הפריפריה היתה למרכז

Tracing the social and intellectual evolution of French Jewry in the 19th century, focuses on the foundation in 1860 of the Alliance Israelite Universelle and its activities in defense of persecuted Jews. Ch. 3, on the Rothschild family, discusses also James de Rothschild's involvement (in collaboration with Adolphe Cremieux) in assisting the Syrian Jews accused of ritual murder in the Damascus Affair (1840). The international influence of the Rothschild family helped the creation of the stereotype of "Jewish world domination." Notes that the myth of the almighty Jewish banker was central to the anti-capitalist theories of the early French socialists. Discusses attitudes towards Jewish emancipation, noting that those who were opposed blamed the Jewish religion for "Jewish vices." (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)