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Anti-Semitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present

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Marvin Perry and Frederick Schweitzer have written an important treatment of the origins and development of antisemitism from antiquity to the present. The authors begin with the account of the death and trial of Jesus in the gospels which portray the
Jews as "Christ Killers," creating a myth that has been nourished in the Christian church throughout the centuries. The second chapter covers the outrageous and absurd accusation that the Jews practice murder of Christian children as a religious ritual. Such allegations, common in the Middle Ages, began to appear again in the 17th century in eastern Europe. This blood libel is still flourishing, especially in Arab countries,

The third major subject is the demonization of the Jews: Christians equated the Jews with Satan or the Antichrist during the Middle Ages, and the Jews were blamed for the Black Death. Luther laid the foundations for German antisemitism, although the authors point out that "anti-Judaism during the middle Ages and the Reformation was essentially theological, not racial." A racial anti-Judaism arose in Spain, where it was argued that the Jews were wicked not only because of religion but also because they had bad blood. In the 19th century, extreme nationalism and Volkish thought (which saw the Jew as a racial inferior) set the scene for modern, racial antisemitism. Another
strand of calumny centers around the notorious forgery, the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, which lays out a conspiracy on the part of leading Jews to take over the world. The authors show that the Protocols was widely accepted in Germany and was an important ingredient, along with Volkish nationalism, in the Germans' acceptance of the Nazi doctrine of racial antisemitism. More recently, the Protocols have found
widespread approbation in the Muslim world.

Chapter four concerns the economic view of the Jew as Shylock. Again, the authors trace this phenomenon from the Middle Ages into modern times. A very interesting section deals with Karl Marx's antisemitism in his essay "On the Jewish Question," and
Werner Sombart's writings in support of Marx's views. A particularly sad conclusion to the chapter details Henry Ford's use of the Protocols of Zion which led Hitler to declare that Ford was his inspiration.

The final chapter deals with the denial of the Holocaust by neo-Nazis. After addressing the views of individual deniers of the Holocaust, the authors refute the myth itself. The final topic is the growing antisemitism in the black community. The authors argue that, although Jews were heavily represented in the civil rights movement, there has been a deepening alienation between African Americans and Jews. Louis Farrakhan, as head of the Nation of Islam, has taken advantage of this alienation and exacerbated it.

This study, based on the latest scholarship, is carefully conceived and well-written. Its spirit is ecumenical and irenic. Its subtitle, "Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the
Present," neatly sums up its contents. Its timeliness is underscored by the recent statements of the prime minister of Malaysia at a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Echoing the conspiracy theory of the Protocols of Zion, he asserted that the Jews rule the world by proxy and that they invented socialism and communism.

Since the 1967 Israeli-Arab War, antisemitism has been revived throughout the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. The age old canards of ritual murder and deicide, and the recent ones of holocaust denial and anti-Zionism have gathered new adherants among Islamics and Christians.
The authors of 'ANTISEMITISM', Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer, have written a very readable and scholarly work explaining clearly the genesis and development of the many ugly heads of antisemitism. The factual material presented leads to conclusions which are not necessarily 'politically correct', but are logically sound. The authors describe the historical basis of religious and racial antisemitism which enables the reader to better understand the recent works of Catholic writers such as James Carrol and Gary Wills which deal with church bigotry. The present day use of well-worn anti-Judaic myths by Islamic fundamentalists and their camp followers are dealt with in an understandable manner. The authors collectively bring decades of scholarly expertise in writing this important book.

In their new book, Perry and Schweitzer make perfectly clear that Antisemitism is not merely a social problem but an international, religious, and political one, and is not limited to those categories. They do not bash anyone but fulfill the historian's responsibility of precise analysis and interpretation based on evidence. It is utterly wrong to believe that no one can really understand Antisemitism: Thanks to books like this one, it is well and widely understood. The authors hold out real hope for those who seek to combat Antisemitism, and give an example of what can be done by their part in the successful struggle to rebut and utterly discredit the notorious Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel. One of the great merits of this book is its demonstration that Antisemitism was created by non-Jews and is in essence a problem for non-Jews. They make it clear that peace and reconciliation between Jews and non-Jews will not come through pious hopes and the vague goodwill of loving those who hate you. Appropriately, an editorial in the Richmond Times-Dispatch urged Congressman Moran and Patrick Buchanan to get over their absurd prejudices and delusions about Jews by studying this book.

Perry and Schweitzer have written an interesting and informative analysis of why the Jewish people have faced so much hatred and adversity throughout their history, including up to the present. The authors look at a number of myths about Jews, such as Jews as Christ killers and ritual murderers, the diabolization of Jews, denial of the Holocaust and anti-semitism and the Nation of Islam. Each myth is examined and debunked through a reasoned analysis of historical fact. This is an important book for today's world as many of these myths continue to live on, as evidenced by Holocaust deniers and events such as the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's not yet released film, The Passion, depicting the trial and death of Jesus. Although slow going at times, as a layperson, I found this scholarly work quite readable and highly worthwhile.

Collaboratively researched and written by historian Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer (Director of the Manhattan College Holocaust Resource Center), Antisemitism: Myth And Hate From Antiquity To The Present is an extensive and informative survey and analysis of anti-Semitic myths that have been perpetrated for generations, and which range from Biblical times down to the twentieth century and into the present day. Antisemitism reveals how these lies, exaggerations, untruths, and cultural myths about Jewish people have been used for centuries to justify and fuel unspeakable brutality and genocidal murder against an entire race and faith. A scholarly study of hate-based, mind-twisting perversions and lies from the fabricated stories of Jews ritually sacrificing Christian children to modern-day Holocaust denials, Antisemitism should be found upon the Judaic Studies shelves of every college and community library in the country.

There are so many books attempting to understand a hatred that has morphed like an indestructable virus from the religious hatred inspired by the gospels, to the social hatred that survived the reformation, to the racial and political hatred that brought us the holocaust, that one questions the need for yet another. This volume is a worthy addition.

The authors counters the Christian anti semitism with a critcal assessment of the gospels. They counter the absurd tales of blood libel with factual counter evidence. They counter the ridiculuous economic conspiracies with a bright illumination on the modern devlopments of capitalism, communism and democracy. Yet they readily acknowledged that the myths have such a strong hold on the ignorant and the hateful that it is often impervious to logic and evidence.

Their best addition to the liturgy is the chapter on holocaust deniers; the reader will become well equipped to defray these thinly disguised anti semitic frauds. They also devote a chapter (there are only 6) on the Nation of Islam (not to be confused with traditional Islam) as led by Farrakhan and the anti semitism they have established in the black community.

He soundly trounces the publishing of the "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews," a "protocol' like document that aims to stir black anti-semitism by blaming the Jews for the centuries of black degradation of the slave trade. While filled with very official looking footnotes and facts that may dupe the ignorant it is another ridiculous anti semtic fraud that the authors clearly place in the same trash heap as the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion and the Holocaust deniers.

The book spends less time analyzing anti-semitism in the Arab world, but that alone could consume volumes; (Read The Return of Anti-Semitsm by Gabriel Schoenfeld) and they do not devote much attention to anti semitism of the modern political Left. For that see The New Anti Semitsm by Phyllis Chesler or The Changing Face of Anti Semitsm by Walter Lacqueur.

In spite of those noted shortcomings it is well written, offers detailed response to specific antisemtic charges and adds more information about the deniers and the Nation of Islam followers. For those who want to learn how to respond to modern anti-semtic charges this may be the best single book of a very distinguished group of new writing on the longest hatred.

This book's subtitle hints that this book is a comprehensive investigation and exposition of anti-Semitism from antiquity to the contemporary. It is organized in a thematic-cum-chronological fashion: Jew-as-Christ-killer, Jew-as-ritual-sacrificer, Jew-as-devil's-minion, Jew-as-Shylock, and Jew-as-ethnic-Other; two themes are added on to the book, Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism within the Nation of Islam. The problem I had with this book was its presentation and analysis (i.e. lack of analysis), although these problems do not spoil the book, and prospective readers looking for a relatively short book on the lachrymose phenomenon of anti-Semitism will do well to start here.

The first chapter examines the origins of anti-Jewish sentiment. It was on the top of a hill just outside the city walls of first century Jerusalem where anti-Jewish sentiment took hold of western civilization. This sentiment was the result of a propaganda-like attempt to 1) show the Levant's Roman overlords that they were not responsible for Jesus' death, and 2) portray Jews as the real villains, since early Christians and Jews were in competition, so to speak. Early Christians would have been in conflict with Jews because 1) the whole Christ-as-son-of-God thing, 2) the question of whether or not gentiles could become part of the flock, and 3) the quest of early Christians to separate themselves from the troublemaking Judeans.

