164
PARTISAN REVIEW
lawyers, of the history of the Jews
in
France. They
will
succeed
in
laying before us a strictly objective situation determining a certain
current of likewise objective opinion which they will call antisemitism,
a chart of which they can draw up or the variations of which they
can establish from 1870 to 1944. In this way, antisemitism seems to
be both a subjective taste which combines with other tastes to form
the person, and an impersonal and social phenomenon which can
be expressed by means of statistics and averages, conditioned by eco–
nomic, historical and political constants.
I do not say that these two concepts are necessarily contradictory.
I say that they are dangerous and false. I might, strictly speaking,
admit that one might have an "opinion" about the government's
wine-growing policy, that is, that one might decide for this or that
reason to approve or condemn the free importation of wines from
Algeria. But I refuse to call an opinion a doctrine which is expressly
directed toward particular persons and which tends to suppress their
rights or to exterminate them. The Jew whom the antisemite wants
to reach is not a schematic being defined only by his function as in
administrative law, or by his position or his acts as
in
the legal code.
He is-a Jew, son of a Jew, recognizable by his physical traits, by the
color of his hair, by his clothing perhaps, and they say by his charac–
ter. Antisemitism is not in the category of thoughts protected by
the right to freedom of opinion.
Moreover, it is much more than an idea. It is first and foremost
a
passion.
Doubtless it can present itself in the form of a theoretical
proposition. The "moderate" antisemite is a polite person who gently
remarks: "I don't detest Jews. I simply prefer for such and such a
reason that they play a lesser part in the activity of the nation." But
a moment later- if you have won his confidence- he will add the
following with more abandon: "You see there must be 'something'
about the Jews: physically they are irritating to me." This argument,
which I have heard a hundred times, is worth examining. First of
all it is the result of using logic dict ated by passion. For can you
imagine someone saying seriously: "There must be something about
tomatoes because I can't bear them." Moreover it shows that anti–
semitism, even in its most moderate and evolved forms, remains a
syncretic totality which is expressed by statements that appear reason–
able but which can lead to corporeal modifications. Some men sud–
denly become impotent if they find out that the woman to whom
they are making love is a Jewess. Some people feel disgust for the
Jew, just as some others feel disgust for the Chinaman or the Negro.
