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soniamarie_1996's review
5.0
Perhaps one of the most important books I have ever read. In fact, do not even SPEAK to me again until you have read this book.
alexisrt's review against another edition
5.0
This is an absorbing study of the history of "anti-Judaism"--related to, but distinct from, antisemitism. Nirenberg isn't interested in the persecution of Jews as people as much as the ideas that have animated hatred of Jews and Judaism, even in the absence of Jews themselves. He examines the language surrounding Jews in the New Testament and the Quran, in medieval Spanish literature and modern philosophy. What Nirenberg shows is that anti-Judaism has been a continuous presence in western thought.
blackoxford's review
5.0
Christian Anti-Semitic Identity
Christians have perennially defined themselves as those not wanting to be mistaken for Jews. As Nirenberg points out: "If Paul had converted to Christianity during the second century rather than the first he would have been declared a heretic" simply because he never denied his Judaism.
Christians, since the first gospel-writer called Mark, have developed the term 'Jew' quite independently of what actual Jews are, believe and do. The fewer Jews there are around - after the English expulsion and the Spanish Inquisition for example - the more the caricature of The Jew becomes an independent Christian cultural archetype that can be used on both sides of any political argument against the other:
Jews are Capitalists, Jews are Communists; Jews have no culture, Jewish culture is permanently threatening to Christianity; Jews are weak, Jews are incredibly obstinate and resilient; Judaism is legalistic ritual, Judaism has no ethical content. Jews, in short, represent whatever social problem happens to be current, for whatever faction proposing a solution.
Largely this is a consequence of the persistent promulgation by the (Catholic) Church of a theology of alienation. Unable to fundamentally distinguish itself from Judaism, except through its rejection by Judaism, Christianity has needed Judaism as a unifying symbol.
Not until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), with the recognition of its role in the Holocaust, did the church formally reject this theological symbol. One wonders to what degree this move rather than other liturgical changes contributes to the subsequent decline in institutional church participation.
Of greater social relevance perhaps, one also wonders to what degree the recent rise in European anti-Semitism is a cultural attempt to re-establish this lost symbol of Christian unity. Isn't it the Jews in Israel after all who are ultimately responsible for Muslim unrest, while they are simultaneously responsible for so much disruptively liberal social policy? The seeds need only a little watering by populist wannabes to sprout another round of good Christian hate.
Nirenberg’s message is that the The Jew is not a person; he is not a member of an ethnic or religious group; he is not even a ‘type’. The Jew is a perennial trope, a figure of speech, created and institutionalised in European Christianity. The Jew is what ‘we’ are not. This trope gets used, inserted into conversation and debate, in any number of situations to promote unrest and misdirect popular anger. Language has power. The semiotic linguistic process which the church began almost 2000 years ago is much harder to stop than it was to start.
Postscript 13May19: https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/284689/the-bloody-history-of-americas-christian-identity-movement
Christians have perennially defined themselves as those not wanting to be mistaken for Jews. As Nirenberg points out: "If Paul had converted to Christianity during the second century rather than the first he would have been declared a heretic" simply because he never denied his Judaism.
Christians, since the first gospel-writer called Mark, have developed the term 'Jew' quite independently of what actual Jews are, believe and do. The fewer Jews there are around - after the English expulsion and the Spanish Inquisition for example - the more the caricature of The Jew becomes an independent Christian cultural archetype that can be used on both sides of any political argument against the other:
Jews are Capitalists, Jews are Communists; Jews have no culture, Jewish culture is permanently threatening to Christianity; Jews are weak, Jews are incredibly obstinate and resilient; Judaism is legalistic ritual, Judaism has no ethical content. Jews, in short, represent whatever social problem happens to be current, for whatever faction proposing a solution.
Largely this is a consequence of the persistent promulgation by the (Catholic) Church of a theology of alienation. Unable to fundamentally distinguish itself from Judaism, except through its rejection by Judaism, Christianity has needed Judaism as a unifying symbol.
Not until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), with the recognition of its role in the Holocaust, did the church formally reject this theological symbol. One wonders to what degree this move rather than other liturgical changes contributes to the subsequent decline in institutional church participation.
Of greater social relevance perhaps, one also wonders to what degree the recent rise in European anti-Semitism is a cultural attempt to re-establish this lost symbol of Christian unity. Isn't it the Jews in Israel after all who are ultimately responsible for Muslim unrest, while they are simultaneously responsible for so much disruptively liberal social policy? The seeds need only a little watering by populist wannabes to sprout another round of good Christian hate.
Nirenberg’s message is that the The Jew is not a person; he is not a member of an ethnic or religious group; he is not even a ‘type’. The Jew is a perennial trope, a figure of speech, created and institutionalised in European Christianity. The Jew is what ‘we’ are not. This trope gets used, inserted into conversation and debate, in any number of situations to promote unrest and misdirect popular anger. Language has power. The semiotic linguistic process which the church began almost 2000 years ago is much harder to stop than it was to start.
