The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day

This concise survey of antisemitism from antiquity to the present explores some unusual angles of the virus' shape-shifting habit as well as its common features in space and time. Spellbinding and thought-provoking, the elegantly worded text in the form of a lengthy essay contributes significantly to the quest of defining the constantly mutating plague. Laqueur is clearly an expert on the judeopathic mindset, occasionally displaying an almost exasperating level of tolerance when examining such an evil and despicable pathology. As a secular academic he is uncertain of the future, speculating at length on possible scenarios in the concluding chapters. He attributes the earliest manifestations of the affliction in Egypt and classical antiquity to animosity resulting from Jewish cultural practices. But those who respect the "Old Testament" as history will remember that it was fear - judeophobia - of their numbers that led to the oppression & infanticide before the Exodus. In Christianity the virus mutated into an intense theological hatred articulated by numerous "church fathers" like Melito of Sardis, Chrysostom and Augustine and later by reformers like Martin Luther. The accusation of deicide was accompanied by the usurpation of the Tenakh and the lie that the church had replaced the Jews as the chosen of God: the doctrine of replacement theology. The problem grew worse in exact proportion to the influence of Christianity that culminated in the disastrous triumph of the Constantine creed. The next mutation, racial prejudice, arrived with modernity in the 1800s. Now the danger was perceived to inhabit the genes so it followed that physical annihilation was seen as the solution, leading to the Holocaust. First the culture, then the religion, then the race had to be eradicated. Now it is the nation, the State of Israel that they want to wipe out. Laqueur is not fooled by the sophistry of the semitism vs zionism distinction, recognizing anti-Zionism as the typical contemporary variety. Israel is a constant target of disinformation (e.g. the Jenin and ad-Dura hoaxes) and repeatedly singled out for denunciation while atrocities like those in e.g. Chechnya, Darfur, Tibet & Zimbabwe raise little protest. This is confirmed by Bernard Harrison in The Resurgence of Anti-semitism: Jews, Israel and Liberal Opinion criticism of the State resembles the "old" antisemitism in concept, imagery and assumptions. The fad of Moral Relativism is not applied to both sides; it is used to justify suicide/homicide bombings but never to Israeli measures to defend her people. The aforementioned historical mutations overlapped to an extent; the earlier race-based persecution of the "Marranos" in Spain contrasted with the absence of this element under communist oppression. Moreover, the racial strain employed the imagery inherited from centuries of theological antisemitism. In addition, the aforementioned replacement theology or supersessionism is undergoing a revival

Laqueur has written a very readable and quite objective account of the history of anti-Semitism, as well as its various manifestations throughout the ages. Why do we need yet another book on anti-Semitism you might ask? Laqueur claims that since WW2, anti-Semitism has transformed yet again, thus this can be considered an updated study on the phenomenon. I should qualify my statement that he is objective. He is obviously against anti-Semitism but-for the most part-he gives a fair hearing to anti-Semitic arguments, even conceding that some of them do, in fact have an element of truth to them. He starts with a couple introductory chapters and then delves into a chronological history of anti-Semitism beginning with that of the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Romans. He then contrasts this with the more religious and vindictive character of medieval Christian anti-Semitism. We are then brought through the Enlightenment and the racialist anti-Semitism of the 19th and 20th centuries, and ultimately to contemporary AS. Modern day AS, Laqueur writes, while still a component of far right groups has now manifested itself mainly in far-left and Muslim circles. To the far-left, the Jews represent the power behind the capitalist/imperialist menace that they so despise, as well as an anachronistic, tribal people who pose a threat to the nationless, raceless world that they envision. On the other hand, Muslim AS is heavily caused by the state of Israel and its "relations" with the Palestinians and neighboring Arabs. He points out that this was more of a catalyst though, as there has always been a degree of anti-Semitism in Islamic societies, and Islam itself. He points out something that I had always thought, that Muslims feel especially humiliated by Israel because Jews have always been weak, second-class citizens and while they were generally tolerated in this capacity, their dominance is unacceptable. He points out that the anti-Semitism of the left is more similar to that of the medieval Catholic Church as opposed to the racialist variety of the 19th and 20th century. This is to say that both the Church and the left offer "salvation through conversion" meaning that they would accept the Jews, as long as they ceased to be Jews. He also makes some interesting points about Israel, showing how their treatment of the Palestinians is consistently singled out for condemnation, while the equally (or worse) harsh plight of numerous other peoples around the world are virtually ignored by the same people. Laqueur does engage in some speculation and debatable interpretations but this is somewhat expected for this type of work. Overall, I'm not sure there's anything really groundbreaking here, and I highly doubt that Laqueur will sway any dedicated anti-Semites (and that's probably not his intent), but I would consider this a relatively objective, knowledgeable, concise, and up to date summary of the topic.

