The exception Jews’ self-deception produced only Disraeli as a great figure

Evidence

Before we follow the strange ways which led the “exception Jews,” famous and notorious strangers, into the salons of the Faubourg St. Germain in fin-de-siecle France, we must recall the only great man whom the elaborate self-deception of the “exception Jews” ever produced. It seems that every commonplace idea gets one chance in at least one individual to attain what used to be called historical greatness. The great man of the “exception Jews” was Benjamin Disraeli. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 225

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the concept of ‘exception Jews’ — the assimilated, socially distinguished Jews permitted into gentile high society — which is the chapter’s central category.