A strange and repugnant mystery of the twentieth century is the durability of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a clumsy forgery purporting to be evidence of the supposed Jewish plot to rule the world. Though it has been exposed as a forgery, some apprentice brownshirt is always rediscovering it, the latest in a line of gullibility that includes, most famously, Henry Ford. Recently it has been translated into Japanese and circulates once again with renewed virulence in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

In 1924 in Germany the Jewish author and journalist Binjamin Segel wrote a major historical expose of the fraud and later edited his work into a shorter form, published as "Welt-Krieg, Welt-Revolution, Welf-Verschworung, Welt-Oberregierung "(Berlin 1926). Translator Richard S. Levy, a specialist on the history of anti-semitism, provides an extensive introduction on the circumstances of Segel's work and the story of the "Protocols" up to the 1990s, including an explanation of its continuing psychological appeal and political function.

Antisemitism: A History offers a readable overview of a daunting topic, describing and analyzing the hatred that Jews have faced from ancient times to the present. The essays contained in this volume provide an ideal introduction to the history and nature of antisemitism, stressing readability, balance, and thematic coherence, while trying to gain some distance from the polemics and apologetics that so often cloud the subject. Chapters have been written by leading scholars in the field and take into account the most important new developments in their areas of expertise. Collectively, the chapters cover the whole history of antisemitism, from the ancient Mediterranean and the pre-Christian era, through the Medieval and Early Modern periods, to the Enlightenment and beyond. The later chapters focus on the history of antisemitism by region, looking at France, the English-speaking world, Russia and the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Nazi Germany, with contributions too on the phenomenon in the Arab world, both before and after the foundation of Israel.
Contributors grapple with the use and abuse of the term 'antisemitism', which was first coined in the mid-nineteenth century but which has since gathered a range of obscure connotations and confusingly different definitions, often applied retrospectively to historically distant periods and vastly dissimilar phenomena. Of course, as this book shows, hostility to Jews dates to biblical periods, but the nature of that hostility and the many purposes to which it has been put have varied over time and often been mixed with admiration - a situation which continues in the twenty-first century.

Antisemitism: A History offers a readable overview of a daunting topic, describing and analyzing the hatred that Jews have faced from ancient times to the present. The essays contained in this volume provide an ideal introduction to the history and nature of antisemitism, stressing readability, balance, and thematic coherence, while trying to gain some distance from the polemics and apologetics that so often cloud the subject. Chapters have been written by leading scholars in the field and take into account the most important new developments in their areas of expertise. Collectively, the chapters cover the whole history of antisemitism, from the ancient Mediterranean and the pre-Christian era, through the Medieval and Early Modern periods, to the Enlightenment and beyond. The later chapters focus on the history of antisemitism by region, looking at France, the English-speaking world, Russia and the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Nazi Germany, with contributions too on the phenomenon in the Arab world, both before and after the foundation of Israel.
Contributors grapple with the use and abuse of the term 'antisemitism', which was first coined in the mid-nineteenth century but which has since gathered a range of obscure connotations and confusingly different definitions, often applied retrospectively to historically distant periods and vastly dissimilar phenomena. Of course, as this book shows, hostility to Jews dates to biblical periods, but the nature of that hostility and the many purposes to which it has been put have varied over time and often been mixed with admiration - a situation which continues in the twenty-first century.

Written by top scholars in an accessible manner, this unique encyclopedia offers worldwide coverage of the origins, forms, practitioners, and effects of antisemitism, leading to the Holocaust and surviving to the present day. The word "antisemite" was first used to describe a politically motivated enemy of the Jews in 1879. The subject of antisemitism has often been focused on the Holocaust; however, current events and history have much to add to this discussion. For example, in 1995 a Japanese pseudo-Buddhist religious cult, imagining itself to be under attack by Jews, released sarin gas on the Tokyo subway, killing 12. From 1881 to 1900 there were 128 public accusations of Jewish "ritual murder" allegedly involving the killing of Christian children to use their blood for religious purposes. Entries in this encyclopedia span the period from ancient Egypt to the modern era. Key theoreticians of Jew-hatred and their written works, its permeation of Christianity and modern Islam, and its political, artistic, and economic manifestations are covered. This is the first comprehensive work that deals with the entire history of ideas and practices that engendered the Holocaust.