The Jews

Excellent insight into the state of refined European anti-semitism at the turn of the 20th century, from a Catholic, who appreciated what Jews brought to the Intellectual life of Europe, prior to the Holocaust, but also how the Jews antagonized Europeans. He wrote this book more as a warning to Jews that ill will was growing and would soon lash out and engulf them.He perceived Jews, perhaps rightly, as an alien body living withn and among the Euorpean nations that would either moderate its impact or suffer retaliation.Belloc seems more concerned then hateful, pleading with Jews, as outsiders, an alien presence, inside the body politic to change their ways and fit in, before Europeans murderously turned on them. As he is writing a mere 15 years before the promulgation of the Nuremberg laws - which cribbed much of its rules segregating Jews from Aryans inthe southern American StatesAmericans are mainly ignorant of the origins of so much of what made Nazi Germany so vile, came from the Democat controled Southern stats.The much ballyhooed Saint of Abortion, Margaret Sanger, whose Planned Parenthood provided much of the basis and scientific gloss required for killing the German Handicapted, the Anti-Jewish laws of the 1930's and for the wholesale murder of Jews in the wrok and Death camps of the 1940's.Dr. Sanger saw the mentally deficient among which she placed American Blacks, as "weeds" among the garden of humans, which were better encouraged to die out.His criticisms actually boil down to two - Jews are arrogant and they hide their Jewish "Identity" from non-Jews.On the other hand he is actually quite generaous with his compliments. He is like a friendly teacher, pleading with his headstrong Jewish students, to not overwhelm those around them with their intellectual brillanceand abilties, gather great fortunes in relatively little time, (Often losing them within as short period of time - as opposed to Christians of wealth, who tend, he says, to retain their fortunes intact over centuries). Whether one agrees with Belloc, he was correct about the coming disaster faced by Jews, making reading his analysis useful.

It is utterly remarkable that a book written a century ago for a specific purpose could so acutely address the same peril facing Western Nations. Truly, this is a perennial topic for Europeans.

Hear an echo from the past, and understand you aren't crazy. What he talks about is very real then, and now. Belloc and Chesterton were champions against the progressives all the way back into the 1920's!

It is a fair and unbiased analysis of the Jewish question, which leads to a clearly understanding of both sides. The Jews, citizens of all nations, yet seemingly loyal to none; and the nations, wary of those who call themselves Jews, thus leading to Jews hiding their identity and purposes simply to be left in peace, though this isn't always to the benefit of their host nation.Belloc outlines three possible solutions that nations might take:Extermination(which he holds to be the most inhumane and least effective solution),Deportation(which, though effective for a time, is still inhumane since many of the Jews are natural born citizens of their respective nations and have the right to remain),Integration(which he holds as impossible due to the fact that the Jews have lived in Europe and the Middle East for two thousand years without converting to Christianity or Islam, and with the habit of constantly moving and the annoyance of their host nation(through wealth building and a noticeable sense of superiority).In the end Belloc, acknowledges the uniqueness of the Jews in their inability to be tighted to any single nation. Yet, this uniqueness is overshadowed by the recent(in his time) creation of the Jewish state of Israel, its deportation of the native population, and the protected status given it by the British Empire. He goes on to say that the Jews will eventually have to come to a decision of whether to remain an ever moving people or band together as a race in order to hold on to Israel without the aid(or soldiers) of foreign nations. Till then, Israel will remain a burden to the West, and but a candle of the Jewish nation it could have been.P.S. Belloc does not hate the Jews, and devotes a great deal of the book to addressing the rising sediment of antisemitism that rose in his time; yet acknowledges that the spreading of misinformation by the Jews, the rise of communism/cultural Marxism(seemly lead by Jews), and the general taboo imposed by polite society generally did nothing but fan the flames of hate against the Jews.

This is a book outlining the problems of Jewish society dealing with the whole society and the question of antisemitism. It proposes solutions and alternatives and discusses the way things are today. I found it interesting in places but the content is aimed at a limited audience. A very good resource for research and if you're interested in Jewish political thought.

It's a pre-WWII book, so you have to get past the somewhat flowery, wordy language of that time, but it is not at all difficult to read like some books from this period. The information may be new to some, but the comparisons and the explanation of the author's reasoning is what was most interesting.

This year is the centennial anniversary of the publication of this book. It discusses the European situation during the time of the Weimar Republic, shortly before anyone had heard of the Nazis. Recommended.

Read in the frame of mind Beloc maintains as non judgemental, the Jews gives us a broad and reasonable understanding of the Jewish position in the world. Beloc repeatedly denies anti Semitic feelings, but in the wrong hands this work could sound inflammatory. Being written right before the rise of Hitler, Beloc,s theories on a repeat of previous Jewish solutions actually comes to fruition in the horror of the Holocaust. His repetitive stress on his unbiased outlook is off putting, I believe him. It is a well thought out argument of what is, as opposed to what it should be.......

Hilaire Belloc delivers a sincere literary masterpiece regarding the jews. a must read for anyone that has jewish communities in their nation

whilst not agreeing with all that Belloc exposes and proposes in his work, this book should be a required reading for the modern Catholics who are interested in this everlasting question arising from this ancient people so often walking next to us.