The power of myth

We went to the first of a series of three lectures by one of our favorite
lecturers, Prof. Livia Bitton-Jackson of CCNY, retired in Netanya. She
spoke about "La Belle Juive," the myth of the ultra-beautiful, pure yet
passionate Jewish woman that is common in European Christian literature. I
wrote about this before when she gave a general lecture on the subject,
about the ugly, rich, old, grasping Jewish man and his beautiful daughter
(an example would be Shylock and Jessica in Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of
Venice"). This time she focused on the daughter (there is never a
wife/mother present, since this would detract from the feminine mystique).
In Christian mythology the anti-Semitic image of the old Jew represents the
Old Testament, while the beautiful young daughter represents the New
Testament. Although virtuous and desirable, she usually meets an unhappy end
and/or she converts to Christianity and lives happily ever after. There is
a contradiction at the root of this myth, the Jewess is both virtuous and
sexually permissive or even promiscuous. She usually has a noble Christian
lover, for whom she leaves her father, her religion and her people.
Sometimes she commits suicide if their relationship cannot be sanctified by
marriage (sometimes he is already married). There are hundreds of examples
of variations on this theme in French (Balzac), British ("Ivanhoe"), German,
Russian, Spanish (Rachel) literature from the 16th to the 21st century.
What were the origins of this myth. Clearly the figure of the Jewish woman
is based on the Madonna, the mother of Jesus Christ, who experienced
an "immaculate conception" and gave birth to the "son of God."
Actually in Christian myth she was "visited at night" by "the holy spirit,"
so it's all a bit hokey. There is also a hint of Mary Magdalene (Mary from
Magdala, a small town near the Sea of Galilee, whose name is derived from
the Hebrew Migdal meaning "tower"), who was a Jewish prostitute, yet a
devout follower of Christ. So the myth is extended to include the Jewish men
who rejected Christ and the Jewish women who accepted him. The early
lack of availability and isolation of Jewish women led to a greater sense of
desire on the part of Christian men. Also, they were perceived to be
vulnerable.
This myth had such a powerful grasp on Christian men's minds that during the
19th-20th centuries, to have a Jewish courtesan, a kept lover, who was a
beautiful Jewess, and supposedly more passionate than any other type of
woman, was the highest desire of wealthy Christian men. There were many
examples, including Sarah Bernhardt in France and examples of beautiful
Jewish courtesans in 19th century England and America.
There were of course exceptions to the negative portrayal of Jewish men,
especially in later English literature, including "Daniel Deronda" (1876) by
George Eliot and Leopold Bloom in Joyce's 'Ulysses' (1922).
Are Jewish women more passionate than other women, are Jewish men richer
and more viscerally unpleasant than others? This is the power of myth, that
men who had never or hardly ever seen a Jew (such as Shakespeare, since Jews
were expelled from Britain between the 12th and 17th century) could
subscribe to the myth because it was fed to them in the crib, because it was
part of their culture, and as such had no relationship with reality! Yet,
some Jews have accepted this myth as applying to them, hook line and sinker,
and can't wait to discard their perceived negative Jewishness and become
like the "rest."
The problem is that the anti-Semitic myth of the Jewish money-lender/tax
collector/commissar has returned in the form of the Jewish State. Israel
has now been reconfigured to fit the predominant Christian, and Muslim, myth
about Jews!
(Livia Bitton-Jackson published a book on this topic entitled "Madonna or
Courtesan?: The Jewish woman in Christian literature," now out of print.)