Slandering the Jew

Slandering the Jew
Author: Susanna Drake
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2013-07-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0812208242

Download Slandering the Jew Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

As Christian leaders in the first through fifth centuries embraced ascetic interpretations of the Bible and practices of sexual renunciation, sexual slander—such as the accusations Paul leveled against wayward Gentiles in the New Testament—played a pivotal role in the formation of early Christian identity. In particular, the imagined construct of the lascivious, literal-minded Jew served as a convenient foil to the chaste Christian ideal. Susanna Drake examines representations of Jewish sexuality in early Christian writings that use accusations of carnality, fleshliness, bestiality, and licentiousness as strategies to differentiate the "spiritual" Christian from the "carnal" Jew. Church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Hippolytus of Rome, Origen of Alexandria, and John Chrysostom portrayed Jewish men variously as dangerously hypersexual, at times literally seducing virtuous Christians into heresy, or as weak and effeminate, unable to control bodily impulses or govern their wives. As Drake shows, these carnal caricatures served not only to emphasize religious difference between Christians and Jews but also to justify increased legal constraints and violent acts against Jews as the interests of Christian leaders began to dovetail with the interests of the empire. Placing Christian representations of Jews at the root of the destruction of synagogues and mobbing of Jewish communities in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, Slandering the Jew casts new light on the intersections of sexuality, violence, representation, and religious identity.

The Accusation: Blood Libel in an American Town

The Accusation: Blood Libel in an American Town
Author: Edward Berenson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-09-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0393249433

Download The Accusation: Blood Libel in an American Town Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

A chilling investigation of America’s only alleged case of blood libel, and what it reveals about antisemitism in the United States and Europe. On Saturday, September 22, 1928, Barbara Griffiths, age four, strayed into the woods surrounding the upstate village of Massena, New York. Hundreds of people looked everywhere for the child but could not find her. At one point, someone suggested that Barbara had been kidnapped and killed by Jews, and as the search continued, policemen and townspeople alike gave credence to the quickly spreading rumors. The allegation of ritual murder, known to Jews as “blood libel,” took hold. To believe in the accusation seems bizarre at first glance—blood libel was essentially unknown in the United States. But a great many of Massena’s inhabitants, both Christians and Jews, had emigrated recently from Central and Eastern Europe, where it was all too common. Historian Edward Berenson, himself a native of Massena, sheds light on the cross-cultural forces that ignited America’s only known instance of blood libel, and traces its roots in Old World prejudice, homegrown antisemitism, and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Residues of all three have persisted until the present day. More than just the disturbing story of one town’s embrace of an insidious anti-Jewish myth, The Accusation is a shocking and perceptive exploration of American and European responses to antisemitism.

The Anti-defamation League

The Anti-defamation League
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 16
Release: 1990*
Genre: Antisemitism
ISBN:

Download The Anti-defamation League Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Blood Libel

Blood Libel
Author: Magda Teter
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 561
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674243552

Download Blood Libel Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

A landmark history of the antisemitic blood libel myth—how it took root in Europe, spread with the invention of the printing press, and persists today. Accusations that Jews ritually killed Christian children emerged in the mid-twelfth century, following the death of twelve-year-old William of Norwich, England, in 1144. Later, continental Europeans added a destructive twist: Jews murdered Christian children to use their blood. While charges that Jews poisoned wells and desecrated the communion host waned over the years, the blood libel survived. Initially blood libel stories were confined to monastic chronicles and local lore. But the development of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century expanded the audience and crystallized the vocabulary, images, and “facts” of the blood libel, providing a lasting template for hate. Tales of Jews killing Christians—notably Simon of Trent, a toddler whose body was found under a Jewish house in 1475—were widely disseminated using the new technology. Following the paper trail across Europe, from England to Italy to Poland, Magda Teter shows how the blood libel was internalized and how Jews and Christians dealt with the repercussions. The pattern established in early modern Europe still plays out today. In 2014 the Anti-Defamation League appealed to Facebook to take down a page titled “Jewish Ritual Murder.” The following year white supremacists gathered in England to honor Little Hugh of Lincoln as a sacrificial victim of the Jews. Based on sources in eight countries and ten languages, Blood Libel captures the long shadow of a pernicious myth.

The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion

The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
Author: Sergei Nilus
Publisher:
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2019-02-26
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9781947844964

Download The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is almost certainly fiction, but its impact was not. Originating in Russia, it landed in the English-speaking world where it caused great consternation. Much is made of German anti-semitism, but there was fertile soil for "The Protocols" across Europe and even in America, thanks to Henry Ford and others.

A Measure of Freedom

A Measure of Freedom
Author: Arnold Forster
Publisher:
Total Pages: 266
Release: 1950
Genre: History
ISBN:

Download A Measure of Freedom Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

On discriminatory and antisemitic attitudes in the US.

The Pinnacle of Hatred

The Pinnacle of Hatred
Author: Darren O'Brien
Publisher: Hebrew University Magnes Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Anti-Jewish propaganda
ISBN: 9789654934770

Download The Pinnacle of Hatred Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D)--Macquarie University, North Ride, N.S.W., 2004.

Josephus' Contra Apionem

Josephus' Contra Apionem
Author: Louis H. Feldman
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 542
Release: 1996
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9789004103252

Download Josephus' Contra Apionem Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This volume offers a state-of-the-art collection of papers by leading scholars on Josephus' "Contra Apionem," together with a concordance to the Latin section, 2.52-113.