Definition: Anti-Semitism is a term that has come to describe expressions of racism, prejudice, hatred or discrimination against Jewish people as an ethnic, religious or racial group – both at individual level and in terms of organised attacks against whole Jewish communities.
Caveat: The term ‘Anti-Semitism’ is actually a misnomer popularised in 19th Century Germany as a palatable euphemism for ‘hatred of Jews’. Although the phrase ‘Anti-Semitism’ now tends to exclusively encompasses anti-Jewish prejudices, historically and ethnically there are a whole range of Semitic people who are not Jewish – Arabs, Ethiopians and Assyrians are all technically Semitic. For the purposes of this chapter, however, the term will be used as defined above.
So where and why did Anti-Semitism come about? Continue reading Chapter 35: Anti-Semitism
