Anti‐Semitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution

Many have believed that the Jews should not live as Jews, and should be converted, say, to Christianity. Others have believed that the Jews should not live at all, and that, under a racist logic, should be attacked. These are two broad strands of several associated with anti‐Semitism. Historically, forms of this can be found for centuries (for example, accusations that the Jews were responsible for the Black Death and, later, that they were mongrelizing the pure Aryan races with their usury and corruption), even though the term “anti‐Semitism” appears to have assumed wide usage as an “ideology” in the...