THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Anti-Semitism
Willielm ScliiTiT >isc(l lie trrni " Antisemiteu " in the "Xeiic FrcMf Pri'ssi- " of January. I
It
is.
Iiowi'vcr. imp(is.sil)l(' to trace with (crtainty It docs not appear to have of the word.
tirst iisf
till"
History
l)een eoined before the end of the seventirs, when the (lernian empire en
of the
from
npon
tered
Term.
its
a course widely ililTi nnl former policy. The nature of
the word imiilics the ])rce.istence of the word and iilea of Sernitisni, which has itself a Auirusi Ludwii; von history that must he tniced. Sehliizer (ITIi.VlSUiJjand Johann Gottfried Kicldiorn (1T.V.J-Iy27). hoth iirofcssoi-s in Gottinireii, weri' the first to use the term "Semitic nations" (Eichhorn, " Historisch Krili.sclie Einleitunj; in das Alte Teslament." 'id ed., 1787, p. 4."i; iilini. " Hcperloriinn." 17!sl,i. (51;
"Ausland."
1873. p. Il):i4)ina jdiiloloirical
sense; hut the ethnical distinctness of Semitic nations was not a ireiierally accept<'d theory until Franz Uo])p (17'J1-1S()'7). in his "
52).
had created
Coniiianilive'Cranunar " (18:!;^lerni of " Indo-Ger-
tile <-orrelative
nianiclaMLMa!;es." called by the Frenchschool "IniloEnjrlish " Aryan." What was
European."and by the
oriiiinally a merely linjiuislic term soon became an etiuiical desiirnation based on the results of compara-
The tirst who attenijited to draw a tive philolojry. picture of the ethnical chanicter of the Semites as contradistiniruished from the Aryans seems to have heen Clirislian Lassen lis0()-7fi). jjrofessor at Bonn, who. in his " Indischc Altertumskunde," Bonn, 1844(
61.
"
i.
414, says:
lieen the (rift of but a few nations. Of other ("liinese, and of the Caucasian only Semites and .ryans. tiave l)uilt up tiunian civilization. History pn)y**s that Semites do not ixissess the liarmony of psychii-ai fori'cs which distinifuishes the Aryans. The Semite is selllsh Clviliziiiliiti liiis
races only Kjrvptians and
and him And
e.i-lusive. He posses.sps a .^harii Intellect whii-h enatiles to niaiie use t»f the opportunities cri'ated by others, as we it In the history of the Phenieians and. later on, of the
AratB."
Independently of Lassen, Ernest Renan (1823-92) asserted the same principle of the inferiority of the Semites, which inferiority he claims to have been the tirst to recognize (" Ilistoire Genende et Systeme Compare des Langues Semiti(pies." .")th ed.. 1878. p.
"The two words." he S;iys. "which have served tinlil nowasa .symbol for the projrress of the hunian mind toward truth, science, and iihilosopliy, were .StroML'er still are foreijin to them" (i/i. p. 3). 4).
Renan's exjircssions in his essiiys on the history of religion ("Etudes dllistoire Heliuieusc." .ith ed., Thei-ein he claims for the Aryans all Paris, 1862). the jrreat military. |>olitical, and intellectual movements in the world's history while the Semites nuist be credited with the reliiiiotis niove;
Benanon the Jews,
The Semites have never inenls(i). liad any compii-hension of civilization which ir, iinderslaiiii the in the sense in 8.")).
