirer of Boyarin, and as a nonzionist, I was sympathetic to the argument but found the performance and writing of this book almost unbearable to get through. So many asides and almost incomprehensible sentences.

Postmodernist Clap Trap

This is a lot of “theory” to arrive at the claim that Jews can be a nation without needing a nation state. It’s all couched in terms of Said, Heidegger, existentialism, and other sociological / anthropological jargon. If you are sympathetic to these ways of thinking, you’ll probably enjoy the book — it will give you theoretical bona fides for embracing the idea of Jews as a people while rejecting the need for a Jewish state. If you’re more interested in coming at the problem from a concrete historical and political philosophy perspective, on the other hand, you will probably find this book to be self indulgent and impenetrable.

In short, I was interested in reading an author who would defend the kind of thesis this author is defending, but the way he makes his argument (if it can be called an argument) is not at all interesting.