Jews in the History of Early Civilizations

The establishment of states and the emergence of nationalities were a warning bell for Jewish communities in Europe, as modern states were built on an ethnic basis, and the Jews who lived isolated in the “Jewish ghetto” did not understand this. A state of intense hatred for Jews prevailed in Western Europe, which led a great thinker like “Max Weber” to consider them the origin of evil in the world, while “Hegel” confirmed that the Jewish national spirit did not realize the ideals of freedom and reason, and that its rituals were primitive and irrational. “Gustave Le Bon” followed the approach of European thinkers in their position on the Jews during that era, and formulated his book “The Jews in the History of Early Civilizations” from this point of view, so he heaped accusations on them, and described them with the ugliest descriptions, denying any role for them in the emergence of ancient civilizations. Thus, this book represents a pattern of thought that prevailed in Europe from the Middle Ages until the mid-twentieth century.