As I see it, Laqueur's book has advantages over the many other works on the same subject: 1) The author has a sure footing in two millennia of European history. Here and there I found myself in disagreement on matters of fact and interpretation. I looked these things up and found that in all of these cases Laqueur was right and I was wrong. This is not to say that there won't be specialists who can find errors here and there. There is no book that is immune to error. But I do not think that such errors will be numerous or grave. 2) The author is even-handed and sober. He flogs no ideology or partisan program. He is patient with the views of others, even when these are offensive. 3) He has taken the trouble of studying, in depth, what anti-Semites have to say. There are no second-hand condemnations based on handed-down opinions. 4) He knows the byways of history: shadowy characters like Abram Leon, the National Bolshevists, Michael Neumann, Horst Mahler, to name just a few, wander through these pages. Generally it is only the sectologists -- the historians of Trotskyism, the chroniclers of neo-Nazism, etc. -- who bother to tell us much about such figures. But where sectologists are interested only in these shadows, Laqueur shows us the shadows by way of illuminating the broader picture. He lets us travel both byways and highways. When the messiah finally arrives, books will be perfect. This has not yet happened, and I must report that, indeed, there are things that I wish were better in this book. Laqueur has no footnotes and only rarely makes direct reference to other scholars. Most of the time this is not a big problem since the facts that he adduces are generally well known, and, with Wikipedia and other internet resources widely available, a reader can often provide his own references, as indeed I have done. Sometimes, however, a topic cries out for emendation by footnote. On page 49, for example, the author mentions the "Deutsche Christen," a Nazi formation of Protestants who repudiated the Old Testament as Jewish. ("Deutsche Christen" is not found in the book's index.) Well, the reader should have been referred here to more information on this group. As it happens, the group Deutsche Christen was repudiated by the Nazi leadership and lost all influence after 1933, and the reader of the present book will be misled if all he reads is what he reads here. I am also not happy with the long list of (unannotated) recommended readings. It is too long to be of much help. I would have liked to see a much shorter, annotated list of things that the interested reader should look into. Laqueur tells us that there are about 40,000 books about modern anti-Semitism. My own overall opinion of his work is best expressed by the fact that I have ordered a copy for each of my nine grandchildren. I have included my youngest, now three, because of my confidence that by the time he reaches reading age for this sort of thing -- ro

This thoughtful and rather comprehensive book got me to come up with my own definition of anti-Semitism: Anti-Semitism is participation in a gratuitous war against the Jews. I know that most folks may disagree with this definition. But I feel it removes some of the mysteriousness from this phenomenon, reducing it to a special case of war in general, an easier topic for many of us to relate to than, say, "hatred." I would call the mass murderers of Jews in World War Two "anti-Semites" whether they hated Jews or not. My definition also makes it easier to characterize acts (including slander) as anti-Semitic when they clearly contribute to such a war against the Jews (even if the perpetrators deny any intent to oppose all Jews). It means that wars against Israel's existence or against the existence of Judaism are anti-Semitic. It means that the wholehearted and gratuitous support that Mahatma Gandhi gave to the enemies of the Jews in the 1930s was anti-Semitic. And it means that mere constructive criticism of Jews, Jewish behavior, Judaism, Israel, the Hebrew language, or Zionist behavior is not anti-Semitic. There is surely a line between constructive criticism and acts of war. My inclusion of the word "gratuitous" avoids issues of whether justified wars (or wars of self-defense) against the Jews are necessarily anti-Semitic. They aren't. A gratuitous war is by definition not truly one of self-defense. And the morality of such a war is (again by definition) very dubious at best. The wars against the Jews for the past one (or two) thousand years appear to have been almost entirely gratuitous, so we need to ask ourselves about the persistence of such counterproductive fights. Now, what does Walter Laqueur tell us about this phenomenon? Laqueur is one of "the last surviving members of a generation that lived through" European anti-Semitism "in its most extreme form." That is why, having lost his parents and family in this period, it is no surprise that he does not treat anti-Semitism as a laughing matter (as opposed to Canadian professor Michael Neumann, who Laqueur says has argued that where anti-Semitism exists, "it ought to be treated as a huge joke" or Mikis Theodorakis, who has said both that there really isn't any anti-Semitism and that the Jews are "the root of all evil"). Again, not surprisingly, Laqueur is "unlikely to overreact, crying `wolf' at the appearance of every mouse or mosquito." There is plenty of good material in this book. We see how in the 1930s, Jews were told to move to Jerusalem; now they are told to move out of Jerusalem. We see so-called liberals saying that Jews would be tolerated only if they ceased to be Jews (notice that by my definition, that is pure anti-Semitism). We learn about the remarkably vicious anti-Semitism of Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Augustine, and Martin Luther. Of the three, Augustine was the most moderate, but not by much, as Laqueur does mention that even Augustine explicitly

"Walter Laqueur provides us with powerful new insights into an age-old problem. Distinguished scholarship and an authoritative moral voice are the hallmarks of this important book. Anyone wanting to understand the history and persistence of anti-Jewish hatred should read it." -- Abraham H. Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League and author of Never Again?: The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism "Once more, Walter Laqueur has brought his formidable learning, incisive style, and sheer brilliance in writing concise and yet gripping history to a subject matter of extraordinary complexity. The result is vintage Laqueur and an extremely valuable contribution to the subject of the history of antisemitism." -- Michael Stanislawski, Nathan J. Miller Professor of Jewish History, Columbia University "Walter Laqueur has written a thoughtful book about a difficult subject, bringing history and his own keen analytical skill together in a new way. Engagingly written, it offers both an overview of the past and an analysis of the 'new antisemitism.' He treats antisemitism sympathetically, even as he largely avoids the apologetics that characterize so much writing on the subject." -- Mark R. Cohen, author of Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages "A remarkable and eminently readable review of antisemitism throughout history from the persecution of the early Israelites in Egypt to the recent attacks on Jewish targets in twenty-first century Europe. Laqueur describes with skill and precision antisemitism's context in every era--be it economic, religious, social, or political." -- Rabbi Andrew Baker, Director of International Jewish Affairs, The American Jewish Committee "A brilliant, lucid and compelling survey of a social, psychological, cultural, political and intellectual malady that has preoccupied and distorted European and Arab societies, Christian and Muslim civilizations, and both the political right and the political left. In this short volume, Laqueur provides an elegant, fast-paced and immensely readable account of a complex, confounding and still-mutating condition that continues to afflict our world. This book is a vital contribution to our understanding of an important and disturbing dimension of our past--and, as Laqueur so incisively shows, of our present and our future. There is no other book like it." -- Walter Reich, Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University