This volume traces the history of antisemitism from antiquity through contemporary manifestations of the discrimination of Jews. It documents the religious, sociological, political and economic contexts in which antisemitism thrived and thrives and shows how such circumstances served as support and reinforcement for a curtailment of the Jews’ social status. The volume sheds light on historical processes of discrimination and identifies them as a key factor in the contemporary and future fight against antisemitism.

This volume traces the history of antisemitism from antiquity through contemporary manifestations of the discrimination of Jews. It documents the religious, sociological, political and economic contexts in which antisemitism thrived and thrives and shows how such circumstances served as support and reinforcement for a curtailment of the Jews' social status. The volume sheds light on historical processes of discrimination and identifies them as a key factor in the contemporary and future fight against antisemitism.

This volume traces the history of antisemitism from antiquity through contemporary manifestations of the discrimination of Jews. It documents the religious, sociological, political and economic contexts in which antisemitism thrived and thrives and shows how such circumstances served as support and reinforcement for a curtailment of the Jews’ social status. The volume sheds light on historical processes of discrimination and identifies them as a key factor in the contemporary and future fight against antisemitism.

This volume provides a compendium of the history of and discourse about antisemitism - both as a unique cultural and religious category. Antisemitic stereotypes function as religious symbols that express and transmit a belief system of Jew-hatred, which are stored in the cultural and religious memories of the Western and Muslim worlds, migrating freely between Christian, Muslim and other religious symbolic systems.

A magisterial history, ranging from antiquity to the present, that reveals anti-Judaism to be a mode of thought deeply embedded in the Western tradition. There is a widespread tendency to regard anti-Judaism – whether expressed in a casual remark or implemented through pogrom or extermination campaign – as somehow exceptional: an unfortunate indicator of personal prejudice or the shocking outcome of an extremist ideology married to power. But, as David Nirenberg argues in this ground-breaking study, to confine anit-Judaism to the margins of our culture is to be dangerously complacent. Anti-Judaism is not an irrational closet in the vast edifice of Western thought, but rather one of the basic tools with which that edifice was constructed.

Is there a common denominator to be found between the Jew-hatred of antiquity and the antisemitism of modern times? Is antisemitism essentially constant and timeless or has it changed over the centuries? This book presents a collection of essays addressing these questions throughout the totality of Jewish history: in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, in the Christian world and in the Muslim countries, and particularly in the twentieth century. It examines and assesses not only the various forms and manifestations of antisemitism in history but also the diverse interpretations which have been placed upon it by contemporaries and historians.

Is there a common denominator to be found between the Jew-hatred of antiquity and the antisemitism of modern times? Is antisemitism essentially constant and timeless or has it changed over the centuries? This book presents a collection of essays addressing these questions throughout the totality of Jewish history: in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, in the Christian world and in the Muslim countries, and particularly in the twentieth century. It examines and assesses not only the various forms and manifestations of antisemitism in history but also the diverse interpretations which have been placed upon it by contemporaries and historians.