Half a century before that abominable event, however, a number of leading Jewish intellectuals had already come to the realization that assimilation into European culture was futile. They believed they would never share in the imaginary cultural homogeneity being constructed in the burgeoning nation-states of Europe and thus would never find a home on the continent. Drumont was right, some of them thought. The Jews were a nation within a nation. Only by extricating themselves from Europe and establishing their own nation-state could they be truly free of persecution.
