The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day (review)

Abstract

The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to Present Day, by Walter Laqueur. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 216 pp. $22.00. Walter Laqueurs many books on European and Middle Eastern history have always combined historical depth and contemporary relevance. His latest work, a history of is no exception: although it begins with ancient world and provides a brisk survey of history of through era of Holocaust, half of its chapters deal with aspects of the new antisemitism, surprising mutations of old virus that have occurred in post-Holocaust era. As Laqueur wryly notes, Nazis made term antisemitism disreputable, and most antisemites now masquerade under other names: A spade is no longer a spade but an agricultural implement. Laqueur's chapters on ancient and medieval Enlightenment and its aftermath, rise of racialism and conspiracy theories, and Holocaust are masterly examples of concise analysis, full of crisp judgments of distinctive factors at play in each period. It is true, he acknowledges, that there are continuities in history of antisemitism: Voltaire, for example, was influenced by his reading of classical authors with prejudices against Jews, as well as by Spinoza's rationalist critique of Judaism in seventeenth century. But as a historian, Laqueur is more attentive to differences rather than similarities across periods, and he stresses that different societies have produced different varieties of antisemitism. Antisemitism in early modern Germany, for example, was primarily theological in character, while Polish had mainly social rather than ideological causes. Instead of depicting as a kind of primordial lava that erupts periodically in times of crisis, Laqueur is alert to specific changes in constellation of factors that have produced outbreaks of hatred and violence against Jewish minorities in European and Islamic societies. Laqueur has written authoritative works not only about Holocaust, but also about various forms of ideological extremism and terrorism, as well as about Zionism and Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is therefore well equipped to examine more recent manifestations of in Middle East and on left side of political spectrum in Europe and elsewhere in contemporary world. He begins his book with a puzzle: If more than 25 million people have been killed in internal conflicts since end of second World War, why have 8,000 victims of Israeli-Palestinian conflict received so much of world's attention? Why has Israel been target of more United Nations resolutions than all other nations combined? Is it a matter of sympathy for underdog in conflict? But surely there are many other underdogs in world's many zones of conflict, some of them suffering more grievously than Palestinians. …