In 1979 James Gunn interviewed Isaac Asimov in preparation for a book Gunn was writing on Asimov’s work. At one point the conversation turned to Asimov’e views on Judaism.

I don’t consider myself a particularly virtuous person, but I like to think I have some virtues, of which loyalty is one. But possibly it is because I am not a very good Jew. I don’t attend any Jewish religious functions, I don’t follow any of the Jewish rituals, or its dietary laws, or anything about it, and yet never under any circumstances do I leave any doubt at all that I’m Jewish. I really dislike Judaism. I’m against it—it’s a form of particularly pernicious nationalism in my opinion. I don’t want humanity divided up into these little groups that are firmly convinced each one that it is better than the others and Judaism is the prototype of the ”I’m better than you” group—we were the ones who invented this business of the only God. It’s not just that we have our God and you have your God—it’s that we have the only God and you’ve got something less, you know? And I feel a deep and abiding historic guilt about that. And every once in a while when I’m not careful I think that the reason Jews have been persecuted as much as they have has been to punish them for having invented this pernicious doctrine.
And so, I suppose, because I feel that in some ways I have been a traitor to Judaism, which I try to make up for by making sure that everybody knows I’m a Jew, so while I’m deprived of the benefits of being part of a group, you know, I make sure that I don’t lose any of the disadvantages, because no one should think that I am denying my Judaism in order to gain certain advantages. But in order to make up for that, I made up my mind that I’m not going to be disloyal in any other way, and there it is, I suppose. I’m not saying I believe this, but this is the sort of thing that people do work up for reasons, and, after all, I’m imaginative enough to think up such reasons, too. So if you want one, there’s one handed to you free of charge, but I don’t guarantee it’s correct.

In the second volume of his autobiography In Joy Still Felt Asimov wrote this:

I managed to get into a dispute with Elie Wiesel, who irritated me by saying he didn’t trust scientists and engineers since so many of them had been involved in the Holocaust.

I maintained that a persecuted group did not automatically gain virtue by the fact that they were persecuted; that all human beings were potential persecutors given power; and that persecuted groups once they gained power often became persecutors. I mentioned Jews as having become persecutors under the Maccabees. Wiesel said, “It was the only time.” I said, “It was their only chance.”

I could add something, but I’ll refrain. For now.