Jew Suss

It is somewhat surprising that this novel, which became a best-seller soon after it was first published in 1925, should have been written by a self-consciously Jewish writer. Though its purpose was to expose and condemn antisemitism, it is easy to see that how the Nazis could mine it for the infamous antisemitic film under that title in 1940. True, that film was a distortion of the novel, but the character and appearance of Süss and of other Jews in the book is quite distasteful enough. It is, however, also true that all the non-Jews are distasteful also: there is in fact hardly an attractive character in the book. Josef Süss-Oppenheimer was an ambitious Jewish financier, who from 1733 until 1737 not only ran the personal and public finances of Charles Alexander, the Duke of Württemberg, but also supported the Duke's Catholic autocracy against the Protestant Estates and the Protestant Constitution of Württemberg. He therefore made many enemies among the establishment, was also detested by the people whose financial burdens he greatly increased. He himself discarded traditional Jewish dress and maintained the lavish life-style of the aristocracy, which further exposed him to hatred. That he was a Jew, at a time before Jewish emancipation, of course added fuel to the fire. On the day that Charles Alexander died, Süss-Oppenheimer was arrested and charged with constitutional and financial improprieties. He was hanged in 1738 and his remains were publicly exhibited in an iron cage. It is generally believed that this was a judicial murder, to which the vicious and visceral antisemitism of the time contributed. Feuchtwanger paints the political and social history of time in great and impressive detail (except that there is not a single date in the book); but he really lets himself go in unappealing and stereotypical details, repeated over and over again in this very long novel: the more observant Jews wear greasy kaftans and have bloodless faces; Süss is portrayed as arrogant and at the same time obsequious (allowing himself to be insulted over and over again by the coarse Duke and his courtiers), indifferent to the impression he knows he creates and to the warnings of his more cautious co-religionists, subtle and scheming and of course ever obsessed with profit and power. Then, three-fifth of the way through the book, Süss discovers that, although he had been brought up as a Jew since childhood, he was in fact the illegitimate son of a German nobleman, a Field Marshal no less. There is no documentary proof of this, though the legend circulated in Süss' own lifetime. Feuchtwanger presents it as a fact. The one redeeming feature in this otherwise odious figure was that he had always proudly refused to convert: indeed, he had savoured his power the more because he had held it as a Jew; and he now, equally proudly, refused to make use of his new knowledge and to claim Christian and aristocratic descent. Perhaps these stereotypes correspo

Traditional Judaism created the concept of "chillul hashem" (desecrating or embarrassing the name of G-d, usually by making Jews or Judaism look bad) and "kiddush hashem" (sanctifying the name of G-d) to describe behavior by Jews that makes Jews look especially bad or good (respectively) in the eyes of the gentile world. This novel is about both: most of the main character's life constituted a chillul hashem. As a German king's chief financial officer, he taxes the peasants into penury. But eventually he sabotages the king's plans for despotism and nobly stands by his religion at the cost of his life.

This is one of the most powerful books ever written. All works of Lion Feuchtwanger deserve the special place in our history and in our hearts and this book is right on the top of it.

A Russian friend told me to buy this book..he said it was extremely popular about young Russian Jews... I found it to be a powerfully healing book for people who are in turmoil and looking for some purpose in the grand scheme of things..the book in parts is very biting,very disturbing, and at times hysterically funny..it is timeless as its characters and their exaggerated flaws applied to modern leaders..and to Jews who are striving to be non Jews..For Jews who have lost touch with their roots through their families' attempts at assimilation but who feel their Jewish soul..this book might help lessen their pain and find their purpose in living.. Bobby

Feuchtwanger is probably the best historical novelist in the world - truly superb in erudition and majestic in his literary style. While this German Jewish writer is famous for his Josephus trilogy detailing the scenes of the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, he has also written unequaled novels on Goya the artist, J.J.Rousseau the philosopher, and last but not least, on Benjamin Franklin. Jew Suss is about medieval Europe and the Jewish presence there, sometimes a very visible presense, sometimes kabbalistically hidden. A tour-de-force of the highest calibre.