Postscript 13May19: https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/284689/the-bloody-history-of-americas-christian-identity-movement
soupcocoon's review
5.0
This book may have taught me more than any other. Anyone who wants to begin to understand, notice, and unlearn antisemitism should consider it required reading. I really appreciate being given an actual explanation of antisemitism and how it snowballed throughout history rather than being told antisemitic is unexplainable and the choice of Jews as a scapegoat is random.
The book is well-organized, accessible, and easy to follow. The details of certain examples were too abstract for me to completely understand but that did not make it impossible to move on or understand the main point.
It was a heavy read as it really made me feel the weight of all the hatred of Jews and the anxieties projected onto us building and getting heavier throughout history. But it did feel nice to emerge with an understanding of how deeply anti-Judaism is ingrained in the world's ways of thought. The main point is that throughout history, the central questions, paradoxes, and anxieties of Western societies have been projected onto Jews and explained in terms of Judaism, in many cases leading to violence against actual Jews but in other cases only adding to the canon of anti-Judaism.
The book ends by explaining that the Holocaust cannot have happened without this historical tradition unconsciously ingrained in the world's consciousness and setting a precedent for scapegoating of the Jews. The epilogue adds that today, this pattern of explaining anxieties in terms of Judaism can be seen in the idea of many groups that "the challenges of the world they live in are best explained in terms of 'Israel," a pattern that many people are terrifyingly unaware of in themselves.
5 stars
The book is well-organized, accessible, and easy to follow. The details of certain examples were too abstract for me to completely understand but that did not make it impossible to move on or understand the main point.
It was a heavy read as it really made me feel the weight of all the hatred of Jews and the anxieties projected onto us building and getting heavier throughout history. But it did feel nice to emerge with an understanding of how deeply anti-Judaism is ingrained in the world's ways of thought. The main point is that throughout history, the central questions, paradoxes, and anxieties of Western societies have been projected onto Jews and explained in terms of Judaism, in many cases leading to violence against actual Jews but in other cases only adding to the canon of anti-Judaism.
The book ends by explaining that the Holocaust cannot have happened without this historical tradition unconsciously ingrained in the world's consciousness and setting a precedent for scapegoating of the Jews. The epilogue adds that today, this pattern of explaining anxieties in terms of Judaism can be seen in the idea of many groups that "the challenges of the world they live in are best explained in terms of 'Israel," a pattern that many people are terrifyingly unaware of in themselves.
5 stars
tumblehawk's review against another edition
5.0
Hoo buddy, this book really stretched my brain out. I haven’t read something this heady and dense in years but the deeper I got the more engaged I became. Nirenberg, a historian, sets out to chart the history of perspectives on Jews and Judaism in ‘western’ thought, charting how the figure of the Jew and the idea of Judaism have been fundamental in every era in the framing of worldviews by various critical thinkers, even those who had little to no actual exposure to/interaction with actual real Jews. The idea of the Jew becomes a sort of foil, a projection, an abstract calamity into which all of the anxieties of an era can be poured. The point of the book, he repeats again and again, isn’t to say that these thinkers (Paul, Augustine, Martin Luther, Shakespeare, etc etc) are anti-semites but that by charting the way Jews and Judaism figured into their way of understanding the world, we can gain a greater understanding of how the real actual lives of Jews were affected—you won’t be shocked to learn that this book ends in the 1940’s. A really powerful read.
aeudaimonia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
4.75
One of the best books I've read this year, Anti-Judaism takes an intellectual approach similar to Edward Said's Orientalism: tracing through history the development of anti-Judaism as a system of thought up to, as Nirenberg quotes Nietzsche, the "creeping calamity" of the Holocaust. While some chapters take us outside the Western Christian context, specifically those covering Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and early Islam, it should be required reading for anyone who is or was raised Christian.
My only qualm is that each chapter could be its own 400-page book (currently it boasts of a little under 500 pages, excluding another 100 pages of notes). Fleshing out each time period could easily have taken 1000+ pages. Not everyone's cup of tea, but the last main chapter covered everything from Karl Marx and Max Weber to Joseph Goebbels and Nazi propaganda to the Cassirer/Heidegger debate and the perceived Judaization of mathematics. It needed more space to breathe. With that said, this book is an effective springboard for readers who want to study in more depth, and Nirenberg's bibliography provides literally hundreds of avenues to do so.
