“are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts, just as the Bretons and the Germans are born with blond hair. I would not be in the least bit surprised if these people would not some day become deadly to the human race.”

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And the following year:

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''You [Jews] have surpassed all nations in impertinent fables, in bad conduct and in barbarism. You deserve to be punished, for this is your destiny.''''

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One hundred and sixty years before Germany elected Adolph Hitler chancellor, Voltaire had already concluded that the Jews are, “deadly to the human race.” His conclusion that the Jews, “deserve to be punished, for this is your destiny” is taken nearly verbatim from Augustine who in turn quoted Matthew 27:25.

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Some modern philosophers would rescue Voltaire-as-antisemite by pointing out that his attack on the Jews was part of a more general assault on Christianity. And perhaps, had he limited his critique to Judaism-as-religion the argument might be somewhat credible. But Voltaire singled out “the Jews,” the “nation.” Nor are such antisemitic attacks limited to Voltaire. “The Jews” also appear with regularity in the writings of many others identified as Philosophes, and Jews and Judaism occupy more than twenty-five percent of Voltaire’s Dictionary.

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Voltaire and Diderot and most of the Philosophes, Europe’s intellectual avant-garde, were dedicated to liberating the continent from superstition and prejudice, from intolerance and what they perceived as the darkness of religion: how explain their unreflective import of 1700 years of anti-Jewish prejudice into their “rational” and secular model for a just and modern society?

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Chapter 9, From anti-Judaism to antisemitism: “The French Enlightenment”