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Title: Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism by Dennis Prager, Joseph Telushkin ISBN: 0-7432-4620-9 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: August, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.09 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Few if any logical or empircal flaws in the book.
Comment: As (a non-jewish) expert on christian anti-Judaism (which was a necessary though not sufficient condition for the Endloesung of the Jewish Questions, as the Nazis put it), I have used the book often for college courses I teach. It is a popularization of a difficult topic, but fundamentally sound. If readers want something more substantial, try "Christian Antisemitism" by William Nicholls. The reader-critic from Dallas babbles about anti-gentilism and is on the verge of anti-Judaism himself. The reviewer who is worried about monocausal arguments and explanations might reflect upon the fact that a monocausal explanation for event x (such as Goldhagen brilliantly gave in his book) is not per se invalid for being monocausal; e.g. Christian/German ant-Judaism (as in Luther's writings of 1543) was a necessary condition for/cause of the Nazi genocidal, obsessive focus on Jews. Want proof? See the book mentioned above or see the official statement by the Lutheran churches of America condeming Luther's own anti-Judaism, which helped lay the groundwork for the 'holocaust'. Dr. Earley
Rating: 4
Summary: Informative, original idea. Forgiveably biased presentation.
Comment: (Having read this and "The Nine Questions People Ask about Judaism", I say, read this, skip 9?'s.)
A good book for beginning students of Jew-hatred. Though it reads as a somewhat less than academic survey of antisemitism throughout history, it is possible for a conscientious reader to appreciate the arguments presented. Teluskin explores pagan, Christian, Muslim, Fascist and Leftist antisemitism, giving the reader a nice balance between a pure history lesson and the author's thesis.
Teluskin's thesis is that Judaism itself is responsible for Jew hatred throughout history. This contrasts with the various explanations that I have heard in the past...Jews were hated in medieval europe because they were money lenders...Hitler hated the Jews because he was crazy, and the Nazis used antisemitism to gain political advantage...etc
Teluskin argues that each group/society that promoted and practiced Jew hatred was motivated by its own personal hatred of Judaism. Some examples:
The Romans hated the Jews because allegiance to God and objective morality questioned the legitimacy of the secular government.
Christian antisemitism was ineveitable, as Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism, and Judaism's continued existence cast a shadow of illegitimacy upon the new religion. By refusing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as The Messiah, Jews implicitly denied the validity of Christianity.
Islamic antisemitism mirrors Christian antisemitism in cause, and to a lesser degree, in practice.
Leftists placed the good of man above all, accordingly, Jews' insistance on the Supremacy of God's moral law above man threatened to deligitimize Leftist doctrine.
Nationalist-Fascist antisemitism had its base in Christian antisemitism and was the familiar result of Jews allegiance to God, rather than to the state.
As I noted earlier, this book is not very academic in tone or (in my opinion) in substance, but it still serves as an effective introduction to this subject.
Rating: 4
Summary: Prager and Telushkin DO Provide Answers
Comment: -
First, the term "anti-Semitism" is in my opinion an inappropriate term for describing the viewpoint of people who do not see eye to eye with the PHILOSOPHY of Judaism. According to dictionaries and encyclopedias, the term Semite is applied to both Jews and Arabs. The Semitic languages comprise a number of ancient and modern languages of SW Asia and Africa. A Semitic is one who speaks one or more of those languages.
However, the term "Anti-Semite" is INDEED misapplied when used to describe Arab Muslims and Arab Christians who are opposed to the Jewish persuasion, and South Florida (USA) Arab leaders have continuously pointed out this fact to Jewish leaders.
The philosophy of Judaism is codified in The Torah (the written law) which comprises the first five books of the Old Testament and the Talmud (the documented "oral" law). Any student of philosopy who has actually read and analyzed The Torah can readily discern that The Torah is indeed a doctrine of Jewish supremacy. It is vehemently anti-Gentile in every way. For instance, Leviticus 25:43-46 very clearly authorizes the Israelite/Jew to enslave the men, women and children of the other nations, and to rule over their own people with "less rigor." Judaism is thus CLEARLY represented by The Torah, the Jewish Holy Book, as a master-slave philosophy.
Authors Prager and Telushkin do recognize the "higher quality of Jewish life" as a "cause of anti-Semitism." They also explain that the "higher quality of life" is objectively verifiable
(pages 46-58). They stress that Jews have the highest per capita income of any ethnic group in the USA. They point out that Jewish law, as transcribed in the tzedaka laws, mandates that Jews enable one another to avoid poverty through a sytem of Jewish welfare (for Jews only) that helps Jews to establish themselves in the world as business proprietors and professionals.
Prager and Telushkin are to be commended for their forthrightness in providing the reader, whether Jewish or Gentile, with this very relevant information.
I might quote the words of Israel Shahak, a holocaust survivor: "Anti-Semitism and Jewish chauvinism (a/k/a Anti-Gentilism) can ONLY be fought SIMULTANEOUSLY."
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Title: The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz ISBN: 047146502X Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The New Anti-Semitism : The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It by Phyllis Chesler ISBN: 078796851X Publisher: Jossey-Bass Pub. Date: 11 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Happiness Is a Serious Problem : A Human Nature Repair Manual by Dennis Prager ISBN: 0060987359 Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Think a Second Time by Dennis Prager ISBN: 006098709X Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 09 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Never Again? : The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism by Abraham Foxman ISBN: 0060542462 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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