Reddit mentions: The best jewish biographies

I think the problem could be; though we feel Gods love, we never knew different and thus don't appreciate it.
Just ponder what it is like to be living in the opposite, e.g. held in a concentration camp. e.g. this book: Nacht und Nebel paints a dramatic picture of darkness. The person describes that there he was closest to God, but when freed he noticed it was easier for him to feel Gods presence in the darkness.

Maybe similar like the Jews going throught he desert. They had a cloud by day and fire by night, clothes didn't wear, and still most poeple while in the middle of it didn't think much of it.

I actually prayed for wanting to have a bigger drive(not being luke-warm) by knowing better how blessed we actually are. Then a few weeks later a friend told me about the book. a day later, i found out someone put it on sale the day before, just 10 minutes bike ride from my work :)

And then there's, the fact that some people are blessed by tangeable feelings. Everyone hopes for that i guess.
I like this man's take on being in Gods presence and presenting God to people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJFMhi8f56s

I understand some of your situation pretty well. I came from a background of no religion at all and a negative feeling of what I thought organized religion was about before becoming a Jew. Also my wife came from a very traditional Buddhist background before becoming a Jew and she also shared concerns about this "getting in the way of a normal life".

The rabbi we first met with insisted that if I was interested in the conversion process that even before starting I had to bring her to meet with him because so much of being a Jew is family oriented so if I wanted to do this, his condition was that we both had to learn. He happens to be Conservative but of the old school variety, closer to what we would now call Modern Orthodox. The thing was that I was very fortunate that my wife was at least willing to learn with me for the sake of learning what this thing I was interested in was about. Even more fortunately she came to her own conclusion that this was for her as well. I cant say if this will be the same for you and your partner or not, but if you two communicate well then perhaps they may be willing as my wife was to see what is what just because it is important to you. As it turns out we ended up affiliating with the local Orthodox community as time went on but thats another story.

The books LazarA mentioned are all great. All I might add would be:

• God, Jews & History by Max Dimont. This is not a religious text per se but gives a decent overview of our history as a people in context of where we have been. Being a Jew isnt just about religious practice, its about being part of a people with a complex history and that history has very much shaped our practice.
  
  
• To Be a Jew by Hayim H. Donin was a decent overview as I recall. It covered about the events of the Jewish calendar and lifecycle among other topics.
  
  If you live in an area with several types of Jewish communities, I'd say meet with several rabbis if possible. Even you think now that you might look at Conservative Judaism, there's a range within that as well as within Orthodoxy and I assume but dont know for myself about the other flavors as well.
  
  Feel free to ask us here any and I do mean any questions you may have as well. I'm also available to answer questions by PM as I'm sure are several other of the regulars here in case you feel you dont want to ask in public. You may get conflicting answers but that is perfectly normal. We have a saying to the effect of if you ask two Jews you will get three opinions.

I'm in no way an expert but the book Jews God & History did a good job of explaining it. According to the book the Jews have always put a strong emphasis on knowledge and learning. They were able to acquire knowledge from their conquerors and outlast their oppressors. When a new conqueror came along they helped to facilitate the change of leadership and taught the new conquerors the ways of the subjugated people. This led to them gaining an usual amount of power in many cultures. I highly recommend reading the book. Jews are a small group but make up a huge number of nobel prizes in science and mathematics.


Update: In case you want to read it It's simply written and very interesting. It even goes over how Christianity began. I've read many books but this is by far one of my favorites. I also recommend "Unholy Alliance" By: Peter Levanda. It explains how the Nazis came to believe what they did and the Occult/Secret Societies influence on Hitler.

My goal is in few years, after getting some more work experience, is to go back to school (yet again) and get my adult teaching certificate.

I want to go back and teach in the medical admin program that I graduated from two years ago. I love the program and my job and basically every member of my family (biological and chosen) has told me that I should teach, so why not combine the two?

