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The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism
A groundbreaking--and terrifying--examination of the widespread resurgence of antisemitism in the 21 st century, by the prize-winning and #1 internationally bestselling author of Hitler's Willing Executioners .
Antisemitism never went away, but since the turn of the century it has multiplied beyond what anyone would have predicted. It is openly spread by intellectuals, politicians and religious leaders in Europe, Asia, the Arab world, America and Africa and supported by hundreds of millions more. Indeed, today antisemitism is stronger than any time since the Holocaust.
In THE DEVIL THAT NEVER DIES, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen reveals the unprecedented, global form of this age-old hatred; its strategic use by states; its powerful appeal to individuals and groups; and how technology has fueled the flames that had been smoldering prior to the millennium.
A remarkable work of intellectual brilliance, moral stature, and urgent alarm, THE DEVIL THAT NEVER DIES is destined to be one of the most provocative and talked-about books of the year.
Antisemitism never went away, but since the turn of the century it has multiplied beyond what anyone would have predicted. It is openly spread by intellectuals, politicians and religious leaders in Europe, Asia, the Arab world, America and Africa and supported by hundreds of millions more. Indeed, today antisemitism is stronger than any time since the Holocaust.
In THE DEVIL THAT NEVER DIES, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen reveals the unprecedented, global form of this age-old hatred; its strategic use by states; its powerful appeal to individuals and groups; and how technology has fueled the flames that had been smoldering prior to the millennium.
A remarkable work of intellectual brilliance, moral stature, and urgent alarm, THE DEVIL THAT NEVER DIES is destined to be one of the most provocative and talked-about books of the year.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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314 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
9 books44 followersDaniel Jonah Goldhagen is an American author, scholar, and former associate professor of government and social studies at Harvard University, widely known for his groundbreaking and controversial writings on genocide, antisemitism, and moral responsibility. He rose to international prominence with his first major book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (1996), which argued that the Holocaust was made possible not only by Nazi leadership but by the participation of ordinary Germans who had internalized a deeply rooted “eliminationist antisemitism.” The book, adapted from his doctoral dissertation, won the American Political Science Association’s Gabriel A. Almond Award and the Democracy Prize of the Journal for German and International Politics. It became a bestseller, sparking vigorous debate among historians and the public alike.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, into a Jewish family, Goldhagen grew up in Newton. His father, Erich Goldhagen, a Holocaust survivor and retired Harvard professor, was interned as a child in a Nazi ghetto in Czernowitz. Daniel credits his father’s influence for shaping his intellectual and moral framework, particularly his understanding of Nazism and the Holocaust. Educated entirely at Harvard University, Goldhagen earned his degrees and later served on the faculty for two decades, first as a student and then as a professor.
While in graduate school, Goldhagen was inspired by historian Saul Friedländer’s work to investigate not just how the Holocaust happened, but why ordinary individuals committed such acts. His research in German archives led to his controversial thesis that a unique and virulent form of German antisemitism predisposed ordinary citizens to become willing participants in genocide. Despite sharp criticism from many historians, his work stimulated renewed discussions about individual responsibility, ideology, and moral choice in times of mass violence.
Goldhagen expanded his focus beyond the Holocaust in subsequent books. A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair (2002) explored the Church’s moral and institutional responsibilities during the Nazi era. Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity (2009) examined genocide as a recurring human phenomenon, offering insights into how such atrocities can be prevented. His later book, The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism (2013), traced the persistence and global resurgence of antisemitism in contemporary culture and politics.
Goldhagen lives with his wife, Sarah Williams Goldhagen, an architectural historian and critic. His body of work continues to provoke debate, influencing contemporary thought on genocide studies, moral philosophy, and the enduring human struggle against hatred and violence.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, into a Jewish family, Goldhagen grew up in Newton. His father, Erich Goldhagen, a Holocaust survivor and retired Harvard professor, was interned as a child in a Nazi ghetto in Czernowitz. Daniel credits his father’s influence for shaping his intellectual and moral framework, particularly his understanding of Nazism and the Holocaust. Educated entirely at Harvard University, Goldhagen earned his degrees and later served on the faculty for two decades, first as a student and then as a professor.
While in graduate school, Goldhagen was inspired by historian Saul Friedländer’s work to investigate not just how the Holocaust happened, but why ordinary individuals committed such acts. His research in German archives led to his controversial thesis that a unique and virulent form of German antisemitism predisposed ordinary citizens to become willing participants in genocide. Despite sharp criticism from many historians, his work stimulated renewed discussions about individual responsibility, ideology, and moral choice in times of mass violence.
Goldhagen expanded his focus beyond the Holocaust in subsequent books. A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair (2002) explored the Church’s moral and institutional responsibilities during the Nazi era. Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity (2009) examined genocide as a recurring human phenomenon, offering insights into how such atrocities can be prevented. His later book, The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism (2013), traced the persistence and global resurgence of antisemitism in contemporary culture and politics.
Goldhagen lives with his wife, Sarah Williams Goldhagen, an architectural historian and critic. His body of work continues to provoke debate, influencing contemporary thought on genocide studies, moral philosophy, and the enduring human struggle against hatred and violence.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 9, 2016
This was a difficult book to read for two reasons. First, it's hard to appreciate the level of antisemitism that exists in the world. Compared to the rest of the world, It's not nearly as visible in the United States as in many other countries. Second, the language is sometimes a little too scholarly and dry for me, and sometimes over my head. But the examples are vivid and frightening.
The author gives some history of antisemitism, which lays the foundation for what he calls today's global antisemitism. It's fascinating and scary and sad all at the same time.
The author gives some history of antisemitism, which lays the foundation for what he calls today's global antisemitism. It's fascinating and scary and sad all at the same time.
September 13, 2020
I try very hard not to just pan a book I read, even if I vehemently disagree with the author - in fact, I think we should all read books with which we disagree to challenge our own beliefs. Ironically, I don't necessary disagree with Mr. Goldhagen in every respect, but I still found this book to be fraudulent. I actually thought several times about not finishing this book, something I rarely do, as I read it and the only way I could finish it was to put it down for long periods of time and then resume after arguing extensively with myself.
