Antisemitism in the form of apocalyptic demonization probably starts during the first hundred years of Christianity, according to Elaine Pagels, The Origin of Satan, (New York: Vintage, 1996).
Before that, the idea of the demonized apocalyptic other is traced by Norman Cohn, Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993).
The rise in Europe: R. Po-chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988); Heiko A. Oberman, The Roots of Anti-Semitism: In the Age of Renaissance and Reformation, translated by James I. Porter, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984, {German edition 1981}).
The modern version is covered in Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, (London: Serif, 1996).
The idea of chimera antisemitism (the fantasy construction of a demonized other) is treated in David Norman Smith; "The Social Construction of Enemies: Jews and the Representation of Evil," Sociological Theory, 14:3, Nov. 1996, pp. 203-240.
A summary of all of this is in my study Dances with Devils:
http://www.publiceye.org/Apocalyptic/Dances_with_Devils_TOC.htm
-Chip Berlet
----- Original Message ----- From: Katha Pollitt <kpollitt at thenation.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Friday, November 19, 1999 9:28 PM Subject: Re: Anti-semitic, anti-immigrant
> Alessandro -- If the romans gave the Jews a hard time in First Cent. bc
> wasn't it because the Jews rejected state polytheism and were also
> making trouble trying to get Palestine out from under rome? That's not
> really anti-semitism, or anti-Judaism as we are thinking about it. The
> romans didn't like anybody (christians for example) who exempted
> themselves from the state religion , which could accomodate all sorts of
> new ethnic divinities but not those who rejected the basic roman
> understanding of multiple gods all telling you to fulfill basic civic
> obligations (to pay taxes, play your part in civic functions, accept
> the Roman state as underwritten by the gods etc). Correct me if I'm
> wrong but I don't think the Romans thought the Jews were a special
> magically evil people set apart from normal humanity and responsible
> for plagues, child murder, natural disasters etc. They were just pains
> in the neck.
> I don't understand your point about nomadism. In the first Century BC,
> the Jews had their own homeland, albeit it was a Roman province. They
> were no more nomadic than the Greeks, or the Romans themselves.
>
> Katha
>
> does anyone know a good book about "anti=semitism" in the pre-christian
> world? Now I'm fascinated.
>
> Katha