Editing Antisemitism (section)

===Etymology===
{{Anchor|Etmyology and uses}}
[[File:Statuten der Antisemiten-Liga.jpg|thumb|1879 statute of the Antisemitic League]]

The word "Semitic" was coined by German orientalist [[August Ludwig von Schlözer]] in 1781 to designate the [[Semitic languages|Semitic group of languages]]—[[Aramaic]], [[Arabic]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and others—allegedly spoken by the descendants of Biblical figure [[Shem]], son of [[Noah]].<ref name="Vermeulen 2015 p. 252">{{cite book |last=Vermeulen |first=H. F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B1nxCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT252 |title=Before Boas: The Genesis of Ethnography and Ethnology in the German Enlightenment |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-8032-7738-0 |series=Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology Series |quote=Schlözer 1781: p.161 "From the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, from Mesopotamia to Arabia ruled one language, as is well known. Thus Syrians, Babylonians, Hebrews, and Arabs were one people (ein Volk). Phoenicians (Hamites) also spoke this language, which I would like to call the Semitic (die Semitische). To the north and east of this Semitic language and national district (Semitische Sprach- und VölkerBezirke) begins a second one: With Moses and Leibniz I would like to call it the Japhetic." |access-date=7 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Kiraz|2001|p=25}}; {{harvp|Baasten|2003|p=67}}</ref>

The origin of "antisemitic" terminologies is found in the responses of orientalist [[Moritz Steinschneider]] to the views of orientalist [[Ernest Renan]]. Historian [[Alex Bein]] writes: "The compound anti-Semitism appears to have been used first by Steinschneider, who challenged Renan on account of his 'anti-Semitic prejudices' [i.e., his derogation of the "[[Semitic people|Semites]]" as a [[Race (human categorization)|race]]]."{{sfnp|Bein|1990|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=cQOn0y8ENg4C&pg=PA594 594]}} Psychologist [[Avner Falk]] similarly writes: "The German word "{{lang|de|antisemitisch}}" was first used in 1860 by the Austrian Jewish scholar Moritz Steinschneider (1816–1907) in the phrase "{{lang|de|antisemitische Vorurteile}}" (antisemitic prejudices). Steinschneider used this phrase to characterise the French philosopher Ernest Renan's false ideas about how '[[Semitic Race|Semitic races]]' were inferior to '[[Aryan race]]s{{'"}}.{{sfnp|Falk|2008|p=21}}

[[Pseudoscience|Pseudoscientific]] theories [[Scientific racism|concerning race]], civilization, and "progress" had become quite widespread in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, especially as [[Prussia]]n nationalistic historian [[Heinrich von Treitschke]] did much to promote this form of racism. He coined the phrase "the Jews are our misfortune" which would later be widely used by [[Nazism|Nazis]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Poliakov |first=Léon |author-link=Léon Poliakov |title=The History of Anti-Semitism |volume=3: From Voltaire to Wagner |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |year=2003 |page=404 |isbn=978-0-8122-1865-7}}</ref> According to Falk, Treitschke uses the term "Semitic" almost synonymously with "Jewish", in contrast to Renan's use of it to refer to a whole range of peoples,{{sfnp|Falk|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=VWL4ja2BbnEC&pg=PA21 21]}} based generally on linguistic criteria.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brustein |first=William I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hc3HabBQsdsC&pg=PA118 |title=Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe before the Holocaust |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2003 |page=118 |access-date=27 October 2018 |isbn=9780521774789}}</ref>

According to philologist [[Jonathan M. Hess]], the term was originally used by its authors to "stress the radical difference between their own 'antisemitism' and earlier forms of antagonism toward Jews and Judaism."<ref>{{cite journal |first=Jonathan M. |last=Hess |title=Johann David Michaelis and the Colonial Imaginary: Orientalism and the Emergence of Racial Antisemitism in Eighteenth-Century Germany |journal=[[Jewish Social Studies]] |volume=6 |number=2 |date=Winter 2000 |pages=56–101 |doi=10.1353/jss.2000.0003 |s2cid=153434303 |quote=When the term "antisemitism" was first introduced in Germany in the late 1870s, those who used it did so in order to stress the radical difference between their own "antisemitism" and earlier forms of antagonism toward Jews and Judaism.}}</ref>

[[File:Bookcover-1880-Marr-German uber Juden.jpg|thumb|Cover page of Marr's ''The Way to Victory of Germanicism over Judaism'', 1880 edition]]

