Phyllis Goldstein > Quotes

“Antisemitism did not begin in Germany, or anywhere else, in 1918; Jews had been regarded as dangerous outsiders for centuries, and anti-Jewish feeling usually intensified in times of war and other upheaval. But during World War II, for the first time in history, a government, with the support of many of its people, had systematically hunted and then murdered Jews for no reason other than the fact that their parents or grandparents were Jews.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“The Middle East is the only place in the world where three continents come together. It is a crossroads that links Asia, Africa, and Europe. Life at a crossroads can be dangerous.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“In May 1925, President Calvin Coolidge signed the National Origins Act into law. The new law effectively closed the United States to most Jewish immigrants.
During the debate, Coolidge told the American people:
"Restricted immigration is not an offensive but purely a defensive action... We cast no aspersions on any race or creed, but we must remember that every object of our institutions of society and government will fail unless America be kept American.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“In 1555 the church had a new pope, Paul IV, and he was even more determined to end all heresies than earlier popes had been. Almost immediately, Paul issued a bull in which he stated: It is absurd and inconvenient that the Jews, who through their own fault were condemned by God to eternal slavery, can… show such ingratitude towards Christians and affront them by asking for their mercy. [They] have become so bold as to not only live amongst Christians but near their churches without any distinctive clothing.13 He therefore ordered that Jews in Rome and the Papal States wear special clothing and be confined to ghettos.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“In Jerusalem, the Persians, with the help of their Jewish allies, murdered about 60,000 Christians and sold 35,000 into slavery. It was a horrible massacre, one that Christians throughout the region vowed never to forget. They were also outraged by the outcome of the battle: the Persians handed over the city to the Jews.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“As the eighteenth- century author Jonathan Swift wrote, you cannot reason someone out of something he has not been reasoned into.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“In the countryside, an outbreak of plague usually lasted about six months and then faded away. In cities and other places where people lived in very crowded conditions—including monasteries and schools—the disease lasted much longer, often diminishing in the winter only to reappear in the spring.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“The way a people (whether an ethnic group, a nation, or a religious community) defines itself has enormous significance. That definition indicates who holds power in the group (such as rabbis or priests, kings and noblemen, or men in general) and how the group as a whole sees itself in relation to the larger world. It also determines who belongs and who does not. From the fourth through the eighth centuries of the Common Era, Jews in the Middle East and beyond were increasingly seen as outsiders—people who do not belong. That view had consequences in a world in which politics and religion were tightly linked.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“As Elie Wiesel noted, “Although we today are not responsible for the injustices of the past, we are responsible for the way we remember the past and what we do with that past.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“Ferdinand III of Castile (who ruled his kingdom in northern Spain from 1230 to 1252) proudly declared himself “king of three religions.” Yet even as he boasted of his toleration, there were signs of trouble. Many Christians resented the idea of Jews in high places. They complained that Jews were favored over Christians.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“Any Jew who remained in Spain after July of 1492 would “incur punishment by death and confiscation of all their belongings.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“Columbus never found the Ten Lost Tribes. However, he did unknowingly stumble upon two continents new to Europeans that would, in time, provide a refuge for many Jews.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“In contrast to much of northern Europe, where Jews faced persecution, Spain was a haven. From the eighth century onward, Jews there prospered under Muslim and, later, Christian rule. By the fifteen century, Spain had the largest Jewish population in the world. One out of every ten individuals in Spain was a Jew or of Jewish descent. Jews were prominent in trade, medicine, the arts, and even government. And yet in 1492, Spain expelled its entire Jewish population. The expulsion shows how precarious life was for outsiders, particularly Jews.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“By 629, the Byzantines were in control of Jerusalem again. Although Jews scrambled to make peace with the authorities, Christian religious leaders demanded that the Jews be punished for their earlier disloyalty.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“Most Europeans at the end of the fifteenth century considered religious unity a good idea, but only Spain’s rulers believed it was essential to building a strong nation.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“Von Laurin”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“By the end of the eleventh century, Jews were being squeezed out of international trade and into occupations forbidden to Jews, Christians, and Muslims—banking, money lending, and currency exchange.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“135 years later, in 586 BCE, the Babylonians conquered Judea, the southern kingdom. They destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and forced thousands of Jews into exile in Babylonia. These Judean Jews did not disappear from history.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“In May 1925, President Calvin Coolidge signed the National Origins Act into law. The new law effectively closed the United States to most Jewish immigrants. During the debate, Coolidge told the American people, Restricted immigration is not an offensive but purely a defensive action…. We cast no aspersions on any race or creed, but we must remember that every object of our institutions of society and government will fail unless America be kept American.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“Soon after the independent Kingdom of Italy was formed, Jews became citizens in the new nation, entitled to the full protection of the law. Almost immediately, the authorities informed the Mortaras that their son was now free to rejoin his family. But by then it was too late: the boy was 18 and studying to become a priest.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“Humanism had begun in Florence, Italy, about 20 years before the invention of the printing press. Many scholars there were astonished at how freely people in ancient Greece and Rome had debated ideas and challenged popular beliefs with logic and reason. They and humanists in other parts of Europe tried to revive that spirit of inquiry. They focused on descriptions recorded by witnesses to an event, as opposed to accounts written later by those who were not present.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“injustice is directly created by that fine policy which denies the poor Jews protection and residence, but receives with open arms those very same Jews as soon as they have “thieved their way to wealth.”8”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“So the myth that Jews belonged to a distinct and inferior race continued to grow throughout Europe. That myth gave individuals and governments a new excuse for discrimination and persecution. It was based not on ethnicity or religion (although the myth was sometimes expressed in religious and cultural terms) but on “race.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“In 1378, a high-ranking Franciscan priest named Ferrán Martínez began a campaign against Jews in Castile. In sermon after sermon, he called on Christians to expel all Jews from Spain.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“The preaching of two religious orders, the Dominicans and the Franciscans, reinforced distrust of Jews.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“By the mid-1700s, people were becoming aware of that dramatic rise in immigration, and it aroused strong feelings. One Tory opponent of the Naturalization Act claimed that the bill would naturalize “hordes” of foreign Jews.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“Antisemitism is a very peculiar pathology that recognizes no national borders. It is a mental condition conducive to paranoia and impervious to truth. Its lexicon has no word for individuality. It is fixated on group identity. It is necessarily dehumanizing when people become abstractions.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“life in western Europe in 1500 was very different from what it had been even 50 years earlier.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“In many ways, England was home to the first modern Jewish community in the world.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

“With each new rumor, each new accusation, the way Christians thought about Jews became more and more distorted. Jews were increasingly seen as a powerful threat to Christianity, mainly because until the tenth century, Judaism was a faith that encouraged outsiders to convert.”
― Phyllis Goldstein, A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism