The Jewish Spectre

Excerpt from The Jewish Spectre We have here, in the foregoing citations, the composite spectre of Israel and the Jew in nearly every aspect. It com bines the preternatural, the supernatural, the superhuman, and the embodied divine outshining upon the earth. I am sorry to drop down from these sublime heights and speak of vulgar things, but now for many pages I must come to a lower level of this dream country. I must defer to a later chapter remarks on the spectre in Europe; and now merely say that leroy-beaulieu gives us, in the picture quoted below, an indication of the romantic view with which modern history teems. He says of the Jews of Europe' They are like birds just liberated from their cages, so swift is their flight; they were seen to dart from twig to twig of the thickly branched tree of our modern civilisation, as though none of its parts were beyond the reach of their wings. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Jewish Spectre The Jewish Spectre is now visible in both hemispheres; it hovers over New York as it long has done over Paris, Vienna, Berlin and London. But, accustomed as we are to the incoming of foreign peoples, it is not the apparition of an exotic race among us that gives my subject its greatest importance. The question would be very simple, and no more puzzling than the interference of other people in the affairs of our modern life, were it not for the hovering vision of Israel that is thrown upon the screen of our religious consciousness. This spectre carries on its front for us, in our childlike and experimental condition of mind, many of the mysteries of the whence and whither of life, and of the terrors of death; and stands for us in such a relation that it seems to many to be religion itself. It seems as though the whole fabric of our theology would fall to the ground without this "Israel" - though we sometimes fancy we could get along without Judah. Most of us seem to think that Israel and Judah are exchangeable if not synonymous terms. They were once quite distinct; and they might be still, were it not for that tendency in our language to blend and weave, in the interest of the romantic and wonderful, unrelated words and images. We divide our modern races into specific nationalities, as we also do the profane races of antiquity; but it is only by the greatest sacrifices that we pull Israel and Judah apart. No one has ever yet written a history of the Jews without at least a preliminary chapter on the Israelites. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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“Masterful...An indispensable warning for our own time.” —Samuel Moyn “Magisterial...Covers this dark history with insight and skill...A major intervention into our understanding of 20th-century Europe and the lessons we ought to take away from its history.” —The Nation For much of the last century, Europe was haunted by a threat of its own imagining: Judeo-Bolshevism. The belief that Communism was a Jewish plot to destroy the nations of Europe took hold during the Russian Revolution and quickly spread. During World War II, fears of a Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy were fanned by the fascists and sparked a genocide. But the myth did not die with the end of Nazi Germany. A Specter Haunting Europe shows that this paranoid fantasy persists today in the toxic politics of revitalized right-wing nationalism. “It is both salutary and depressing to be reminded of how enduring the trope of an exploitative global Jewish conspiracy against pure, humble, and selfless nationalists really is...A century after the end of the first world war, we have, it seems, learned very little.” —Mark Mazower, Financial Times “From the start, the fantasy held that an alien element—the Jews—aimed to subvert the cultural values and national identities of Western societies...The writers, politicians, and shills whose poisonous ideas he exhumes have many contemporary admirers.” —Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs

This work of non-fiction wants to impart knowledge, encourage reflection, and awaken sympathy. It provides information about the anti-Jewish race politics of National Socialism and the increasingly more difficult effects it had on individual Jews in Fritzlar and its surrounding towns year after year. It reports on the few people who helped those Jews who returned from concentration camps and about the de-Nazification process from 1944 to 1948. Additionally, it documents in both words and pictures the different forms of lasting memorials. This book reminds us not only of past peaceful neighborly coexistence and on the growing contempt and oppression of the Jewish citizens, and their consequent expulsion and terrible murder, but also on personal salvation, and the efforts toward forgiveness and atonement. Photos, gravestone inscriptions, family trees, and lists of names will aid in researching Jewish family histories. Dies Sachbuch will Wissen vermitteln, zum Nachdenken anregen und Mitgefühl erwecken. Es informiert über die antijüdische Rassenpolitik des Nationalsozialismus und deren von Jahr zu Jahr härteren Auswirkungen auf die einzelnen Juden in Fritzlar und seinen Ortsteilen. Es berichtet von den wenigen Helfern, von den 1945 aus den KZs zurückkehrenden Juden und von der Entnazifizierung 1944 bis 1948. Ferner dokumentiert es in Wort und Bild verschiedene Formen dauerhaften Gedenkens. Dies Buch erinnert an friedliches Zusammenleben als Nachbarn, doch auch an zunehmende Verachtung und Verdrängung der jüdischen Mitbürger, schließlich an ihre Vertreibung und schreckliche Ermordung, aber auch an Errettung Einzelner, an Bemühen um Verzeihung und Versöhnung. Fotos, Grabsteininschriften, Stammbäume und Namenslisten helfen bei der Erforschung von jüdischen Familiengeschichten.

This state-of-the-art account gives readers the tools to understand why antisemitism is such a controversial subject. It acquaints readers with the ambiguities inherent in the historical relationship between Jews and Christians and shows these ambiguities in play in the unfolding relationship between Jews and Canadians of other religions and ethnicities. It examines present relationships in light of history and considers particularly the influence of antisemitism on the social, religious, and political history of the Canadian Jewish community. A History of Antisemitism in Canada builds on the foundation of numerous studies on antisemitism in general and on antisemitism in Canada in particular, as well as on the growing body of scholarship in Canadian Jewish studies. It attempts to understand the impact of antisemitism on Canada as a whole and is the first comprehensive account of antisemitism and its effect on the Jewish community of Canada. The book will be valuable to students and scholars not only of Canadian Jewish studies and Canadian ethnic studies but of Canadian history.

An eloquent, controversial argument that says, for the first time in their long history, Jews are free to live in a Jewish state—or lead secure and productive lives outside it Since the beginnings of Zionism in the twentieth century, many Jewish thinkers have considered it close to heresy to validate life in the Diaspora. Jews in Europe and America faced “a life of pointless struggle and futile suffering, of ambivalence, confusion, and eternal impotence,” as one early Zionist philosopher wrote, echoing a widespread and vehement disdain for Jews living outside Israel. This thinking, in a more understated but still pernicious form, continues to the present: the Holocaust tried to kill all of us, many Jews believe, and only statehood offers safety. But what if the Diaspora is a blessing in disguise? In At Home in Exile, renowned scholar and public intellectual Alan Wolfe, writing for the first time about his Jewish heritage, makes an impassioned, eloquent, and controversial argument that Jews should take pride in their Diasporic tradition. It is true that Jews have experienced more than their fair share of discrimination and destruction in exile, and there can be no doubt that anti-Semitism persists throughout the world and often rears its ugly head. Yet for the first time in history, Wolfe shows, it is possible for Jews to lead vibrant, successful, and, above all else, secure lives in states in which they are a minority. Drawing on centuries of Jewish thinking and writing, from Maimonides to Philip Roth, David Ben Gurion to Hannah Arendt, Wolfe makes a compelling case that life in the Diaspora can be good for the Jews no matter where they live, Israel very much included—as well as for the non-Jews with whom they live, Israel once again included. Not only can the Diaspora offer Jews the opportunity to reach a deep appreciation of pluralism and a commitment to fighting prejudice, but in an era of rising inequalities and global instability, the whole world can benefit from Jews’ passion for justice and human dignity. Wolfe moves beyond the usual polemical arguments and celebrates a universalistic Judaism that is desperately needed if Israel is to survive. Turning our attention away from the Jewish state, where half of world Jewry lives, toward the pluralistic and vibrant places the other half have made their home, At Home in Exile is an inspiring call for a Judaism that isn’t defensive and insecure but is instead open and inquiring.