Free PDF

Author : Roth Cecil
Title : The jewish contribution to civilization
Year : 1940

Link download : Roth_Cecil_-_The_jewish_contribution_to_civilization.zip

Foreword. At any time it would be a public service to issue in an American edition this volume on The Jewish Contribution to Civilization, but today it is of special importance. The Jewish people constitute a considerable element in our population, and beyond their numbers ranges their influence in many fields. The very distinctiveness of their ethnic and religious inheritance, and the very weight and impact of their achievements, arouse every manner of reaction - often inadequately informed, springing from vague rumor, helped out by deliberate propaganda, and sometimes issuing in dangerous prejudice. To anyone capable of harboring thoroughgoing anti- Semitism - a group prejudice, that is, directed against a whole race of human beings - this book is probably too intelligent to make an effective appeal. Such vulgar and barbarian race prejudice is not only without rootage in anthropology, without support in the social sciences, and incredible to normal men and women; it is, from the standpoint of morals, one of the most debasing of human attitudes. As H. G. Wells has written, "I am convinced myself that there is no more evil thing in this present world than race prejudice, none at all. I write deliberately - it is the worst single thing in life now. It justifies and holds together more baseness, cruelty and abomination than any other sort of error in the world." Events in Europe have terribly validated this judgment, and in America the repercussions of foreign anti-Semitism are too frequent and menacing to be neglected. ...