ANTI-SEMITISM.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.] SIR.,—A correspondent, in the Spectator of September 9th, cites, under the above heading, a passage couched in an anti- humanitarian spirit from the Talmud, and asks whether "the law in question has ever been renounced or condemned by any Jewish authority." I can perfectly set his mind at rest on this point, In my work, "The Jewish Religion," which is
the accepted text-book in our schools and religious classes, I wrote, with the sanction of the Ecclesiastical authorities (on p. 813), touching such passages, as follows :—
"Sayings of this kind originated in clays of warfare between the oppressor and oppressed, and were an outburst of feelings of pain and anger—(they were never meant to be taken literally, or to have the force of even temporary laws)—caused by an enemy who was not restrained from tyranny and cruelty by any sense of justice and humanity. But this state of affairs has ceased, and such sayings have since lost their force and meaning, and are practically forgotten. Some of these passages have been removed from the Talmadical works by hostile censors ; but having led, and being still likely to lead, to errors or misunderstanding, less on the part of Jews than of non-Jewish readers, they ought to be eliminated from future editions of any of these works by Jewish censors."
With regard to our relation to non-Jews, I say on p. 312 :— " All our duties towards our fellow-men are equally binding upon us, whether in relation to members of other faiths or of our own."
Again, on p. 297 :—
"If any of our co-religionists take this law (Dent. xxiii. 20) as a pretext for imposing upon their non-Jewish fellow-men, and in- juring and ruining them by exorbitant usury, they pervert alike the letter and the spirit of the divine command; they do not act in a Jewish spirit, and instead of being members of a holy nation or the people of the Lord, they are guilty of the profanation of the name of God,' and do not deserve to be honoured by the name of Jews."
Imes' College, Tam:stock House, Tavistock Square, W.C.
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