In 1879, German journalist [[Wilhelm Marr]] published a pamphlet, {{lang|de|Der Sieg des Judenthums über das Germanenthum. Vom nicht confessionellen Standpunkt aus betrachtet}} (''The Victory of the Jewish Spirit over the Germanic Spirit. Observed from a non-religious perspective'') in which he used the word "{{lang|de|Semitismus}}" interchangeably with the word "{{lang|de|Judentum}}" to denote both "Jewry" (the Jews as a collective) and "Jewishness" (the quality of being Jewish, or the Jewish spirit).<ref>{{cite book |last=Jaspal |first=Rusi |year=2014 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qS_jBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT38 |title=Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism: Representation, Cognition and Everyday Talk |location=Farnham, Surrey |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |chapter=Antisemitism: Conceptual Issues |isbn=9781472407252 |access-date=27 October 2018 |archive-date=29 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231229235525/https://books.google.com/books?id=qS_jBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT38#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}} Jaspal erroneously gives the date of publication as 1873.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author-link=Wilhelm Marr |last=Marr |first=Wilhelm |url=https://archive.org/details/Marr-Wilhelm-Der-Sieg-des-Judenthums-ueber-das-Germanenthum-2-2 |title=Der Sieg des Judenthums über das Germanenthum. Vom nicht confessionellen Standpunkt aus betrachtet |language=de |trans-title=The Victory of Judaism over Germanism. Viewed from a Non-Confessional Point of View |publisher=Rudolph Costenoble |date=1879 |edition=8th |via=[[Internet Archive]]}} Marr uses the word "{{lang|de|Semitismus}}" (Semitism) on pages 7, 11, 14, 30, 32, and 46; for example, one finds in the conclusion the following passage: "{{lang|de|Ja, ich bin überzeugt, ich habe ausgesprochen, was Millionen Juden im Stillen denken: Dem Semitismus gehört die Weltherrschaft!}}" (Yes, I am convinced that I have articulated what millions of Jews are quietly thinking: World domination belongs to Semitism!) (p. 46).</ref>{{sfnp|Levy|2010|pp=123–129}} He accused the Jews of a worldwide conspiracy against non-Jews, called for resistance against "this foreign power", and claimed that "there will be absolutely no public office, even the highest one, which the Jews will not have usurped".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wilhelm Marr |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/wilhelm-marr |access-date=29 July 2024 |website=[[Jewish Virtual Library]]}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=January 2025}}

This followed his 1862 book "{{lang|de|Die Judenspiegel}}" (''A Mirror to the Jews'') in which he argued that "Judaism must cease to exist if humanity is to commence", demanding both that Judaism be dissolved as a "religious-denominational sect" but also subject to criticism "as a race, a civil and social entity".<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |first=Werner |last=Bergmann |title=Wilhelm Marr's A Mirror to the Jews |url=https://keydocuments.net/article/bergmann-marr-mirror-jews |access-date=29 July 2024 |website=Key Documents of German-Jewish History |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240929082823/https://keydocuments.net/article/bergmann-marr-mirror-jews |archive-date=29 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Levy |first=Richard S. |author-link=Richard S. Levy |date=1 April 1987 |title=Wilhelm Marr: The Patriarch of Anti-Semitism, by Moshe Zimmermann |url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/richard-levy/wilhelm-marr-the-patriarch-of-anti-semitism-by-moshe-zimmermann/ |access-date=29 July 2024 |magazine=[[Commentary Magazine]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250104044741/https://www.commentary.org/articles/richard-levy/wilhelm-marr-the-patriarch-of-anti-semitism-by-moshe-zimmermann/ |archive-date=4 January 2025}}</ref> In the introductions to the first through fourth editions of "{{lang|de|Der Judenspiegel}}", Marr denied that he intended to preach Jew-hatred, but instead to help "the Jews reach their full human potential" which could happen only "through the downfall of Judaism, a phenomenon that negates everything purely human and noble."<ref name=":5" />

This use of {{lang|de|Semitismus}} was followed by a coining of "{{lang|de|[[Wikt:Antisemitismus|Antisemitismus]]}}" which was used to indicate opposition to the Jews as a people<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benz |first=Wolfgang |author-link=Wolfgang Benz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FaGpj0ORpwAC&dq=%22Antisemitismus%22&pg=PA7 |title=Was ist Antisemitismus? |trans-title=What is Antisemitism? |date=2004 |publisher=[[C. H. Beck]] |isbn=978-3-406-52212-3 |language=de |access-date=29 October 2023 |archive-date=29 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231229235555/https://books.google.com/books?id=FaGpj0ORpwAC&dq=%22Antisemitismus%22&pg=PA7#v=onepage&q=%22Antisemitismus%22&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Williams|2024|p=286}} and opposition to the Jewish spirit, which Marr interpreted as infiltrating German culture.

The pamphlet became very popular, and in the same year Marr founded the "{{lang|de|Antisemiten-Liga}}" (League of Antisemites),{{sfnp|Zimmermann|1987|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tYW013SjKM4C&pg=PA71 71]}}{{sfnp|Troy|2024|p=391}}{{sfnp|Levy|2010|pp=123–129}} apparently named to follow the "{{lang|de|Anti-Kanzler-Liga}}" (Anti-Chancellor League).{{sfnp|Zimmermann|1987|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tYW013SjKM4C&pg=PA112 112]|ps=: "The term "anti-Semitism" was unsuitable from the beginning for the real essence of Jew-hatred, which remained anchored, more or less, in the Christian tradition even when it moved via the natural sciences, into racism. It is doubtful whether the term which was first publicized in an institutional context (the Anti-Semitic League) would have appeared at all if the "Anti-Chancellor League," which fought Bismarck's policy, had not been in existence since 1875. The founders of the new Organization adopted the elements of "anti" and "league," and searched for the proper term: Marr exchanged the term "Jew" for "Semite" which he already favored. It is possible that the shortened form "Sem" is used with such frequency and ease by Marr (and in his writings) due to its literary advantage and because it reminded Marr of Sem Biedermann, his Jewish employer from the Vienna period."}} The league was the first German organisation committed specifically to combating the alleged threat to Germany and German culture posed by the Jews and their influence and advocating their [[population transfer|forced removal]] from the country.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

So far as can be ascertained, the word was first widely printed in 1881, when Marr published {{lang|de|Zwanglose Antisemitische Hefte}}, and [[Wilhelm Scherer]] used the term {{lang|de|Antisemiten}} in the January issue of {{lang|de|[[Neue Freie Presse]]}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Botsch |first1=Gideon |author1-link=:de:Gideon Botsch |last2=Treß |first2=Werner |date=2020 |chapter=Moderner Antisemitismus und Sattelzeit: Das Beispiel Paul de Lagarde |trans-chapter=Modern Antisemitism and the Saddle Period: The Example of Paul de Lagarde |title=Der Nachlass Paul de Lagarde: Orientalistische Netzwerke und Antisemitische Verflechtungen |language=de |trans-title=The Estate of Paul de Lagarde: Orientalist Networks and Antisemitic Entanglements |editor1-first=Heike |editor1-last=Behlmer |editor1-link=:de:Heike Behlmer |editor2-first=Thomas L. |editor2-last=Gertzen |editor3-first=Orell |editor3-last=Witthuhn |series=Europäisch-jüdische Studien Beiträge |volume=46 |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |location=Oldenburg |isbn=978-3-11-061546-3 |page=122}}</ref>{{sfnp|Levy|2010|pp=123–129}}

The ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' reports, "In February 1881, a correspondent of the "{{lang|de|[[Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums]]}}" speaks of 'Anti-Semitism' as a designation which recently came into use ("Allg. Zeit. d. Jud." 1881, p.&nbsp;138). On 19 July 1882, the editor says, 'This quite recent Anti-Semitism is hardly three years old.{{'"}}<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Deutsch |first=Gotthard |author-link=Gotthard Deutsch |year=1901 |title=Anti-Semitism |url=https://archive.org/details/b29000488_0001/page/640/mode/2up |encyclopedia=[[The Jewish Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Funk & Wagnalls]] |volume=1 |page=641 |access-date=21 August 2023 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

The word "antisemitism" was borrowed into English from German in 1881. ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' editor [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]] wrote that it was not included in the first edition because "Anti-Semite and its family were then probably very new in English use, and not thought likely to be more than passing nonce-words... Would that anti-Semitism had had no more than a fleeting interest!"<ref name="toi">{{cite news |last1=Mandel |first1=Jonah |title=Letter shows first dictionary editor thought 'anti-Semite' wouldn't be used |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/letter-shows-first-dictionary-editor-thought-anti-semite-wouldnt-be-used/ |access-date=5 May 2020 |work=[[The Times of Israel]] |date=4 May 2019 |archive-date=5 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200505080418/https://www.timesofisrael.com/letter-shows-first-dictionary-editor-thought-anti-semite-wouldnt-be-used/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The related term "[[philosemitism]]" was used by 1881.<ref name="philosemitism">{{cite magazine |title=The Jews in Germany |magazine=[[The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art]] |publisher=[[Jonathan Leavitt (publisher)|Leavitt, Trow & Company]] |volume=XXXIII |date=March 1881 |page=350 |quote=...the position of German Liberals in this matter of philo-Semitism.}}</ref>