Joseph Roth - Judeus Errantes

"This book dispenses with the applause and approval, but also with the protest and even the criticism of those who despise, disdain, hate, and persecute Eastern Jews. The book is not addressed to Western Europeans who, because they grew up with elevators and toilets, assume the right to tell tasteless jokes about Romanian lice, Galician bedbugs, and Russian fleas. This book dispenses with "objective" readers who, with the cheap and bitter benevolence of the wavering towers of Western civilization, cast sidelong glances at the Near East and its inhabitants; who, out of pure humanity, lament the poor plumbing and, for fear of contagion, lock poor immigrants in shacks, where the solution to a social problem is left to the discretion of mass death." This book is not intended for those who deny their own parents or ancestors, who, by sheer chance, escaped the barracks. This book was not written for readers who would take offense at the author treating the subject of his exposition with passion instead of with "scientific objectivity," which can also be called tedious. To whom, then, is this book intended?
The author harbors foolish hopes that there are still readers before whom it is not necessary to defend Eastern Jews; readers who feel respect for pain, for human greatness, and for the filth that accompanies suffering everywhere; Western Europeans who are not proud of their clean mattresses; who feel they have much to receive from the East and who perhaps know that great ideas come from Galicia, Russia, Lithuania, and Romania; but also (in their perspective) useful ideas that help consolidate and expand the firm structure of Western civilization—and not just pickpockets, whom the most infamous product of Western Europe, the local press, calls "guests from the East."
This book will not be in a position to deal with the problem of Eastern Judaism with the comprehensive depth it requires and deserves. It will only attempt to describe the people who represent the problem and the circumstances behind it. It will only give an account of some parts of the vast subject, which, to be treated in its full breadth, would require the author to undertake as many migrations as entire generations of Eastern Jews have undergone.

Joseph Roth, 'Preface'