The Importance of Jewish History in Europe

I was struck so early in the book that you quoted from someone who you have not been an enormous fan of these days, which is Benjamin Netanyahu. He talks about Mark Twain visiting Vienna and he's very impressed by the role of Jewish life in the contributions. And then Twain meets, according to Netanyahu, then Twain meets Herzl and Theodore Herzl. While Twain was optimistic about the Jews, Herzl was very pessimistic. You cannot assimilate your way out of the hatred of anti-Semitism.