Eternal Strangers Critical Views of Jews and Judaism through the Ages - Chapter Five

Part 2 : Into the Modern Era
CHAPTER 5:
MODERN ‘ANTI-SEMITISM’
IN FRANCE AND GERMANY
By Thomas Dalton PhD

This brings us to the period that we may loosely call ‘modern anti-Semitism,’ comprising various anti-Jewish attitudes from the 1700s onward. Of
particular note is that, as this was the era of the Enlightenment and of a
new humanism, the critiques shift markedly from a religious to a secular
perspective. This is central to present-day attitudes, most of which are
non-religious in character.
Following their expulsion in the 14th century, Jews began returning to
France in the early 1600s, primarily to Alsace and Lorraine. They quickly
took up dominant positions in commerce and finance, such that by the
early 1700s notable French intellectuals were beginning to express concern. Among the earliest was the political philosopher Charles-Louis Montesquieu, whose Lettres persanes (1721) offered passing commentary. Jewish
communities around the world were very much alike, he said; “Know that
wherever there is money there are Jews.”1 Repeating an ancient charge,
Montesquieu added that, of the supposedly learned rabbis, there was
“[not] one among them of even a minor order of genius.”
Writing in the 1740s, Jean-Baptiste de Mirabaud composed his Opinions
des anciens sur les Juifs (Ancient Opinions on the Jews). Employing, for the
first time in the modern era, passages such as those examined earlier,
Mirabaud argued that ancient scholars developed a well-justified animus
towards Jewry:
You will therefore see from this that, a long time before they had
brought down upon themselves this curse, which is now regarded as
the cause of their wretchedness, [the Jews] were generally hated and
generally despised in every country which knew them: after which you
will agree that there is no mention of them in the old books except in
connection with this contempt, and in relation to the general aversion
felt for them…
Not only did all the nations despise the Jews; they even hated them
and believed that they were as justified in hating as in despising them.
They were hated because they were known to hate other men; they
were despised because they were seen observing customs which were
thought ridiculous.

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