What Did They Think of the Jews?

Book Overview

Throughout history, the Jewish people and their religious traditions have been viewed in different ways by their contemporaries. Reactions from their non-Jewish neighbors expose a broad spectrum of emotions: honest respect, genuine acceptance, begrudging tolerance, subtle dislike, and vicious hatred. In What Did They Think of the Jews? Allan Gould has gathered over two hundred documents, written by well-known men and women from ancient times through today, that reflect the writers' personal views of the Jewish people and their societies' general attitudes and beliefs. This anthology includes the works of philosophers and poets, politicians and novelists, inventors and world leaders. The documents are by and about diverse personalities. Cicero, Saint Augustine, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Thomas Hobbes are among the writers whose works document the perception of Jews from Ancient Greece and Rome through the Renaissance. How Americans have viewed the Jews throughout United States history is portrayed in the writings of figures such as Benjamin Franklin, William Cullen Bryant, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Herman Melville, Theodore Roosevelt, John Steinbeck, and Charles Lindbergh. The works of John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, Joseph Conrad, and others exemplify European and British viewpoints. There are also reflections on the Holocaust and the State of Israel by personalities such as Carl Sandburg, Charles DeGaulle, and Frank Capra. And the virulent hatred of the Jewish people by Communist, Fascist, and Nazi ideologies is tragically demonstrated in the documents of those eras. While some of the material in this volume bears witness to the slanders and slurs the Jewish people have encountered, What Did They Think of the Jews? also contains a large portion of powerfully moving and affirmative documents. Readers can take great pleasure in the inspiring essays, letters, quotations, and anecdotes of Henrik Ibsen, James Joyce, Harry Truman, and others whose visions allowed them to see past the walls of prejudice. What Did They Think of the Jews? is a truly unique and comprehensive resource. These documents present a balanced and insightful perspective on the Jewish experience.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765799669
• ISBN13: 9780765799661
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.
• Length: 648 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.1" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Gives details of the Early Church Fathers

I found this book from a link from an Aish HaTorah website that had actual quotes from early Church Fathers on Jews. I'm planning to get the book to learn more. I've been googling & it's hard to find actual quotes in any length, rather than summaries or 1/2 sentence bits. It's explained to me finally the original roots of antisemitism. In the political climate under the dangerous watch of the Roman empire, the Church Fathers as they separated from Judaism, were not kind at all. It's been feeling like we've been fighting endless "ghosts" that go bump in the night, because we've been fighting the ghost of times past. Here's a sample from the book: page 24-25 From John Chrysostom, the Patriarch of Constantinople, we get this: "Jews are the most worthless of men- - they are lecherous, greedy, rapacious - they are perfidious murderers of Christians, they worship the devil, their religion is a sickness ... The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing god there is no expiation, no indulgence, no pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance. The Jews must live in servitude forever. It is incumbent on all Christians to hate the Jews." I'll come back & update when I read it. There was only 1 other review so I thought it worth adding what little I know about the book.

A very well put together and interesting anthology

This is an outstanding anthology. Gould tried to search out the real opinions of people and not simply what they might say in certain formal settings. One of his interesting observations is that there are many people who have mixed feelings toward Jews, who can be critical in one way and very favorable in others. I of course especially enjoyed reading some of the most favorable things said, by Tolstoy, Mark Twain, George Eliot, and those wonderful non- Jews who had real understanding and love for the Jewish people.