Puzzlement at what he terms “this stavistic outbreak in Germany” is expressed by the Very Rev. Dr. W. R. Inge, former Dean of St. Pauls, in an article on “Jew-Baiting” in the Evening Standard.
The Gloomy Dean, as he is popularly known, praises the record of Jews in philosophy, literature, science and music and heaps ridicule upon the Germans for persecuting them.
“I am completely puzzled by this stavistic outbreak in Germany,” he writes. “We can be silly enough ourselves at times; but when we want to be medieval, we are content to array our clergy in the Court dress of a Byzantine nobleman; we have got beyond the baiting of Jews, the burning of witches, and the torture of witnesses.”
“The Germans, who are certainly not fanatical Christians,” Dean Inge continues, “have invented a new excuse for their barbarities. The Jews are to be banned on eugenic grounds. This is perhaps the most ridiculous pretext ever invented. For the Jews, with the possible exception of the Scotch, are the most highly endowed race in the world, in practical ability.
“The Jews have a very fine record in philosophy, imaginative literature, natural science, and, above all, in music. In painting they excel rather as connoisseurs than as artists. But on the whole, they are perhaps the most gifted race in the world.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
