A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy, with Diaspora Peoples

“From an evolutionary perspective, the uniqueness of… Jews lies in their being the only people to successfully remain intact and resist normal assimilative processes after living for very long periods as a minority in other societies” (p86).

“Allow converts and intermarriage at a formal theoretical level, but minimise them in practice” (p97).

“Powerful group strategies tend to beget opposing group strategies that in many ways provide a mirror image of the group which they combat” (Separation and Its Discontents: pxxxvii)

“National Socialist ideology was a mirror image of traditional Jewish ideology… [Both shared] a strong emphasis on racial purity and on the primacy of group ethnic interests rather than individual interests… [and] were greatly concerned with eugenics” (Separation and Its Discontents: p194).

“Jews alone of all the subject peoples in the Roman Empire engaged in prolonged, even suicidal wars against the government in order to attain national sovereignty… [and] only… Jews, of all subject peoples were exempt from having to sacrifice to the Empire’s Gods, and… were… allowed its own courts and… ex officio government” (p356-8).

“Jewish economic activity has historically been characterized by high levels of within-group economic cooperation and patronage. Jewish elites overwhelmingly tended to employ other Jews in their enterprises” (p220)

“The prototypical Jewish role as an instrument of governmental oppression has been that of the tax farmer” (p175).

“Precisely because their interests, as a genetically segregated group, were maximally divergent from those of the exploited population… [they would have] no family or kinship ties (and thus no loyalty) to the people who were being ruled” (p172)

“The archetype of the well placed courtier who helps other Jews, while oppressing the local population, is Joseph [in the Old Testament]” (p175)

“The price the [middleman] minority pays for protection in times of minimal stress is to be placed on the front lines of battle in any showdown between the elite and the peasant groups” (p173).

“Jewish economic activity… tended not to be characterized by technological innovation related to mechanical abilities” (p291)

“The presence of the priesthood among the Babylonian exiles and its absence among the Syrian exiles [i.e. the Lost Tribes]… may explain why the latter eventually… assimilated and the former did not” (p394).

“The Israelite system has been so successful in its persistence precisely because crucial aspects of the strategy were continually changed… to meet current contingencies” (p396).

“A group strategy does not require a genetic barrier between the strategizing group and the rest of the population… [and] strategizing groups can range from complete genetic segregation from the surrounding population to complete panmixia” (p15; p27).

“In order to qualify as an evolutionary strategy, genetic segregation must be actively maintained by the strategizing group” (p85).