anti-Semitism
See also: antisemitism
English
Alternative forms
- antisemitism, anti-semitism
Etymology
From German Antisemitismus, which was coined in 1879 by German political agitator Wilhelm Marr to replace Judenhaß (literally “Jew-hatred”) to make hatred of the Jews seem rational and sanctioned by scientific knowledge. The similar term antisemitisch (“anti-semitic”) was first used in 1860, by Jewish scholar Moritz Steinschneider. See Wikipedia's article on the etymology and usage of the term.
The term is superficially/synchronically equivalent to anti- + Semitism (see Semite), for which reason it is rarely extended to cover prejudice against any Semitic people, or against adherents of any of the religions that originated among the Semitic peoples (the Abrahamic religions). See the usage notes.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˌæntɪˈsɛmɪˌtɪzəm/, /ˌæntiˈsɛmɪˌtɪzəm/, /ˌæntaɪˈsɛmɪˌtɪzəm/
Audio (Mid-Atlantic) (file)
Noun
anti-Semitism (countable and uncountable, plural anti-Semitisms)
- (narrower sense) Prejudice, discrimination, hostility or political or religious opposition directed against ethnic or religious Jews or against Judaism; antijudaism; judeophobia.
- Synonyms: anti-Jewishness, anti-Jewism, anti-Judaism, antijudaism, Jew-hatred, Jewhatred, Judeophobia
- Antonyms: anti-anti-Semitism, Judeophilia
- 2020, Joel Swanson, “Are anti-Semitism fears stopping Jewish Dems from supporting Bernie Sanders?”, in The Forward:
- It isn’t surprising that American Jews fear far-right anti-Semitism more than anti-Semitism from any other source: the Anti-Defamation League has found that it is the source of the vast majority of ideologically motivated extremist violence in the U.S.
- (broader sense, rare, nonstandard) Prejudice, discrimination or hostility directed against any Semitic people (ancient or modern), such as Samaritans, Palestinians, Arabs or Assyrians.
- Hyponyms: anti-Jewishness, anti-Jewism, anti-Judaism, Jewhatred, Judeophobia, anti-Arabism, Arabophobia, anti-Palestinianism, anti-Samaritanism, anti-Assyrianism
- 1986, Akhileshwar Singh, Political leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, page 228:
- But Israel's policy of anti-semitism against Palestinians was not to the liking of India.
- 2002, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, number 1-39, page 36:
- At this university, a faculty member has even gone so far as to declare Zionism a form of anti-Semitism against Palestinians.
- 2003, Jeffrey St Clair, The Politics of Anti-Semitism, page 41:
- Bluntly put: if you want to end today's "anti-Semitism" against Jews, end Zionism's "anti-Semitism" against Palestinians.
Usage notes
- Though Semitic refers in a broader sense to all those who speak Semitic languages (including e.g. Arabs and Assyrians), the term anti-Semitism has historically referred to prejudice against Jews alone. To avoid the confusion of the misnomer, many scholars of the subject (such as Emil Fackenheim) now favor the unhyphenated antisemitism in order to emphasize that the word should be read as a single unified term, not as a meaningful root word-prefix combination.[1][2][3] (See Wikipedia's article on the etymology and usage of the term.) Use of the term to refer to prejudice against any Semitic people is rare and nonstandard.
- Some use the term to hatred/prejudice against speakers of Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, or any other Semitic language, as well as ethnic and religious groups associated with these languages.
- A very small number of writers use the term to refer to prejudice against Muslims, apparently considering them to constitute a Semitic race as opposed to only a religion. See citations.
Synonyms
- anti-Semiticism
Antonyms
- philo-Semitism, philosemitism
- pro-Semitism, prosemitism
Related terms
- anti-semite, anti-Semite, antisemite
- anti-semitical, anti-Semitical, antisemitical
- anti-Semitically, anti-semitically, antisemitically
- anti-semitic, anti-Semitic, antisemitic
- anti-shemite, anti-Shemite, antishemite
- anti-shemitical, anti-Shemitical, antishemitical
- anti-shemitically, anti-Shemitically, antishemitically
- anti-shemitic, anti-Shemitic, antishemitic
Translations
prejudice or hostility against Jews
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prejudice or hostility against any other Semitic people
See also
- anti-Zionism
- antigoyism, anti-goyism, anti-Goyism
- Islamophobia; anti-Sunnism, anti-Shi'ism
- nationalism; tribalism; racism; xenophobia
References
- “Antisemitism. The Power of Myth (Facing History), Defining Antisemitism page 2 (PDF page 5)”, in (please provide the title of the work), accessed 2 August 2007, archived from the original on 2007-08-07
- “…the spelling ought to be antisemitism without the hyphen, dispelling the notion that there is an entity 'Semitism' which 'anti-Semitism' opposes.” -- Emil Fackenheim, Post-Holocaust Anti-Jewishness, Jewish Identity and the Centrality of Israel, in World Jewry and the State of Israel. ed. Moshe David, p11, n2.
- “Antisemitism is not a scientific word, and it is entitled to neither a hyphen nor a capital.” Dr. James Parkes, 1953, quoted in Holocaust Almanac: David Irving's Hitler: Postscript