Somehow I was duped into believing that this was an academic history and analysis of global antisemitism. It is not. Instead, it is a long, overly-repetitive, pseudo-scientific AM radio rant more akin to the crackpot conspiracy theories one can hear at odd hours of the night. Mr. Goldhagen's real motive appears to be to equate any criticism of Israel with antisemitism, regardless of how justified such criticism might be. Mr. Goldhagen appears to believe that if a person criticizes Israel without giving fair time to other regimes, then one is antisemitic. The argument when transposed is something like, "Civil Rights protesters in America in the 1950s and 1960s were anti-american because Blacks were treated worse in other countries than they were treated in the South and the civil rights protesters did not raise those concerns." Israel is an issue and some of the criticism of Israel more than likely is driven by antisemitism. However, to say that we cannot criticize Israel unless we criticize far less means that we expect to hold Israel to the standards of Bashar Al-Assad or Sadam Hussein. We criticise Israel because we expect more.
The sad thing for this book is global antisemitism appears to be rising. Either Mr. Goldhagen is preaching to the choir, in which case this book is a waste of time - its very annoyingly written with constant repetition, run-on sentences, no documentation, and the need to list multiple synonyms in list form for the same concept. The book doesn't even work for fellow travelers because of the tone of hate and disrespect for Christianity and Islam that pervades this work. Alternatively, perhaps Mr. Goldhagen genuinely believed that he would convince some critical of Israel to change their mind. I doubt he will be very successful. He tries to argue that Christianity and Islam are antisemitic in their core texts and beliefs. He denigrates academics and NGOs and lumps them into one antisemitic bucket. His belief that convincing these folks to change their beliefs is akin to believing that if only we bomb the Iranians they will rise up throw off their tyrannical government and embrace the United States.
Don't waste your time with this book - I am sorry I din.
Somehow I was duped into believing that this was an academic history and analysis of global antisemitism. It is not. Instead, it is a long, overly-repetitive, pseudo-scientific AM radio rant more akin to the crackpot conspiracy theories one can hear at odd hours of the night. Mr. Goldhagen's real motive appears to be to equate any criticism of Israel with antisemitism, regardless of how justified such criticism might be. Mr. Goldhagen appears to believe that if a person criticizes Israel without giving fair time to other regimes, then one is antisemitic. The argument when transposed is something like, "Civil Rights protesters in America in the 1950s and 1960s were anti-american because Blacks were treated worse in other countries than they were treated in the South and the civil rights protesters did not raise those concerns." Israel is an issue and some of the criticism of Israel more than likely is driven by antisemitism. However, to say that we cannot criticize Israel unless we criticize far less means that we expect to hold Israel to the standards of Bashar Al-Assad or Sadam Hussein. We criticise Israel because we expect more.
The sad thing for this book is global antisemitism appears to be rising. Either Mr. Goldhagen is preaching to the choir, in which case this book is a waste of time - its very annoyingly written with constant repetition, run-on sentences, no documentation, and the need to list multiple synonyms in list form for the same concept. The book doesn't even work for fellow travelers because of the tone of hate and disrespect for Christianity and Islam that pervades this work. Alternatively, perhaps Mr. Goldhagen genuinely believed that he would convince some critical of Israel to change their mind. I doubt he will be very successful. He tries to argue that Christianity and Islam are antisemitic in their core texts and beliefs. He denigrates academics and NGOs and lumps them into one antisemitic bucket. His belief that convincing these folks to change their beliefs is akin to believing that if only we bomb the Iranians they will rise up throw off their tyrannical government and embrace the United States.
Don't waste your time with this book - I am sorry I din.
May 31, 2025
- Within the first 30 pages, he slanders Finkelstein, Mearsheimer, and Big
Mel.
- Claims Jews had no power or influence in Europe during the lead-up to WWII, which is utter nonsense. See the process behind Balfour and ensuing settlements, along with British and French officials, to name a few.
- Complains about hostility in Sweden, but doesn't stop to consider which group has helped bring Muslims there in large numbers.
Mel.
- Claims Jews had no power or influence in Europe during the lead-up to WWII, which is utter nonsense. See the process behind Balfour and ensuing settlements, along with British and French officials, to name a few.
- Complains about hostility in Sweden, but doesn't stop to consider which group has helped bring Muslims there in large numbers.
March 17, 2016
A devastating indictment of the oldest, most widespread, and most protean prejudice in history, and still terrifying despite its flaws. Those flaws include: A tendency toward wordiness and discursiveness when a tighter, more empirical argument would suffice; an expansive definition of antisemitism that frays at the edges by trying to cover too much; and the serious insinuation that the holy scriptures of several major religions should be re-edited, something it's fair to say will never happen. But Goldhagen's argument deserves the adjective "devastating" nonetheless for two reasons. First, he's able to define what's new and particularly threatening about modern antisemitism: Its internationalism, its political nature, its ability to unite diverse people around a plan of action, and its use of modern telecommunications to mobilize supporters and paralyze opponents. In a nutshell, it's The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion-meets-the-Internet, a fearsome combination. Second, Goldhagen employs salutary comparisons to point up the banality of antisemitism. Would the claims of antisemites be as indulged were they employed against any other ethnic or religious group? Would the threats of antisemites, or the actual violence some of them perpetrate, be as humored (or explained away) were they directed at any other people? And would the routine studies and commissions that investigate antisemitism (and which find depressingly high levels of the phenomenon at every pass) even be thinkable were they employed to measure hatred toward Swedes or Turks or Poles, etc? There can't be a scientific answer when trying to prove a negative like this, but the conclusion is still inescapable, and it's chilling.
October 13, 2013
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Devil That Never Dies': Well-Documented Look at the Persistence of Antisemitism and How Globalization and the Internet Have Made It a Permanent Part of the Landscape
Sunday, October 13, 2013 - 13:25
REVIEWED BY DAVID M. KINCHEN
I've just finished reading one of the most depressing books I've ever encountered, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's "The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism" (Little, Brown and Company, 485 pages, illustrations (including some of the most vile European and Arab anti-Jewish cartoons since the Nazi era), notes, index, $30.00).
Depressing, yes, to any rational human being (there must be a few left on the planet!) but Goldhagen's well-documented and very readable -- if you can stand the Christian, Muslim and secular antisemitic paradigms that Goldhagen reveals -- should be read by everyone, Jew and Gentile, atheist, rightist, leftist. I say "reveals", because the globalized antisemitism that is the ever present norm today is poorly covered, if it's covered at all, by the mainstream media. Only when mass murder is committed , as it was in Toulouse, France a few years ago by a Muslim terrorist at a Jewish school, are anti-Jewish atrocities covered. Few readers on this side of the Atlantic know about the anti-semitism of Malmo, Sweden, a city of 300,000, where it is very dangerous for a Jew to walk the streets in Jewish garb (kippah, Star of David, etc).
For instance, the media made a big deal out of a few relatively mild Danish cartoons that made Muslims angry and resulted in death threats and riots. They haven't done the same thing with the most disgusting, vile anti-Israel and anti-Jewish cartoons -- many of which are reproduced in Goldhagen's book. (The author includes a list of illustration credits, so you can trace the origin of these vile images).
The Israel and Jew hatred of the United Kingdom (including Scotland) is amply illustrated in a cartoon that reminds me of a Goya illustration, showing a grossly obese figure resembling Ariel Sharon devouring Palestinian babies! (To counter that, below my review of Goldhagen's book, I'm reprinting my 2010 review of a book by a British Gentile who is disgusted with the prevalent anti-Jewish climate of his country, where Muslims far outnumber the small and well integrated Jewish community. Goldhagen points out that most of the overwhelmingly antisemitic Muslims in the U.K. are of non-Arab origin --Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi -- so they have no connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- and come from countries with no Jews at all!
I always think fondly of Canada, a country I visited in 1965 to see the North American premiere of the Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht play "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" in Stratford, Ontario, the home of one of the world's most prestigious drama festivals.
I modified my view of Canada after reading of the presence of the kind of antisemitic hate crimes that are so prevalent in Sweden, Germany, Austria, France, Hungary and other countries of what British historian Mark Mazower has called in his eye-opening history of the 20th Century in "The Dark Continent" -- Europe.
Goldhagen writes that in Canada, a first world civilized country: "more than 1,297 incidents [of anti-Jewish hate crimes] were reported in 2011; more than 70 percent in 2009 and 55 percent in 2010 of all hate crimes committed against members of religious groups in Canada were perpetrated against Jews, even though they compose a mere 1 percent of the Canadian people! Muslims are twice as numerous as Jews in Canada and were victims of only 10 percent of hate crimes, one-sixth as many as Jews. "
Goldhagen notes that even though Jews have been in Canada far longer than Muslims and are culturally integrated in Canadian society and politics, they are 12 times more likely to experience hate crimes. I wondered if this could be the reason why so many Canadian Jews...Lorne Greene, Bill Shatner, Saul Bellow, Eugene Levy, etc. have found the U.S. to be more hospitable than their native land (Shatner for one has written about the antisemitism he experienced in his native Montreal).
Goldhagen writes that, at least for the immediate future, the U.S. is an exception to worldwide antisemitism because of the diversity of religions; he argues that religious groups don't politicize their faith, fearing that it may be turned on them (think of the anti-Catholic Know Nothing movement of the 19th Century and beyond and the anti-Catholic stance of the Ku Klux Klan). Goldhagen in his new book combines aspects of his three previous books in the new one. The first book, on "Hitler's Willing Executioners" deals with general aspects, including the pogroms against Jews in Poland and elsewhere when they attempted to return to their homes; the second, on the Catholic Church and its role in the Holocaust, deals with religious aspects of antisemitism, and the third "Worse than War" book deals with eliminationism practiced by ethnic groups, including blacks in Africa, Arabs and Turks and other Muslims in the Middle East and Europe.
OK, maybe I'm too harsh on Canada, a country I admire for many reasons, including its disinclination to get involved in other nations' civil wars. Here's a Canadian who speaks out against the antisemitism of the mainstream Protestant churches (Page 400 ff) Rev. Andrew Love of the United Church of Canada, who says regarding a 2002 initiative against Israel by mainstream Protestant sects: "What really emerged from this story was just how deep-seated the hatred [for Jews} is." According to Love, who knows the Protestant movement as an insider, "The humanitarian concern is the veil that covers, or is the rationalization for ultimately what I believe to be anti-Semitic ideas and anti-Semitic policies." Goldhagen says the Rev. Love should know because Protestant churches are at "the center of the anti-Israel international human-rights movement, as well as at the center of the pan-European anti-Israel public discourse, which share the same 'universal' and 'humanitarian' principles. Christian groups, many funded by the European Union, are the motor force behind much of the divestment campaign against Israel, with Pax Christi, the most important international Catholic peace movement urging an economic boycott of Israel...."
Goldhagen's title tells it all: The "Devil" that is antisemitism never went away, but since the turn of the 21st Century it has multiplied beyond what anyone would have predicted. It is openly spread by intellectuals, politicians, and religious leaders in Europe, Asia, the Arab world, America, and Africa and supported by hundreds of millions more. Showing the persistence of an untreatable disease -- which is what antisemitism is -- today antisemitism is stronger than any time since the Holocaust. That's strong stuff, but expert writer Goldhagen backs up his assertions with facts, many of them provided by the antisemites themselves.
Goldhagen writes that no other people have been as demonized by a wide variety of haters as the 13 million Jews in the world, and no other country has been as demonized as Israel. And demonized by what many believe is a force for good (many people, including the present reviewer, no longer believe that) the United Nations and NGOs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
On Page 427 Goldhagen writes that in the past ten years the UN has issued 288 resolutions against Israel, as opposed to 97 against all other nations, including the racist Muslim nation of Sudan that committed a murderous campaign against mostly black people in Darfur and South Sudan, killing hundreds of thousands, and the murderous regimes of Syria and Iran, as well as the Turkish campaign against the Kurds. And so on, and so on.
The UN is also responsible for the "hatefest" (Goldhagen's words that are backed up by U.S. delegates like Tom Lantos) of Durban, South Africa in 2001 and subsequent years. He reproduces a sign from Durban that shows what an antisemitic event it was.
And what about the vile comment of a few years ago from Daniel Bernard, the French ambassador to the U.K. (Pages 289-90) "which he articulated what he thought would never be reported, saying, now infamously, that 'all the current troubles of the world are because of that shitty little country Israel."
Bernard kept his job. Would he have kept his job if he had said the same thing about, say, Switzerland, a country that profited from World War II and stole Jewish assets parked in that neutral nation? I doubt it! Bernard is a native of a country that actively collaborated with the Nazis. The resistance was important, but far more people, including intellectuals, collaborated with the German occupiers of France.
