What people talk about when they talk about antisemitism

WHAT IS antisemitism? The definition appears clear: prejudice and hatred against Jews.

On Antisemitism: A Word in History. By Mark Mazower. Penguin; 352 pages; $29. Allen Lane; £25

Representative image.

WHAT IS antisemitism? The definition appears clear: prejudice and hatred against Jews. Its manifestation is often grimly clear, too. In both Britain and America, the number of hate incidents targeting Jews soared after Hamas’s attacks in October 2023 and has remained high as Israel has been at war in Gaza. But people disagree over what constitutes antisemitic speech. For instance, some argue that the phrase “globalise the intifada” urges people across the world to agitate for Palestinians’ freedom. Others say that it advocates violence against Jews everywhere.

In a new book Mark Mazower argues that one reason such questions are thorny is because the meaning of antisemitism is more complex than it seems. Mercifully he has not written a polemic, nor has he attempted a full history of anti-Jewish prejudice. Instead he has written a biography of the word “antisemitism”, tracing how its use and meaning have changed over time.

He credits Wilhelm Marr, a German journalist, with inventing the term in 1879. Marr created a “League of Antisemites” to oppose Jewish emancipation. He called Jews “semites”, as a French writer explained, “to underscore their foreign origin”, implying that they could never become fully European. Antisemitism of that era drew on centuries of hostility, but was also rebelling against modernity. The Enlightenment values that inspired the French and American revolutions led to Jewish legal emancipation in much of western Europe, as well as the weakening of aristocratic and ecclesiastical authority. Reactionaries and revolutionaries alike blamed the Jews.

A potent form of political antisemitism took shape after the first world war when, as Mr Mazower points out, “Anti-Jewish conspiracy theories ramified as a ready explanation for dizzying change.” Vile views became mainstream; Henry Ford, an American industrialist, helped popularise “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, a Russian forgery purporting to reveal a Jewish plot to dominate the world. That form of antisemitism lost its political potency after the horrors of the Holocaust, but such beliefs did not vanish.

After the atrocities of the second world war, the centre of the world’s Jewish population moved to America and, in time, to Israel. Those two poles initially had a frosty relationship. American Jews, eager to assimilate and leery of dual-loyalty accusations, were lukewarm towards Zionism, arguing that they were a religious community rather than a nation. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first president, could not understand why American Jews did not end their “exile” and emigrate to Israel.

The two groups grew closer after Israel’s triumph in the Six Day War in 1967. American Jews took pride in Israel’s success: at last Jews were victors rather than victims, and Israel’s existence looked less precarious. The American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group, compiled an annual list of issues important to American Jews. In 1966-67 Israel ranked below struggles for civil rights; the following year Israel rose to the top, where it has remained. Mr Mazower notes that, as American Jews’ identification with Israel grew, threats to it “were regarded by more and more American Jews as an attack on themselves”.

Some have encouraged that identification. In a recent interview Jonathan Greenblatt, who heads the Anti-Defamation League, a watchdog group, equated anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Jerry Seinfeld, a comedian, has likened people who chant “Free Palestine” to Ku Klux Klan members. Certainly anti-Zionism can inspire antisemitic acts, but it is possible to criticise Israel without hating Jews.

In any event, an emotive identification with Israel may be growing less common, especially among young American Jews. In recent years Israel has drifted steadily rightward, while Jewish Americans remain mostly liberal. Many have marched for Palestinian rights. The definitional arguments that Mr Mazower outlines in this valuable book are unlikely to end soon.

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