Caroline Leavitt Quotes
By the time I was 5, I was already an outcast. It was the early 1960s, and I was part of the only Jewish family in a decidedly Christian suburb of Waltham, Mass.
Leavitt, Caroline. "Growing Up Jewish in a Christian Suburb." The Forward, 11 Oct. 2012.
Magh Bahul Ekadashi. To this day Golwalker is one of the most revered of the Hindu nationalists. This is the kind of intolerance that Indian Muslims faced amongst the most extreme Hindu’s. The possibility that this would become a reality was one of the great motivators for partition of India on the part of the Muslims. The irony is that the Muslim nation that was created—Pakistan—follows this doctrine exactly, only they substitute Islam for the Hindu culture. With the exception of a few Muslim nations, most of Islam follows the intolerance that the Hindu extremists would have followed. Ironically, “Hindu” India still has many millions of Muslims and they are given full citizenship and more democratic freedom and rights than Muslims have in almost all Islamic countries with the exception of Turkey.
Churchill drafted this article when there was rampant anti-Semitism in Germany but the world had not yet learned of the Holocaust. Anti-Semitism was also present in many other European countries, England and even the United States. The thrust of Churchill’s article was that if Jews would assimilate more easily, this would mitigate anti-Semitism. This was at a time when cultural pluralism was much less common, even in America and minorities were expected to adopt the customs, practices and culture of the majorities. Ironically, Jews were more assimilated in Germany than in any other country and that is where the anti-Semitism reached its zenith. Churchill published thousands of articles and it is not known why he chose never to publish this one. He was not Prime Minister at the time but was observing Germany with alarm.
Fiji is a nation which at the time was beset with ethnic strife and tension. In addition to the religious tension there were Indian immigrants who tended to be economically more successful than the indigenous Fijians. There was an English tradition from the days of being a British Colony and the traditional tribal leaders and chiefs were being disenfranchised by modern democratic structures. The military was not under the control of the civilian government and coups pitted some ethnic groups against others.
The term “gentile” was used in the Old Testament to indicate someone who was not of God’s Chosen People—one who was not a Jew. But the Mormon’s used the Biblical term to refer to people who were outside the Mormon faith. When Bamburger ran for the Governorship, there had been only one other Jewish governor in America. At a campaign rally a Mormon anti-Semite called him a “Damned Gentile.” This reply was typical of his humor, and the majority of the state voters and the Mormons voted for him making Bamburger the second Jewish Governor in America.
This was one of the most hateful of his public speeches. He was one of the American “heroes” in Nazi Germany, receiving assistance from the Nazi government. Between his anti-Semitism and support for Hitler, Fascism and radical socialism, the Vatican ordered him off the air and shut down his political demagoguery.
In 1916 Woodrow Wilson nominated Brandeis for the Supreme Court. There was major opposition, including some wealthy Jews. Brandeis, writing in the third person, described the reasons.
This was the beginning of the inquisition.
Caroline Leavitt is an American novelist. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You, as well as 8 other novels, including Cruel Beautiful World and With or Without You..
