History of a Prejudice

...Quite aside from the disproportionate space given to pre-modern Christian theological views, Jaher's evident antipathy to Christianity??which he sees as closer to paganism than to Judaism??his fascination with Freudian psychology, and his reliance on secondary sources seriously diminish the value of these two chapters...

...Dinnerstein devotes an entire chapter to black anti-Semitism, which, he notes, is the only openly expressed form of Jew-hatred surviving in this country today...

...On the other hand, it is also "unlikely to vanish," and "history has taught Jews never to let down their guard...

...There is a wealth of detail culled from obscure newspapers, magazines, plays, poems, school texts, and speeches that illuminates American attitudes toward Jews...

...A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America by Frederic Cople Jaher Harvard...

...To return to the larger question, in the light of these two books are the polls showing a deep decline in American anti-Semitism correct, or are Jews who still deem it a danger...

...Of the two, Frederic Jaher's A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America is by far the weaker...

...But, returning to his original thesis, he insists that without the Christian heritage there probably would have been no anti-Semitism in America, while conceding that "because Christianity in the United States was uniquely shaped by American religious and secular circumstances, Jews have been better treated here than in any other Western Christian land...

...In 1967, a member of the local school board in Wayne, New Jersey, stated that if two Jewish candidates for the board were elected, taxes would go up because liberal Jews tend to spend a lot on education...

...Leonard Dinnerstein's Anti-Semitism in America is more satisfying both because it presents a coherent survey of anti-Semitic trends through all of American history, and because it avoids theological quagmires by sticking to conventional historical narrative and analysis...

...Dinnerstein states explicitly several times that anti-Semitism rises and falls independent of anything Jews do...

...Jaher concludes that by the post-Civil War era certain anti-Semitic themes had become part of the American fabric, and these would shape 20th-century attitudes: The image of the Jews was that of "parvenus, rapacious capitalists, and revolutionaries...

...Although he has less material than Jaher about popular attitudes, his discussion of anti-Semitism in public life is fuller...

...After reading the chapter on black attitudes toward Jews, it is difficult to disagree with the author's conclusion: If black anti-Semitism is ever to ebb, it will be in the "distant future...

...Dutch colonial resistance to Jews entering New Amsterdam, General Grant's order ejecting Jews from his military district during the Civil War, anti-Jewish conspiracy theories among the Populists, Father Coughlin and similar haters in the 1930s??rather than as an ongoing anti-Semitic tradition, waxing and waning, taking on new forms as times change...

...According to the surveys, Jews are not considered particularly influential, and despite their ties to Israel, most Americans do not suspect them of any lack of loyalty...

...that learning about Nazi atrocities made Americans aware of the consequences of group prejudice, and that economic prosperity induced them to stop looking for scapegoats??Dinnerstein mentions some other intriguing possibilities: the personal influence of President Harry S. Truman, who clearly articulated a principled opposition to all bigotry...

...In 1974, the Attorney General of the United States declared that Communist groups had declined because "the Jewish intellectual" who previously was attracted to the Communist movement had become disillusioned with it...

...and the role of the State of Israel, founded in 1948, in convincing many Americans that Jews??previously stereotyped as timid, parasitic and shifty??were actually self-reliant, strong and straightforward...

...The reader learns not only what politicians and literary figures thought about Jews, but how the popular culture portrayed the Chosen People...

...Reviewed by Lawrence Grossman Director of Publications, American Jewish Committee BY ALL THE standard measurements, anti-Semitism in the United States has declined significantly since the end of World War II...

...But this leads him to denote as anti-Semitic statements that, while perhaps impolitic and unwise, are not necessarily wrong...

...The answer, Dinnerstein tells us in true rabbinic fashion, is that both are right...

...The one shortcoming of Anti-Semitism in America is its imprecision about exactly what constitutes anti-Semitism...

...Now, the simultaneous publication of two serious works on the history of American anti-Semitism may indicate a readiness to confront the question of just what role it has played in the country's life...

...If anything, Jews are stereotyped positively: They are perceived as being more industrious, self-sufficient and intelligent, as well as less prone to violence, than others...