It'll take some time as I also want to get my transcription certification as well and they both cost money that I don't really have right now. After I get my stand mixer that will be next in what I'll be saving for!

I really like your goal. Simple and something that will make you feel great as well. Good luck with it!

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I would really love to read Anne Frank as I've somehow managed to never read it before. Used is perfectly alright with me!

• Jews, God, and History would actually be a good pairing for your book now - while Johnson is more Zionist and philosemitic, Dimont takes a stance similar to Spinoza, which - while still of course being 'pro-Jew,' is more cultural in the context of the world than religious as the 'Chosen People.'
  
• Jewish Literacy is what you are guaranteed to find on every single rabbi's shelf on Earth. Telushkin is an excellent writer, and is concise in his explanations of why we are the way we are and why we do what we do. It's less about a strict history than explaining all those things, but it's still valuable if you want to really get to your roots.
  
• History of the Jewish People - I read this in college. More of a text for students, but valuable all the same.
  
• Josephus is a historical text by one of the greatest historians from the turn of the first millennium. If you choose to get this, I highly recommend having Wikipedia open as you read it.

Hm....well the books I suggested before are certainly within the 21-year mark...I grew up with some of them and I'm only 23. For really recent ones, I know of:

• The Boy on the Wooden Box
  
  
• Of Thee I Sing: Letter to my Daughters
  
  
• Malala Yousafzai: a Warrior with Words
  
  My last recommendation is to shoot an e-mail to your local library with your request. They usually get periodicals that list relevant books separated by genre and age, and can probably give you a better idea of what is relevant than I can (since this is a few years outside of my area of interest). Librarians are usually really friendly and love to help out with book stuff :)

I haven't! I'll look it up. Another two that are quite good are The White Rabbit and Bravest of the Brave, both about an SOE operative who perservered through unbelievable torture and pain to make it back to the UK after the war was over. FFE Yeo-Thomas is actually mentioned in Between Silk and Cyanide, as he was a good friend of the author.

Oh, and anything by William L. Shirer is totally boss. I particularly like This Is Berlin-- these are all his radio broadcasts while a CBS correspondent in Germany. It's amazing to read.

And finally not to overwhelm you but In My Hands is an amazing autobiography by a young woman who risked everything and seduced an SS officer to be able to rescue her Jewish friends.

The Kindly Ones by Jontahan Little.

A masterpiece - I've read it several years ago and some parts of it still haunt me. A truly dark and powerful book - don't think I've read anything else quite like it.

Also Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith.

I guess it's not surprising books taking place during ww2 and in Soviet Russia fit the bill of making the outside world look like a Utopia - other of this genre will probably make good candidates - Anne Frank's diary
and the Island on the Bird Street would also crush any heart as would many others dealing with the darkest time in human history (quite an achievement - humanity has had a lot of dark periods).

Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust.. This book would be amazing. I'm sure it will make me feel all the feels It's under $5 new, but I'm totally cool with used if it saves you any money. Used book have character. :)



Thank you for the contest! <3

I'm not shocked. Some people relish hurting others, but a much larger number will go along when there is immense social pressure and a cognitive dissonance defense that they can use to internally justify their actions. The military and the CIA engineer that social pressure and provide those defenses so that people who would never think they would even be capable of committing atrocities actually do. It's what Hannah Arendt referred to as the banality of evil. One of the points Arendt makes in Eichmann in Jerusalem is that he did not see himself as "just following orders" but that he was doing his duty as well as obeying the law. He did not see himself as abdicating his role as an active and even moral agent, but that he was carrying out the edicts of Hitler (and thus society) under a seriously fucked up interpretation of Kant's Categorical Imperative.

The health care providers who do this believe they are serving a higher purpose. They are actively helped to create justifications by the people who need their skills to commit torture. Think about it this way: Say I convinced you that if you tortured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the architect of 9/11) you could get him to give a grain of information that would prevent the deaths of 1 million people in whatever country you live in. Just imagine that you really believed this. Would you do it? Would you feel justified in doing so?

