Book Description

‘Dan Cohn-Sherbok has provided us with a magisterial overview of antisemitism . . . Whatever your religion, or your politics, Cohn-Sherbok’s Antisemitism is necessary reading.’ The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury ‘A very readable overview on four millennia of Judaeophobia . . . a timely book and shows the flame of antisemitism continues to burn bright.’ Rabbi Professor Walter Homolka Antisemitism has featured in the history of Western civilization for over 3,000 years. Dan Cohn-Sherbok traces its origins and its manifestations, from political opposition to racial persecution to religious and philosophical justification for some of history’s most outrageous acts. Against this background of intolerance and persecution, Cohn-Sherbok describes Jewish emancipation from the late eighteenth century and its gradual transformation into the parallel political and nationalistic ideal of Zionism. Antisemitism: A World History of Prejudice offers a clear and readable account of why antisemitism has featured so strongly in world history, and provides extensive discussion of the issues that exist to this day. Unlike most studies of the subject, it does not focus exclusively on Christian antisemitism, but explores the origins of Arab and organized Communist antisemitism and Nazi racism. Brought right up to date with an exploration of how modern-day antisemitism ought to be defined in order to combat it, this revised edition is essential reading not only for history students and theologians, but anyone interested in learning about why the Jews have been hated for so long.