Anti-Semitism in Times of Crisis (review)

126 SHOFAR Fall 1992 Vol. 11, No. 1 vigilance against all expressions of anti-Jewish hatred. We saw what happened before; could it not happen again? Richard V. Pierard Department of History Indiana State University Anti-Semitism in Times of Crisis, edited by Sander L. Gilman and Steven T. Katz. New York: New York University Press, 1991. 406 pp. Anti-Semitism in Times of Crisis is a collection of seventeen essays focusing on the negative portrayal ofJews and Judaism from the ancient to the contemporary periods. The collection grew out of a conference on the meaning and nature of antisemitism held at Cornell University in 1986. The essays are arranged more or less chronologically, beginning with Nicholas de Lange on "The Origins ofAnti-Semitism: Ancient Evidence and Modern Interpretations." This is followed by several essays on the medieval and reformation periods: Moshe Lazar on "The Lamb and the Scapegoat: The Dehumanization oftheJews in Medieval Propaganda Imagery," Jeremy Cohen on "Traditional Prejudice and Religious Reform: The Theological and Historical Foundations ofLuther's Anti-Judaism," Pinchas Hacohen Peli on "Responses to Anti-Semitism in Midrashic Literature," and R. Po-chia Hsia, "Jews as Magicians in Reformation Germany." Next are several studies of antisemitism in nineteenth-century Germany: "Stepping Out: The Writing of Difference in Rahel Varnhagen's Letters," by Liliane Weissberg, "Dualistic Thinking and the Rise of Ontological Antisemitism in Nineteenth-Century Germany," by Walter Sokel, "The Theme of Anti-Semitism in the Work of Austrian Jews," by Ruth Kluger, and "The Modern Character of Nineteenth-Century Russian Antisemitism," by Alexander Orbach. The next group of essays deals with the prelude to and the duration of World War II: "Antisemitism in Crisis Times in the United States: The 1920s and 1930s," by Leonard Dinnerstein, "1918 and After: The Role of Racial Antisemitism in the Nazi Analysis ofthe Weimar Republic," by Steven Katz, and "Anti-Semitism and the Killing of Latvia's Jews," by Andrew Ezergailis. Finally, there are some reflections on antisemitism in the post-war period: "The Rhetoric of Anti-Semitism in Postwar American Literature," by Guy Stern, "Jewish Writers in Contemporary Germany: The Dead Author Speaks," by Sander Gilman, "The Arab World Discovers Anti- Book Reviews 127 Semitism," by Bernard Lewis, "The Jews of Iran: Between the Shah and Khomeini," by David Menashri, and "German Reunification and the Jews," by Sander Gilman. In addition, there is a detailed introduction by the editors as well as a subject index. Two fundamental points emerge from the essays and are stressed by the editors in their introduction. The first is that antisemitism, though it may be latent within western culture, surfaces specifically at times of crisis. This point is not the subject of detailed analysis. Rather, it is treated as a self-evident assumption which underlies the title of the volume as well as the specific essay topics. The second point concerns the seminal role of Christianity and, particularly , of the portrayal of the Jews and Judaism in the New Testament, in the entire history of antisemitism, including the modern phenomenon of Arab antisemitism. This point emerges in virtually every essay, either tangentially, as in Peli's discussion, or directly, as in the articles by de Lange, Lazar, Cohen, and Lewis. Given the central role accorded to Christianity and the New Testament , it is puzzling that, aside from a short discussion in de Lange's essay, there is no detailed treatment of the question of New Testament antiJudaism in this volume. Perhaps to remedy this omission, the editors devote a considerable portion of the introduction to a survey of this topic. Their survey, however, is highly problematic. Not only does it contain inaccuracies (for example, the book of Revelation is not a gospel, as the editors say on p. 17), but it oversimplifies what is in fact a very complex issue. While New Testament scholars generally acknowledge the presence of anti-Jewish comments and stereotypes in the New Testament, there is considerable and lively debate on such issues as the referent of "theJews" in the Gospel ofJohn, and the Pauline understanding of "the law." While it is true that this volume is more concerned with the history of interpretation of these troubling texts...