“Get the Joke or Get the Jew”: Satire and the Performance of Antisemitism from the Middle Ages to the Twenty-First Century

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The persistence of anti-Jewish and antisemitic stereotypes throughout history, from medieval times to the present, reveals the enduring power of visual and cultural narratives in shaping public perceptions of Jews. This paper examines how Yvan Attal’s film Ils sont partout effectively satirizes these stereotypes, exposing their absurdity and the dangers of such ingrained prejudices. By connecting modern satire to historical instances of antisemitism, this study emphasizes the necessity of challenging and critically analyzing these harmful depictions. While the forms of anti-Jewish and antisemitism evolve over time, the underlying biases remain disturbingly consistent across cultures and eras.