Jewish Nationality and Diaspora Nationalism: Reading Louis Brandeis through Daniel Boyarin

There is not much of a connection between Louis Brandeis and rabbinics scholar Daniel Boyarin. But in this paper, I argue that Brandeis’ 1915 essay on Zionism “The Jewish Problem and How to Solve it” and Boyarin’s 2023 anti-Zionist manifesto No-State Solution share a great deal in their understanding of the Diaspora and Jewish nationalism/nationality. I will argue that we can see Brandeis’ Zionism anew through the lens of Boyarin and Boyarin’s anti-Zionism anew though the lens of Brandeis, each aware of the dangers of an ethnostate and each committed to a robust Jewish life lived among others, particularly in America.