Renan exempted modern Jews from Semitic character to fend off anti-Jewish bias charges

Evidence

Renan expressed repeatedly his view that the modern Jews are no longer pure Semites, in part probably to defend himself against the charges of anti-Jewish prejudice that followed his unflattering pronouncements on the Semitic character. One example is the introduction to his Histoire générale et système comparé des langues sémitiques (Paris: Lévy, 1878), xiv–xv. The “nomadic” Semites (i.e., the Bedouin) were, on the other hand, to Renan, the “real Semites,” as he stressed in a letter to Max Müller, Paris, May 8, 1860. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 850

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the chapter’s core argument about how Orientalist categories of the ‘Semite’ were calibrated and contradicted when applied to Jews — relevant to Kalmar and Penslar’s overall thesis.