Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred

400 Pages·1994·49.578 MB·English

by  Robert S. Wistrich

ROBERT WISTRICH
S.
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THE LONGEST HATRED
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Throughout history, Jews have been
turned into demons in the public
mind bya miasma of paranoia, millennial
fantasy, and sheer political cynicism.
Barely fifty years after the Holocaust,
antisemitism is back in the news. Just
whatexactly isthisterrible disease ofthe
mind?
Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred
takes a sweeping look at the phenome-
non of antisemitism from its beginnings
to the present, tracing this virulent virus
from its pagan roots to the Christian
charge of deicide and beyond tothe mas-
sacres of the Crusades and the Inquisi-
tion,which heralded laterblood libelsand
fantasiesofJewishconspiraciesforworld
domination. Is there really anything new
in the endless accusations that have
echoed acrossthe centuriesfrom Haman
to Hitler? Is there any meaning to be ex-
tracted from the myths, the stereotypes,
and the obsessions that have character-
ized the antisemitic discourse for more
than two millennia?
Robert S. Wistrich sets out to find the
answers in a lucid and timely survey in-
formed by a profound knowledge of his-
tory. "Can it happen here?" This question
is nowbeingaskedwithtrepidationwher-
everthepoisonofantisemitism hasmade
a comeback after having survived intact
the near extinction of European Jewry.
Charting the course of antisemitism
through history, Wistrich focuses on the
dramatic reemergence ofantisemitism in
(continued on back flap)
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2012
in
http://www.archive.org/details/antisemitismlongOOwist

Antisemitism
by thesame author
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Revolutionary Jews from Trotsky
Antisemitism
The Longest Hatred
Robert Wistrich
S.
Pantheon Books New York
Pour Dany
L'amour vaincra
muni
Copyright © 1991 byRobertS. Wistrich, RexBloomstein
andThamesTelevisionpic.
AllrightsreservedunderInternationalandPan-American Copyright
Conventions. PublishedintheUnited StatesbyPantheonBooks, a
divisionofRandomHouse, Inc., NewYork.
OriginallypublishedinGreatBritain
byMethuenLondonin 1991.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Bat Ye'orforpermission to reprint
materialfromherpublishedlecture, OrientalJewryandtheDhimmiImage
in Contemporary Arab Nationalism (Geneva, 1979, p. 3), given at Jews
College, London on September 5, 1978 (Chairman: Sir Harold Wilson).
Reference is also made to her works The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians
underIslam, New Jersey, London and Toronto, 1985 as well as her most
recent publication Les Chretientes d'Orient entre Jihad et Dhimmitude:
Vlle-XXesiecle, Paris, 1991.
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-PublicationData
Wistrich, RobertS., 1945-
Antisemitism : thelongesthatred/Robert S. Wistrich.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographical referencesandindex.
ISBN0-679-40946-7
1. Antisemitism. I. Title.
DS145.W55 1992
909'.04924—dc20 91-53083
Manufactured inthe United StatesofAmerica
FirstAmericanEdition
8
Contents
List ofIllustrations vii
Author's Note x
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction xv
Part 1 FROM THE CROSS TO THE SWASTIKA
1. Pagan Roots of Antisemitism 3
2. Church and Synagogue 13
3. The Medieval Legacy 29
4. ModernSecularAnti-Judaism 43
5. Antisemitismin CentralEurope 54
6. Hitler's 'Final Solution' 66
7. AfterAuschwitz: theGermanResponse 78
8. The Waldheim Syndrome 88
Part 2 ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE
9. Britain: theLimitsofTolerance 101
10. America: Whites, BlacksandJews 114
11. France: fromDreyfustoLePen 126
12. East European Nationalisms 145
13. Poland: AntisemitismwithoutJews 157
14. The Soviet Disunion 171
BETWEEN MOSES AND MOHAMMED
Part 3
15. Jews in Islamic Lands 195
16. Conspiracies and Holy Wars 222
17. The Question of Palestine 240
18. Arabism,SemitismandAntisemitism 252
Notes 269
Glossary 309
Select Bibliography 31
Index 328