the meaning of words: Antisemitism
It’s
According to the 2016 definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), it is "a certain perception of Jews, which can be expressed through hatred towards them. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed against Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, against the institutions of the Jewish community and against Jewish religious institutions.”
The IHRA document also states that "the State of Israel, perceived as a Jewish collectivity, can also be the target of these attacks."
In France, this definition is approved by the National Assembly in 2019 and the Senate in 2021.
How was the term antisemitism born?
The term Antisemirésumé was created in 1879 by the German journalist Wilhelm Marr. He introduces this new term to replace the term Judenhaß ('hatred of Jews'), with the aim of giving a pseudo-scientific character to this hatred.
He develops an argument according to which the true danger represented by the Jews is not of a religious order but biological, the Jews being therefore considered as a racial group.
Marr maintains the myth of the «Jewish plot» by claiming that this contamination is knowingly orchestrated by the Jews in the perspective of ruining the societies within which they live, a theme that will be taken up by the Nazis.
Today, what about it?
Antisemitism is still relevant, and has even been on the rise since the 2000s. The number of antisemitic acts recorded each year between 2000 and 2022 was in the order of a few hundred, compared to a few tens in the 1990s.
A surge in antisemitic acts has also been observed since the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023. In the three months following the massacres, there were as many antisemitic acts recorded as in the years 2020, 2021, and 2022 combined. 1,676 acts were recorded in France in 2023, compared to 436 in 2022.
If someone tells me: "The term antisemitism does not only concern Jews." I answer:
Certainly, Hebrew, the liturgical language, ritual of the Jewish religion and official language of the State of Israel, is not the only 'Semitic language'. By way of example, Arabic also belongs to this set of languages in use since Antiquity in the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa. Thus, etymologically, antisemitism might not concern only Jews.
However, Wilhelm Marr, to whom we owe the creation of the term, only targets Jews through this neologism. It is this term that has imposed itself to designate the specific hostility towards the Jews, until today. Discussions around this word often have the consequence, voluntary or not, of diverting the debate on the reality of antisemitism.
To go further...
History of antisemitism, Arte documentary (2022)
The website of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)
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