That is the reason that health care providers participated in torture.

Now we know that torture doesn't work and hasn't prevented much if any deaths, so we find it easy to condemn these people. (And I agree they should be condemned). However it's like the joke where the man asks a woman if she would have sex with him for $10 million. She says yes, then he asks if she would do it for $10. She replies with "No! What do you think I am?" The man replies, "well, we've established what you are, now we're just haggling over price."

edit: wurds

I think a popular one is All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen. Was a really good memoir. Other than that I liked A Seat At the Table, which I liked a lot when I was in high school, 7 or 8 years ago, and I dunno what it'd be like now.

Excellent. Thanks for posting this. For anyone interested in learning more, I highly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Eichmann-Jerusalem-Penguin-Classics-Hannah/dp/0143039881/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370142085&sr=8-1&keywords=eichmann+in+jerusalem

An 'interesting' perspective, though I think Max Dimont in Jews, God and History gives a much better and more balanced perspective not just on anti-semitism but also a rather good overview of history of the Jewish people. I read it to try and understand the nature of anti-semitism as one of my close friends is Jewish, which are reasonably uncommon in Australia (outside Bondi)

Trenutno citam:

• Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
  
• Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy (Josef Steiff)
  
  Planiram i citati:
  
  
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
  
• Het Achterhuis (Anne Frank)
  
• Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
  
• Pyongyang (Guy Delisle)
  
• I bilo njesta od Alan Watts
  
  Evo moj 'library' :P
  http://i.imgur.com/Xpe7Vk5.jpg
  
  Moj tip za vas je Shantaram. //switch to English now, because it's a lot easier. It's about a guy who escapes from a prison and goes to Bombay. He starts off low and grows both spiritually and materialistically in the streets of Bombay. It's like GTA: Bombay but with more places (Indian countryside, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Africa). I've already been interested in India because of films like Darjeeling Limited, but this book sealed the deal: I want to visit that country.

What is WC?

I watched some of the 9/11 video. Self-sacrifice is associated with goodness, but then the Islamic terrorists also practiced self-sacrifice, so self-sacrifice by itself isn't enough. Good judgement is also needed. Also, 2000 was still better than now. There probably were some good people at that time, it is only in the last few years that I have seen all traces of goodness disappear.

Romans 12:2 is something I quote to Christians all the time (at least I did when I dealt with them). Of course I wish Christians would follow this, but only traditional Anabaptists seem to. Mainstream Christianity is completely conformed to this age.

I haven't read "Night" by Elie Wiesel. I know enough about this topic since most of family died in the Holocaust and my father escaped from a Nazi work camp and then fought, blowing up German trains. Individuals can make the most difference when there is open war between good and evil, by siding with good. But when one is surrounded by ubiquitous evil, as in modern culture, it is much harder to make a difference.

Ancient Israel was a case of constant conflict between good and evil with good generally being the minority. Still, at least there always seemed to be at least one prophet of good, which is better than today.

Most of what Jesus says is consistent with the Old Testament, and his opinion of Solomon is no exception. Solomon clearly violated Deuteronomy 17:14-20.

I didn't write much about the New Testament because modern Christianity doesn't work. But here is one thing I wrote:

http://www.mikraite.org/Who-is-my-neighbor-tp481.html

About history, please don't waste your time on YouTube and on history books. Only original sources have value. Here are some books that you may find interesting:

https://www.amazon.com/Reformation-Reader-Primary-Texts-Introductions/dp/0800663101/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002GJGIDQ/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1607961806/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140444203/

https://www.amazon.com/002-American-History-Revolution-1765-1865/dp/0394705416/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394708423/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140455280/

To understand the world wars, probably the best book to read is Mein Kampf.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LDLI0S/

Like with religion, one has to get as close to the source as possible in history to find truth.

its amazingly true, far past the point of mere "coincidence".

good read: http://smile.amazon.com/History-Jews-Paul-Johnson/dp/0060915331/
(www.rodriguezuribe.co/histories/A%20History%20of%20the%20Jews.pdf)

many the decline of an empire, curiously, occurs in a series of random disconnected events which all seem to coincide beautifully with a climactic emptying of jews.

odd, to be sure.

