Jewish History Quotes

• Won't it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.

  Maya Angelou

  Book, Native American, Black History

  "Maya Angelou: 'Barack Obama has done a remarkable job'" by Hugh Muir, www.theguardian.com. February 15, 2012.

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• I'm a Larry David fan, right? And it seems to me that Jewish history from the Talmud on has been a self-deprecating, self-critical kind of humor.

  Peter Eisenman

  Self, Fans, Kind

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• In Jewish history there are no coincidences.

  Elie Wiesel

  Coincidence, Jew

  "Elie Wiesel recounts 350 years of the Jewish experience in America" by Jessica Ullian, www.bu.edu. November 5, 2004.

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• Jewish history turns out not to be an either/or story - as in, either pure Judaism detached from its surroundings or else assimilation - but rather, for the vast majority, the adventure of living in between.

  Simon Schama

  Adventure, Majority, Stories

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• Look at Jewish history. Unrelieved lamenting would be intolerable. So for every ten Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast-beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one.

  Mel Brooks

  Crazy, Would Be, Looks

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• I think Jewish history did away with a priesthood when the Temple was destroyed, and it became, supposedly, a religion of scholars. A rabbi is just a scholar.

  Ben Katchor

  Thinking, Temples, Priesthood

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• My experience as a Jewish American has often been as a spectator of one-sided conversations, or more like monologues, about Israel, Jewish History, Jewish identity, etc. Although there are profound divisions amongst Jews on all of these topics there are not many opportunities for deep and thoughtful dialogue about them.

  Jill Soloway

  Thoughtful, Opportunity, Israel

  Source: therumpus.net

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• None of the participants ever arrived at a clear understanding of the actual horror of Auschwitz, which is of a different nature from all the atrocities of the past, because it appeared to prosecution alike as not much more than the most horrible pogrom in Jewish history.

  Hannah

  Past, Understanding, Atrocities

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• If the main thing the next generations know about Jewish history is that we were persecuted and suffered, they will lose sight of the tremendous heritage of Jewish culture, theology, and wisdom.

  Deborah Lipstadt

  Sight, Generations, Culture

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• It's very clear from Biblical history and Jewish history that Jewish monotheism wasn't developed in an instant, that it became gradually the accepted norm. But undoubtedly, Jewish ancestors were polytheists.

  Robert Winston

  Biblical, Accepted, Ancestor

  "Epiphanies: Lord Robert Winston". "The Spirit of Things" with Rachael Kohn, www.abc.net.au. June 4, 2006.

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• Judaism, Christianity, and I'm sure other religions also, are having to deal with the fact that they may or may not have lived up at all times to the injunctions of their own mystical center. For instance, when I went to Sunday school, I remember learning more about Jewish history than about God. So, once again, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the Jewish religion, it just means that sometimes people are not fed the mystical food - the spiritual food - of their own religious background.

  Marianne Williamson

  Spiritual, Religious, Mean

  Source: scottlondon.com

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• Presently, the Commission for Commemorating 350 Years of American Jewish History has been brought about to encourage and sponsor a variety of historical activities that advance our understanding of the American Jewish experience as it marks this milestone anniversary.

  Jon Porter

  Anniversary, Years, Understanding

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• Jewish history has been tragic to the Jews and no less tragic to the neighboring nations who have suffered them. Our major vice of old as of today is parasitism. We are a people of vultures living on the labor and good fortune of the rest of the world.

  Samuel Roth

  People, Vices, World

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• There is more to Jewish history than Auschwitz.

  Romain Gary

  Auschwitz

  "A Chameleon on Show" by Benjamin Ivry, forward.com. January 12, 2011.

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• Written with grace and thoroughly researched, One People, One Blood is an ethnography with a lot of heart that also sheds new light on a fascinating and fraught chapter in recent Jewish history.

  Ruth Behar

  Heart, Light, Blood

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• Zionism is the most stupendous fallacy in Jewish history

  Henry Morgenthau, Sr.

  Fallacy, Zionism

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• Major Trends [is] the canonical modern work on the nature and history of Jewish mysticism. For a sophisticated understanding, not only of the dynamics of Jewish mysticism, but of the exquisite complexities of Jewish history and tradition, Major Trends is a major port of entry through which one must pass.

  Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi

  Understanding, Trends, Dynamics

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