JOURNALfor the STUDYof ANTISEMITISM

284 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 3:281
about the economic and social situation of Kishinev or about the economic
and social situation where the 1884 pogrom took place. It is confusing when
Lowe mixes fact with opinion in this way. Later, on page 182, he discusses
the “only important special institution for Jews inside the (communist)
Soviet system, the Yevsektsiya (the wholly subordinate Jewish section of
the communist party of the Soviet Union), was abolished in 1903.” Lowe
editorializes within the factual/scientific body of the chapter when he says
that the Yevsektsiya was “created to combat the overwhelming influence of
non-communist groups within the Jewish population, it was obviously
never intended as a means of pursuing Jewish national aims,” without giving
any scientific evidence for his non-scientific “obviously.”
Despite this minor shortcoming, anyone interested in learning and
delving deeper into the history of the Jews and of antisemitism—i.e., not
just that there were marranos, but that these marranos eventually became
known as New Christians, singled out after conversion, even though they
were forced to convert as “Ethnic Jews no longer constrained by anti-Jewish
restrictions and whose increasing influencing and prosperity provoked
resentment and jealousy” to separate them from Old Christians, who began
to fear “actual physical contamination from near proximity to the New
Christians’ “polluted blood’ ”—will learn a great deal from this book.
So, I agree with the statement on the back cover of this paperback
collection, which reads: “The essays contained in this volume provide an
ideal introduction to the history and nature of antisemitism, stressing readability,
balance, and thematic coherence, while trying to gain some distance
from the polemics and apologetics that so often cloud the subject.” Reading
this book was time well spent.
*Leon I. Rosenberg, MD, is the president and medical director of the Center For
Emotional Fitness (CFEF) in Cherry Hill, N.J., where he practices psychiatry, geriatric
psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry.