The Public Square and the Jew as Religious Other

In his response to Professor Marshall's The Other Side of Religion, Professor Nahmod maintains that Marshall does not go far enough in emphasizing religion's dark side. The religious persecution of the Jew in Europe over two millennia provides considerably more insight into this dark side than Marshall's use of Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor narrative. This persecution has constituted the Jew as the paradigmatic Religious Other. Professor Nahmod concludes that the Jewish experience compels both the strict separation of church and state and the marginalization of religion in the public square for the benefit of all religious minorities.