In my opinion, Paul Johnson's "A History of the Jews" is the best book for this: http://www.amazon.com/A-History-Jews-Paul-Johnson/dp/0060915331.

Simon Schama's five-part documentary, "The Story of the Jews," is also excellent: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/story-jews/

I read "The Jewish War" by Josephus and it was very interesting how the radicalization and terrorist acts of his day mirrors that of today. It was particularly interesting to see how fundamentalist jews brought upon themselves the destruction of their capital but also their countryside (lots of people died of course) by continually aggravating the moderate and quite accommodating Romans whom they had absolutely zero chance of winning against. For years the Romans endured various attacks but made no retribution against the Jews as a whole, favoring peaceful co-existence and making allowance for their religion until it came to the point that the Romans just had enough. Despite some voices among the jews saying that they must make peace, simply because they couldn't possibly win against the Romans, the rebellion proceeded. In their hubris the Jews celebrated victory and even as the Romans were winning against them they continued to believe that they had a chance to win until it became painfully evident to them that they were facing crushing defeat. The terrorists died horribly, along with civilians of all ages.

What I took away from it was that the main complaint that the radicals had was that the Romans dictated how their country was run, which they did to a large extent although the Jews had some freedom of decisions. This didn't mean the Jews were made to live bad lives in oppression, simply that they weren't their own masters, and apparently this was enough to really enrage some people. Also the Romans made use of their resources. But all in all, people lived and did business like people normally do and nothing was terrible, daily life was trotting along as it customarily does.

With that in mind, I don't think you can appease the muslim radicalists in any way, because they're enraged simply because the west has the upper hand. Ok fine, maybe the west shouldn't impose on their oil/resources, but in the end of the day the west isn't making their people starve, they seem to be good at arranging that for themselves. They have this belief that with the west gone they will be better off, but in reality they won't, because they will still have problems. I really don't think you can reason with them. They have an idealistic view of how great it would be if the west weren't there but it's not like their own governments are all rainbows and unicorns.

Or what do you think?

I've discussed Azlan's work many times. He is not an especially capable academic. Regarding Zealot, this is a quote from one of my colleagues that offers a succinct summary of what is wrong with the book from a Jewish/Religious studies perspective:

>...the book is basically an undergraduate paper. If I taught a BA seminar on Second Temple Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (or something along those lines) and got chapters from this book as term paper submissions, I'd be pleased with the effort, and somewhat disappointed with the content. There is real (sometimes quite basic) failure to analyze critically primary and secondary texts (for example, his research on the ca. 70 CE state of the Galilee is sorely lacking)....

Here is also an intelligent review from Prof. Allan Nadler who highlights similar issues at length.

As far as books on Judaism go, there are several options that grant a survey of Jewish history and Judaism. Max Diamont's Jews, God and History and Paul Johnson's A History of the Jews are very readable books, but neither are historians, with the latter being somewhat better than the former as he is not quite so clouded by his own associations.

The essential text that is worth looking at is H.H. Ben Sasson's A History of the Jewish People which covers the entire history of the Jews from a number of well known academics.

As for your other comments regarding wanting to know why Jews believe what they do, I second the recommendation of This is My God by Herman Wouk as he gives across the cultural sense of Judaism better than many (he is a writer, not a historian and his book has some mistakes, but they are minor and don't overshadow the message).

I don't know - I imagine the reasons are numerous and complex. In fact, this is something I would like to understand better, and I plan to pick up a history book on it at some point. If you also want to learn the actual reasons, I would suggest something like this book, it's probably what I'll read when I get around to it.

