The Story of the Jews Volume 2: When Words Fail: 1492--Present

by Simon Schama

In a virtuoso coda, Mendelssohn made a brilliant polemical swerve back to his original conviction, the one that mattered most for Jews and thus for the world at large. What, he wondered, was so precious about ‘union’ anyway that it must always override the claims of diversity? Different beliefs, especially where they were grounded in mutually exclusive revelations, would never be capable of dissolving themselves into some fictitious or temporarily expedient comity. ‘If you care about true piety, let us not feign agreement when diversity is evidently the plan and purpose of providence.’50 Why not accept that, and restrict the role of the state to ensuring that irresolvable conflicts were not taken to the point of physical harm? The alternative to tolerating diversity was coercion for the sake of unity which was bound to be an admission of failure, the persuasiveness of a doctrine being the only sure way to make an enduring community of faith.