The Great Hatred

As far as Americans are concerned, the usefulness of this book, except on one point, is wholly in the last four chapters. The distinction which the author draws between anti-Semitism and antiJewishness is of the very first importance, and as far as we know Mr. Samuel is entitled to the credit of being the first to observe that they are not at all the same thing. His definition of anti-Semitism, however, as an active hatred of Jesus the Jew and of the whole Judæo-Christian system of religion and ethics, is open to great doubt; and his view of this spirit as evidence of a degenerate condition of the Western mind seems to us much exaggerated. America does indeed present a Jewish problem, and a serious one, quite distinct from an anti-Semitic problem; but readers should not look to this book for any light either upon its origin or upon its terms.