Herr Dohm admits candidly that the Jewish brain is more harmful and more corrupted than that of other Europeans, an admission which several defenders of the Jews were hitherto unwilling to make. He seeks the reason for this, however, in the condition in which the Jew lives, reviled, oppressed, and forced to support himself almost exclusively from trade. Herr Dohm has probably no idea to what extent I agree with him in this matter; I wrote exactly the same thing thirty years ago in a piece in the Goettingische gelehrte Anzeigen. I would like to express my opinion as it was then and as it still is today. Mine goes one step further, however, than does that of Herr Dohm in that it takes account of the deceitfulness of the Jews.
We can see, principally from reports of investigations of thieves, that the Jews are more harmful than at least we Germans are. Almost half of those belonging to gangs of thieves, at least those of whose existence is known to us, are Jews, while the Jews are scarcely 1/25th of the total population of Germany. If this 1/25th part supplies the same number of riff-raff as the whole German people, or even more, then one must conclude that at least in respect to thievery, which I consider to be the lowest of vices, the Jews are twenty-five times harmful or more than the other inhabitants of Germany.
I also agree with what Herr Dohm says about the praiseworthy aspects of the national character of the Jews and I would add only one comment: The Jews have a great deal of national pride, and not the least reason for this is their conception of themselves as God’s Chosen People. It seems to me, however, that this pride has deleterious effects on their nation, preventing them from mingling with other people.
It is clear from several of Herr Dohm’s remarks that he does not seek, as other do, to obtain special privileges for those who are Jews only n name or in origin and who do not believe in the Jewish religion, those who are known as Deists, or who are perhaps not even that. I agree with this completely. When I see a Jew eating pork, in order no doubt to offend his religion, then I find it impossible to rely on his word, since I cannot understand his heart.
After so much argument with Herr Dohm on basic issues it undoubtedly appears to my readers that I agree with him about granting citizenship to the Jews. But this is not the case and I must now express my reservations.
In mentioning the Law of Moses, Herr Dohm considers that religion to be superior to mine. He sees nothing inimical in it, nothing that could incite the hatred of the Jews towards other people. No one could agree with him about this more than I; permit me nevertheless to raise a different question: Does the Law of Moses make citizenship, and the full integration of the Jew into other peoples, difficult or impossible? I think it does! The purpose of this Law is to maintain the Jews as a people almost completely separate from other peoples, and this purpose is an integral part of all the laws, down to those concerning kosher and non-kosher food, with the result that the Jews have lived as a separate group during 1700 years of dispersion. As long as the Jews continue to observe the Mosaic Laws, as long as they refuse, for example, to eat together with us and to form sincere friendship at the table, they will never become fully integrated in the way that Catholics, Lutherans, Germans, Wend, and French live together in one state. (I am not discussing isolated cases, but rather the Jews as collective entity.) Such a people could be useful to the state in agricultural work or in various crafts, if the matter be handled wisely. But it will be impossible to consider the Jew as an equal of our citizens, and it is therefore impossible to grant him the same freedoms. For he will never be a full citizen with respect to love for and pride in his country (as Herr Dohm, for example, takes pride in his Prussian citizenship) and he will never be fully reliable in an hour of danger...

One must mention something in addition to the Law of Moses, which Herr Dohm seems not to have considered, and which casts doubt on the full and steadfast loyalty of the Jews to the state and the possibility of ftheir full integration, namely their messianic expectation of a return to Palestine. The Jews will always see the state as a temporary home, which they will leave in the hour of their greatest happiness to return to Palestine. For similar reasons their forefathers were suspect in the eyes of the Egyptians (Ex. 1:10). Passages in the sayings of the prophets, even in those of Moses himself, seem to promise the Israelites a future return to Palestine, and the Jews at least hope for this return on the authority of those passages. And this is true not only for the simple masses, but also for the great commentators on the bIble who have been universally admired for many hundreds of years, men such as Rashi, and others who are more objective such as Ibn Ezra and David Kimchi, whose names I cannot mention but to honor them. It is true that our Lutheran commentators often deny this (not all, not the wise Phillip Jakob Spener for example, whose arguments have almost the force of legal authority among jurists), and so do several others of different religions. But it is doubtful whether they will convince the Jews, particularly when philosophers of the greatest eminence (not necessarily Newton, who is too apocalyptic, but rather Locke) interpret these passage in exactly the same way. A people which nurses these hopes will lack, at the very least, a patriotic love for the fields [Ackers] of their fathers. There is even the danger that if the Jewish agricultural settlers and to avoid placing them among the Christians) it may at some time be inflamed by a febrile vision, or lead to destruction by some latter-day Pied Piper of Hamlyn.
And now I must state my principal objection. Herr Dohm’s proposal to give the Jews rights of citizenship equal to our own, even to the poor Jew who does not bring money into the state, and to open to them all the professions such as agriculture, crafts, etc., would indeed be blessing for them. But it would gravely weaken the state, even in the unlikely case that the Jews would bring wealth and money directly into the state, or attract them in the course of time. For the power of a state does not depend on gold alone, but rather, in large part, on the strength of its soldiers. And the Jews will not contribute soldiers to the state as long as they do not change their religious views. There are several reasons for this. First, the Jews will not fight on the Sabbath, for they are forbidden to do so if not attacked...As long as they observe the laws about kosher and non-kosher food it will be almost impossible to integrate them into our ranks. No one would recommend forming special units for them, especially since the oath of the Jews is one of the most complicated matters in the world. Eisenmenger is justified in complaining that it is highly doubtful whether the Jew respects an oath as we do. One must add to this a further physical argument, albeit a hypothetical one, which Herr Dohm seems not to have considered. It is held that the conduct of modern warfare requires a specific minimum height for the soldiers. Whether this claim is justified I am not qualified to judge. At any event this is accepted practice in the two most militarily powerful German states. If this claim be true, very few Jews of the necessary height will be found who will be eligible for the army.