REFLECTIONS

What was/is your Israel Test? This is what George Gilder ask of his readers in his latest book. This is not just a question for the anti-Semites but for all of us. The future of the Western concept of liberty depends upon our answers.

For myself my Israel Test occurred in ninth grade. After our English class read and discussed Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice the teacher caught me shaking my head. I thought Shylock got screwed by a sneaky, lawyer’s trick! A dead-beat bum’s girlfriend dressed like a man so to lie to the court about the pound of flesh deal. Sigh. Was Shakespeare telling us about the antisemitism in Europe? Gilder does and he explains how the Jewish merchants kept capitalism alive despite European mismanagement of it.

The Israel Test by George Gilder

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