Thus in the Gospel of John--perhaps the last of the four gospels to be penned--we are presented with a very unfriendly image of Jews; speaking of the Jews, "You are of you father the devil, and you will is to do your father's desires". Moreover, the entire trial of Jesus underwent a massive amount of artistic license. This was also the result of propagandization in favor of Romans over Jews: Pilate is portrayed as a mere bureaucrat who cannot help but be prodded by the swarm of Jews who call for Barabbas to be released in Jesus' stead. "It seems obvious that the gospels transformed the historical Pilate to serve kerygmatic ends" (p34). Early Christians had to win Roman converts somehow, and they weren't going to succeed if a Roman honcho was seen as the sole reason for the death of the New Testament's main protagonist. After the Roman Empire turned to Christianity, then, the Gospels were used as weapons against the powerless Jews.

The next chapter of the book examines the myth of ritual sacrifice. Medieval Jews were often charged with kidnapping Christian children in order to drink their blood and sacrifice their bodies to Judaism. (This is where the term "blood libel" comes from.) This is where the book's presentation begins to break down. Instead of a detailed analysis of the myth of ritual sacrifice, we are given an anthology of events; often one paragraph will describe a sorry event that took place in 13th century Poland, while the next paragraph will describe the same event that took place in 14th century Ukraine (and so on for many pages). It seemed to me that this problem continued throughout the rest of the book.

Chapter 3 examines the Jew-as-demon and the Jew-as-racial-Other. Again, the presentation of material was done rather poorly. After all, real anti-Semitism (which is different from anti-Judaism) begins here, when Jews were targeted as a separate race/ethnicity/nation and not merely a demonic religion. This is the most important chapter in the book, but the anthology-like treatment and lack of overarching analysis decreased its value. We are given summary of how Volkish thought in imperial Germany fostered the growth of anti-Semitism in Germany: Volkish thought opposed liberal Enlightenment thought, which the "Volk" (Volkish thinkers) saw as a threat to German way of life. Conservative Volkish thought thus had no trouble targeting Jews because Jews often identified with liberalism and the Enlightenment after they had been emancipated from the ghettos in the French Revolution; that is, Jews were seen as an extension of the spectre of liberalism that was sweeping across Europe. Coupled with a new and strong sense of nationalism, Volkish movements saw the liberal Enlightenment and Jews as threats to civilization. This is a good summary, but does it account for the whole of Europe?, or was it exclusive to Germany? I suppose the authors did not want to get into the Goldhagen debate...

Chapter 4 concerns the idea that Jews are capitalists. It examines the origins and development of this idea, the origins of which are rooted in the practice of usury in the medieval period, where Jews were often thrust into the curious position of being the only people in town to be allowed to loan money at interest while being scorned for doing so. Early sociologists are examined: eleven pages are spent on the lightweight Werner Sombart, while Karl Marx is grossly caricatured as an anti-Semite (see Singer's Marx: A Very Short Introduction for details). A reader can get much better coverage of capitalism and the Jews in a book by Jerry Muller of the same name (Capitalism and the Jews).

The last two chapters refute the "Holocaust myth" myth (the myth that the Holocaust is a myth) and examine anti-Semitism within the Nation of Islam respectively. Why the authors took it upon themselves to refute some sorry band of wackos had me guessing, and the chapter on the Nation of Islam is of little value (too much time is spent dispelling the myth that Jews were behind the Atlantic slave trade). A better method of ending the book would have been to examine anti-Semitism in the contemporary world: such an exposition would have taken up the same amount of space, yet would have been much more informative. The authors could have included information on anti-Semitism in the modern Middle East (instead there is a slim appendix at the end of the book), anti-Semitism and the modern Left (if such a claim is valid), the "Israel lobby", etc.

Overall this book is an okay introduction to anti-Semitism. It's full of examples and stuff, but light on sociological analysis. Too often it read like an anthology of events, and it definitely could have used a better editor, as information was often repeated more than once. A final word of caution: reading this book might lead you into thinking that all Eastern Europeans and blacks were/are anti-Semites.

Though this book had some insights into the problem we Jews face, it did not offer any hope. Antisemitism is not merely a 'Social Problem' it is an international, religious, and political problem that has spanned the centuries. The author condemns antisemitism, yet bashes African American Christians and Muslims. It is exactly this attitude of intellectual elitism that destroys the peace process. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached a much more desirable gospel than Marvin Perry. He called on his people to walk in love and not return hatred for hatred, violence for violence. Essentially the doctrine of 'do good to those who hate you' is a far better approach than anything this author suggests. He does not have a complete, or even clear understanding of the 'Jewish Problem'. I doubt that any of us, Jews included, understand the monster that is antisemitism. It is an emotionally and spiritually complex issue that may never be fully resolved this side of the New Jerusalem.