Power in the Portrayal

In an interview on Jewish History

So here you’re talking about both of the titles you recommend by Bran at the same time, and what I take is the idea of a heterogeneous culture—of two cultures coexisting and of finding ways pragmatically to do that. But on the other hand of a notion of cultural relativism not being sufficient to describe or sustain the identity of the Jews. What we’re coming away with is the notion of a compromised identity—an identity which is rescued by a rejection of that compromise.

Right, there’s a dialectic. I don’t usually use that word. But there’s a kind of dialectic. Bran wants to look at how Muslims talk about Jews and about how Jews talk about Muslims but he has a terrible time finding Jews talking about Muslims. They were very careful. They produced thousands and thousands and thousands of pages of literature. All kinds of philosophy and poetry and legal writing but they were very very discreet with reference to their neighbours.