Sunday 4 March 2012

Bernard Lazare: Antisemitism: Its History and Causes

Note on Chapters 1, 5, 10, 15

ONE

Not just due to religious war - Christian nations against the Jew, not doctrine of a God

Jews rarely stood up against their conquerers, made them look inferior

Excited jealousy and hatred - Allowed to develop states within states, had a better condition of life, better trade, more wealth

Declined to submit to other customs where they lived, shunned interaction and intercourse with inhabitants

The Eighteen Things - Caused unsociability

Fear of contamination made Jews isolated - clothing, dwelling, nourishment

Only learnt the law

Rabbbinites cut Israel from community of nations - became recluse, rebel against laws, closed minded - fuelled persecution, massacres, etc

Patriotism of Israel

FIVE

Built synagogues all over Europe but still didn't interact with growing nations, watched and stood back

Played a part economically but were hated due to Middle Ages states being moulded by the Church, who gave their unity to numerous tribes in the nations

Narrow faith, wasn't welcoming of others

They love their gold, they do

Christians were poor because of church, Jews rich because they could engage in money exchanging and banking

Wished to become a power, felt superior, chosen race

Exercised tyranny which created craftiness

Social and religious causes of anti-semitism intermingled

Richness

Church persecuted spirt of Judaism in all forms

Sacrificed n times of plague and famine

TEN

Semite - 'strange, noxious, disturbing, inferior'

First asserted that white race and some 'yellows' were capable of founding superior civilisations - Aryan is white and perfect

Ethnologic principles helped cause anti-semitism

Aryans are superior, resisted rule of rival Semitics


ELEVEN
"Customarily a nation is called an agglomeration of individuals having in common their territory, language, religion, law, customs, manners, spirit, historic mission."

"ews they possess also common peculiarities, a common individuality and a common type."

"in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, the legislation against the Jews was identical, a fact quite easy of explanation as in all these lands the legislation was inspired by the church."

"The Jew spoke the language of the country he inhabited, but he spoke it only because it was indispensable in his business transactions; once at home he made use of a corrupt Hebrew or of a jargon of which Hebrew formed the basis."

"Thus, consequently, the Jews had the same religion, manners, habits and customs, they were subjected to the same civil, religious, moral and restrictive laws; they lived in similar conditions; in each city they had their own territory, they spoke the same language, they enjoyed a literature, they speculated over the same persisting and very old ideas. This alone was sufficient to constitute a nation."

"Jews placed them under the ban of their society, it was lawful to kill them, just as it was lawful to kill "the best of goyim." Similar exhortations would be found at all periods of patriotic struggles, among all nations; the proclamations of the generals, the calls to arms of the tribunes of all ages contain just as odious formulas. When the French, for instance, invaded the Palatinate, it must have been a rule, nay, even a duty, for all Germans to say: "Death even to the best of Frenchmen !""

"Modern Judaism claims to be but a religious confession; but in reality it is an ethnos besides, for it believes it is that, for it has preserved its prejudices, egoism and vanity as a people a belief, prejudices, egoism and vanity which[137] make it appear a stranger to the peoples in whose midst it exists, and here we touch upon one of the most profound causes of antisemitism. Antisemitism is one of the ways in which the principle of nationalities is manifested."

"What is this question of nationalities? By it is understood "the movement which carries certain populations, of the same origin and language, but constituting a part of different States to unite in such a way as to make a single political body, a single nation.""

"To these nationalist egotists, to these exclusivists, the Jews appeared a danger, because they felt that the Jews were still a people, a people whose mentality did not agree with the national mentality, whose concepts were opposed to that ensemble of social, moral, psychological, and intellectual conceptions, which constitutes nationality. For this reason the exclusivists became antisemites, because they could reproach the Jews with an exclusivism exactly as uncompromising as theirs, and every antisemitic effort tends, as we have seen already, 207 to restore those ancient laws restricting the rights of the Jews who are considered strangers."


FIFTEEN

Helped liberal, social and revolutionary parties - Contributed wealth

Modern anti-semitism is different from anti-Judaism - more self-conscious, more pragmatic, more deliberate - fear & hatred of strangers

Jews not assimilated - Continue to differentiate themselves from those around them

If they are Frenchmen, or if they are Germans, they are also Jews - maintain their peculiar characteristics as a people

Laws, prejudice and persecution - prevented them from mingling

Assimilation has caused differences between Jews from different countries

No laws on Jews now, just normal laws, no longer live apart, share a common life

Every external form of religion is losing its influence

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