Mark Twain's true opinion of
the Jews is probably the best kept secret in American literary history.
Immediately after his death, his eccentric daughter Clara married a
Jewish piano player, Otto Gabrilowitsch. Twain's publishers were given
speedy instructions to delete "Concerning the Jews" from his collected
works, where it had appeared in the book The Man that Corrupted
Hadleyburg and Other Stories. The following is taken from Harper's
Monthly Magazine, September 1899, as quoted in William Grimstad's
Antizion.
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CONCERNING THE JEWS
by Mark Twain
Can fanaticism alone account for the persecution of the Jews? It is now
my conviction that it is responsible for hardly any of it.
In this connection I call to mind Genesis, chapter 47. We have all read
the story of the years of plenty and the years of famine in Egypt, and
now Joseph with that opportunity, made a corner in broken hearts, and
the crusts of the poor, and human liberty-a corner whereby he took away
the nation's money to the last penny; took a nation's livestock all
away, to the last hoof; took a nation's land all away, to the last
acre. Then he took the nation itself, buying it for bread, man by man,
woman by woman, child by child, till all were slaves; a corner which
took everything, leaving nothing, a corner so stupendous that by
comparison with it, the most gigantic corners in subsequent history are
but baby things; for it dealt in hundreds of millions of bushels, and
its profits were reckoned by the hundreds of millions of dollars.
It was a disaster so crushing that its effects have not wholly
disappeared from Egypt even today, more than 3,000 years after the
event.
Was Joseph establishing a character for his race which survived long in
Egypt, and in time would his name be familiarly used to express that
character-like Shylock's? It was hardly to be doubted. Let us remember
that this was centuries before the Crucifixion.
In the U. S. cotton states, after the war, the Jew came down in force,
set up shop on the plantation, supplied all the negroes' wants on
credit, and at the end of the season was the proprietor of the negro's
share of the present crop and part of the next one. Before long the
whites detested the Jew.
The Jew is being legislated out of Russia. The reason is not concealed.
The movement was instituted because the Christian peasant stood no
chance against his commercial abilities. The Jew was always ready to
lend on a crop. When settlement day came, he owned the crop, and the
next year he owned the farm, like Joseph.
In the England of John's time everybody got into debt to the Jew. He
gathered all lucrative enterprises into his hands. He was the King of
Commerce. He had to be banished from the realm. For like reasons, Spain
had to banish him 400 years ago, and Austria a couple of centuries
later.
In all ages, Christian Europe has been obliged to curtail his
activities. If he entered upon a trade, the Christian had to retire
from it. If he set up as a doctor, he took the business. If he
exploited agriculture, the other farmers had to get at something else.
The law had to step in to save the Christian from the poorhouse. Still,
almost bereft of employments, he found ways to make money. Even to get
rich. This history has a most sordid and practical look. Religious
prejudices may account for one part of it, but not for the other nine.
Protestants have persecuted Catholics-but they did not take their
livelihoods from them. Catholics have persecuted Protestants-but they
never closed agriculture and the handicrafts against them. I feel
convinced that the Crucifixion has not much to do with the world's
attitude toward the Jew; the reasons for it are much older than that
event .
I am convinced that the persecution of the Jew is not in any large
degree due to religious prejudice. No, the Jew is a money-getter. He
has made it the end and aim of his life. He was at it in Rome. He has
been at it ever since. His success has made the whole human race his
enemy.
You will say that the Jew is everywhere numerically feeble. When I read
in the Encyclopedia Britannica that the Jewish population of the United
States was 250,000, I wrote to the editor and explained to him that his
figures were without doubt a misprint for 25,000,000. People told me
that they had reason to suspect that for business reasons, many Jews
did not report themselves as Jews. It looks plausible. I am strongly of
the opinion that we have an immense Jewish population in America. I am
assured by men competent to speak that the Jews are exceedingly active
in politics .
