Blood and Money: The Origins of Antisemitism

4 credits · Graduate

For over two millennia, Jews and Judaism have been the object of sustained fears and fantasies, which have in turn underpinned repeated outbreaks of violence and persecution. In general, such fears and fantasies stem not from encounters with actual Jews, but rather from anxieties prompted by the spectral, shapeshifting, fictive figures of "the Jew" and "Judaism" - that is, the images of Jews and Judaism as constructed by outside observers. But why did such myths and stereotypes emerge at all? How did these become so widely accepted? What made them so persuasive and so powerful? Did they inspire violence, or merely legitimize it? This seminar will explore key moments in the development of antisemitism from ancient Egypt to the Enlightenment, including the Christianization of the Roman Empire, the emergence of an association between Jews and moneylending, the appearance of the blood libel, and early manifestations of racial hostility.