The Jewish Contribution to Civilization / This work is intended as a contribution towards the settlement of a discussion of long standing, which is now once again attracting attention. It is alleged by modern anti-Semites, in order to justify a prejudice which, in these ostensibly tolerant times, they hesitate to base on theological grounds, that the Jew is essentially a middleman, who has produced nothing; that he is an alien excrescence on Western life; and that the influence which he has had on the world's culture, during the past two thousand years, has been entirely negative, if not deleterious. Such a criticism demands an analysis based not on theory but on fact; and this is what I have endeavored to provide. I have set out to write this book as objectively as possible. I am making no attempt to evaluate the Jewish genius or even to decide whether such a thing exists. Perhaps, on the basis of the material collected in this volume, it may be possible to come to some conclusion upon these problems in the future. My task has been a comparatively simple, if laborious, one. I have tried to assemble and set down in this volume a representative selection of the contributions made to the civilization, the culture, and the amenities of the western world by persons of Jewish lineage.
