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Comprehending Antisemitism Through the Ages: Introduction Kerstin Mayerhofer and Armin Lange Comprehending Antisemitism through the Ages: Introduction Robert Wistrich’sdefinition of antisemitism as the “longest hatred”¹ carries as much weight now as it did thirty years ago, when Wistrich published his land- mark study. Today, in our contemporary societies and culture, antisemitism is on the rise, and its manifestations are manifold. Antisemitic hate crimes have spiked in recent decades, and antisemitic stereotypes, sentiments, and hate speech have permeated all parts of the political spectrum. In order to effectively counteract the ever-growingJew-hatred of our times, it is important to recognise the traditions thathavefed antisemitism throughout history.Antisemitism is an age-old hatreddeeplyembeddedinsocieties around the globe. While the inter- net and modern media have contributed beyond measure to the increase of Jew- hatred in all parts of the world, the transformation processes thatantisemitism has been undergoing through the ages remain the same. Acorecondition of an- tisemitism is its versatile nature and adaptability,both of which can be traced through all periods of time. Current-day antisemitism is shaped and sustained not onlybypowerful precedents but also reflects common fears and anxieties that our societies are faced with in aworld that is ever changingand where the changes run even faster todaythaneverbefore. Historical awareness of the nature of antisemitism, therefore, is more important than ever.The present volume, thus, wantstohelp raise this awareness.Its articles tracethe history of antisemitismand the tradition of antisemitic stereotypes through the ages. It documents various manifestations of antisemitism over time and reflects on the varyingmotivations for antisemitism.Assuch, these contributions shed light on socio-culturaland socio-psychological processes that have led to the spike of antisemitism in various periods of time and in varyingintensity.In this way, they can help to establish methods and policies to not onlytocounter current antisemitic manifestations but also to combat them. Terminologyand Historiographical Delineation The usageofthe term antisemitism is much debated in historical scholarship. Various scholars claim thatthe term reflectsaconceptualisation of Judaism as R. S. Wistrich, Antisemitism:The Longest Hatred (London: Methuen, 1991). OpenAccess. ©2021Kerstin Mayerhofer and Armin Lange, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https:// doi.org/10.1515/9783110671995-002 2 Kerstin Mayerhofer and Armin Lange arace, which can onlybeunderstood in the context of nationalism and racial theory in the earlynineteenth century.² Earlier forms of Jew-hatred are therefore mostlyreferred to as “anti-Judaism,” therein reflectingtheological concepts. Christian religious stereotypes of Jews are largely connected to doctrines of false beliefs and practices competingwith Christianity.However,much of Chris- tian polemic directed against Jews expresses negative images and attitudes in a waythat reaches far beyond the scope of religious alterity.The frequent claim that calling pre-modern Jew-hatred antisemitic is an anachronismcan onlybeac- cepted with regardstoterminology. In fact,the term antisemitism did not come into existenceand has not been usedtodescribeJew-hatred before the nine- teenth century.Various forms of persecution of the Jews not solelybasedonre- ligious grounds,however,can be traced back well into ancient times. Despite the conference being based on the IHRA’sWorking Definition of An- tisemitism,³ severalcontributions employ different definitionsofantisemitism. While some essays perceive all forms of Jew-hatredand anti-Jewishdiscrimina- tion as antisemitic, others are more restrictive in their use of the termantisemit- ism as mentioned above. Avolume that tries to trace the historicalroots of antisemitism cannot do so without adelineation of the historical periods it discusses. The history of antise- mitism evolvesinaccordancewith socio-political processes as well as alongside certain culturalevents shapingthe historiesofthoughtand culture. The editors of the present volume have chosen to structure the volume accordingly: (1) Ancient and Late Ancient Times,from the end of the Iron age, ca. 550 B.C.E., to the period of earlyMuslim conquests in Western Europe ca. 630 – 800 C.E. (2)Medieval Times until the invention of the printing press,c.1440, as atechnique that had asignificant influenceonboth the history of thought and the history of socio-culturaland socio-political ideologies. (3) Modern Times starting with the Americanand the French revolutions of the years 1775 – 1783 and 1789 –1799,respectively.