I've always felt that the Internet is far from being a good thing, and Goldhagen's description of the antisemitic Internet sites Jew Watch and Stormfront, among others, confirms my feeling about the negative face of the World Wide Web. Ironically -- since it was developed by Mark Zuckerberg, a Jew -- Facebook has turned out to be another device to spread anti-Jew lies, Goldhagen writes.
One of the most chilling parts of the book comes near the end, where Goldhagen reproduces on pages 451-54 the detailed Iranian plan to destroy Israel, listing the regions of the tiny country and the regional capitals -- Haifa, Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Beersheba, Jerusalem -- and their population figures. In the same section Goldhagen reproduces a document from the Wannsee conference in Germany in 1942 that spelled out in stark numbers the number of Jews in the various countries. Typed neatly (on one of those beautiful German typewriters of the era) it shows a total of 11 million Jews to be murdered. (The Germans ended up murdering more than 20 million people in World War II, including the 6 million Jews that Holocaust deniers say weren't murdered.
Here's Goldhagen, in his own words, from his website (www.goldhagen.com) describing why he wrote the book:
After years of studying antisemitism and prejudice in general, I’ve finally tackled the topic head on. The result isThe Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism.
The worldwide growth of antisemitism in recent years has shaken individual Jews and Jewish communities everywhere. Old antisemitic images have been given new life. New antisemitic images and accusations abound. In much of the world Jewish communities hunker down fortress-like, and individual Jews hide all visible signs of their Jewishness lest they be assaulted. In Europe, antisemitism has returned seemingly with a vengeance. In the Arab and Islamic worlds, Israel and Jews (not only Israelis) alike are treated as a demonic entity and people, and an eliminationist orientation abounds—from the Imam in the local mosque to the leaders of countries, including nuclear-weapon aspiring Iran. Thankfully the United States—where antisemitism, which bubbles beneath the surface, certainly never dissipated—remains a partial exception to this worldwide antisemitic tide, although the beginnings of the same developments can be discerned.
"The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism" makes sense of these developments and more, by showing that antisemitism has metamorphosed (again) into something new: global antisemitism. Global antisemitism, the third major historical type of antisemitism (the first two being religious, and modern or racist), has been emerging over the last two decades, to replace the modern racist antisemitism that marked European and world civilization in the twentieth century. Global antisemitism is at once grounded in long-existing antisemitic notions and incorporates new ones. It would not exist but for the long history of the demonization of Jews. Yet is not merely a continuation of the past. It is political—and not just social and cultural—as never before, and is strategically deployed and spread by governments around the world. It relentlessly focuses on Israel, although, as the book demonstrates, it is not engendered by Israel’s actions.
"The Devil That Never Dies" presents a fundamentally new perspective on antisemitism in the world today, enormously sobering and voluminous data about the extent of antisemitism around the world, and a systematic analysis of the causes and consequences of antisemitism, including and especially the game changing role of the internet and digital technologies on the spread and character of antisemitism.
You may know my earlier book Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. I like to think that "The Devil That Never Dies" is as original as that book was, and will transform the understanding of antisemitism as much as that book transformed the understanding of the Holocaust. "The Devil That Never Dies" demonstrates, with overwhelming evidence, that the attacks on Israel that go under the name of anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism are incontrovertibly antisemitic. In fact, the evidence and analysis of this issue is so clear-cut that I think that after reading it, no person of goodwill will be able to hear such attacks as anything but antisemitic, and no person undertaking them will be able to any longer hide under the dodge that they are being falsely accused of antisemitism in order to silence them. But this book is decidedly not just about Israel. In a forceful and highly nuanced way, it analyzes the broader phenomenon of antisemitism and how it is afflicting Jews and their communities around the world.
Among the many things that I have learned about antisemitism over the years is that Jews and non-Jews find its endurance and uniqueness among prejudices continuously puzzling and are passionate about understanding it. I wrote "The Devil That Never Dies" for many reasons, though chief among them was to help people get the answers to the questions that they have asked themselves and one another for generations, and that they have particularly asked themselves today about why so many people think ill of or hate Jews, especially now in our globalization era and widespread use of internet and social media.
* * *
In search of an answer to why Christian antisemitism persists to this day, and -- as Goldhagen says -- "never dies," I asked my good friend Stephen Reed, a native West Virginian, a Protestant, with two degrees from West Virginia University (bachelor's and law degree) to comment. Here's a brief comment from Reed, who earned his Masters of Divinity from Emory University's Candler School of Theology:
"Without question, at times, the church has taken too long to remind people that, if it hadn't been the Jews who had trouble accepting Jesus, it would have been any other group of human beings. For while there were some specific religious tenets and interpretation at stake between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders of his day, if Jesus is indeed the savior of the whole world, as Christians beliwve, then he would have met resistance anywhere. People generally don't like to hear that they have sin and need saved from it.
"So the antisemitic error gains traction without this explanation. Instead of humanity killing Jesus, some tell us that the "Jews killed Jesus," marking them as particularly to be despised--even though our scriptures clearly call the Jews God's chosen people. What a disconnect!"
"So the church has needed to clarify this, and many Christian leaders have been doing just that. But the lack of clarification on this key point was a significant early factor in the rise of antisemitism everywhere, with Jews seen not merely as rejecting Jesus but as "Christ killers" and all that. Nevermind that all of Jesus' s first twelve disciples and most of his early followers were Jews."
Reed expressed surprise when I told him how Arabs -- especially Palestinians of the Muslim and Christian variety alike -- have invented the story that Jesus wasn't Jewish! (we're going to have to revise that bumper sticker: "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter"?) Yes, the Arabs and the Muslims have learned the lesson of Joseph Goebbels' Big Lie very well. This invention of an Arab Jesus didn't surprise me since the Muslim religion stole Hebrew prophets like Moses and Abraham on a wholesale basis, claiming them as their own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen is the author of the #1 international bestseller Hitler’s Willing Executioners, A Moral Reckoning, and Worse than War.His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New Republic, and newspapers around the world.A former professor at Harvard University, he now lives in New York.
