Bernard Glassman > Quotes

“Jews still were objects of scorn for those who needed an outlet for their frustrations. However, the decline of the authority of the church, the growth of industry and trade with its stress upon the need for individual freedom, and the social philosophies of men like John Locke all contributed to a greater toleration of the Jews in England.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“The English clergy was the first to fabricate the ritual-murder accusations against the Jews and the first in Europe to spread the myth of the “Wandering Jew.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“The theological need to prove Judaism inferior to Christianity was not limited to Catholicism; it was readily made a part of Anglican and Puritan doctrines.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“There is no lack of evidence, however, to show how anti-Semitic sentiments in a society almost devoid of actual Jews reflected deep-seated irrational responses to the Jewish people, rooted in the teachings of the church and exploited by men who needed an outlet for their religious, social, and economic frustrations.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“Owing to his [the Archbishop of Canterbury’s] zeal and that of other clerics in the country, England was the first nation in Europe to adopt the infamous Jew Badge in 1218.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“Prynne unhesitantly distorted any facts of history that could be used to stir up anti-Jewish sentiments, and he perfected the “Big Lie.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“Their [Jewish] commercial talents and capital would be put to good use, but for the most part they would still be haunted by the mediaeval stories told about them, and the old fears and jealousies would linger on.”
― Bernard Glassman

“Although the Puritan and Anglican preachers used Hebrew quotations, based their sermons on Old Testament texts, and compared the lot of their congregants with that of the ancient Israelites, they, like the pamphleteers and the Bible scholars of the time, had little respect for the unconverted post-biblical Jew. In this regard they hardly differed from each other, and both camps held the same view of the Jews’ guilt for the Crucifixion, their evil nature and accursedness, and their need to be redeemed through conversion. Puritan and Anglican sermons on this topic reveal a common bond of hate that both groups shared.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“By 1656 there were only twenty-seven Jewish families in the country, and most Englishmen were scarcely aware of their presence. But underneath this seemingly secure existence there were undercurrents of strong hatred. The privileged status of the Jewish minority aroused the jealousies of the merchants and the city fathers of London.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“Perhaps the blood libel was a means of transferring onto their victims the guilt that the Christians felt for their own acts of oppression. By making the Jews guilty of the very crimes that Christians had committed, the Christians’ burden of guilt was shifted.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“During a large part of this period (up to 1656) England was virtually Judenrein (without Jews); and except for a small group of Crypto-Jews, there was no real Jewish community in the country. Yet anti-Jewish sentiments continued to be spread by the preacher, the playwright, the writer, and the storyteller.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“The popular image of the Jew had developed out of the need for Christianity to show itself superior to Judaism and to justify its claims that it was the new Israel.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700

“It was not any significant change in Christian doctrine that encouraged the eventual toleration of the Jew in society. Instead, in the years that followed, forces beyond the realm of organized religion brought this goal to fruition, and they eventually made England a haven for Jews seeking refuge from persecution.”
― Bernard Glassman, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews: Images of the Jews in England 1290-1700