Editing Racism (section)

==== Early antisemitism ====
Some scholars suggest that anti-Jewish policies under the [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic empires]] and the [[Roman Empire]] constitute examples of ancient racism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Flannery |first=Edward H. |author-link=Edward Flannery |title=The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-three Centuries of Antisemitism |publisher=Paulist Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-8091-4324-5 |page=11}}</ref><ref name="gruen">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1993 |title=Hellenism and Persecution: Antiochus IV and the Jews |encyclopedia=Hellenistic History and Culture |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |last=Gruen |first=Erich S. |author-link=Erich S. Gruen |editor-last=Green |editor-first=Peter |pages=250–252}}</ref><ref>Benjamin Isaac, ''The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity'' (Princeton University Press 2004).</ref> Other scholars have criticized this view as based on an ahistorical conception of race,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Seth |first=Vanita |date=19 August 2022 |title=When Did Racism Begin? The history of race has animated a highly contentious debate. |url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/when-did-racism-begin |work=The Chronicle of Higher Education}}</ref> and argued that such policies were aimed at repressing a religious group resistant to imperialism and conformity rather than a racialized entity.<ref name="tcherikover">Tcherikover, Victor, ''Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews'', New York: Atheneum, 1975</ref><ref name="Bohak">Bohak, Gideon. "The Ibis and the Jewish Question: Ancient 'Antisemitism' in Historical Context" in Menachem Mor et al., ''Jews and Gentiles in the Holy Land in the Days of the Second Temple, the Mishna and the Talmud'', Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2003, pp. 27–43.</ref>