* * *
Here is my review of a 2010 book by a Gentile British author on the same subject that Goldhagen covers in his new book:
Dec. 24, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: 'Globalising Hatred'
Neo-Anti-semitism is Gaining Strength Throughout the World Under the Guise of Anti-Zionism
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Before man can transact any affair, they must have a common language to speak, and some common recognised principles on which they can argue; otherwise all is cross-purpose and confusion. -- Edmund Burke (1729-1797) "A Third Letter to A Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France", quoted on page 163 of 'Globalising Hatred'
When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews. You're talking antisemitism. -- Martin Luther King Jr., speaking to Harvard students in 1968 a few weeks before his assassination
* * *
Denis MacShane's "Globalising Hatred: The New Antisemitism" (Phoenix Paperback, an imprint of Orion Books Ltd, London, 188 pages, notes, bibliography, index, $14.95, available at Amazon.com) is finally available in the States after having been published as a hardback in 2008 and revised as a quality paperback in 2009. It's as eloquent a denunciation of neo-antisemitism -- as MacShane calls the worldwide incarnation of the phenomenon -- as was Emile Zola's defense, in "J'Accuse" ("I Accuse") of falsely accused French Jewish army Capt. Alfred Dreyfus more than a century ago."
To paraphrase American novelist William Faulkner, anti-semitism is never dead, it's not even past. MacShane, a former journalist and British Labour Party member of parliament since 1994, says that neo-antisemitism is an ideological assault based on hatred of Jews that threatens universal values, world peace, and even attempts to fight poverty and environmental change.
MacShane's book grew out of his All-Party Commission of Enquiry into Anti-Semitism, an investigation driven by violence against Jews in Britain and throughout what British historian Mark Mazower calls "The Dark Continent" -- Europe. MacShane considers how anti-Semitism has become a linking mechanism between different extremisms; how it operates in national party politics and in the European Parliament; and how Holocaust denial has hardened into an organized ideological position. MacShane's slim but well annotated and documented book is a cri de coeur -- a cry from the heart for a new tolerance and an attempt to throw light on a form of hatred that mobilizes politics across many continents.
Born in 1948, raised as a Catholic, the faith both of his Irish mother and his Polish emigre father, MacShane says that Britain has a long history of anti-semitism on both the right and left; pre-1939 British politics was marked by both the notorious anti-semitism of the nation's home-grown fascists, the pro-Nazi British Union of Fascists led by Sir Oswald Mosley and the traditional clubman Jew hatred. Today, he says, the anti-semitism of his country is due to the support of Palestinians over Israel: "My overall impression in 15 years as an M
Sunday, October 13, 2013 - 13:25
REVIEWED BY DAVID M. KINCHEN
I've just finished reading one of the most depressing books I've ever encountered, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's "The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism" (Little, Brown and Company, 485 pages, illustrations (including some of the most vile European and Arab anti-Jewish cartoons since the Nazi era), notes, index, $30.00).
Depressing, yes, to any rational human being (there must be a few left on the planet!) but Goldhagen's well-documented and very readable -- if you can stand the Christian, Muslim and secular antisemitic paradigms that Goldhagen reveals -- should be read by everyone, Jew and Gentile, atheist, rightist, leftist. I say "reveals", because the globalized antisemitism that is the ever present norm today is poorly covered, if it's covered at all, by the mainstream media. Only when mass murder is committed , as it was in Toulouse, France a few years ago by a Muslim terrorist at a Jewish school, are anti-Jewish atrocities covered. Few readers on this side of the Atlantic know about the anti-semitism of Malmo, Sweden, a city of 300,000, where it is very dangerous for a Jew to walk the streets in Jewish garb (kippah, Star of David, etc).
For instance, the media made a big deal out of a few relatively mild Danish cartoons that made Muslims angry and resulted in death threats and riots. They haven't done the same thing with the most disgusting, vile anti-Israel and anti-Jewish cartoons -- many of which are reproduced in Goldhagen's book. (The author includes a list of illustration credits, so you can trace the origin of these vile images).
The Israel and Jew hatred of the United Kingdom (including Scotland) is amply illustrated in a cartoon that reminds me of a Goya illustration, showing a grossly obese figure resembling Ariel Sharon devouring Palestinian babies! (To counter that, below my review of Goldhagen's book, I'm reprinting my 2010 review of a book by a British Gentile who is disgusted with the prevalent anti-Jewish climate of his country, where Muslims far outnumber the small and well integrated Jewish community. Goldhagen points out that most of the overwhelmingly antisemitic Muslims in the U.K. are of non-Arab origin --Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi -- so they have no connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- and come from countries with no Jews at all!
I always think fondly of Canada, a country I visited in 1965 to see the North American premiere of the Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht play "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" in Stratford, Ontario, the home of one of the world's most prestigious drama festivals.
I modified my view of Canada after reading of the presence of the kind of antisemitic hate crimes that are so prevalent in Sweden, Germany, Austria, France, Hungary and other countries of what British historian Mark Mazower has called in his eye-opening history of the 20th Century in "The Dark Continent" -- Europe.
Goldhagen writes that in Canada, a first world civilized country: "more than 1,297 incidents [of anti-Jewish hate crimes] were reported in 2011; more than 70 percent in 2009 and 55 percent in 2010 of all hate crimes committed against members of religious groups in Canada were perpetrated against Jews, even though they compose a mere 1 percent of the Canadian people! Muslims are twice as numerous as Jews in Canada and were victims of only 10 percent of hate crimes, one-sixth as many as Jews. "
Goldhagen notes that even though Jews have been in Canada far longer than Muslims and are culturally integrated in Canadian society and politics, they are 12 times more likely to experience hate crimes. I wondered if this could be the reason why so many Canadian Jews...Lorne Greene, Bill Shatner, Saul Bellow, Eugene Levy, etc. have found the U.S. to be more hospitable than their native land (Shatner for one has written about the antisemitism he experienced in his native Montreal).
Goldhagen writes that, at least for the immediate future, the U.S. is an exception to worldwide antisemitism because of the diversity of religions; he argues that religious groups don't politicize their faith, fearing that it may be turned on them (think of the anti-Catholic Know Nothing movement of the 19th Century and beyond and the anti-Catholic stance of the Ku Klux Klan). Goldhagen in his new book combines aspects of his three previous books in the new one. The first book, on "Hitler's Willing Executioners" deals with general aspects, including the pogroms against Jews in Poland and elsewhere when they attempted to return to their homes; the second, on the Catholic Church and its role in the Holocaust, deals with religious aspects of antisemitism, and the third "Worse than War" book deals with eliminationism practiced by ethnic groups, including blacks in Africa, Arabs and Turks and other Muslims in the Middle East and Europe.
