The Second World War prime minister Winston Churchill argued that Jews were “partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer” in an article publicised for the first time Sunday. Churchill made the claim in an article entitled “How The Jews Can Combat Persecution” written in 1937, three years before he started leading the country.He outlined a new wave of anti-Semitism sweeping across Europe and the United States, which was followed by the deaths of millions of Jews in the Holocaust under the German Nazi regime.
“It would be easy to ascribe it to the wickedness of the persecutors, but that does not fit all the facts,” the article read.
“It exists even in lands, like Great Britain and the United States, where Jew and Gentile are equal in the eyes of the law and where large numbers of Jews have found not only asylum, but opportunity.
“These facts must be faced in any analysis of anti-Semitism. They should be pondered especially by the Jews themselves.
“For it may be that, unwittingly, they are inviting persecution — that they have been partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer.”
The article adds: “The central fact which dominates the relations of Jew and non-Jew is that the Jew is ‘different’.
“He looks different. He thinks differently. He has a different tradition and background. He refuses to be absorbed.”
Elsewhere, Churchill praised Jews as “sober, industrious, law-abiding” and urged Britons to stand up for the race against persecution.
“There is no virtue in a tame acquiescence in evil. To protest against cruelty and wrong, and to strive to end them, is the mark of a man,” he wrote.
The article was discovered by Cambridge University historian Richard Toye in the university’s archive of Churchill’s papers.
At the time, Churchill’s secretary advised him it would be “inadvisable” to publish it and it never saw the light of day.
Churchill was voted the greatest Briton ever in a nationwide poll held by the BBC in 2002.
(Source: Breitbart)
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24 Responses
Words out of the mouth of Haman, if only Haman had a wise advisor
He was so pro-Jewish. I read the whole quote. I don’t think we can expect more from a non-Jew
hey….it may be he did not say this at all:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2031314,00.html
Just found the following report from another site (http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,,2031316,00.html) which calls the whole thing into question:
But when The Observer contacted Sir Martin Gilbert, the eminent historian and Churchill biographer, the implication of anti-Semitism began to unravel. Gilbert, who also has a book out this summer, said the article was not written by Churchill at all, but rather his ghost writer, Adam Marshall Diston. He added that Churchill’s instructions for the article were different in both tone and content from what Diston eventually wrote, and pointed out that Diston was a supporter of Oswald Mosley, the notorious fascist and anti-Semite. Churchill had stopped its publication in a newspaper.
did anyone actually think he didn’t follow his halacha biyadua? the best we can expect is for him to control his hatred and not bring it mikoach el hapoel which was definitely the case.
“did anyone actually think he didn’t follow his halacha biyadua? the best we can expect is for him to control his hatred and not bring it mikoach el hapoel which was definitely the case.”
This is just too ridiculous for words. As if there was never a non-Jew who was an ohaiv Yisrael. And how do you know he was of Eisav, who the “halacha” is referrring to? Besides, the “halacha” is a klal; there are always yotei min haklal.
This is a very interesting discovery. Particularly so, because Churchill was actually Jewish. Perhaps it was really written by his writer and then nixed for publication by Churchill himself.
kishke if you beleive that everyone who did good to the jews is an ohaiv yisroel you are quite naive. Part of today’s society is to fight for the rights of everyone, even he you find them to be pretty despicable. The term ohaiv yisroel is used very liberally and usually it is not from ahava nor for yisroel. I am not advocating any lack of gratitude, quite to the contrary, I an saying that even when someone thinks jews are terrible we must appreciate what he did for us. Even if he made some comments like there that is just his nature and we shouldn’t think too much less of him as it is to be expected. The way the term ohaiv yisroel is thrown about makes it seen like the halacha biyadua is the exception, not the rule.
BEHAVING like an Ohev Yisroel in order to attain a certain amount of prestige or to go down in history as a hero, or any alterior motive is one thing.
BEING an ohev Yisorel with genuine sympathy and feeling for JEWS is something totally else and very rare.
In most cases the animosity will emerge sooner or later.
A goy is a goy. How many more thousands of years will it take for us to accept that realiy?
I am surprised at the YW decision to print the comments of ignorance reflected in the words of “real klur.”
ditto to the comments of yehudi echad!!
“kishke if you beleive that everyone who did good to the jews is an ohaiv yisroel you are quite naive.”
It’s far more sensible than believing that anyone who does good for the Jews is a sonei yisrael, which appears to be your foolish belief.
