Fact Sheet on the Elements of Anti-Semitic Discourse Kenneth L. Marcus, President & General Counsel The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law Government officials, university administrators and aca- 3. Ritual Slaughter demic faculty often need resources for identifying anti- Since ancient times, Jews have been falsely accused of Semitic discourse that can supplement existing defini- killing gentiles for ritual purposes. In Hellenistic Egypt, this tions such as the U.S. Department of State definition and was sometimes accompanied by accusations of cannibal- the International Working Definition. ism. In Medieval Europe, beginning in the Twelfth Century, it was often accompanied by accusations that Jews used This Fact Sheet meets that need by highlighting some of their victim’s blood to bake matzah for the Jewish holi- the most common motifs in anti-Semitic discourse. The day of Passover. Historically, these false allegations have following inter-related tropes and memes, intended to frequently been followed by anti-Jewish riots and mass- be illustrative rather than exhaustive, have long been murders. Today, echoes of this blood libel can be heard in markers for anti-Semitism: allegations that Jews, especially in Israel, kill young gentile children for military or political purposes or in service of 1. Demonization genocide. In one contemporary variation, Israelis are ac- Since the Gospel of John, and especially since the fourth cused of kidnapping Palestinian children at night, murder- century, influential figures in Christian theology have as- ing them, and selling their organs for profit. Variations of sociated Jews with the devil or with demonic elements. the child-murder libel remain prevalent in some parts of During the Middle Ages, Jews were frequently described the world. as children of the devil, often portrayed with horns and bulging eyes, and associated with Satanic attributes, 4. The Wandering Jew such as arrogance and devious logic. Similar depiction Beginning with Saint Augustine, Christian theologians of Jews can be seen in Muslim texts from the twenti- viewed Jews as a cursed people doomed to wander in eth century onward. In the contemporary world, these misery until the end of days as testament of their own images are reflected in depictions of Jews, individually depravity and Christian superiority. The Wandering Jew or collectively, as bearing cosmically malevolent char- later developed as a wretched, lowly figure of Christian acteristics. This can be seen in caricatures of Israeli and folklore, circulating as the well-known European Ahavser Jewish public figures depicted as devils or demons. legend beginning in the thirteenth century. In the tradi- tional formulation, a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to 2. Deicide Myth his Crucifixion is cursed to roam the earth until the end of From the early years of the Christian church, Jews have days. In some versions, the Jew is cursed not only roam to been condemned for rejecting the teachings of Jesus the earth but also to remain in an evil state as punishment despite knowledge of his words and proximity to his for his persecution of Jesus, his taunting of Jesus on his presence. Worse, some Christians have condemned way to the Crucifixion, his Crucifixion of Jesus, and his re- Jews for slaying the Christian messiah and have held jection of Jesus as the Messiah. Today, this myth echoes in Jews collectively responsible for this action. This view is efforts to reinforce the supposedly lowly status of diasporic associated with related doctrines such as the notion that Jews, for example, in student-led kick-a-Jew or hit-a-Jew Jews are sustained in a wretched condition in order to events held (despite official disapproval) at some Ameri- bear witness to the moral superiority of Christianity and can public schools. Similarly, it can be seen in the notion to foreshadow the final triumph of Christianity at the end that the Jews, alone among the peoples of the earth, can of days. The deicidal myth has reinforced the associa- never merit statehood. This view is expressed in efforts tion of Jews with traits that are imagined to go with the to delegitimize the State of Israel and is reflected in terms killing of a messiah, e.g., sinister powers, intransigence, like “the Zionist entity” as a disparaging synonym for the and conspiratorial treachery. Although not a deicide Jewish state. myth, some Islamic texts similarly accuse “the Jews” of plotting to poison Mohammed. In modern times, hostil- ity to Jews is often expressed in terms of this supposed malevolence, power and treachery. