Editing Antisemitism (section)

==Causes==
{{Original research section|date=February 2025}}
Antisemitism has been explained in terms of [[racism]], [[xenophobia]], [[Psychological projection|projected guilt]], [[displaced aggression]], [[conspiracy theory]], and the search for a [[Scapegoating|scapegoat]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Jews in the early modern world |first=Dean Phillip |last=Bell |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |year=2008 |page=212 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5rJ85OyVWV0C&pg=PA212 |isbn=978-0-7425-4518-2 |access-date=23 August 2020 |archive-date=30 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230001601/https://books.google.com/books?id=5rJ85OyVWV0C&pg=PA212#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>

Antisemitism scholar Lars Fischer writes that "scholars distinguish between theories that assume an actual causal (rather than merely coincidental) correlation between what (some) Jews do and antisemitic perceptions (correspondence theories), on the one hand, and those predicated on the notion that no such causal correlation exists and that 'the Jews' serve as a foil for the projection of antisemitic assumptions, on the other."<ref name="u458">{{cite journal |last=Fischer |first=Lars |title="The word 'Jew' has several meanings in relation to commerce, but almost all negative": on the evolution of a projection |journal=[[Jewish Historical Studies]] |volume=51 |issue=1 |date=27 April 2020 |issn=2397-1290 |doi=10.14324/111.444.jhs.2020v51.032}}</ref> The latter position is exemplified by [[Theodor W. Adorno]], who wrote that "Anti-Semitism is the rumour about the Jews"; in other words, "a conspiratorial mentality that sees Jewish people as invisible and yet ubiquitous, as capable of pulling the strings of power from behind the scenes."<ref>{{cite web |author=schalomlibertad |title=Antisemitism and the (modern) critique of capitalism |date=23 July 2009 |website=libcom.org |quote=Adorno, T. (1951), Minima Moralia. Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt, p. 141. |url=https://libcom.org/library/antisemitism-modern-critique-capitalism |access-date=5 December 2023 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207180431/https://libcom.org/library/antisemitism-modern-critique-capitalism |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |author-link=Francesca Trivellato |last=Trivellato |first=Francesca |title=The rumour about the Jews |date=28 January 2020 |magazine=[[Aeon (magazine)|Aeon]] |quote=Theodor Adorno in 1951 called 'the rumour about Jews'... |url=https://aeon.co/essays/what-is-the-link-between-medieval-and-modern-antisemitism |access-date=5 December 2023 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207180457/https://aeon.co/essays/what-is-the-link-between-medieval-and-modern-antisemitism |url-status=live}}</ref>

As an example of the correspondence theory, an 1894 book by [[Bernard Lazare]] questions whether Jews themselves were to blame for some antisemitic stereotypes, for instance arguing that Jews traditionally keeping strictly to their own communities, with their own practices and laws, led to a perception of Jews as anti-social; he later abandoned this belief and the book is considered antisemitic today.<ref>{{cite book |title=Anti-Semitism: Its History and Causes |first=Bernard |last=Lazare |publisher=Cosimo, Inc. |year=2006 |isbn=9781596056015 |page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=VP81v2Y24HUC&pg=PA9 9]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Brustein |first1=William L. |last2=Roberts |first2=Louisa |title=The Scialism of Fools: Leftist Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism |date=2015 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=55 |quote=Lazare argued in his book that Jews, because of their exclusiveness, arrogance, and unsociability, were themselves responsible for anti-Semitism. Lazare blames the Jewish religion and laws for these negative traits. His bool was widely reviewed and is by many accounts a seminal anti-Semitic text. Lazare's authorship of such an anti-Semitic work is ironic, given the role he would soon play in the Dreyfus Affair.}}</ref><ref name="q406">{{cite journal |last=Swanson |first=Joel |title=We Spring from that History: Bernard Lazare, between Universalism and Particularism |journal=Religions |volume=9 |issue=10 |date=21 October 2018 |issn=2077-1444 |doi=10.3390/rel9100322 |doi-access=free |page=322}}</ref> As another example, [[Walter Laqueur]] suggested that the antisemitic perception of Jewish people as greedy (as often used in [[Stereotypes of Jews#Greed|stereotypes of Jews]]) probably evolved in Europe during medieval times where a large portion of [[creditor|money lending]] was operated by Jews.{{sfnp|Laqueur|2006|p=154}} Among factors thought to contribute to this situation include that Jews were restricted from other professions,{{sfnp|Laqueur|2006|p=154}} while the [[Christian Church]] declared for their followers that money lending constituted immoral "[[usury]]",<ref>{{cite journal |title=Hawthorne's secret: an un-told tale |jstor=41398742 |journal=[[The Georgia Review]] |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=664–666 |first=Philip |last=Young |year=1984}}</ref> although recent scholarship, such as that of historian [[Julie Mell]] shows that Jews were not overrepresented in the sector and that the stereotype was founded in Christian [[Psychological projection|projection]] of taboo behaviour on to the minority.<ref name="u458"/><ref name="s525">{{cite journal |last=Cassen |first=Flora |title=Jews and Money: Time for a New Story? |journal=[[The Jewish Quarterly Review]] |volume=110 |issue=2 |year=2020 |issn=1553-0604 |doi=10.1353/jqr.2020.0007 |pages=373–382}}</ref><ref name="a817">{{cite journal |last=Mell |first=Julie L. |title=Cultural Meanings of Money in Medieval Ashkenaz: On Gift, Profit, and Value in Medieval Judaism and Christianity |journal=Jewish History |publisher=Springer |volume=28 |issue=2 |year=2014 |issn=0334-701X |jstor=24709715 |pages=125–158 |doi=10.1007/s10835-014-9212-3 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24709715 |access-date=11 July 2024}}</ref>

In ''Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition'' (2013), historian [[David Nirenberg]] traces the history of antisemitism, arguing that antisemitism should be understood not as a product of isolated historical events or cultural biases but is instead embedded within the very fabric of Western thought and society.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Nirenberg |first=David |author-link=David Nirenberg |title=Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition |publisher=Norton |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-393-34791-3 |location=New York}}</ref>{{pn|date=January 2024}} Its foundation lies in the early claim of [[Jewish deicide]] and depictions of Jews as 'Christ-killers'. Throughout Western history, Jews have since been used as a symbolic '[[Other (philosophy)|other]]' to define and articulate the values and boundaries of various cultures and intellectual traditions. In philosophy, literature, and politics, Jewishness has often been constructed as a counterpoint to what is considered normative or ideal. One of the key insights from Nirenberg's work is that antisemitism has proven to be remarkably adaptable.{{cn|date=February 2025}} It changes form and adapts to different contexts and times, whether in medieval religious disputes, Enlightenment critiques, or modern racial theories. Philosophers and intellectuals have often used 'Jewishness' as a foil to explore and define their ideas. For instance, in the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], figures like [[Voltaire]] critiqued Judaism as backward and superstitious to promote their visions of reason and progress. Similarly, the [[Soviet Union]] frequently [[Soviet anti-Semitism|portrayed]] Judaism as linked with capitalism and mercantilism, standing in opposition to the ideals of proletarian solidarity and [[communism]]. In each case, Judaism or the Jews are portrayed as standing in tension with prevailing moral norms.<ref name=":6" />

Author and scholar [[Dara Horn]] published an article in ''[[The Atlantic]]'' reflecting on her previous published doubts about the effectiveness of [[Holocaust education]] [[pedagogy]] and the rising antisemitism in the wake of the [[October 7th Massacre]] in Israel by Palestinians.<ref name=":8" /> In it, Horn argues that antisemitism functions by appropriating what has happened to Jews and recasting their experience as part of a broader, universal struggle, which always ends in ultimately redefining Jewish identity as incompatible with these ideals. She concludes that the attacks on Jews, often under the guise of anti-Zionism, follow the same ancient pattern of marginalization and vilification.<blockquote>This is the permission structure for anti-Semitism: claim whatever has happened to the Jews as one's own experience, announce a "universal" ideal that all good people must accept, and then redefine Jewish collective identity as lying beyond it. Hating Jews thus becomes a demonstration of righteousness. The key is to define, and redefine, and redefine again, the shiny new moral reasoning for why the Jews have failed the universal test of humanity.<ref name=":8">{{Cite magazine |last=Horn |first=Dara |author-link=Dara Horn |date=7 October 2024 |title=October 7 Created a Permission Structure for Anti-Semitism |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/october-7-anti-semitism-united-states/680176/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241010011236/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/10/october-7-anti-semitism-united-states/680176/ |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=15 October 2024 |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |issn=2151-9463}}</ref></blockquote>