De l'anti-judaïsme à l'antisémitisme, Diderot et Voltaire - l'âge de la raison

Bon à rappeler pour comprendre le rapport de la France d'aujourd'hui aux Juifs.

Source: TJP (From anti-Judaism to antisemitism: The Age of Reason, David Turner).  Extraits:

The Philosophes: Diderot, principal contributor and editor of the famous Encyclopédie (1765) wrote that the Jews are “an ignorant and superstitious nation,” while Voltaire, in his Treatise on Toleration  (1763) wrote that the Jews are, “the most detestable [nation] ever to have sullied the earth...” And again, in his Dictionary he wrote that the Jews are, “the most imbecile people on the face of the earth, enemies of mankind, most obtuse, cruel absurd... In short, we find in them only an ignorant and barbarous people, who have long united the most sordid avarice with the most detestable superstition and the most invincible hatred for every people by whom they are tolerated and enriched.”

In his Letter of Memmius to Cicero, (1771) Voltaire wrote, ‘'They (the Jews) are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts, just as the Bretons and the Germans are born with blond hair. I would not be in the least bit surprised if these people would not some day become deadly to the human race…” The year after writing the Memmius Letter Voltaire wrote, ''You [Jews] have surpassed all nations in impertinent fables, in bad conduct and in barbarism. You deserve to be punished, for this is your destiny.'' Both quotes appear in Arthur Hertzberg’s letter to the New York Times dated September 30, 1990).

Voltaire at age 70 (Wikipedia)

One hundred and sixty years before Germany elected Adolph Hitler chancellor, Voltaire had already concluded that the Jews are, “deadly to the human race.” His conclusion that the Jews, “deserve to be punished, for this is your destiny” is taken nearly verbatim from Augustine, who learned it from the Matthew gospel.

Such comments regarding the Jews appear regularly in the writings of the Philosophes, and Voltaire never tired of vilifying them. But how explain that both he and Diderot and most of the Philosophes, the avant-garde liberating Europe from superstition and prejudice, from intolerance and what they perceived as the darkness of religion; how could they have unreflectively imported 1700 years anti-Jewish prejudice into their “rational” and secular model for modern society?

The short answer is that we are, individually and collectively, the product of our time. Our worldview is influenced by our surroundings, our thinking and behavior modified to present circumstance, but based on past experience. The Enlightenment represented a rebellion against the previous hierarchical social structure, the authoritarianism of a religion-based feudal society. But the rebellion itself the product, inheritor of that society’s pre-history, including its biases.

Stereotypes are a convenient, often necessary short-hand that serves as lubricant of social intercourse. Based on experience or inherited bias stereotypy may be transcended, but that requires effort, and continuing self-criticism. For many areas of society and history the Philosophes were relentless critics. When it came to the Jews…

As this discussion will continue in coming months the motive and mechanism of antisemitism will come clearer. For the present we will have to be satisfied with the fact that religious anti-Judaism in its new “rational” secular guise as antisemitism passed seamlessly into that brave, new world which is the “enlightened” West.