...Given what their gentile neighbors tell researchers, should such concerns be dismissed as paranoia, or might they be based on a justifiable sense that the tolerant answers Americans write on questionnaires do not necessarily express their real feelings...

...Is the imputation of group characteristics to Jews anti-Semitic...

...In addition, his limited knowledge of ancient Judaism leads him into serious errors...

...The author observes that American animosity toward Jews reached an all-time high during the War, then cites its precipitous drop following 1945 and suggests possible reasons for the change...

...Anti-Semitism in America is especially insightful about the post-World War II period...

...Once Jaher gets to his proper subject, anti-Semitism in early America, the book gets considerably more interesting...

...Public-opinion surveys indicate a drop in the percentage of Americans who hold negative stereotypes of Jews...

...a third of its pages??to Christian anti-Semitism in ancient and medieval times...

...Recognizing the Christian underpinnings of Jew-hatred, Dinnerstein points out exactly when strains in American society caused anti-Semitism to intensify, and when prosperity and national euphoria took the wind out of the haters' sails...

...Nor did events that had an anti-Semitic potential??the oil embargo of the late 1970s, the Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken prosecutions, the Jonathan Pollard spy case...

...And he gives attention to the strategies and institutions the Jewish community developed to counteract, or at least minimize, the influence of the anti-Semites...

...The field of American Jewish history has undergone a true renaissance in this generation, but its practitioners have tended to concentrate on what the Jews did, not on the hostility they encountered...

...Jaher is also careful to put American anti-Semitism into context by noting how Americans viewed other minorities...

...But Jews do not trust the data...

...This was condemned at the time as anti-Semitic, and Dinnerstein seems to agree, but it is nothing more than a blunt description of historical fact...

...Surveys of Jewish attitudes show that a large majority believe anti-Semitic feelings and incidents are on the upswing...

...He assumes, for example, that both the vision of a violent Armageddon at the end of days and the prohibition on usury are Christian idiosyncrasies when they are, in fact, derived directly from the Hebrew Bible...

...Furthermore, he effectively argues, it has a practical purpose: Blacks who target the Jewish minority are proving that, at least in treating Jews as outsiders, they are part of the Christian majority...

...Whatever the reason, standard treatments of American Jews generally portray anti-Semitism in the form of unconnected episodes...

...In every poll taken over the last 15 years asking respondents whether they thought anti-Semitism was rising or declining, substantially more people reported a decline...

...An assessment of whether or not American Jews are oversensitive must start with an examination of anti-Semitism's place in the development of American culture, yet surprisingly little has been written on the subject...

...The author justifies this on the grounds that Christian theology is the ultimate source of American anti-Semitism, and that is the significance of his title: Even in the "new wilderness of America," Christians still treated Jews as the eternal scapegoat...

...He demonstrates that, far from being a recent phenomenon, it has deep roots in the evangelical Christianity most blacks have practiced since the early days of slavery...

...The two Jews trailed far behind the rest of the candidates on election day...

...Besides the conventional explanations...

...Moreover, he relates patterns of anti-Semitism to the changing economic and social status of Jews...

...He added that the town might also "lose what is left of Christ in our Christmas celebrations in our schools...

...Regardless of the prevalent stereotypes about Jews, he finds, blacks and??through the end of the 19th century ??the Irish had lower status...

...it is wholly a gentile matter...

...Echoing the judgment of Jews and others at the time, Dinnerstein sees the board member committing an anti-Semitic act...

...29.95...

...But Jews do tend to support higher school budgets, and all the mainstream Jewish organizations devote considerable time and resources to the elimination of religious observances from tax-supported facilities...

...Perhaps the extraordinary openness of America to Jews??and to other white minorities??has made it seem somehow ungracious to uncover evidence of prejudice...

...339pp...

...Anti-Semitism, he explains, "has declined in potency and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future...

...the impact of two popular postwar movies that conveyed the evils of anti-Semitism...

...Presented as a study of American anti-Semitism from the colonial period through the Civil War, the book begins by devoting two chapters...

...spark any measurable antagonism...

...Two examples illustrate the problem...