ANTI-SEMITISM

hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious or racial group. The term anti-Semitism was coined in 1879 by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr to designate the anti-Jewish campaigns underway in central Europe at that time. Although this term now has wide currency, it is a misnomer, since it implies a discrimination against all Semites. Arabs and other peoples are also Semites, and yet they are not the targets of anti-Semitism as it is usually understood. The term is especially inappropriate as a label for the anti-Jewish prejudices, statements, or actions of Arabs or other Semites. Nazi anti-Semitism, which culminated in the Holocaust, had a racist dimension, in that it targeted Jews because of their supposed biological characteristicseven those who had themselves converted to other religions or whose parents were converts. This variety of anti-Jewish racism dates only to the emergence of so-called scientific racism in the 19th century and is different in nature from earlier anti-Jewish prejudices. Michael Berenbaum Additional reading General historical overviews of anti-Semitism include Lon Poliakov, The History of Anti-Semitism, 4 vol. (196585; originally published in French, 195568); and Robert S. Wistrich, Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred (1991; reissued 1994). Rosemary Ruether, Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism (1974, reissued 1997), is an important study of Christian anti-Semitism. Arthur Hertzberg, The French Enlightenment and the Jews (1968, reissued 1990), explores the anti-Semitic dimensions of Enlightenment thought. For interesting and often conflicting portraits of Nazi anti-Semitism, see John Weiss, The Ideology of Death: Why the Holocaust Happened in Germany (1996); and Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (1996).