Phyllis Goldstein

“Men are born, and always continue, free and equal in respect of their rights. Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen,…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Mendelssohn’s books on philosophy and literature were hailed throughout Europe. He was described as “exceptional”—an “un-Jewish Jew,” one of a kind, a…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“By the sixth century, Jews were so well established on the peninsula that the king of Yemen converted to Judaism.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella created the Spanish Inquisition in 1480 primarily to deal with rumors of Judaizing by conversos.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“A few found a haven beyond the borders of the great empires in the harsh desert of the Arabian Peninsula.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“In many ways, England was home to the first modern Jewish community in the world.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Any Jew who remained in Spain after July of 1492 would “incur punishment by death and confiscation of all their belongings.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Even the great thinkers of the Enlightenment, with their commitment to reason, failed to recognize the ways they stereotyped others.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“All religions are equal and good, if only the people that practice them are honest people; and if Turks and heathens came…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“For hundreds of years, Christians had been trying to convert the Jews, and now, for the first time, they had real success.…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“In the countryside, an outbreak of plague usually lasted about six months and then faded away. In cities and other places where…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“When one group defeated another, the newly conquered people were expected to accept the gods of the victor. After all, the new…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Ferdinand III of Castile (who ruled his kingdom in northern Spain from 1230 to 1252) proudly declared himself “king of three religions.”…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“his passionate speech, the pope called upon Christians to take up arms and return Christian holy places in Jerusalem to the church.…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Soon after the independent Kingdom of Italy was formed, Jews became citizens in the new nation, entitled to the full protection of…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“135 years later, in 586 BCE, the Babylonians conquered Judea, the southern kingdom. They destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and forced thousands…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“You could taste antisemitism everywhere; the air of Germany was permeated by it. All the unavoidable consequences of military defeat, revolution, a…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Privileged Jews were known as court Jews (because of their relationship with the king). Many were very rich, and some had rights…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“discrimination had to be justified by “scientific” evidence showing that human nature differs according to age, gender, and “race.” Until the 1700s,…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“I first heard of antisemitism only later, when my father told me how Oswald Mosley had fomented riots in the thirties by…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“About 40 years later, Jews in Rome were also required to live in a ghetto. If they owned property, they had to…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Religious differences were often a barrier to close ties between Jews and Christians. The word religion comes from a Latin word meaning…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“In the end the Senate decided that there was no emergency, nor were there grounds for a general ban on immigration. Still,…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Still, by the end of the thirteenth century, most European Jews were forced to wear badges or distinguishing clothing. The aim was…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Mendelssohn was keenly aware of the difference between the respect he received and the disdain shown to other Jews. In a letter…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“The preaching of two religious orders, the Dominicans and the Franciscans, reinforced distrust of Jews.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“life in western Europe in 1500 was very different from what it had been even 50 years earlier.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Many Jews in the Byzantine Empire welcomed the Persians. Some saw their arrival as an opportunity to win independence or even just…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“so many Jews in Alexandria spoke only Greek that the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek for their benefit. Yet they remained…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“As the eighteenth- century author Jonathan Swift wrote, you cannot reason someone out of something he has not been reasoned into.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Zionism is to the Jewish people what the liberation movements of Africa and Asia have been to their own people….”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Thus, for many Christians, showing contempt for Jews became a way of affirming their own faith.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“At the time that the early Gospels were written, the Pharisees and the early Christians were competing for the hearts and minds…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“As accusations spread, so did the false belief that Jews routinely engaged in the practice of ritual murder. An accusation made repeatedly…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“By 629, the Byzantines were in control of Jerusalem again. Although Jews scrambled to make peace with the authorities, Christian religious leaders…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“By the mid-1700s, people were becoming aware of that dramatic rise in immigration, and it aroused strong feelings. One Tory opponent of…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“There is no such thing as a Christian commonwealth…. [N]either Pagan nor [Muslim], nor Jew, ought to be excluded from the civil…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“In October 1347, several trading ships from Genoa, Italy, pulled into the harbor at Messina in Sicily. Everyone aboard those ships was…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“As Elie Wiesel noted, “Although we today are not responsible for the injustices of the past, we are responsible for the way…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Most young American Jews in the 1960s also knew very little about the Holocaust. Brooks Susman, who would later become a rabbi,…

— Phyllis Goldstein