(4) An eraof“New Antisemitism” follow- Cf. e.g. W. Bergmann, Geschichte des Antisemitismus (München: C. H. Beck, 2002); C. Guillau- min, L’idéologie raciste: Genèse et langage actuel (Paris:Gallimard, 1972); J. Heil, “‘Antijudais- mus’ und ‘Antisemitismus’:Begriffe als Bedeutungsträger,” Jahrbuch fürAntisemitismusfor- schung 6(1997): 92– 114; G. I. Langmuir, Toward aDefinition of Antisemitism (Berkeley: University of California Press,1990); T. Nipperdey and R. Rürup, “Antisemitismus,” in Geschicht- liche Grundbegriffe: Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland,ed. O. Brunner,W.Conze, and R. Koselleck (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1972), 129–53. Forfurther detail, refer to volume 1ofthe present series,A.Lange,K.Mayerhofer,D.Porat, and L. H. Schiffman, eds., Comprehending and Confronting Antisemitism:AMulti-Faceted Ap- proach,vol. 1ofAn End to Antisemitism! (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), 565–67. Comprehending Antisemitism through the Ages: Introduction 3 ing the Shoah, with asubdivision (5) about Anti-Zionism as amost virulent man- ifestationofthis “New Antisemitism.” Twoinsufficiencies have to be admitted in this structure. First,certain histor- ical periods and events are not addressed, for example, earlymodern times or the Spanish Inquisition. This is mainlydue to the fact thatseveral colleagues who covered these fields at the conferencewerenot able to contributetothe pre- sent volume. Second, the perspective from which contributors to the present vol- ume reflect on the history of antisemitism is rather Eurocentric.Much of the his- tory of Jew-hatred documented in the present volume focuses on the geographical regions of Western Europe. Discussions of antisemitisminthe Unit- ed States and reflections on anti-Zionism directed against Israel are ageograph- ical exception.However,these articles tooare based largely on aEuropean dis- course of thought.Unfortunately, asingle volume can hardlytakeall global aspectsinto consideration. Therefore, several of the missing topics,such as Islam or avariety of manifestations of “New Antisemitism,” are addressed in vol- umes 2and 5ofthe present series.⁴ Still, the editors of the present volume are aware thatthe historical picture of antisemitism in this volume is by necessity incompleteand, thus, sometimes ambiguous. Claiming Authority and Appealing to Emotions When workingonthe history of antisemitism, twodifferent aspects need to be taken intoconsideration with regardstothe transmission and evaluationofan- tisemiticstereotypes andtraditions. Antisemitic stereotypesand traditions canbe transmitted in the form of an authorizingre-writing, that is,withreferences to older sourcematerial. Earlymodern and modern thinkers whofosteredantisemitic sentiments were keen on attributing their ownantisemitic polemic to apseudo-sci- entific discourse. In referencing acanon of antisemitic stereotypes andtraditions, whichhad been transmitted from late ancientand medieval times,earlymodern writers ensured continuity for their ownantisemiticthoughtsand claims.Animpor- tant examplefor this practicecan be found in AntoniusMargaritha’s(1492/8 – 1542) treatise of 1530,titled TheEntireJewishFaith.⁵ Having onceexperienced doubt in Cf. A. Lange,K.Mayerhofer,D.Porat,and L. H. Schiffman, eds., Confronting Antisemitism from the Perspectives of Christianity,Islam, and Judaism,and ibid., Confronting Antisemitism in Mod- ern Media, the Legal and Political Worlds,vols.2and 5ofAn End to Antisemitism! (Berlin: De Gruyter,2020and 2021). Cf. Antonius Margaritha, Der gantz Jüdisch Glaub mit sampt ainer gründtlichen und warhafften Anzaygunge … (Augsburg: Heinrich Steiner,1530). 4 Kerstin Mayerhofer and Armin Lange hisown faith, as aconvert from Judaism to Christianity,Margarithawas able to turn both to doubting Christians in an efforttostrengthen their belief but also to Jews in an attempt to convince themtofollowhis ownpath to Christianity.His depiction of Jewish rituals,customs,and ceremonies in TheEntireJewishFaith isaccurate. How- ever,Margaritha’smainobjective is apresentationofJudaism as areligion thathad failed to understand and accept God’struerevelationand,thus, poses adangerto the Christian faith. Forthis purpose, Margaritha drew on avast canonofmedieval polemic against Jews,onantagonistic narratives,motifs, and imageryofJewsas friendsofthe devil,aggressors against Christ’sbody, andasmurderers of Christian children. Superstitions and further stereotypes,sometheologically motivatedand somenot,wereused to demonstrate the Jews’ ongoingreligious inferiority as proof andreason for their socio-economic and legalmarginalisation. Manyearlymodern thinkers and writers followed Margaritha’sexample and support adiscourse of religious and socio-culturalsuperiority of one religio- culturalgroup over another.Anexample is the
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