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law 1 Fact Sheet on the Elements of Anti-Semitic Discourse Kenneth L. Marcus, President & General Counsel The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law 5. Carnality 7. Dirt and Disease Since at least the fourth century, Christians have associ- Jews have long been described, literally or metaphori- ated Jews with carnality, ascribing such traits as lecher- cally, as carriers of a physical defect, deformity or dis- ousness, greed, stinginess and stunted spirituality. This is ease, often associated with ugliness, weakness, dirt and reflected in the use of the word “Jew” as a verb denoting excrement. In some cases, these defects were associ- sharp business practices. In contemporary times, carnal ated with Jewish masculinity or femininity. This can be stereotypes are reflected in actions such as throwing seen, for example, in the myth of Jewish male menstru- coins at Jewish school children. A version of the carnal ation. Similarly, the phrase “dirty Jew” has long been perception can be seen in the stereotype of the “Jewish common among anti-Semites, and stereotypes of “Jew- American Princess” (or “JAP”) who is typically perceived ish odor” were once commonplace. Jews were banned as shallow, spoiled, selfish, vapid and materialistic. Re- from German swimming pools and quarantined during flecting the irrationality of anti-Semitic prejudice, Jewish the cholera and typhus epidemics of 1892. During the men, sometimes derogated as “Jew boys,” have been nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, white racialists depicted as sexually avaricious and effeminate, while often perceived Jews as possessing inferior nonwhite Jewish women have been portrayed as sexually repres- racial characteristics. Since the mid-twentieth century, sive and insatiable. conversely, Jewishness has often been associated with a false sense of white racial superiority, sometimes associ- 6. Well-Poisioning and Desecration of the Host ated with racism and colonialism. In Nazi Germany, Jew- Since the Middle Ages, Jews have been accused of ishness was often compared to a cancer. Contemporary tainting sacred objects or communal property. Begin- anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli cartoons tend to emphasize ning in the thirteenth century, Christians falsely charged physical traits associated with physical ugliness, such as Jews with reenacting the crucifixion of Jesus by venting the hooked nose and shallow forehead. The term “dirty their spleen on the host wafer, which was understood to Zionist” is now sometimes used in place of “dirty Jew.” represent the body and blood of Christ. Since that time, Jews have been repeatedly charged with conspiring to 8. Money and Criminality desecrate holy sites or objects. Today, these allegations Since medieval times, Jewry has frequently been de- are reflected in accusations that Israelis are conspiring picted as a wealthy, powerful, menacing and controlling to destroy the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem or other collectivity, demanding the sacrifice of others to their sacred sites. Similarly, European Christians repeatedly own greed. In these respects, Jews have been associ- accused Jews of poisoning communal wells during medi- ated with Mammon, the deity associated with of money, eval and early modern periods. This was sometimes at- and Moloch, the Ammonite god associated with human tributed to Jews’ putatively demonic characteristics and sacrifice. These stereotypes are often connected with was sometimes said to be aided by the devil. In Poland, stereotypical Jewish traits, such as malevolence, crimi- accusations of Jewish well-poisoning persisted until at nality, greediness, stinginess, and mendacity. Holo- least the 1920’s. In modern times, Jews and Israelis are caust denial also tends to embody this view, especially occasionally accused of tainting communal property or when it presents the destruction of European Jewry as assets, such as water bodies or blood supplies. This can a global hoax perpetrated to defraud gullible human- be seen, for example, in contemporary claims that Israelis ity. Similarly, anti-Semitism denial, which presents the are responsible for shark attacks in the Red Sea. resurgence of contemporary anti-Semitism as a global Jewish hoax to legitimate supposed Israeli crimes, fol- lows this pattern. Holocaust inversion, which attributes Nazi characteristics to contemporary Jews, is similar. This can be seen when Jews and Israel are compared with Nazis when Jews are derogated as Nazi Zionists, Jew-Nazis, Zionazis, or ZiZis. In a softer form of this The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law 2 Fact Sheet on the Elements of Anti-Semitic Discourse Kenneth L. Marcus, President & General Counsel The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law aspersion, Israel is compared to the South Africa’s and Israelis are often portrayed as a variety of barnyard apartheid state. These stereotypes influence depictions and zoological animals and insects. of sinister, wealthy, controlling Jews from Shylock to Netanyahu. These elements should be understood subject to the 9. Global Conspiracy following caveats. Anti-Semitism has never been limited Jewish conspiracy theories have been traced back to the to a finite stock of stereotypes, defamations, distorted New Testament’s imputation of responsibility to the San- images and fables. Instead, it has repeatedly gener- hedrin for calling for the arrest of Jesus and abounded in ated new figures while recycling old ones in new forms.