SOURCE: Alter, Robert. “Modernism, the Germans, and the Jews.” Commentary 65, no. 3 (March 1978): 61–67.

In the following essay, Alter argues that Gay provides convincing discussion of the specific figures covered in Freud, Jews, and Other Germans, but neglects to address important historical factors which do not support his thesis.

This Jewish obstinacy! Enough to make an anti-Semite of a man! This pride of race, this feeling of solidarity! Do you believe I am ever, in any of my actions, guided by the thought that I am “German” (perhaps, qui le sait)? Do you believe that Mozart composed as an “Aryan”? I know only two types of people: those with and those without talent.

—Richard Strauss, letter to Stefan Zweig, June 17, 1935¹

To the love of the Jews for Germany there corresponded the emphatic distance with which the Germans encountered them. We may grant that with “distant love” the two partners could...