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Editorial Review:
In this meticulously researched, unflinching, and reasoned study, National Book Award finalist David I. Kertzer presents shocking revelations about the role played by the Vatican in the development of modern anti-Semitism. Working in long-sealed Vatican archives, Kertzer unearths startling evidence to undermine the Church's argument that it played no direct role in the spread of modern anti-Semitism. In doing so, he challenges the Vatican's recent official statement on the subject, We Remember. Kertzer tells an unsettling story that has stirred up controversy around the world and sheds a much-needed light on the past.The Vatican's 1998 report "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah" purportedly exonerated the Church of complicity in the Holocaust. In The Popes Against the Jews , David I. Kertzer argues that the report is "not the product of a Church that wants to confront its history." Kertzer's book refutes the Church's thesis that the Holocaust grew out of "an anti-Judaism that was essentially more sociological and political than religious." In fact, Kertzer asserts, those dimensions of European anti-Semitism developed "in no small part due to the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church itself." The racial laws of fascist Italy and the Nuremberg Laws of 1930s Germany, for example, were directly modeled on the Church's own rules governing treatment of Jews: until the collapse of the Papal States in the late 19th century, Jews living in these territories were forced to wear yellow badges and live in ghettos. Kertzer's arguments make for compelling reading because they're presented in story form, based on the actions of the popes themselves. Access to long-sealed Church archives allowed Kertzer to reconstruct some of the most shocking, secret conversations that occurred in the Vatican in the decades leading up to World War II. --Michael Joseph Gross
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Old Bigotries Never Die....:
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Christian Antisemitism:
Gregory IX, Innocent IV, Clement IV and Clement IX are among the popes known as protectors of the Jewish people. Another one was Alexander VI who welcomed those who sought refuge in Rome after the 1492 expulsion from Spain; he also allowed the immigration of those expelled from Portugal in 1497 and from Provence in 1498. The author makes it clear that this meticulously researched work is not intended as an attack on the church. He never criticizes Christian theology and takes into account the extenuating... more info Absolutely alarming -- but are we doing it again?:
David Kertzer's research in recently opened sections of the Vatican archives exposes a religious dimension to the rise of modern anti-Semitism. He reviews decisions and statements on the "Jewish problem", by clerics, the popes, and Christian political activists, mainly from the French Revolution to the Final Solution. The account he compiles is a calm, unflinching witness to the rising chorus of alarming accusations against a despised ethnic minority. And the accusations sound almost boringly familiar.more info Thorough and Necessary:
Books on what Pius XII did or did not do for the Jews during World War II seem to be a dime a dozen these days. We have books by John Cornwell, Susan Zucotti, Ronald Rychlak, Margaret Marchione, and many others trying to prove either that Pius was silent in the face of genocide, or that he did more to help the Jews than anyone else at the time. According to Kertzer, this attention is misplaced, since it ignores how the Vatican propagated anti-semitism. Specifically, this happened from Paul IV's order to... more info Similar Products:
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