On January 1, 1963, the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord, General de Gaulle was probably not thinking of his Jewish ancestors, the Kolbs; Chancellor Adenauer was not thinking of his Jewish ancestors, the Adenauers; the King of Sweden was not thinking of his half-Jewish ancestor, Bernadotte; Archduke Otto of Habsburg was not thinking of his Jewish ancestor, Joanna Enriquez, mother of Ferdinand the Catholic; the King of Belgium was not thinking of his Jewish ancestor, Pereira, from whom his great-grandmother Braganza descends; Queen Elizabeth was not thinking of her Jewish ancestors on her mother's side, the Bowes-Lyons; the Duke of Edinburgh was not thinking of his Jewish ancestors, the Haukes; President Kennedy was not thinking any more about the White House than his Jewish ancestors, the Kennedys; and Vice President Johnson was not thinking of his Jewish ancestors, the Johnsons.

It was equally doubtful that in Louveciennes, the Count of Paris thought of the Jewish Pierleoni, from whom the Bourbons descend through Jean d'Alambert; the Jewish Alvarez de Toledo, from whom they descend through the Medicis; and the Jewish Enriquez, from whom they also descend through Anne of Austria. And in Havana, Fidel Castro was probably not thinking of his Jewish ancestors, the Castros; nor in Madrid was General Franco thinking of his Jewish ancestors, the Francos; nor in Lisbon was President Salazar thinking of his Jewish ancestors, the Salazars.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]