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As part of Harvard University\u2019s agreement in response to two federal lawsuits filed by Jewish students alleging antisemitic discrimination,\u00a0it will adopt<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA<\/a>, \u201cworking definition\u201d of antisemitism.<\/p>\n This is a definition\u00a0favored by many Jewish community leaders<\/a>\u00a0and politicians because its broad language can be applied to most anti-Israel rhetoric. This includes Kenneth Marcus, who served as assistant secretary of education during the first Trump administration and represented the students as\u00a0chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n In contrast, many scholars prefer either the competing\u00a0Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism<\/a>\u00a0or the definition offered by the\u00a0Nexus Task Force<\/a>, a committee of experts led by the Bard Center for the Study of Hate. I am a member of the Nexus group and also helped compose its 2024 \u201cCampus Guide to Identifying Antisemitism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The controversy over this move indicates that many well-intentioned people still struggle to understand what exactly constitutes antisemitism and when anti-Israel rhetoric crosses the line.<\/p>\n As a\u00a0scholar of modern Jewish history<\/a>, I offer this primer that helps answer this question.<\/p>\n There has been a\u00a0sharp increase in antisemitism around the world<\/a>\u00a0since the\u00a0Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas<\/a>\u00a0and Israel\u2019s subsequent military attacks in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n Anti-Jewish animosity dates to antiquity. The early Christian church attacked Jews, whom it blamed for crucifying Christ, and claimed to replace them as God\u2019s chosen people. The Gospel of John in the New Testament\u00a0accused Jews of being Satan\u2019s children<\/a>, while others\u00a0called them demons intent on sacrificing the souls of men<\/a>.<\/p>\n Medieval Christians added other myths, such as the\u00a0blood libel<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the lie that Jews ritually murdered Christian children for their blood. Other myths accused them of poisoning wells or desecrating the consecrated host of the Eucharist to reenact the murder of Christ; some even claimed that Jews had\u00a0inhuman biology such as horns or that they suckled<\/a>\u00a0at the teats of pigs.<\/p>\n Such lies led to violent persecution of Jews over many centuries.<\/p>\n In the 19th century, these myths were supplanted by the\u00a0additional element of race<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the claim that Jewishness was immutable and could not be changed via conversion. Though this idea first appeared in 15th-century Spain, it was deeply connected to the rise of modern nationalism.<\/p>\n Nineteenth-century ethno-nationalists rejected the idea of a political nation united in a social contract with each other. They began imagining the nation as a biological community\u00a0linked by common descent<\/a>\u00a0in which Jews might be tolerated but could never truly belong.<\/p>\n Finally, in 1879, the German journalist Wilhelm Marr\u00a0pushed the term \u201cantisemitism<\/a>\u201d to reflect that his anti-Jewish ideology was based on race, not religion. Marr imagined the Jews as a foreign, \u201csemitic\u201d race, referring to the language group that includes Hebrew. The term has since persisted to mean specifically anti-Jewish hostility or prejudice.<\/p>\n Modern antisemitism built on those premodern foundations, which never completely disappeared, but was fundamentally different. It emerged as part of the new politics of the democratic modern era.<\/p>\n Antisemitism became the core platform of\u00a0new political parties<\/a>, which used it to unite otherwise opposing groups, such as shopkeepers and farmers, anxious about the modernizing world. In other words, it was not merely prejudice;\u00a0it was a worldview<\/a>\u00a0that explained the entire world to its believers by blaming all of its faults on this scapegoat.<\/p>\n Unlike earlier anti-Jewish hatred, this was less about religion and more about political and social issues. Antisemites believed the\u00a0conspiracy theory<\/a>\u00a0that Jews all over the world controlled the levers of government, media and banking, and that defeating them would solve society\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n Thus, one of the most important features of modern antisemitic mythology was the belief that Jews constituted a single, malevolent group, with one mind, organized for the purpose of conquering and destroying the world.<\/p>\n Antisemitic books and cartoons often used\u00a0claws or tentacles<\/a>\u00a0to symbolize the \u201cinternational Jew<\/a>,\u201d a shadowy figure they blamed for leading a global conspiracy, strangling and destroying society. Others depicted him as a puppet master running the world. There are hundreds of Democratic donors \u2013 singling out George Soros is antisemitic, and calling him a puppet master invokes Nazi-era caricatures of the Jewish people.<\/p>\n While antisemitism from Trump is nothing new, we refuse to let it be normalized. https:\/\/t.co\/mxIZNGNNki<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/YQHaxlk36F<\/a><\/p>\n — Jewish Dems (@USJewishDems) October 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n History of antisemitism<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Modern antisemitism<\/strong><\/h4>\n
The myth of a Jewish conspiracy<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Negative traits attributed to Jews<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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