A forceful study of the relationship between Jews and the state.
Ginsherg (The Captive Public, 1986) contends that Jews have
frequently sought the protection of the state as a response to the
hostile attitudes and actions of their neighbors - but that when
Jews achieve power within the state, they often become the victims
of new animosities. Moreover, sometimes "the embrace of the state
proved to be fatal." With the exception of an opening look at Jews
and the state in Europe and the Middle East, Ginsberg focuses here
on American history, showing how Jewish groups have used both the
federal and state governments to end discrimination and to provide
themselves with access to educational and employment opportunities.
Though Jews constitute only 3% of the nation's population, they
comprise, by the author's measure, more than 25% of its elite
journalists and publishers, more than 17% of its heads of major
voluntary and public-interest organizations, and more than 15% of
its top-ranking civil servants. The importance of Jews in these
fields, Ginsberg says, have made them easy targets of
anti\-Semitism from both the left and right. Particularly
intriguing is the author's analysis of the current conflict between
Jews and blacks - a conflict that's unavoidable, he believes,
because both groups are dependent upon the public economy for
opportunity and status. Ginsberg feels that the anti-Semitic
rhetoric adopted by some members of the African-American community
"sometimes serves as a weapon through which blacks can intimidate
their Jewish rivals and supplant them in public positions and as
the beneficiaries of public funds." Although Ginsherg's arguments -
well-documented in statistics and footnotes - are compelling, they
don't always convince: e.g., that Jewish activists were at the
forefront of the anti-Vietnam movement because they didn't want
domestic funds that benefited them to be diverted abroad.
Provocative and intriguing - but not without flaws. (Kirkus
Reviews)
In this provocative book, Benjamin Ginsberg examines the cycle of
Jewish success and anti-Semitic attack throughout the history of
the Diaspora, with a concentrated focus on the "special case" of
America. For Ginsberg, the essential issue is not anti-Jewish
feeling, but the conditions under which such sentiment is likely to
be used in the political arena. "The Fatal Embrace" identifies the
political dynamics that, historically, have set the stage for the
persecution of Jews.
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