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A brief History of Israel and the Jews

Stuff You Won't Find in the History Books



Themes of anti-Semitism

Professor Kevin MacDonald

This is a very interesting paper published by Professor Kevin MacDonald, and offers what appears to be an extensive and even-handed treatment of claims and themes of anti-Semitism.

MacDonald's extensively documented and referenced paper discusses issues such as tax farming, usury, banking and finance concentration, economic domination, political influence, control of the media, and many other themes.

He quotes many Jewish sources that present their perception of anti-Semitism, as well as many passages from all areas of recorded history that present the Gentiles' view of the matter.

According to MacDonald, these themes have remained remarkably consistent over time, meaning that essentially the same complaints about Jews or Jewish business activities have existed for two millennia or more.

"The remarkable thing about anti-Semitism is that there is an overwhelming similarity in the complaints made about Jews in different places and over very long stretches of historical time.
These complaints may be seen as independent replications that together give credence to the proposal that, while exaggerations and falsehoods may well color these attitudes, several prominent themes of anti-Semitic writings have had a firm basis in the reality of Judaism as a group evolutionary strategy.

This view of anti-Semitism runs contrary to an important strand of Jewish historiography and apologetics that attempts to show that anti-Semitism is a peculiarly Western phenomenon; or that it results from certain unique and unfortunate aspects of Christian religious ideology; or that it results from the peculiar social class profile of Jews in capitalist societies; or even that it results from pathological parent-child relations and sexual repressions.

On the contrary, there is evidence for anti-Semitism in a very wide range of both Western and non-Western societies, in Christian and non-Christian societies, and in pre-capitalist, capitalist, and socialist societies. It has occurred even in the most cohesive and well-functioning families."

This paper is a .pdf file of 97 pages and 479 Kb in file size. You can download the paper by Clicking here.