The Jews for example assume anti-Semitism where this is not necessarily the case, whereas many of the local people accuse the Jews of wanting to take over the town by buying the slaughterhouse. In both cases the accusations are neither true nor realistic. Both groups close their eyes for their own faults and focus only on the perceived flaws in the other. Ironically, this works to the detriment of both. The conflict situation is allowed to escalate to a point where the townspeople are willing to give up the lucrative fortune generated by the Jews just for the sake of being rid of them. The Jews in turn would lose the opportunity to make their share of the profit as well, and everyone loses.

The issue thus puzzling to me is one of tolerance. America is supposedly the "Mecca of religious tolerance" as Bloom (p. 15) terms it. Why then...
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