TO THE EDITOR:
In her letter critiquing Jalynn Harris’ glib and inappropriate reference to eugenics, Marissa Krantz stated that “European Jews ... have already been told to stop procreating. They have been told this for centuries.”
That is not necessarily the case and I want to provide some nuance to her historical narrative of the ambiguous relationship between Jews and eugenics. First of all, eugenics as an intellectual movement can most clearly be traced back to the first half of the 19th century.
More importantly, though, a number of Jewish doctors and thinkers were active participants in discourses on eugenics, from the turn of the century until the Holocaust. For example, the historian Sharon Gillerman has aptly shown that Jewish leaders in the Weimar Republic such as Felix Teilhaber believed that positive eugenic practices would allow for the continued, hygienic existence of German Jews.
In summation, I applaud the spirit of Ms. Krantz’s letter, but the history she uses to back her argument needs some revision.
Max Lazar
Graduate Student
History
