You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Nothing can be done against prejudices. You can see it again today in the prejudices which each group of nations at war has developed against the other. The most sensible thing is to wait, and leave such prejudices to the eroding effects of time. (Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Part III, Standard Edition, Vol. XVI.)
Anti-Semitism centers the persecuted object in “the Jew.” What is a Jew? Many have tried to define the essential characteristics of “Jewishness.” But Freud (Preface to the Hebrew edition of Totem and Taboo, 17, Address to the Society of B'nai B'rith, S. E., Vol. XX, page 27) as well as other analysts, such as Reik (Myth and Guilt, Mystery on the Mountain, The Creation of Woman, The Temptation) have not been able to do this. It has not been possible for sociologists (Allport, Ichheiser, 3), philosophers (Sartre, 27), jurists (30), nor historians (Ausubel, 4) either.
We think that the fundamental element that can help us gain a better understanding of “Jewishness “lies in the ethical basis of Judaism. The only constant feature in the teachings of ancient Judaism is the emphasis on the weakness and impotence of man and the doctrine of non-violence, expressing a way of life, which is characterized by a specific form of dealing with aggression. (“The children of Abraham will constitute a people who will not live by force and power, but by the spirit of God or virtue … Jahweh will fight for you and you will remain quiet.” [2]) The Mosaic Decalogue synthesizes these fundamental principles.
When and how did this ethic arise? The beginnings of the Jews are indissolubly linked to the origin of Mosaic mono.