Jews, Be Nice

Maurice Samuel

1932

Chapter One

The Jews are probably the only people in the world to whom it has ever been proposed that their historic destiny is—to be nice. This singular concept has played such an important role in recent Jewish history that it almost characterizes an epoch.

As applied to an individual, the word nice indicates a pleasing absence of character. It…

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Creator Bio

Maurice Samuel

1895–1972

Romanian-born Maurice Samuel spent his youth in Manchester, England. He moved to the United States in 1914 and spent most of the rest of his life there, except for a few years when he lived in Palestine during the British Mandate. He wrote and lectured prolifically, mainly on Jewish matters, and was one of the best-known exponents of Zionism in the United States and Britain before 1948. The most popular of his books was The World of Sholem Aleichem (1943), which was instrumental in bringing Yiddish literature to the attention of English-speaking readers. In his delightful memoir Little Did I Know (1963), he recalled his youth in the Jewish immigrant community of Manchester.

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