A woman and her son walked into the medical clinic of Dr. Max Nordau in Paris. From their dress and demeanor, it was clear that they were religious Jews, likely recent immigrants from Poland. This story took place in the late 1880s.

Max turned to the boy, who looked pale and weak from his illness and spoke to him in French.

The boy gave him a blank stare, and Max realized that he clearly didn’t understand French. This angered the patriotic Max, as he felt that all immigrants have a responsibility to learn the native language and assimilate into the culture of their host country, just as he himself had done.

Max impatiently turned to the mom and berated her for being stuck in her old backward ways, which he said was a lack of appreciation to the French government, who had taken them in a

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