Racial science hardened the German-Jewish boundary while dissolving other European distinctions.

Evidence

It is of no small significance that at the same time the “science of racial differences” was developing and Jews were thought to be a different race— Semites versus Aryans. Racial thinking blurred the distinctions between the Germans, French, and British but enhanced the distinction between Ger­ mans and Jews. Again, much of intergroup categorization into in-groups and out-groups depends on being able to define clear dimensions along which the groups differ (Hogg & Abrams, 1988). — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 916

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Black Marxism and colonial-racial-classification notes: racial ideology selectively sharpening one boundary to serve political purposes. — connects to: Jews challenged Europe’s binary classifications from the nineteenth century onward; Assimilated German Jews were trapped in a double differentiation from both worlds — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 218; Jews internalized German racial questions, which then returned as demands for their removal — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 778
• SEED: Angle: ‘the science that redrew the map’ — how a pseudoscience was calibrated to make exactly one neighboring group distinguishable and alien.

Broader Connections

• Assimilated German Jews were trapped in a double differentiation from both worlds #expands (0.90) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 218
• Jews challenged Europe’s binary classifications from the nineteenth century onward #expands (0.85)
• Jews internalized German racial questions, which then returned as demands for their removal #expands (0.80) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 778