Demonizing the Other: Antisemitism, Racism and Xenophobia

393 Pages·1999·9.551 MB·English

by  Robert S. Wistrich

Demonizing the Other
Studies in Antisemitism
Series Editor Dalia Ofer
Chair, Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Studies in Antisemitism brings together in one series major worldwide
research on this complex phenomenon from which the student and
decision-maker as well as the general public may learn. The studies cover
antisemitism, ancient and modern, from a broad range of perspectives:
historical, religious, political, cultural, social, psychological, and economic.
Volume 1
The Catholic Church and Antisemitism
Poland, 1933-1939
Ronald Modras
Volume 2
Russian Antisemitism, Pamyat, and the Demonology of Zionism
William Korey
Volume 3
Vichy Law and the Holocaust in France
Richard H. Weisberg
Volume 4
Demonizing the Other: Antisemitism, Racism, and Xenophobia
Edited by Robert S. Wistrich
This book is part of a series. The publisher will accept continuation
orders which may be cancelled at any time, and which provide for
automatic billing and shipping of each title in the series upon
publication. Please write for details.
Demonizing the Other
Antisemitism, Racism, and
xenophobia
Edited by Robert S. Wistrich
Published for the
Vidal Sassoon International Center
for the Study of Antisemitism
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
by
R Routledge
Taylor &. Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
Copyright © 1999 Routledge
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording,
or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher.
2 Park Square, Milton Park,
Abingdon, Oxon, 0X14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York,
NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
First issued in paperback 2011
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN13: 978-9-057-02497-9 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-51619-8 (pbk)
COVER Frankfurt Judensau, broadsheet, early eighteenth century
EDITING AND COMPOSITION
Alifa Saadya
Every effort has been made to contact the owners of the copyright of all
the works reproduced in this book but if, for any reason, any
acknowledgement has been omitted, the publishers ask those concerned
to contact them.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Foreword ix
Introduction: The Devil, The Jews, and Hatred of the "Other" 1
Roberts. Wistrich
Parti
1. Demonizing the "Other"
Harumi Befu 17
2. Why Do Stereotypes Stick?
Yaacov Schul and Henri Zukier 31
3. The Demonization of the "Other" in the Visual Arts
Ziva Amishai-Maisels 44
4. Antisemitism and Other -isms in the Greco-Roman World
Daniel R. Schwartz 73
5. Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages: Shared Myths,
Common Language
IsraelJ. Yuval 88
6. Jews and Christians in Medieval Muslim Thought
Hava Lazarus-Yafeh 108
7. The Transformation of Hatred: Antisemitism as a
Struggle for Group Identity
Henri Zukier 118
8. The Borrowed Identity: Neo-Pagan Reactions to the
Jewish Roots of Christianity
Shmuel Almog 131
9. Exploring the Other: The Enlightenment's Search
for the Boundaries of Humanity
Shulamit Volkov 148
10. Otherness and Difference: The Perspective
of Gender Theory
Yael S Feldman 168
11. Recurrent Images in French Antisemitism
in the Third Republic
Richard!. Cohen 183
12. The Critique of Judaism in Modern European Thought:
Genuine Factors and Demonic Perceptions
OttoD.Kulka 196
Part II
13. "Europe's Inner Demons": The "Other" as Threat
in Early Twentieth-Century European Culture
Saul Friedldnder 210
14. Nazi Antisemitism: Animalization and Demonization
Philippe Burrin 223
15. When the Demon Itself Complains of Being Demonized
Simon Epstein 236
16. "All Poets are Yids": The Voice of the "Other"
in Paul Celan
John Felstiner 243
17. The Popular Image of the Jew in Modern Poland
Yisrael Gutman 256
18. Mass Death under Communist Rule
and the Limits of "Otherness"
Steven T. Katz 266
19. The Flourishing Demon: Japan in the Role of the Jews?
Ben-Ami Shillony 293
20. Anti-Jewish Imagery in the Contemporary
Arab-Muslim World
Rivka Yadlin 309
21. The Protocols of the Elders ofZion:
New Uses of an Old Myth
DinaPorat 322
22. The Motivations and Impact of Contemporary
Holocaust Denial in Germany
Wolfgang Benz 335
23. Xenophobia and Antisemitism in the New Europe:
The Case of Germany
Roberts. Wistrich 349
Index 364
vi
List of Illustrations
Between pages 54 and 55
Figure 1 Deidameia and Eurytion, detail of the West Pediment of the
Temple of Zeus, Olympia, c. 460 B.C.E. Courtesy of the
Olympia Archaeological Museum.
Figure 2 Head of a Satyr, detail from a krater from Bari, fourth century
B.C.E. Courtesy of the Department of Classical and Near
Eastern Antiquities, National Museum, Copenhagen.
Figure 3 Kantharos in the shape of a Negro head, Black-figure head
vase, c. 530 B.C.E. H:0.177m., Henry Lillie Pierce Fund,
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Figure 4 Polygnotos Painter, Maenads in Orgiastic Dance, krater,
c. 440-430 B.C.E. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Spina,
Ferrara.
Figure 5 Painter of the Vanth group, Charon and the dragon, amphora,
end of the fourth century B.C.E. Museo Faina, Orvieto.
Figure 6 Head of the God Pan, detail of a mosaic pavement from
Genezzano, third-fourth century C.E. Courtesy of the Museo
Nazionale Romano, Rome.
Figure 7 Sick and afflicted souls being rescued from the devil, detail of
fol. 16v of the Stuttgart Psalter, early ninth century. Courtesy
of the Wiirttembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart. Cod.
bibl. fol. 23.
Figure 8 The Flagellation of Christ, from Psalms 34: 15, detail of fol.
34v of the Stuttgart Psalter, early 9th century. Courtesy of the
Wiirttembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, Cod. bibl. fol.
23.
Figure 9 Christ rescuing souls from Hell, detail of fol. 63v of the
Khludov Psalter, illustrating Psalm 67:7, mid-ninth century.
Courtesy of the State Historical Museum, Moscow.
Figure 10 Arrest of Christ and Jews disputing with Christ, detail of fol.
54v from the Khludov Psalter, mid-ninth century. Courtesy of
the State Historical Museum, Moscow.
Figure 11 Israelites sacrificing their children to Moloch, detail of fol.
109v from the Khludov Psalter, mid-ninth century. Courtesy of
the State Historical Museum, Moscow.
Figure 12 Tympanum of the Puerta de las Platerias, c. 1103, Cathedral of
Santiago de Compostela.
Figure 13 Christ delivering the Apocalypse to St. John, detail of fol. 4v
of the Beatus of St. Sever, 1028-1072, Ms. Lat 8878. Courtesy
of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
Figure 14 Betrayal and arrest of Christ, fol. 150v from the Chichester
Psalter, c. 1250. John Rylands University Library Ms. Lat. 24.
Reproduced by courtesy of the Director and University
Librarian, the John Rylands University Library of Manchester.
Figure 15 The Beast grabs the Witnesses before the enthroned Antichrist,
fol. 17r from an English Apocalypse, c. 1245-1255, Ms. fr.
403. Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
Figure 16 Pope Alexander VI as the Devil Unmasked, woodcut with trick
fold, second position, sixteenth century. © The British
Museum, reprinted by permission.
Figure 17 Child Sacrifice to Mohammed, detail of fol. 185r of the Due de
Berry's Livre des Merveilles du Monde, c. 1413. Courtesy of
the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Ms. fr. 2810.
Figure 18 The Frankfurt Judensau, broadsheet, Frankfurt, early
eighteenth century.
Figure 19 Samuel anointing David, detail of fol. 79r of the Khludov
Psalter, mid-ninth century. Courtesy of the State Historical
Museum, Moscow.
Figure 20 The destruction of the horns of the wicked, detail of fol. 74r of
the Khludov Psalter, mid-ninth century. Courtesy of the State
Historical Museum, Moscow.
Figure 21 David being anointed by Samuel and crowned by Humility,
detail of fol. 6v from a mid-thirteenth century manuscript, elm.
17403. Courtesy of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich.
Figure 22 The Exodus, Moses receiving the Law and the Worship of the
Golden Calf, detail of fol. 16r of Cursus Sanctae Mariae,
1215. Courtesy of the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.
M.739,f.l6(det).
Figure 23. Wantons with devil lovers, part of the archivolts of a doorway,
c. 1120, Ste. Croix, Bordeaux.
Figure 24. Salome's Dance, detail of page from the Aachen Gospels of
Otto III, 983-1002. Aachen, Cathedral Treasury.
Figure 25. Hans Baldung Grien, Witches Sabbath, 1510, woodcut. Private
Collection.
Figure 26. Edvard Munch, The Vampire, 1900, lithograph.
Figure 27. The Monstrous Races, woodcut illustration from C. van
Megenberg, Buch derNatur, Germany, 1475, fol. 284v.
Figure 28. Wild Man, detail of fol. 70 from the Luttrell Psalter 1335. MS
ADD 42130. By permission of The British Library, London.
viii
Foreword
The original idea for this book came from Mr. Felix Posen — a
longstanding supporter and friend of the Vidal Sassoon International
Center for the Study of Antisemitism and the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. He had encountered in Japan and Korea a mystifyingly
positive response to the antisemitic stereotype of the Jew found in the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which his Asian business colleagues
perceived as praising the Jews. Their acquaintance with Jews was
limited, and they knew little of Jewish history, including the difficult
relationship between Jews and Christians in Medieval and modern
Europe, or about antisemitism in general. It became apparent that in
order to make antisemitism more comprehensible, it was necessary to
suggest other types of demonization more familiar to their own societies,
such as the attitude of the Japanese towards Koreans.
It was decided to hold an international conference in order to explore
the comparative dimension of antisemitism. Professor Dov Kulka of the
Hebrew University and Academic Advisor for the Felix Posen
Bibliographic Project on Antisemitism of the Center served as chair of
the organizing committee of the conference. Held at the Hebrew
University in June 1995, the intention was to better understand the
contexts in which the negative image of the outsider was developed, and
how this could lead to demonization of the "other." Antisemitism we
believe to be the foremost example of this phenomenon which has
acquired an all too tragic significance in this century.
The wealth of knowledge and insight in this book (meticulously and
skilfully edited by Robert Wistrich) is a testimony to the importance of a
comparative scientific ehdeavor, and this short foreword hardly does
justice to it. This book truly provides an indispensable tool for
understanding the dynamics of demonization — the first step before any