You Gentiles

This was a compelling but difficult — and frankly, profoundly offensive — read. The author, Maurice Samuel, was an accomplished early 20th century Eastern European playwright & quasi-intellectual, as well as a member of the Zionist Organization of America and associate of Chaim Weizmann. His entire premise is flawed, entrenched in concomitant bitterness & unabashedly haughty & reductionist ethnosupremacism. This historic book was reportedly widely read in 1924–25 in American Jewish & intellectual circles, with mixed responses, often praised for its blunt assertions. His paradigm is problematic simply because it is entirely subjective and strings together “You Gentiles” over millennia, continents & cultures. He considers his opinion as authoritative: “…even if this were not true, I should not change my opinion, for life at first hand taught me this view…” (p164-165). In short, definitely worth the investment and the energy, in order to better understand the complex society in which we now live today.