Jews in a Gentile World
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By and , in coöperation with others MACMILLAN
To read eighteen essays on the problem of antiSemitism, all written by competent scholars and experts, and appearing between the covers of a single book, is enough to make one’s head go round. Such a preliminary seems necessary, however, if one is ever to get one’s head into a position to contemplate the problem at all with an inkling of what it’s all about. The contributors to this symposium, over half of whom are Gentiles, are agreed that anti-Semitism is wicked and irrational, and that no civilization worth its salt could or should tolerate it. That’s what makes the problem so appallingly difficult to solve, since it is of a piece with all things evil and senseless. There has always been, in one place or another, some measure of anti-Semitism. Its excess in our own time merely stresses the fact that the universal evil, long latent, has come out into the open. Even in its exaggerated form, anti-Semitism is not the disease itself, but remains the symptom of the disease. That is why the introductory and the best essay of the book, by Dr. Carl J. Friedrich, of Harvard (worth the price of the volume), is called ‘Anti-Semitism: Challenge to Christian Culture.’ For as long as antiSemitism exists, Christendom itself is at stake, as well as democracy, the whole idea of right and wrong, and civilization in any form. AntiSemitism and the American Constitution are wholly incompatible. Though this is the core of the problem, anti-Semitism has many facets, and the remaining essays throw light on all. J.C.