I gave my brother (who never EVER reads, and doesn't like "hard books") How to stop time also by Matt Haig, he read it in one sitting and then went out and got the rest of his books and read them all in a couple weeks. Christopher Moore is also great, Sacre Bleu is my favourite.

​

for non-fiction: Letter from Birmingham Jailby Martin Luther King, Jr. anything by Audre Lorde or James Baldwin and Anne Frank and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for showing him how to appreciate life.

The capture of Adolf Eichmann is a covert operation that I find interesting and Hannah Arendt's book Eichmann In Jerusalem about his trial in Israel is fascinating from both a historical and philosophical perspective.

Only as far as it takes to take the WHOLE truth, not just the parts Israel agrees:


Salomon Morel


Chaim Rumkowski


And then I recommend "Eichmann in Jerusalem" by Hannah Arendt.

Great history review here: https://www.amazon.com/Jews-God-History-Max-Dimont/dp/0451529405

page-turner!

My favorites:

• Jane Eyre
  
  
• David Copperfield
  
• (random 3rd choice from so many favorites) Cutting for Stone

I'm going to challenge your assumption that non-violent 'protest' was ineffective against Nazis.

There's a book called Eichmann in Jerusalem, The Banality of Evil.

Amongst the many interesting things, it details how the holocaust was accomplished, and it wasn't through German engineering as it's often portrayed, but by simple local compliance. In other words, in regions that cooperated with the Nazis, extermination rates were upwards of 90%, in those that simply refused to turn in the neighbors, or actively harbored Jews from discovery, the rates were very low.

Non violence in Nazi occupied Europe was actually very effective a thwarting Nazi goals, and this is where the banality part comes in. We're comforted by the idea that evil is thrust upon us by overwhelming force, but the truth is far more insidious. It accomplished by simple cooperation. As impressive as the Nazi war machine was, it can't make people tell the truth or rat out their neighbors, and it's that kind of corporation that gets things done. The Nazis relied on local law enforcement and local institutions for control. They couldn't send an S.S. unit to every village.

The most controversial parts of the book even detail how Jewish organizations themselves helped seal their fate.

There wouldn't have been a holocaust if people had just refused to cooperate. Effective non-violent resistance is rarely about holding signs or posting graffiti.

War, by contrast, is sort of after the fact, and collateral damage is inherent to the process. Even "the good guys" engage in serious injustices. At all levels it represents the greatest of human failures, which is sometimes necessary, but only at the cost of much better solutions.

You may be interested in Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil by Hannah Arendt. Arendt uses Eichmann (considered by some to be one of the cruelest men in the Third Reich) to show the Holocaust was brought on by complacency more than evil intent.
http://www.amazon.com/Eichmann-Jerusalem-Banality-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039881

You may also like The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. I haven't read this one, but it seems pretty cool.

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Nazi-Psychiatrist-Hermann-Douglas/dp/161039156X

If you have not read it, may I recommend Eichmann in Jerusalem, by Hannah Arendt. On the one hand, it's an interesting story of the last major trial resulting from Nazi atrocities. Additionally, it's a thought-provoking treatise on the ubiquity of evil.

This is a real good book also:

A History of the Jews, by Paul Johnson

There are many such books written for the Jewish community recounting first-hand experiences. I grew up in the Orthodox community so was always given these to read. One such title I'd recommend is "Go, My Son" by Chaim Shapiro.

Another such title is The Youngest Partisan.

