Jews
From Wikiquote
Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים Yhudim, Israeli pronunciation [jehu'dim]), also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group or nation originating with the Israelites or Hebrews of the ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation. Converts to Judaism, whose status as Jews within the Jewish ethnos is equal to those born into it, have been absorbed into the Jewish people throughout millennia.
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[edit] Sourced
- Listed alphabetically by author or source.
- I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe, or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.
- John Adams, in a letter to F. A. Vanderkemp (16 February 1809), as quoted in The Roots of American Order (1974) by Russel Kirk.
- Paraphrased variant: The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.
- It doesn't matter what the world says about Israel; it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive.
- David Ben-Gurion, as quoted by Ariel Sharon, in the documentary The 50 Years War : Israel & The Arabs (1999)
- From Jewish terrorism against Arabs it is a short step to Jewish terrorism against Jews.
- David Ben-Gurion, in "On Three Fronts" (3 August 1938) as quoted in Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (1954), p. 91
- The Jews started it all — and by "it" I mean so many of the things we care about, the underlying values that make all of us, Jew and Gentile, believer and aethiest, tick. Without the Jews, we would see the world through different eyes, hear with different ears, even feel with different feelings … we would think with a different mind, interpret all our experience differently, draw different conclusions from the things that befall us. And we would set a different course for our lives.
- Thomas Cahill, in The Gifts of the Jews : How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (1998)
- Well I do hate myself, but it has nothing to do with being Jewish.
- Larry David, in response to being called a "self-loathing Jew", in Curb Your Enthusiasm
- I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it. And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do.
- Deuteronomy 1:15 - 18
- I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.
- Albert Einstein, in a letter to Alfred Kneser (7 June 1918); Doc. 560 in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein Vol. 8
- By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, today in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be represented as a bête noire, the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!
- Albert Einstein, in a statement to The Times [London] (28 November 1919), quoted in The New Quotable Einstein (2005) by Alice Calaprice
- I am neither a German citizen, nor do I believe in anything that can be described as a "Jewish faith." But I am a Jew and glad to belong to the Jewish people, though I do not regard it in any way as chosen.
- Albert Einstein, in a letter to Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, 3 April 1920, as quoted in Alice Calaprice, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2010), p. 195
- In my opinion, condemning the Zionist movement as "nationalistic" is unjustified. Consider the path by which Herzl came to his mission. Initially he had been completely cosmopolitan. But during the Dreyfus trial in Paris he suddenly realized with great clarity how precarious was the situation of the Jews in the western world. And courageously he drew the conclusion that we are discriminated against or murdered not because we are Germans, Frenchmen, Americans, etc. of the "Jewish faith" but simply because we are Jews. Thus already our precarious situation forces us to stand together irrespective of our citizenship.
Zionism gave the German Jews no great protection against annihilation. But it did give the survivors the inner strength to endure the debacle with dignity and without losing their healthy self respect. Keep in mind that perhaps a similar fate could be lying in wait for your children.- Albert Einstein, c. 1946, as quoted in Albert Einstein : The Human Side (1954), p. 63
- And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar dtreasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
- Exodus 19:3 - 6
- After all, Jews invented psychiatry to help other Jews become Gentiles.
- Morton Feldman, in Give My Regards to Eighth Street: Collected Writings of Morton Feldman (2000)
- [Jews] remained what they had always been: that is to say an elite people, sure of itself and dominating.
- Charles de Gaulle, November 1967.[1]
- "Fucking Jews... Jews are responsible for all wars in the world."
- Mel Gibson sourced to Gibson's Anti-Semitic Tirade - Alleged Cover Up; TMZ.com; (28 July 2006)
- The immemorial ingratitude of rulers and commonwealths is proverbial. Especially common is ingratitude to Israel — the People that has achieved so much of eternal worth, but has rarely succeeded in winning gratitude.
- Joseph H. Hertz, in The Pentateuch and Haftorahs (One-volume edition), p. 206
- The dispersion of the Jews was both a boon and a bane; their nation was disjoined, but their culture was enormously enhanced. Whereas a unique omneitic outlook set the Jews apart from other peoples, a common language, literacy and learning bound the disparate Jewish communities together and provided a firm foundation for further creativity. The exercise of this multifaceted creative propensity rebounded to benefit not only the societies that harbored the Jews, but all humankind.
- Samuel Karlinsky, in The Eight Day — The Hidden History of the Jewish Contribution to Civilzation (1994)
- The evidence from anthropology concurs with history in refuting the popular belief in a Jewish race descended from the biblical tribe. From the anthropologist's point of view, two groups of facts militate against this belief: the wide diversity of Jews with regard to physical characteristics, and their similarity to the Gentile population amidst whom they live. Both are reflected in the statistics about bodily height, cranial index, blood-groups, hair and eye colour, etc. Whichever of these anthropological criteria is taken as an indicator, it shows a greater similarity between Jews and their Gentile host-nation than between Jews living in different countries. ... The obvious biological explanation for both phenomena is miscegenation, which took different forms in different historical situations: intermarriage, large-scale proselytizing, rape as a constant (legalized or tolerated) accompaniment of war and pogrom
- Arthur Koestler, in "The Thirteenth Tribe" (1976)
- In all of nature, a male belongs to a female that he fancies and who fancies him. And so among the animals there are no idiots. But with us!... I'm a Jew, so I musn't love a Christian woman... He's a merchant, so he's got no right to a countess... And you who've got no money, you've no rights to any woman at all...
- Bolesław Prus, The Doll (1889).
- Having a ham sandwich on the afternoon of Yom Kippur doesn't make you less Jewish.
- Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, in "Who Is a Jew? Court Ruling in Britain Raises Question" in The New York Times (7 November 2009)
- Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
(For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.)
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog.- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act I, scene 3, line 110.
