{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-11:the-jews",
  "slug": "the-jews",
  "title": "The Jews",
  "subtitle": "Against anti-Semitism.",
  "excerpt": "An essay — written at the height of the Russian pogroms and early in the Dreyfus era — defending the Jewish people against the religious and racial calumnies of the Christian world.",
  "year": 1890,
  "volume": 11,
  "category": "Essay",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/the-jews/",
  "wordCount": 1203,
  "body": "WHEN I was a child, I was taught that the Jews were an exceedingly\nhard-hearted and cruel people, and that they were so destitute of the\nfiner feelings that they had a little while before that time crucified\nthe only perfect man who had appeared upon the earth; that this perfect\nman was also perfect God, and that the Jews had really stained their\nhands with the blood of the Infinite.\n\nWhen I got somewhat older, I found that nearly all people had been\nguilty of substantially the same crime—that is, that they had destroyed\nthe progressive and the thoughtful; that religionists had in all ages\nbeen cruel; that the chief priests of all people had incited the mob, to\nthe end that heretics—that is to say, philosophers—that is to say, men\nwho knew that the chief priests were hypocrites—might be destroyed.\n\nI also found that Christians had committed more of these crimes than all\nother religionists put together.\n\nI also became acquainted with a large number of Jewish people, and I\nfound them like other people, except that, as a rule, they were more\nindustrious, more temperate, had fewer vagrants among them, no beggars,\nvery few criminals; and in addition to all this, I found that they were\nintelligent, kind to their wives and children, and that, as a rule, they\nkept their contracts and paid their debts.\n\nThe prejudice was created almost entirely by religious, or rather\nirreligious, instruction. All children in Christian countries are taught\nthat all the Jews are to be eternally damned who die in the faith\nof Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; that it is not enough to believe in\nthe inspiration of the Old Testament—not enough to obey the Ten\nCommandments—not enough to believe the miracles performed in the days\nof the prophets, but that every Jew must accept the New Testament\nand must be a believer in Christianity—that is to say, he must be\nregenerated—or he will simply be eternal kindling wood.\n\nThe church has taught, and still teaches, that every Jew is an outcast;\nthat he is to-day busily fulfilling prophecy; that he is a wandering\nwitness in favor of \"the glad tidings of great joy;\" that Jehovah is\nseeing to it that the Jews shall not exist as a nation—that they shall\nhave no abiding place, but that they shall remain scattered, to the end\nthat the inspiration of the Bible may be substantiated.\n\nDr. John Hall of this city, a few years ago, when the Jewish people were\nbeing persecuted in Russia, took the ground that it was all fulfillment\nof prophecy, and that whenever a Jewish maiden was stabbed to death, God\nput a tongue in every wound for the purpose of declaring the truth of\nthe Old Testament.\n\nJust as long as Christians take these positions, of course they will do\nwhat they can to assist in the fulfillment of what they call prophecy,\nand they will do their utmost to keep the Jewish people in a state\nof exile, and then point to that fact as one of the corner-stones of\nChristianity.\n\nMy opinion is that in the early days of Christianity all sensible Jews\nwere witnesses against the faith, and in this way excited the hostility\nof the orthodox. Every sensible Jew knew that no miracles had been\nperformed in Jerusalem. They all knew that the sun had not been\ndarkened, that the graves had not given up their dead, that the veil\nof the temple had not been rent in twain—and they told what they knew.\nThey were then denounced as the most infamous of human beings, and this\nhatred has pursued them from that day to this.\n\nThere is no other chapter in history so infamous, so bloody, so cruel,\nso relentless, as the chapter in which is told the manner in which\nChristians—those who love their enemies—have treated the Jewish\npeople. This story is enough to bring the blush of shame to the cheek,\nand the words of indignation to the lips of every honest man.\n\nNothing can be more unjust than to generalize about nationalities, and\nto speak of a race as worthless or vicious, simply because you have met\nan individual who treated you unjustly. There are good people and bad\npeople in all races, and the individual is not responsible for the\ncrimes of the nation, or the nation responsible for the actions of the\nfew. Good men and honest men are found in every faith, and they are not\nhonest or dishonest because they are Jews or Gentiles, but for entirely\ndifferent reasons.\n\nSome of the best people I have ever known are Jews, and some of the\nworst people I have known are Christians. The Christians were not bad\nsimply because they were Christians, neither were the Jews good because\nthey were Jews. A man is far above these badges of faith and race. Good\nJews are precisely the same as good Christians, and bad Christians are\nwonderfully like bad Jews.\n\nPersonally, I have either no prejudices about religion, or I have equal\nprejudice against all religions. The consequence is that I judge of\npeople not by their creeds, not by their rites, not by their mummeries,\nbut by their actions.\n\nIn the first place, at the bottom of this prejudice lies the coiled\nserpent of superstition. In other words, it is a religious question.\nIt seems impossible for the people of one religion to like the people\nbelieving in another religion. They have different gods, different\nheavens, and a great variety of hells. For the followers of one god to\ntreat the followers of another god decently is a kind of treason. In\norder to be really true to his god, each follower must not only hate all\nother gods, but the followers of all other gods.\n\nThe Jewish people should outgrow their own superstitions. It is time\nfor them to throw away the idea of inspiration. The intelligent jew of\nto-day knows that the Old Testament was written by barbarians., and he\nknows that the rites and ceremonies are simply absurd. He knows that\nno intelligent man should care anything about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,\nthree dead barbarians. In other words, the Jewish people should leave\ntheir superstition and rely on science and philosophy.\n\nThe Christian should do the same. He, by this time, should know that his\nreligion is a mistake, that his creed has no foundation in the eternal\nverities. The Christian certainly should give up the hopeless task of\nconverting the Jewish people, and the Jews should give up the useless\ntask of converting the Christians. There is no propriety in swapping\nsuperstitions—neither party can afford to give any boot.\n\nWhen the Christian throws away his cruel and heartless superstitions,\nand when the Jew throws away his, then they can meet as man to man.\n\nIn the meantime, the world will go on in its blundering way, and I shall\nknow and feel that everybody does as he must, and that the Christian,\nto the extent that he is prejudiced, is prejudiced by reason of his\nignorance, and that consequently the great lever with which to raise all\nmankind into the sunshine of philosophy, is intelligence.\n"
}