It really depends on what portion of history you're interested in.
American Judaism

The Jew in the Medieval World

Biblical Archaeology a Very Short Introduction

You may like this book and its companion

In KING OF THE JEWS By Nick Tosches, the author, while appearing to write a biography of Jewish mobster Arnold Rothstein, offers the hypothesis that Jesus was just another Jewish false messiah.

http://www.amazon.com/King-Jews-Greatest-Story-Never/dp/0060936002/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1450136229&sr=8-10&keywords=nick+tosches

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_messiah_claimants

I don't know if the author's name is genuine or a play on the Yiddish word for backside.

http://www.lucifereffect.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Eichmann-Jerusalem-Banality-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039881/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310132848&sr=8-1

Actually, we do comprehend evil of this sort very well. It's alot easier to describe the Nazi's and their atrocities as an incomprehensible evil than for us to recognize that it's something that even the best of us are capable of given the right environment.

I really liked Man's Search for Meaning. I found it directly after reading Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jeruselem. You might try it out. They're not the same exactly, but I found Arendt's writing style similar to Frankl's. It was direct, immediately accessible, and philosophic.

Can't appreciate modern Israel without also learning about ancient Israel and Jewish history. I would recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Jews-God-History-50th-Anniversary/dp/0451529405/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1468822616&sr=8-5&keywords=jewish+history

Lolek Skosowski, a Jew, a Gestapo agent, who in 1943 gave the Germans death to over 2,000 survivors so far during the so-called Polish Hotel scandal


there were also other Jewish voluntary organisations that were willing participants of Holocaust like the most famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBagiew which was operating by infiltrating Jewish and Polish resistance movements, giving away the Polish groups hiding the Jews etc - making it significantly harder to operate since they never could be sure if the next Jewish person to hide is not the one that will give all the others away, etc.



and other like:

• Chaim Rumkowski
  
  
• Erhard Milch
  
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judenrat
  
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Ghetto_Police
  
  
  
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_13
  
  
• "Eichmann in Jerusalem" by Hannah Arendt.
  
  Obviously, these examples being true doesn't mean Jewish involvement being significant, just like in case of the Poles there was a strict minority of people willing to collaborate voluntarily (e.g. Żagiew, Group 13, early Judenrats) and those forced to collaborate (late Judenrats, Sonderkommandos) - but that's exactly the whole point of Morawiecki's comparison.
  
  >a form of holocaust denial
  
  what? if anything you are the one doing so by denying that some invdividuals did engage voluntarily in the massacre of their brothers.
  
  and regardless words have meaning trying to dilute a word to suit your own agenda is not ok. Holocaust denial has a definition and saying that someone participated in the holocaust is not denial by any logical sense, saying someone did not, like you just did, is.

The short answer is no - I recommend reading All Who Go Do Not Return if you really want an in-depth look into what divorce means in this community when one parent wants to take a more secular path.

Divorce means losing your children, your entire social support system, and your family. It means being catapulted into a world you do not understand and do not fit into. In short, you start from zero.

All Who Go Do Not Return: A Memoir

Same guy: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj1CxvkSStlsf9VxKmb23E6mO2kKO365O

Also this: https://www.amazon.com/History-Jews-Paul-Johnson/dp/0060915331

http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Frank-Diary-Young-Girl/dp/0553296981

The Diary of Anne Frank

Read this book. It covers all of this: https://www.amazon.com/Eichmann-Jerusalem-Banality-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039881/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YKNFJM4EPA05&keywords=hannah+ardent&qid=1569378231&s=gateway&sprefix=Hannah+Ard%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0553296981?pc_redir=1406880381&robot_redir=1

A History of The Jews

Here is the mobile version of your link

If anyone is interested in more on this subject, I highly recommend Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt. Framed as an account of Adolph Eichmann's 1961 trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Jerusalem, the book really digs into how great evil is often brought about by banal motives like careerism and stupidity.