OK, maybe I'm too harsh on Canada, a country I admire for many reasons, including its disinclination to get involved in other nations' civil wars. Here's a Canadian who speaks out against the antisemitism of the mainstream Protestant churches (Page 400 ff) Rev. Andrew Love of the United Church of Canada, who says regarding a 2002 initiative against Israel by mainstream Protestant sects: "What really emerged from this story was just how deep-seated the hatred [for Jews} is." According to Love, who knows the Protestant movement as an insider, "The humanitarian concern is the veil that covers, or is the rationalization for ultimately what I believe to be anti-Semitic ideas and anti-Semitic policies." Goldhagen says the Rev. Love should know because Protestant churches are at "the center of the anti-Israel international human-rights movement, as well as at the center of the pan-European anti-Israel public discourse, which share the same 'universal' and 'humanitarian' principles. Christian groups, many funded by the European Union, are the motor force behind much of the divestment campaign against Israel, with Pax Christi, the most important international Catholic peace movement urging an economic boycott of Israel...."
Goldhagen's title tells it all: The "Devil" that is antisemitism never went away, but since the turn of the 21st Century it has multiplied beyond what anyone would have predicted. It is openly spread by intellectuals, politicians, and religious leaders in Europe, Asia, the Arab world, America, and Africa and supported by hundreds of millions more. Showing the persistence of an untreatable disease -- which is what antisemitism is -- today antisemitism is stronger than any time since the Holocaust. That's strong stuff, but expert writer Goldhagen backs up his assertions with facts, many of them provided by the antisemites themselves.
Goldhagen writes that no other people have been as demonized by a wide variety of haters as the 13 million Jews in the world, and no other country has been as demonized as Israel. And demonized by what many believe is a force for good (many people, including the present reviewer, no longer believe that) the United Nations and NGOs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
On Page 427 Goldhagen writes that in the past ten years the UN has issued 288 resolutions against Israel, as opposed to 97 against all other nations, including the racist Muslim nation of Sudan that committed a murderous campaign against mostly black people in Darfur and South Sudan, killing hundreds of thousands, and the murderous regimes of Syria and Iran, as well as the Turkish campaign against the Kurds. And so on, and so on.
The UN is also responsible for the "hatefest" (Goldhagen's words that are backed up by U.S. delegates like Tom Lantos) of Durban, South Africa in 2001 and subsequent years. He reproduces a sign from Durban that shows what an antisemitic event it was.
And what about the vile comment of a few years ago from Daniel Bernard, the French ambassador to the U.K. (Pages 289-90) "which he articulated what he thought would never be reported, saying, now infamously, that 'all the current troubles of the world are because of that shitty little country Israel."
Bernard kept his job. Would he have kept his job if he had said the same thing about, say, Switzerland, a country that profited from World War II and stole Jewish assets parked in that neutral nation? I doubt it! Bernard is a native of a country that actively collaborated with the Nazis. The resistance was important, but far more people, including intellectuals, collaborated with the German occupiers of France.
I've always felt that the Internet is far from being a good thing, and Goldhagen's description of the antisemitic Internet sites Jew Watch and Stormfront, among others, confirms my feeling about the negative face of the World Wide Web. Ironically -- since it was developed by Mark Zuckerberg, a Jew -- Facebook has turned out to be another device to spread anti-Jew lies, Goldhagen writes.
One of the most chilling parts of the book comes near the end, where Goldhagen reproduces on pages 451-54 the detailed Iranian plan to destroy Israel, listing the regions of the tiny country and the regional capitals -- Haifa, Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Beersheba, Jerusalem -- and their population figures. In the same section Goldhagen reproduces a document from the Wannsee conference in Germany in 1942 that spelled out in stark numbers the number of Jews in the various countries. Typed neatly (on one of those beautiful German typewriters of the era) it shows a total of 11 million Jews to be murdered. (The Germans ended up murdering more than 20 million people in World War II, including the 6 million Jews that Holocaust deniers say weren't murdered.
Here's Goldhagen, in his own words, from his website (www.goldhagen.com) describing why he wrote the book:
After years of studying antisemitism and prejudice in general, I’ve finally tackled the topic head on. The result isThe Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism.
The worldwide growth of antisemitism in recent years has shaken individual Jews and Jewish communities everywhere. Old antisemitic images have been given new life. New antisemitic images and accusations abound. In much of the world Jewish communities hunker down fortress-like, and individual Jews hide all visible signs of their Jewishness lest they be assaulted. In Europe, antisemitism has returned seemingly with a vengeance. In the Arab and Islamic worlds, Israel and Jews (not only Israelis) alike are treated as a demonic entity and people, and an eliminationist orientation abounds—from the Imam in the local mosque to the leaders of countries, including nuclear-weapon aspiring Iran. Thankfully the United States—where antisemitism, which bubbles beneath the surface, certainly never dissipated—remains a partial exception to this worldwide antisemitic tide, although the beginnings of the same developments can be discerned.
"The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism" makes sense of these developments and more, by showing that antisemitism has metamorphosed (again) into something new: global antisemitism. Global antisemitism, the third major historical type of antisemitism (the first two being religious, and modern or racist), has been emerging over the last two decades, to replace the modern racist antisemitism that marked European and world civilization in the twentieth century. Global antisemitism is at once grounded in long-existing antisemitic notions and incorporates new ones. It would not exist but for the long history of the demonization of Jews. Yet is not merely a continuation of the past. It is political—and not just social and cultural—as never before, and is strategically deployed and spread by governments around the world. It relentlessly focuses on Israel, although, as the book demonstrates, it is not engendered by Israel’s actions.
"The Devil That Never Dies" presents a fundamentally new perspective on antisemitism in the world today, enormously sobering and voluminous data about the extent of antisemitism around the world, and a systematic analysis of the causes and consequences of antisemitism, including and especially the game changing role of the internet and digital technologies on the spread and character of antisemitism.
You may know my earlier book Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. I like to think that "The Devil That Never Dies" is as original as that book was, and will transform the understanding of antisemitism as much as that book transformed the understanding of the Holocaust. "The Devil That Never Dies" demonstrates, with overwhelming evidence, that the attacks on Israel that go under the name of anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism are incontrovertibly antisemitic. In fact, the evidence and analysis of this issue is so clear-cut that I think that after reading it, no person of goodwill will be able to hear such attacks as anything but antisemitic, and no person undertaking them will be able to any longer hide under the dodge that they are being falsely accused of antisemitism in order to silence them. But this book is decidedly not just about Israel. In a forceful and highly nuanced way, it analyzes the broader phenomenon of antisemitism and how it is afflicting Jews and their communities around the world.