I don’t find Churchill’s statement any more anti Semitic than anything ever said by the reform movement that our differences promote anti semitism. He suggested we change….I think by the end of WWII he probably realized that our mode of dress had very little to do with the Holocaust
Stop and think….Did Churchill actually say anything hateful?
I suggest to you that he did not. All of us are analyzing his comments from our perspective, through the lens of a shomer torah u’mitzvos with an appreciation for same. However, lets for a moment, analyze ourselves from an outsiders perspective, without the benefit of our emunah and bitachon. After all can we expect a Goy to have our level of emaunah? Can we expect a Goy to have the same appreciation for the nuances of Yiddishkeit as we do? I think not.
Factually, Churchill was dead on — the fact that we distinguish and differentiate ourselves from the Goyim definitely fuels the anti-Semitic flames. Now, couple that fact with a lack of appreciation for why we have to look and think differently, and you have a very practical and pragmatic statement: minimize your actions (which (any outsider would think) are not central to Judaism), and therefore reduce anti-Semitism.
We of course know and believe bamunah shlamah that there are valid reasons, and it is nothing less than integral to our yididishkeit, that we “look different,” “think different” and “refuse to be absorbed.” However, I don’t think that a Goy lacks such appreciation, and makes practical statements based on such lack of appreciation, can be deemed an anti-Semite. If anything, his statements sounded as though they were coming from someone who had a real appreciation for a Jew.
CHURCHILL WASNT ALTOGETHER WRONG. AS LONG AS OUR ”FRUM YIDLEACH” ARE CAUGHT RIPPING OFF THE GOVT. AND BEING EXPOSED AS SLUMLORDS, WE WILL BE REVILED BY THE GOYISH POPULATION ( AND SOME JEWS TOO).
FROM THE SOUND OF HIS STATEMENT,IT WAS SAID WITH NO MALICE BUT WITH THE HOPE(HIS HOPE) THAT JEWS WOULD BECOME LIKE EVERYONE ELSE…AND THAT DOESNT MEAN GIVING UP YIDDISHKEIT.
Ruchaim
‘As long as our Frum Yidelech……..reviled by the goyish population’
Let me remind you that the crime rate amongst Jews, even per centage wise is the lowest of all denominations!
And as an aside, do you really think your post was so clever that you had to submit it with your caps up, in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS?????
VoiceOfReason Says:
“Factually, Churchill was dead on — the fact that we distinguish and differentiate ourselves from the Goyim definitely fuels the anti-Semitic flames.”
I always thought that it was when we started to act too much like them, that their hatred of us goes up. I don’t recalling hearing stories about the Gedolim of previous generations (prior to the Holocaust) saying …We differentiate ourselves from them therefore troubled times are heading our ways…
If memory serves correctly the Gedolim warned that it is because of our attempts to be just like them, that trouble was brewing.
I always thought that the principle was: The more we strive to be “just like them”, and we Chas VShalom do away with Torah observance, our distinct dress codes and other things that distinguish us as Jews, then HaKodesh Boruch Hu allows the goyim to show us how much they hate us!
mdlevine is right, it says ‘ vaavdil eschem min hoamim lihiyos li’
When we integrate with Goyim, THEY are the ones to show us who we are! and at what a price!
mdlevine/nameless,
You are correct, from a ruchneiasdika/torahdika perspective, distancing ourselves from the Goyim is an important tool to combat, or even avoid, anti-Semitism.
However, when the Goyim express why hate us, they don’t say it’s because “the Jew tries to integrate with us…the Jew tries to be our friend” Quite to the contrary, they say it’s because the “Jew thinks he’s better than us…won’t drink our wine (see Purim story)…doesn’t dress like us.” Therefore, its quite understandable why Churchill would think that the aforementioned separatist behavior is a partial cause of anti-Semitism.
voice of reason: thank you for agreeing with us re: Torah perspective. Afterall it is about a Torah perspective that we should all be concerned with, is it not?
they say they hate up for being different except when they hate us for being all the doctors or professors. there was nowhere in europe that jews were as assimilated as germany and they hated up for that too.
NAMELESS…IM SO PROUD THAT OUR CRIME RATE IS LOWER THAN ALL OTHER DENOMINATIONS. BY THE WAY, ARE THOSE OTHER DENOMINATIONS TORAH OBSERVANT?? HOW COULD YOU MAKE THAT COMPARISON?
‘Are those other denominations Torah OBSERVANT,?’
We are comitted to 613. Unfortunatley those other denominations have a hard time keeping 7!!! So in the eyes of the secular public, its a MAJOR KIDDUSH HASHEM, you SHOULD be proud of it.