Where anti-Jewish hatred comes from, and how to beat it
Rick Spence traces the Protocols forgery at the root of modern anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, Liulevicius explains how Nazism turned hatred into policy, and Michael Malice discusses anti-Semitism, religion and how to beat bigotry. Together they show how an old prejudice keeps being repackaged, and what actually counters it.
How do the sources describe the history of anti-Jewish hatred? Show answer
As very old hostility that has been repackaged repeatedly, from religious prejudice to pseudo-science to conspiracy theory to state policy.
Why does Rick Spence dislike the term anti-Semitism? Show answer
It was coined in the 1870s to make hatred of Jews sound scientific, and it does not plainly say what it means.
What changed in the 1800s, according to Spence? Show answer
Legal restrictions on Jews were lifted, and they became visible in professions and business during a period of wrenching economic change.
Why could propagandists blame Jews for opposite things? Show answer
Some Jews were prominent in finance and others on the revolutionary left, so both capitalism and communism were pinned on them.
What does Spence identify as the essential claim of this hatred? Show answer
That all Jews act together as one, although Jewish communities were in fact diverse and divided among themselves.
What are the Protocols of the Elders of Zion? Show answer
A forged text claiming to expose a secret plan for world domination, which Spence calls among the most destructive works ever produced.
What did Spence find by tracing the Protocols to their first appearance? Show answer
They were serialized in a small Russian newspaper in 1903, and the first version mentioned Freemasons more than Jews.
Why did the Protocols spread after the First World War? Show answer
Translations appeared, and the text offered a simple explanation for a world that had been turned upside down.
How does Vejas Liulevicius explain the move from hatred to mass killing? Show answer
Nazism placed racism and hatred of Jews at the center of an ideology of conquest, and acted on it from the invasion of Poland.
Why does Michael Malice say this hatred differs from other bigotries? Show answer
It openly calls for killing and has repeatedly led to it, through centuries of violence and the Holocaust.
What is Malice's ambassador program? Show answer
The idea that knowing a real member of a group makes it much harder to be bigoted against that group.
What does the pattern not cover? Show answer
Criticism of Israel or of individuals for their own actions. It begins when one person's acts are blamed on a whole people.