Among the many things that I have learned about antisemitism over the years is that Jews and non-Jews find its endurance and uniqueness among prejudices continuously puzzling and are passionate about understanding it. I wrote "The Devil That Never Dies" for many reasons, though chief among them was to help people get the answers to the questions that they have asked themselves and one another for generations, and that they have particularly asked themselves today about why so many people think ill of or hate Jews, especially now in our globalization era and widespread use of internet and social media.
* * *
In search of an answer to why Christian antisemitism persists to this day, and -- as Goldhagen says -- "never dies," I asked my good friend Stephen Reed, a native West Virginian, a Protestant, with two degrees from West Virginia University (bachelor's and law degree) to comment. Here's a brief comment from Reed, who earned his Masters of Divinity from Emory University's Candler School of Theology:
"Without question, at times, the church has taken too long to remind people that, if it hadn't been the Jews who had trouble accepting Jesus, it would have been any other group of human beings. For while there were some specific religious tenets and interpretation at stake between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders of his day, if Jesus is indeed the savior of the whole world, as Christians beliwve, then he would have met resistance anywhere. People generally don't like to hear that they have sin and need saved from it.
"So the antisemitic error gains traction without this explanation. Instead of humanity killing Jesus, some tell us that the "Jews killed Jesus," marking them as particularly to be despised--even though our scriptures clearly call the Jews God's chosen people. What a disconnect!"
"So the church has needed to clarify this, and many Christian leaders have been doing just that. But the lack of clarification on this key point was a significant early factor in the rise of antisemitism everywhere, with Jews seen not merely as rejecting Jesus but as "Christ killers" and all that. Nevermind that all of Jesus' s first twelve disciples and most of his early followers were Jews."
Reed expressed surprise when I told him how Arabs -- especially Palestinians of the Muslim and Christian variety alike -- have invented the story that Jesus wasn't Jewish! (we're going to have to revise that bumper sticker: "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter"?) Yes, the Arabs and the Muslims have learned the lesson of Joseph Goebbels' Big Lie very well. This invention of an Arab Jesus didn't surprise me since the Muslim religion stole Hebrew prophets like Moses and Abraham on a wholesale basis, claiming them as their own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen is the author of the #1 international bestseller Hitler’s Willing Executioners, A Moral Reckoning, and Worse than War.His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New Republic, and newspapers around the world.A former professor at Harvard University, he now lives in New York.
* * *
Here is my review of a 2010 book by a Gentile British author on the same subject that Goldhagen covers in his new book:
Dec. 24, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: 'Globalising Hatred'
Neo-Anti-semitism is Gaining Strength Throughout the World Under the Guise of Anti-Zionism
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Before man can transact any affair, they must have a common language to speak, and some common recognised principles on which they can argue; otherwise all is cross-purpose and confusion. -- Edmund Burke (1729-1797) "A Third Letter to A Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France", quoted on page 163 of 'Globalising Hatred'
When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews. You're talking antisemitism. -- Martin Luther King Jr., speaking to Harvard students in 1968 a few weeks before his assassination
* * *
Denis MacShane's "Globalising Hatred: The New Antisemitism" (Phoenix Paperback, an imprint of Orion Books Ltd, London, 188 pages, notes, bibliography, index, $14.95, available at Amazon.com) is finally available in the States after having been published as a hardback in 2008 and revised as a quality paperback in 2009. It's as eloquent a denunciation of neo-antisemitism -- as MacShane calls the worldwide incarnation of the phenomenon -- as was Emile Zola's defense, in "J'Accuse" ("I Accuse") of falsely accused French Jewish army Capt. Alfred Dreyfus more than a century ago."
To paraphrase American novelist William Faulkner, anti-semitism is never dead, it's not even past. MacShane, a former journalist and British Labour Party member of parliament since 1994, says that neo-antisemitism is an ideological assault based on hatred of Jews that threatens universal values, world peace, and even attempts to fight poverty and environmental change.
MacShane's book grew out of his All-Party Commission of Enquiry into Anti-Semitism, an investigation driven by violence against Jews in Britain and throughout what British historian Mark Mazower calls "The Dark Continent" -- Europe. MacShane considers how anti-Semitism has become a linking mechanism between different extremisms; how it operates in national party politics and in the European Parliament; and how Holocaust denial has hardened into an organized ideological position. MacShane's slim but well annotated and documented book is a cri de coeur -- a cry from the heart for a new tolerance and an attempt to throw light on a form of hatred that mobilizes politics across many continents.
Born in 1948, raised as a Catholic, the faith both of his Irish mother and his Polish emigre father, MacShane says that Britain has a long history of anti-semitism on both the right and left; pre-1939 British politics was marked by both the notorious anti-semitism of the nation's home-grown fascists, the pro-Nazi British Union of Fascists led by Sir Oswald Mosley and the traditional clubman Jew hatred. Today, he says, the anti-semitism of his country is due to the support of Palestinians over Israel: "My overall impression in 15 years as an M
December 19, 2014
Although I agree with many of Daniel Goldhagen's points, I found this book disappointing. I had read his earlier work "Hitler's Willing Executioner's", which I found to be a very good non-fiction book (although it received some legitimate criticism), which made me want to read this one.
The first half of the book, in which he lays out different types of anti-semitism, including political global anti-semitism, are fairly good. After that, he just seems to go on and on and on until even a reader who agrees with much of his points says "ok, enough already, I get it!"
I got the sense that the latter half of this book was a personal rant. His editors should have done a better job reigning him in - it would have made a better book.
The first half is worth reading; the second half - don't be surprised if you start getting annoyed with the author.
The first half of the book, in which he lays out different types of anti-semitism, including political global anti-semitism, are fairly good. After that, he just seems to go on and on and on until even a reader who agrees with much of his points says "ok, enough already, I get it!"
I got the sense that the latter half of this book was a personal rant. His editors should have done a better job reigning him in - it would have made a better book.
The first half is worth reading; the second half - don't be surprised if you start getting annoyed with the author.
October 20, 2014
This was a horrifying book. I give it four stars because I think the author would have benefited from some slash and burn editing - this could be far more concise than it was. However, having said that, Goldhagen's information is solid and the book is very worthwhile reading. I was particularly helped by his exposition of the strong ties between anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic rhetoric. All in all, a good history of a very difficult subject. You won't enjoy reading it but you will learn a lot.