- I am a Jew: Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?
- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act III, scene 1, line 60.
- What is the Jew?...What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed; persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury, continues to live and to flourish. What is this Jew whom they have never succeeded in enticing with all the enticements in the world, whose oppressors and persecutors only suggested that he deny (and disown) his religion and cast aside the faithfulness of his ancestors?!
"The Jew — is the symbol of eternity. ... He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear. The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity.- Leo Tolstoy, in "What is the Jew?" (1908)
- Democracy means that people can say what they want to. All the people. It means that they can vote as they wish. All the people. It means that they can worship God in any way they feel right, and that includes Christians and Jews and voodoo doctors as well.
- Dalton Trumbo in The Remarkable Andrew (1942)
- If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvellous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?
- Mark Twain, "Concerning The Jews"
- May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.
- George Washington, letter to the Hebrew congregation of Newport, Rhode Island (1790)
[edit] Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
- Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 406.
- The Jews are among the aristocracy of every land; if a literature is called rich in the possession of a few classic tragedies, what shall we say to a national tragedy lasting for fifteen hundred years, in which the poets and the actors were also the heroes.
- George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, Book VI, Chapter XLII.
- The Jews spend at Easter.
- George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651). No. 244.
- A Hebrew knelt in the dying light,
His eye was dim and cold;
The hairs on his brow were silver white,
And his blood was thin and old.- Thomas K. Hervey, The Devil's Progress.
- Who hateth me but for my happiness?
Or who is honored now but for his wealth?
Rather had I, a Jew, be hated thus,
Than pitied in a Christian poverty.- Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta (c. 1592), Act I, scene 1.
- To undo a Jew is charity, and not sin.
- Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta (c. 1592), Act IV, scene 6.
- This is the Jew that Shakespeare drew.
- Attributed to Alexander Pope when Macklin was performing Shylock. Feb. 14, 1741. See Biographia Dramatica, Volume I, Part II, p. 469.
[edit] Disputed
- The day will come when all nations amidst which the Jews are dwelling will have to raise the question of their wholesale expulsion, a question which will be one of life or death, good health or chronic disease, peaceful existence or perpetual social fever.
- Franz Liszt, as quoted in the second edition of The Gypsy in Music. Some dispute as to the authenticity of this quote exists, as this work was edited posthumously by his mistress and patron, Carolyn Sayn-Wittgenstein, whose anti-semitism was well-known. Liszt was known to have donated to Jewish charitable organisations in various countries and to support the works by such prominent Jewish artists as Giacomo Meyerbeer, Felix Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine and Charles Alkan — often in the face of anti-semitic criticism. Regarding Liszt as an anti-semite has been a popular misbelief for a long time — probably springing from his association with well-known anti-semites such as Richard Wagner, Hans von Bülow and Carolyn Sayn-Wittgenstein. For further information read Liszt: v. 3. The final years, 1861-1886 (1996) by Alan Walker|.
[edit] Misattributed
- They (the Jews) work more effectively against us, than the enemy's armies. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties and the great cause we are engaged in... It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago, has not hunted them down as pest to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America.
- Sometimes rendered : The Jews work more effectively against us than the enemy's armies. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties and the great cause we are engaged in... It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago, has not hunted them down as pest to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America.
- Both of these are doctored statements that have been widely disseminated as genuine on many anti-semitic websites; They are distortions derived from a statement that may be authentic, and was attributed to George Washington in Maxims of George Washington (1894) about currency speculators during the Revolutionary war, not about Jews: "This tribe of black gentry work more effectually against us, than the enemy's arms. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties, and the great cause we are engaged in. It is much to be lamented that each State, long ere this, has not hunted them down as pests to society, and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America." More information is available at Snopes. com: "To Bigotry, No Sanction"
- I fully agree with General Washington, that we must protect this young nation from an insidious influence and impenetration. The menace, gentlemen, is the Jews.
In whatever country Jews have settled in any great number, they have lowered its moral tone; depreciated its commercial integrity; have segregated themselves and have not been assimilated; have sneered at and tried to undermine the Christian religion upon which that nation is founded, by objecting to its restrictions; have built up a state within the state; and when opposed have tried to strangle that country to death financially, as in the case of Spain and Portugal.
For over 1,700 years, the Jews have been bewailing their sad fate in that they have been exiled from their homeland, as they call Palestine. But gentlemen, did the world give it to them in fee simple, they would at once find some reason for not returning. Why? Because they are vampires, and vampires do not live on vampires. They cannot live only among themselves. They must subsist on Christians and other people not of their race.
If you do not exclude them from these United States, in their Constitution, in less than 200 years they will have swarmed here in such great numbers that they will dominate and devour the land and change our form of government, for which we Americans have shed our blood, given our lives our substance and jeopardized our liberty.
If you do not exclude them, in less than 200 years our descendants will be working in the fields to furnish them substance, while they will be in the counting houses rubbing their hands. I warn you, gentlemen, if you do not exclude Jews for all time, your children will curse you in your graves.
Jews, gentlemen, are Asiatics, let them be born where they will nor how many generations they are away from Asia, they will never be otherwise. Their ideas do not conform to an American's, and will not even thou they live among us ten generations. A leopard cannot change its spots. Jews are Asiatics, are a menace to this country if permitted entrance, and should be excluded by this Constitutional Convention.- The so-called "Franklin Prophecy", attributed to Benjamin Franklin addressing the United States Constitutional Convention which took place from 14 May to 17 September 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; no record of such a declaration by Franklin exists before its appearance in the pages of William Dudley Pelley's Silver Legion pro-Nazi weekly magazine Liberation in 1934. More information is avallabe at "The Franklin Prophecy : An Anti-Semitic Hoax Gets New Life on the Internet" at Jewish Post.com