This book! http://www.amazon.com/Eichmann-Jerusalem-Banality-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039881/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321518551&sr=8-1
I'm a freshman in college and had to use the money I had saved for a speeding ticket, so now I'm broke. :c

You can read it via waybackmachine here, yIKES

​

"I’ve applied every ounce of the researching laser beam that Cambridge gives you as a result of 3 years to try and find an example of a girl who is 23 years old or younger when they publish their first memoir. And I couldn’t find a single example of one that had a positive life. Famous examples are Malala and The Diary of Anne Frank. They literally had to survive the Holocaust and be shot and left for dead on a bus. That’s what it takes to get a young girl a memoir."

check her diary

http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Frank-Diary-Young-Girl/dp/0553296981/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394297822&sr=8-1&keywords=the+diary+of+anne+frank

Guess no one has ever seen clerks 2

The biggest reason for anti-semitism, is and has been perceived usury and association with lending in general.

No one likes having debt, Jews have historically occupied the position of lenders in Europe, and as a result occupied a uniquely hated position in society. Humanity's natural xenophobic tendencies combined with this reenforcement, has been a much larger contributor than people believing that Jews were coming to eat their babies. You're switching the cause and the symptoms.

And bigotry and hatred are hardly unique to the Jewish people, and to say that one can't understand it though analogy is just silly.

edit: for you downvoters in particular, check out A History of the Jews, by Paul Johnson,, especially passages on usury on page 174. Well researched and well respected book on the subject.

Read Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.

Standard conservative nationalism and xenophobia can easily transform into violent extremism.

Night by Elie Wiesel covers all of those themes.

The idea that horrors happen to other people, not to us. That people will allow terrible things to happen, one small step at a time, without fighting back, in the hope that the wolf will go to someone else's door.

Again, to anyone reading this questioning whether they should continue their education - I point you to these comments.

These are the thoughts of someone who is intellectually bankrupt. I can't imagine the anguish and utter hell you must live in, to be either fully incapable or fully uninterested in learning a bare bones outline of the history of the last century. But then again, they say ignorance is bliss.

Wikipedia is a multilingual online encyclopedia with exclusively free content and no ads. It is the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Walters

Further reading:

https://www.amazon.com/Anne-Frank-Diary-Young-Girl/dp/0553296981/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BGTU1OTLE40S&keywords=anne+frank+diary+of+a+young+girl&qid=1556809315&s=gateway&sprefix=anne+frank%2Caps%2C186&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Martin-Luther-King-Jr/dp/0446676500/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=martin+luther+king+jr+biography&qid=1556809342&s=gateway&sr=8-2

OP, I think you mean Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143039881/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_bGJGAbJ6XYEXC

Would you like to read something that shows what happens when countries are governed by fascist despots, liars and thieves? Like now in America?

try this

Mate, you need to buy and read Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt and learn about the concept of the banality of evil.

Perfectly normal and sane human beings are quite capable of doing truly horrific things. In fact that makes them far more dangerous than lunatics because the truly insane by definition lack the power to be truly destructive.

Or Border Control is full of incompetents as a result of new and previous hiring pushes.

Earlier this year a story broke that one of the child detention centers was employing someone who had previously been arrested for child porn. It was widely pointed out at the time that this is what you get when you expand an organisation like this without a real barrier to entry, and do so quickly.

The reason is simple. Most people don't want to put "ran a child concentration camp" on their résumé. The people you attract are, frankly, not their best. You end up hiring people who are okay with the scandals, and that means people who are more malicious and less interested in providing a valuable public service.

The more scandals the agency is embroiled in, the fewer non-shitty applicants you'll see. Who wants to work for an organisation which is famous for losing track of children by the thousand, with the widely reported fear that the children were later picked up by sex traffickers? Who wants to work for an organisation which actively attempts to prevent journalists from reporting on the conditions in the concentration camps? Who wants to work for an organisation which cages children and employs pedophiles to do it? Who wants to work for an organisation which lost a thousand children again?

As the PR situation worsens, the applicant pool worsens too. As the percentage of employees who are terrible increases, the quality of service declines. Declining service begets scandals and bad PR, and the cycle repeats.

You end up building an environment which encourages, at best, laziness. At worst it creates a self sustaining misery generator where the goal is to inflict pain.