Synopsis
An existentialist analysis of anti-Semitism arguing that the anti-Semite, not the Jew, creates the very category he persecutes.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workThe anti-Semite is not reacting to real Jews but choosing a passionate flight from freedom that fabricates the Jew as an enemy.
It relocates the source of prejudice in the bad faith and existential cowardice of the bigot rather than in his victims.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism.
Reading note
Read it noting its four-part structure and the dated limits of its portrait of Jewish identity, which later critics challenged.
Best paired with
Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism