We can identify at least six stages in antisemitism. Antisemitism is easily classified historically as pointing to at least half-a-dozen varieties. (1) The pre-Christian anti-Jewish activity in the ancient Greco-Roman world, most of which was not what we would call “antisemitism,” was primarily ethnic in nature. (2) There is the classic Christian antisemitism of antiquity and the Middle Ages, which was religious in nature and which extended into modern times. (3) Traditional Muslim antisemitism is—at least in its classical form—highly nuanced in that Jews are Dhimmi, members of a protected class. (4) There is the political, social, and economic antisemitism of Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment Europe, which laid the groundwork for … Continue reading Jerome A. Chanes