Assimilated Jewish pride was matched by ignorance of Jewish life

Evidence

The mixture of pride and ignorance in these matters, however, was characteristic of all the newly assimilated Jews. The great difference is that Disraeli knew even a little less of Jewish past and present and therefore dared to speak out openly what others betrayed in the half-conscious twilight of behavior patterns dictated by fear and arrogance. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 231

Categorization

• XREF: Psychologically parallels the colonized/intelligentsia subject position Arendt later generalizes — the assimilated elite’s identity is constituted by distance from and ignorance of the mass it claims to represent; connects to Fanon and to the native intellectual theme in Orientalism. — connects to: German-Jewish philanthropy to immigrant slum dwellers was laced through with patronizing contempt