October 26, 2013
Horrifying. Now that we are in the 21st century, it is horrible to see the degree of wilful ignorance that still exists in the world -- this is an important book, but it left me with a feeling of being overwhelmed and not knowing what can be done. I would, however, recommend it and hope that it would help to turn the tide of senseless prejudice.
October 9, 2013
This is a VERY important book. I would give it five stars except that I did not find the writing style very appealing -- rather wordy, repetitive, etc., I thought it needed much firmer editing and could have cut at least 1/3 of its length without sacrificing content. But that aside, its content is VERY important. Goldhagen provides an essential summary both of the history and, more importantly, of the contemporary state of antisemitism, and it is a terrifying picture indeed. Insightful analyses of the similarities and differences between Christian antisemitism, Islamic/Arab antisemitism, left wing antisemitism, right wing antisemitism, the dividing line between legitimate critique of Israel and antisemitic antiZionism, etc., and overall explores in detail how globalization has poured fuel onto the world's antisemitic fire. He makes a masterful case that the large majority of critique of Israel is fueled by antisemitism, and that antisemitism today cannot be explained as a response to Israeli policy or behavior. This book also clearly arises from his previous work on genocide, since he again masterfully makes the case that the antisemitic fervor gripping literally most of the people on earth is eliminationist in nature and a warning sign for the next genocide ... We in the U.S. may not fully appreciate how dire the situation is, in Europe, in the Islamic/Arab world, even in Asia -- but it is dire (and it's none too great even here). For anyone inclined to pooh-pooh the phenomenon -- read this book. It is terrifying. And Goldhagen is brave for writing it, for you know the chorus of condemnation (including threats to his well-being, no doubt) is about to begin ...
September 22, 2024
A non-stop onslaught against the forces of anti-semitism that every person should be familiar with. The verdict for Anti-Semitism with its veritable hydra of arguments is that, to its core, it is indefensible in any form. The statistics in this book will stagger you time and time again, and you realize quickly that being a passive participant against this global rage against the Jews is not enough.
May 24, 2017
Was hoping that this book would be more than it was. I like Goldhagen but this seemed like a long rant about antisemitism more than anything else. I thought it would contain more research, figures, data - but it seemed like it was more of an emotional cry out against antisemitism that was pretty repetitive and got a little boring along the way. Not sure if I'd recommend, however I don't know how many books there are about antisemitism, and it does contain some good information - so maybe the recommendation I'd make is to skim to the more "meaty" parts of the book.
Overall however, it paints a challenging portrait of the modern world and does a good job at showing how absolutely all-encompassing modern antisemitism is.
Overall however, it paints a challenging portrait of the modern world and does a good job at showing how absolutely all-encompassing modern antisemitism is.
July 29, 2019
EVERY THING you need to know about anti-semitism from the beginings to modern day. The information was well researched and through. The writing was repetative. The author would take an adjuctive, use all its synonyms and then define it. He also felt compeled to list every example or country for his point, "Germans in Germany, Poles in Poland . . ." I get his passion, anti-semitism is pervasive constant global racism unlike anyother. I just felt his point could have been made a little more concisly. READ THE BOOK. Everyone needs to know.
May 4, 2017
Couldn't quite finish read three quarters very well written shocking book. He repeats himself a lot and could be a lot shorter. But a very good read just got to a point where I understood his point and didn't feel it necessary to read more.
March 18, 2019
More than any of the political books currently on the market,
this book zeros in on the root causes of the crisis we are in today,
even though it was written in 2013. Truly an eye opener must read.
this book zeros in on the root causes of the crisis we are in today,
even though it was written in 2013. Truly an eye opener must read.
October 2, 2022
Highly informative book.
Heavy read but completely digestible for the average reader in small quantities at a time.
Worth a look at if you're interested in the place of antisemitism in society and how it is persistent despite short intervals of relative peace or understanding.
Heavy read but completely digestible for the average reader in small quantities at a time.
Worth a look at if you're interested in the place of antisemitism in society and how it is persistent despite short intervals of relative peace or understanding.
October 10, 2025
Probably the most thoroughly depressing book I've ever read. An amazingly deep dive into the sordid world of antisemitism that left me feeling distrustful and wary of just about everyone. But it's info every Jew and non-antisemite should know.
Want to read
March 23, 2023Not in library
June 3, 2017
As others have said, this book suffers from serious repetition. But the main fault for me lies in the author's use of moral equivalence as a tool of persuasion. He uses this to discredit any legitimate criticism of the Israeli government's conduct or policies. The argument goes like this: if you criticize Israel but don't also equally criticize every other country that does something wrong, then you are an antisemite. This is juvenile logic.
If you buy into this logic than you would also have to accept the excuse of "you can't blame me for doing something because everyone else was doing it too." I learned as a child that this manner of thinking is not persuasive.
In fact you can legitimately criticize one country for actions that offend civilized standards. Especially when that country is the sole, shining example of democracy in it's part of the world. It's called being held to a higher standard and is not in itself anti Semitic
That being said, this book does effectively show that antisemitism is a real, and growing, problem.
If you buy into this logic than you would also have to accept the excuse of "you can't blame me for doing something because everyone else was doing it too." I learned as a child that this manner of thinking is not persuasive.
In fact you can legitimately criticize one country for actions that offend civilized standards. Especially when that country is the sole, shining example of democracy in it's part of the world. It's called being held to a higher standard and is not in itself anti Semitic
That being said, this book does effectively show that antisemitism is a real, and growing, problem.
December 28, 2015
I don't know what I expected, but this wasn't it. I found it more an accounting of past acts than an explanation of why the current expansion. Perhaps we were to extrapolate the answer to that question but I didn't find enough qualifiers in the representation of the present state to be able to do that.
December 9, 2013
The points are valid about the staying power of antisemitism and worth heeding, but the delivery leaves much to be desired. Repetitious and so wordy and cumbersome it is a chore to read and often loses the main thread of thought.
January 11, 2015
Good: Informative and scary look at one of the oldest and most destructive prejudices in human history
Bad: Long winded, and a little one-sided for anyone who disagrees with Israel's policies
Bad: Long winded, and a little one-sided for anyone who disagrees with Israel's policies
February 24, 2025
Repetitive. In need of slash-and-burn editing. Could not finish. Put down after 30 or so pages.
January 31, 2016
Alarming.
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