There has never been in America a Jewish Question, at least, not until now. America was built on the idea of a universal identity and a tolerance of differences. From the evolution of a liberal Protestant theology to George Washington’s embrace of the Jewish community, America -- unlike Europe -- did not see the Jews as strangers in its midst, as a people apart, or as a group whose identity stood at variance with others.
In America, there was no compelling desire for society to define the Jew. In Europe, Karl Marx, himself born a Jew and later a convert to Christianity whose father converted before Marx's birth and had Marx baptized, wrote an anti-Semitic screed, On the Jewish Question. Later Thomas Mann, who might be called a Philo-Semite, authored a lengthy essay with a similar title because the subject haunted Germany and Jews needed a defender.
Europe was consumed, if not obsessed, with the Jew in its midst.............To Read More.....
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