1. DEFINITION OF ANTI-SEMITISM I 1. Unshakable belief that all Jews were participants in a long-range and subtle conspiracy to take control of the world and destroy Christian civilization

2. DEFINITION OF ANTI-SEMITISM II 2. Willingness and commitment to act against Jews over the long duration in order to render them harmless

3. DEFINITION OF ANTI-SEMITISM III 3. To carry out this strategy, anti- semites organized themselves into permanent political parties and/or voluntary associations which usually engaged in publishing ventures designed to expose the Jewish conspiracy

4. DEFINITION OF ANTI-SEMITISM: SUMMARY Anti-semitism was the organized and institutionalized long-range effort by individuals, convinced that Jews were conspiring to destroy Western Civilization, to thwart this threat by whatever means necessary before it was too late

5. Ideology was central to the Holocaust –A–A set of ideas upon which value judgments could be made and actions taken was in place long before World War II Claims of anti-semites that Jew hatred was an universal phenomenon were inaccurate –A–Anti-semitism was the exclusive creation of the Christian West

6. From the beginning, the existence of the Jews has been of pivotal importance to Christianity –The origins of Judaism, its rejection of the new religion introduced by Jesus, the role of Jews in the crucifixion, and the competition for souls between church and synagogue made relationship between Jews and Christians intense with emotion It was not just an argument between religions but a contest between two groups who claimed exclusive rights to the same God

7. Jews were tolerated in the Christian world because they performed a necessary theological function –Their suffering bore witness to the superior truth of the Christian faith –They presented a living reminder to backsliders of the price of straying from the true path

8. ACCULTURATION Liberals felt that Jews had to demonstrate a sincere desire to acculturate in exchange for emancipation –And some did—Benjamin Disraeli –But majority of Jews rebelled at the implicit demand that they become Christian and chose instead to ignore all religion

9. DIFFERENCES Eastern European Jews Western European Jews

10. THEODOR HERZL: FATHER OF ZIONISM

11. FAMOUS ANTI-SEMITES

12. SUMMARY Antisemitism was an irrational, emotional form of racism which had no basis in reality –Yet many people believed it anyway Problem with racism: adherents to racist theories suspend whatever critical and rational faculties they might possess and embrace ideas which make no intellectual or scientific sense but which have a great deal of emotional power.