What is anti-Semitic?

Answer 1

'Anti Semitism' is an unfair prejudice against Jews on various grounds. Perhaps the most famous anti-semitics were the Nazis, but anti-semitism has been around for a long time.

Answer 2

It is hostility towards or discrimination against Jews.

Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism, also known as Judeophobia) is prejudice against and hostility toward Jews as a religious, racial, or ethnic group. While the term's etymology might suggest that antisemitism is directed against all Semitic peoples, since its creation in c. 1879 it has been used exclusively to refer to hostility towards Jews. The meaning of a word is its use, not its etymology. (This applies particularly to invented words like this). There are no known cases of the use of the word antisemitism in the sense of anti-Arab.

Antisemitism is also a political ideology that ascribes all the misfortunes of a country or of even of the whole world to an imaginary "Jewish conspiracy". As such, it is a conspiracy theory.

Antisemitism is racist (rather than religious) hatred of Jews. Some scholars draw a distinction between anti-Judaism (hostility to the Jewish religion and it followers) and antisemitism (which is the much more recent political and racial conspiracy theory). Obviously, the latter (or more recent) draws on the former (earlier).

People who criticize Jewish people or the Jewish religion are called anti-Semites.

Answer 3

"Same as Anti-Jewish"

Anti-Semitic etymologically speaking means against Semites just as anti-black or anti-gay means againstblacks or gays.

According to various sources, Wilhelm Marr, a supposed anti-Jewish "racist" (sic), mistakenly used the term to define Jews only. Since then, the Jewish people have used the term to define themselves.

Semites are defined as people who speak certain languages from N. Africa and western Asia. They have also been defined as the descendents of Shem who is a descendent of Abraham of bible lore.

Of course using the term to only define Jews is extremely controversial and problematic. Semitic people the world over object to such a definition, claiming it is tantamount to cultural genocide. They say it serves the purpose of making people believe that the European Jew is the only Semite.

I once heard a Semitic woman say "If anti-Semite means against Jews only, then what do you call someone who hates Semites?"

Answer 4

Antisemitism, also known as Judeophobia is a term used to describe prejudice against or hostility towards Jews, rooted in an aversion to their religious/cultural/ethnic background

The term anti-Semitic or anti-Semite usually refers to Jews only. It was coined in 1879 by German journalist Wilhelm Marr in a pamphlet called, The Victory of Germandom over Jewry. Using ideas of race and nationalism, Marr argued that Jews had become the first major power in the West. He accused them of being liberals, a people without roots who had Judaized Germans beyond salvation. In 1879 Marr founded the League for Anti-Semitism.

Answer 5

Religious Anti-Semitism faulted the Jews for being horrible as a result of the inculturation that their religion gave to them. Therefore, the Jew could lose his improper behavior and actions simply by converting out of Judaism and into the dominant religion (Christianity or Islam). Judaism was at the root of the problem, not being a Jew by blood.

While Christianity and Islam are not inherently Anti-Semitic, their doctrines are easily to meld to an Anti-Semitic world vision and historically have been melded in such ways. Christianity's main thrust of Anti-Semitism comes from the crucifixion of Jesus, i.e. deicide. Christians also focused on the passages of the Old Testament which argue that Jews were in contravention to Divine Edicts and passages in the New Testament where Jesus condemns the actions of the Pharisees.

Islam has several Anti-Semitic thrusts. In addition to the Christ-killing (which is not deicide in Islam since Jesus is not God in Islamic theology and because Jesus eluded the attempt to crucify him), Muslims have made the argument that Jews are the killers of the Prophets plural, even though Jesus was the only one of the 35 prophets in the Qur'an who Jews attempted to kill (per Islamic teachings). Additionally, Muhammad and the early Muslims had negative political and military relationships with Arabian Jews which led to Anti-Semitism having a greater prominence in the early Islamic tradition.

Answer 6

See the link for a commplete history and definition of anti-semitism.

Answer 7

Anti Semitism is defined as hostility or brutality toward the Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group. It is also just said as discrimination against anyone as well.

Answer 8

It refers to people who are against the Jewish religion and the Jewish state in Israel.

Answer 9

Anti-Semitism is strictly the hatred of Jews and was a word designed to replace Judenhass (Jew-hatred in German) because it sounded more scientific and, therefore, more valid.

Answer 10

Hostility to or prejudice against Jews.