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Father Edward Flannery's,
“The Anguish
of the Jews”
BOOK REVIEW
by HARRY SIMONHOFF *
HERALD PUBLISHING COMPANY
Albany, Georgia
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“South Georgia's Metropolitan Daily”
A sensitive awareness of the
debasing persecutions suffered
by Jews for almost two millen
nia is revealed by Father Ed
ward H. Flannery in his recent
book, “The Anguish of the
Jews,” perhaps the best all
around, single volume on anti-
Semitism.
It makes painful reading for
any person of humane instincts
or 'with an understanding of
what human suffering entails.
Father Flannery’s book is only
a summary. Its subject matter
has filled many volumes and
constitutes an extensive litera
ture in itself- Yet the explana
tions for this phenomenon are
far from conclusive, nor has
the theme been exhausted.
Judeophobia in its present
sense appeared first among the
pagan Hellenists in Egypt and
Syria about 200 B.C. and con
tinues to our own day without
signs of disappearing in the
foreseeable future.
The most frustrating and
perhaps the most frightful dis
closures in Father Flannery s
treatist are his unfolding of
Christian anti-Semitism. In the
past Protestant, and more es
pecially, Catholic writers have
been prone to ignore, gloss ov
er. understate or even defend
Christian guilt in the outrag
eous oppression of Jews. Cen
tury after century theologians
and even historians have dis
missed the most cruel maltreat
ment of Jews as a just retribu
tion for the “unspeakable crime
of the crucifixion."
Not so Father Flannery. He
neither condemns nor con
dones. But what is far more
effective he reveals the bald
facts. He admits that pagan
persecution of Jews, with a
rare pogrom thrown in for
Mr. Simonhoff, himself au-
* thor of several volumes of
historial biography, is a col
umnist for the Jewish
Floridian in Miami. ,
good measure, was but child’s
play alongside the furious hate
unleashed by Christian intol
erance. On page 60 of the pap
erback edition appears: “There
are too many signs that stake
out the permanence, the im
portance, and the gravity of
Christian anti-Semitism: con
tempt. calumnies, animosity,
segregation, forced baptisms,
appropriation of children, un
just trials, pogroms, exiles, sy
stematic persecutions, thefts
and rapine, hatred open or con
cealed, social degradation." It
is a healthy sign of the times
that this book bears the official
seal of the Catholic censor and
the imprimatur of Cardinal
Spellman.
The author’s sympathy for
the persecuted Jews is un
questionable. But he is a priest
devoted to his religion and
committed wholeheartedly to
his church. It is no doubt dis
tressing for him to concede
that at an early stage Judeo
phobia was buiit into Catholi
cism and became deeply im
bedded therein. He admits that
the church was anti-Judaic on
theological grounds but rejects
the charge that it was ever
anti-Semitic. Yet he catalog
ues in what might be called a
bill of particulars the seeming
ly endless list of the most in
sulting epithets, libels and
canards by the highest spirit
ual authorities of Roman
Christianity, especially during
the fourth century; patently
these calumnies were calculat
ed to degrade the entire Jewish
people below the vilest dregs
of humanity. To quote but a
few: Hilary of Poitiers “prov
es" that Jews are a perpetual- ,
lv perverse people, despised by
God; St. Ephraim of Syria in
his hymns calls the synagogue
a harlot; St. Gregory of Nyas-
so describes them as enemies
of God. advocates of the devil,
brood of vipers, congregation
of demons. To St. Augustine,
Sans - Souci
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The Southern Israelite
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