word; they were at no time i)ul)lic-si)irited (]i. S8). Intolerance was the natural consequence of their monotheism (p. 87), which, if not imiwrted from the Semitic world, would have remained foreign tothe
who were impressed wi'h the variety of the universe (p. S.";). The Jewish people, while not ])iojrressive. claimed that the future wastlu'lrs: and this illosrical position accounlsforthe hatred which eighteen centuries wei'e unable to mitigate (p. 130). While R<iian, in the preface to his history of the Semitic languages, warned against wresting individual pajwages from the context, and insisted that the racial element was counterbalanced by many other influences; while he said that the .Tews of our age are not Semites, but modern men; and while he even denied the I'Xislenceof a Jewish race (" Le Judai'sme comiue Rate ct conime Religion," Paris, 1883), it was, Aryans,
642
nevertheless, he who hail foigeil the arms which the anti-Semites used in Ihiir attacks on Jews and Jiidjiism. For they <(iulil refer to the testimony of a scholar and a freethinker, when they repeateil in reference to the Jews what he hail said of the Semites luunely. that they lacked jiersonal courage; that their moral
—
ideal
was
dilTercnl
from "ouis"; that they were
negalive, and allogether " tine race incomplete." -Many other representatives of the young which was constaully adscience of ethnology vanced by the development of comparphilology proceeded to ilniw Applica- ative tion to lines of demarcation between .Sendlic Ethnology, luid Aryan civilization (Philippson, " Wellbewegende Fr!lgen,"i. 31, Leipsic, 1808). • Of the immense liteniture on the subject an article, pulilished in the "Ausland," a weekly edited by Friedrich von Hellwald, 1872, pp. 901 k UK/, and 9.')7 it mf/., seems to have exercised a great inthieiice upon Ihe growth of the anti Semitic movement, althoiigli the aiionynions author (afterward acknowleilged by von llellwidd to be himself) is in no way original, but has mainly copied the words of Reiiaii. He says; siltish. chielly
—
—
'*
The Jews
ar^'
not merely a difTen-nt religions communtly.
but -and this is to us the altojjether different race.
most imixtrtant factor ethnically an The Kuro[H'an feels instinctivi'ly that the Jew is a slnmjrer who Immi^rntted fmm .sla. 'I'hesiwalled prejudice is a natural sentiment, flvlllzatiou will overcome the autipiithv aL'ainsi the l>nielite who merely prof i-ssi-s another n-li^rinii. hut iM'crtli;ii ;iLr:iinst the mdally different Jew. The Jewis cusiiiitpoiitjin. iiiiii ("issfsses a certiiin a.stiaeness which imikes him the master of the honest .r>'an. In eastern F.iiropc the Jew is the cancer slowly eatin); into the llesh of the other nations. Exploitation of the people is his only aim. Selllshness am! lack of iiersonal connare are his chief chanicteristics ; selfsacrltlce and patriotism are altogether foreljfn to him."
claimed tlitit, although the Jews have ainalgsito a considerable extent with their surroundings, they no longer adopt commeicial pmstiits exclusively, Inive their children educated in the public schools, and are eager 1o give up their peeiUiaritie.s, the Jew renuiins a separate individuality, and, while he participates in the spiritual and poliliial work of the nation, his dcsii'e is to make it subservient tothe Koeiler, "Ziitschrift fiir die Geride of Judaism sainmten Slaatswissenschaften," ls71, Xo, 3; .Jules " Le Conslitutionnel," Nov. 24, 1872). Richard, in AVIiile the term Anti-Semitism should be restricted in its use to the modern movements against the Jews. in its wider sense it may be said to include the persecution of the Jews at all times The Old and among all nations as jirofessors of Hatred of a separate religion or as a peo|)le havthe Jews, ing a distinct nationality. Its history begins with Ihe |ierioil of the Book of Esther, when the charge was tirst made that the Jews are a "]ieople scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the |u-ovinees of thy kiugilom: and their laws arc diverse from all |)eople; neither keep they the king's laws; therefore it is not for the king's profit to sufTer them " (Esth. The Jews, having met with nations who iii. 8). disputed their claim of sujieriority. were, in the llcllenized Orient iuid later on in the Roman world. Ihe The targets of hatred combined with conlempl. charges ])referreil against them were lliat Ihey hated all other men; that they were clannish («"';'") and irreligious (<irtfor;?r); that they had not |)articipated in the work of civilization; that they litid become a menace to the Roman emiiire; thiit their bodies emitted a peculiar odor; that Ihey sju-rificed annually a Greek; and that they were descendants of lepers, who had been expelled from Eirvpt (Sehiirer, "Gesch." 3d ed.. iii. 397-42(1. Leiiisic. 1S98; Reinach. "Te.xtes d'Auteurs Grecs et Romains Relatifs au It is
maled
(