My only qualm is that each chapter could be its own 400-page book (currently it boasts of a little under 500 pages, excluding another 100 pages of notes). Fleshing out each time period could easily have taken 1000+ pages. Not everyone's cup of tea, but the last main chapter covered everything from Karl Marx and Max Weber to Joseph Goebbels and Nazi propaganda to the Cassirer/Heidegger debate and the perceived Judaization of mathematics. It needed more space to breathe. With that said, this book is an effective springboard for readers who want to study in more depth, and Nirenberg's bibliography provides literally hundreds of avenues to do so.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism
athenany's review
5.0
This is a fascinating book that really got me thinking. It took me awhile to get through, and I was occasionally glad for my Kindle's built-in dictionary. It is not about anti-Semitism, but instead about aversion to Judaism and Jewishness as a philosophy or trait that can be just as easily ascribed to non-Jews (and very often was.) It is worth the effort.
blackoxford's review against another edition
5.0
Christian Anti-Semitic Identity
Christians have perennially defined themselves as those not wanting to be Jews. As Nirenberg points out: "If Paul had converted to Christianity during the second century rather than the first he would have been declared a heretic" simply because he never denied his Judaism.
Christians, since the first gospel-writer called Mark, have developed the term 'Jew' quite independently of what actual Jews are, believe and do. The fewer Jews there are around - after the English expulsion and the Spanish Inquisition for example - the more the caricature of The Jew becomes an independent Christian cultural archetype that can be used on both sides of any political argument against the other:
Jews are Capitalists, Jews are Communists; Jews have no culture, Jewish culture is permanently threatening to Christianity; Jews are weak, Jews are incredibly obstinate and resilient; Judaism is legalistic ritual, Judaism has no ethical content. Jews, in short, represent whatever social problem happens to be current, for whatever faction proposing a solution.
Largely this is a consequence of the persistent promulgation by the (Catholic) Church of a theology of alienation. Unable to fundamentally distinguish itself from Judaism, except through its rejection by Judaism, Christianity has needed Judaism as a unifying symbol.
Not until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), with the recognition of its role in the Holocaust, did the church formally reject this theological symbol. One wonders to what degree this move rather than other liturgical changes contributes to the subsequent decline in institutional church participation.
Of greater social relevance perhaps, one also wonders to what degree the recent rise in European anti-Semitism is a cultural attempt to re-establish this lost symbol of Christian unity. Isn't it the Jews in Israel after all who are ultimately responsible for Muslim unrest, while they are simultaneously responsible for so much disruptively liberal social policy? The seeds need only a little watering by populist wannabes to sprout another round of good Christian hate.
Nirenberg’s message is that the The Jew is not a person; he is not a member of an ethnic or religious group; he is not even a ‘type’. The Jew is a perennial trope, a figure of speech, created and institutionalised in European Christianity. The Jew is what ‘we’ are not. This trope gets used, inserted into conversation and debate, in any number of situations to promote unrest and misdirect popular anger. Language has power. The semiotic linguistic process which the church began almost 2000 years ago is much harder to stop than it was to start.
Postscript 13May19: https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/284689/the-bloody-history-of-americas-christian-identity-movement
Christians have perennially defined themselves as those not wanting to be Jews. As Nirenberg points out: "If Paul had converted to Christianity during the second century rather than the first he would have been declared a heretic" simply because he never denied his Judaism.
Christians, since the first gospel-writer called Mark, have developed the term 'Jew' quite independently of what actual Jews are, believe and do. The fewer Jews there are around - after the English expulsion and the Spanish Inquisition for example - the more the caricature of The Jew becomes an independent Christian cultural archetype that can be used on both sides of any political argument against the other:
Jews are Capitalists, Jews are Communists; Jews have no culture, Jewish culture is permanently threatening to Christianity; Jews are weak, Jews are incredibly obstinate and resilient; Judaism is legalistic ritual, Judaism has no ethical content. Jews, in short, represent whatever social problem happens to be current, for whatever faction proposing a solution.
Largely this is a consequence of the persistent promulgation by the (Catholic) Church of a theology of alienation. Unable to fundamentally distinguish itself from Judaism, except through its rejection by Judaism, Christianity has needed Judaism as a unifying symbol.
Not until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), with the recognition of its role in the Holocaust, did the church formally reject this theological symbol. One wonders to what degree this move rather than other liturgical changes contributes to the subsequent decline in institutional church participation.
Of greater social relevance perhaps, one also wonders to what degree the recent rise in European anti-Semitism is a cultural attempt to re-establish this lost symbol of Christian unity. Isn't it the Jews in Israel after all who are ultimately responsible for Muslim unrest, while they are simultaneously responsible for so much disruptively liberal social policy? The seeds need only a little watering by populist wannabes to sprout another round of good Christian hate.
Nirenberg’s message is that the The Jew is not a person; he is not a member of an ethnic or religious group; he is not even a ‘type’. The Jew is a perennial trope, a figure of speech, created and institutionalised in European Christianity. The Jew is what ‘we’ are not. This trope gets used, inserted into conversation and debate, in any number of situations to promote unrest and misdirect popular anger. Language has power. The semiotic linguistic process which the church began almost 2000 years ago is much harder to stop than it was to start.
Postscript 13May19: https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/284689/the-bloody-history-of-americas-christian-identity-movement