Disraeli's Christ°logical Views, Jewish
Pride Outlined in Drake's New Biography
Benjamin Disraeli — Lord Bea-
consfield — and his time, the Brit-
ish Prime Minister's friendship
with Queen Victoria, his battles
with Gladstone, his successful trad-
ing for the acquisition of the Suez
Canal shares, his literary suc-
cesses, and a score of other mat-
ters that made history not only
for England but for the world—
these have intrigued readers for
many decades. Yet a new biogra-
phy of the eminent statesman re-
tains its appeal, and "Disraeli"
by Robert Blake, published by
St. Martin's Press (175 5th, N.Y.),
is such a fascinating work that
what might have been considered
an old subject emerges in a new
light, with a greater appeal to dis-
criminating readers than most pre-
vious life stories about a famous
personality.
Here we read about Disraeli the
fop, Disraeli the libertine, Disraeli
the political phenomenon who,
despite his Jewish origin — which
certainly was an even more seri-
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ous handicap in his day than in
later times — rose to the highest
political position in his country.
Blake has produced a work that
will serve as a valuable evaluative
historical record about an impor-
tant era in European history; it
will be a major source of material
for research about the man under
study and the time in which he
lived. It is a truly great biography
and it has many elements that
commend it for its style and its
thorough coverage of historical
data.
For Jewish readers there is a
special interest in this work
which elevates Drake's "Dis-
raeli" above most similar bio-
graphical studies. Taking into ac-
count Disraeli's constant affirma-
tions of his adopted Christianity,
the pride he took in his Jewish
heritage, in his having stemmed
from Jews, makes the Drake
story especially interesting.
Much has been written about
Disraeli's Jewish family back-
ground. In Drake we find a resume
that provides as good if not a
better understanding of the atti-
tude of the statesman's father,
Isaac D'Israeli, than can be found
anywhere else. The entire family
lineage is probed very thoroughly
and the reader gets an excellent
introduction to the famous family.
The community issues which had
led Isaac D'Israeli to abandon the
Jewish faith. His rift with the Jew-
ish community, his differences
with the Congregation of Bevis
Marks which he had served as
Parnass or Warden, his refusal to
pay a 50 pound fine — these led
to withdrawal from Jewish ranks.
The story is that Isaac's mother
"detested Judaism" and the Basevi
family (Mrs. D'Israell's) withdrew
from the Jewish congregation at
the same time.
First the two younger D'Israeli
boys were taken to be baptized,
on July 11, 1817; Benjamin not
until July 31 and his sister Sarah
on Aug. 28. Drake states that Dr.
Cecil Roth, whom he credits with
being among the best informed
men on the Disraeli story, had
suggested that Benjam in and
Sarah, "being old enough to have
some ideas of their own, may have
dug their toes in and refused to
accompany their father's friend"
when the younger boys were taken
to be baptized, but Benjamin is
referred to as having had "no
memory of such reluctance." Ben-
jamin was 13 when he was con-
verted.
Drake contends that "Disraeli
suffered from a potentially fatal
handicap. He was a Jew. The
handicap did not arise from so-
cial or religious persecution.
England at the beginning of the
19th Century was a tolerant place,
and its Jewish inhabitants were
numerically far below the figure
at which .. . an alien minority
risks becoming the object of
hatred to their fellow citizens.
The Jewish religion with its
strange observances and eccen-
tric taboos inspired cariosity
rather than detestation. The
handicap lay in the fact that the
law prohibited non-Christians
from entering Parliament .. ."
And as an added comment upon
Disraeli's conversion Blake
writes: "Benjamin had taken, or
been pushed into taking, far the
most important decision of his
boyhood. From now onwards he
was a practicing member of the
Church of England as by law
established. Had he remained a
Jew, his later political career
would have been impossible. He
would never have become leader
of the Conservative party if he
had been obliged to wait till his
middle fifties before entering
Parliament." The barrier against
Jews entering Parliament on a
Jew's oath was not lifted until
1858.
While Drake evidences an ap-
parent lack of understanding of
Jewish practices when he writes
about them as "curious" and "ec-
18 Friday, June 2, 1967
—
centric," he does show an under-
standing of the Disraeli attitude
vis-a-vis Jews, Judaism and Chris-
tianity. Discussing Disraeli's liter-
ary works, dealing primarily with
his "Coningsby," . . . "where the
oniscient enigmatic Jewish multi-
millionaire, Sidonia, that strange
fantasy fulfilment of a cross be-
tween Baron de Rothschild and
Disraeli himself, makes his ap-
pearance and indeed instructs
Coningsby in the principles of race
as well as in those of Young Eng-
land," Blake asserts: "Sidonia's
famous role of European ministers
of finance who were Jews, so often
quoted by anti-Semites, was quite
incorrect. None of them was, and
in his pride at his descent Disraeli
had unknowingly given birth here
and elsewhere a formidable weap-
on to the fanatical enemies of his
race." Then Drake declares:
"At the time Disraeli was writ-
ing there was a good deal of
discussion going on in terms of
'race.' Gobineau had yet to write
his 'Inegalite des Races 11n-
maines,' but the ideas on which
it was based had been in the air
for years before. Many English
writers talked of Saxon, Norman,
Teuton, or Latin 'blood.' When
Disraeli makes Sidonia say, 'All
is race; there is no other truth,'
or declare 'The face is, you can-
not destroy a pure race of the
Caucasian organization,' his
readers would not have regarded
it as the nonsense we consider it
today. What Disraeli is trying
to do is to vindicate his own
Jewish descent, and proclaim
that the Hebrews, far from de-
serving contempt, ought to be
favoured above all other nations.
Did not the Son of Man belong
to the Jewish race? Were not the
Prophets and the Apostles Jews,
not to mention a long, though
frequently erroneous, list of other
distinguished, if less holy, per-
sonages produced by Disraeli?
He was not in any sense invent-
ing the notion of a hierarchy of
races. He was merely turning
the commonly accepted one up-
side down. Sidonia is Disraeli's
revenge for Fagin."
It is especially interesting to note
the pragmatic evaluation of Dis-
raeli's Christian views in the fol-
lowing supplementary comment by
Drake:
"His theological Ideas were, In
reality, the rationalization of his
own peculiar psychological di-
lemma. It suited him to blur as
far as possible the differences
between the Jewish and Chris-
tian faiths. He almost seems at
times to regard Christ's Jewish-
ness as more important than His
divinity. To him the Jew is a
proto-Christian, and Christianity
is completed Judaism. How else
could a person intensely proud of
the Jewish ancestry which his
less worthy enemies flung in his
face, yet at the same time a con-
vert to the very faith of those
who sneered at him, justify both
that pride and that conversion?"
In reality, this is the path pur-
sued by all missionaries who had
been Jews. Drake pursues this
theme in his probing of Disraeli's
Jewish attitudes when discussing
his "Tancred," in outlining the
struggle in Parliament to remove
the barriers against the seating of
Jews who would not take the Chris-
tian oath. To quote again from
Drake's biography:
"Disraeli not only regarded
Christianity as the completion, the
logical fulfillment of Judaism, he
also considered that the Jews were
entitled to be admitted to the
House because theirs had been
the faith into which our Lord and
His disciples were born. 'The very
reason for admitting the Jews,'
he said to the House, 'is because
they can show so near an affinity
to you. Where is your Christianity
if you do not believe in their Juda-
ism?' This was quite a different
argument from the orthodox lib-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
eral thesis that no one should be
excluded from the legislature on
grounds of his religious beliefs,
however false those beliefs might
seem to the majority of members.
"In 'Tancred' Disraeli had gone
so far as to argue that Christians
should be positively grateful to the
Jews for having prevailed on the
Romans to crucify Christ. He did
not quite repeat this claim to the
House of Commons, but his whole
aproach was deeply repugnant to
the other members and this repug-
nance was enhanced by his curious
trick — unconscious self-revelation
perhaps — of referring to 'your
Christianity,' and what 'you owe
to this people,' as if he felt him-
self, in some sense, alien to both
sides; which indeed he was."
As a study in Christian-Jewish
relations, insofar as the parlia-
mentary debate is concerned —
the surprisingly poor impression
that was made by Disraeli in his
appeal for the seating of Jewish
members—contrasted by the more
effective non-religious appeals by
the other liberals—and as a probe
of Disraeli's passionate pro-Jewish-
ness while affirming his newly-
adopted faith — or the faith that
was forced upon him by his par-
ents — Drake's is an unusually
interesting study.
In its totality the new "Disraeli"
is a remarkably good biography.
It's a big book — and a good one.
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