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A myth is an expression of unconscious, repressed forces of the human psyche. It represents a particular type of fantasy which succeeds in reaching consciousness only in a disguised, symbolic form (1), (2). If we succeed in deciphering the symbols employed by the myth we can understand its psychic content, its real message. Thus, analysis of anti-Semitic myths can be used as one method of learning about the real meaning of anti-Semitism.
The anti-Semitic myths of the Middle Ages, though created and functioning in circumstances far different from the present, can be said to articulate certain basic and universal reactions toward the Jew. Freud has pointed out that the cultural structure determines the form of a myth, and the form of the symbols employed (3). We may speak of a symbolic equivalence of the emotion projected by a myth, its content remaining constant while the superstructure is subjected to cultural alterations. Compare, for example, a medieval with a modern anti-Semitic myth. In the medieval myth the Jew is revealed as an international magician and sorcerer (4). A modern anti-Semitic myth represents him simultaneously as an international communist and an international capitalist (5). The literal content of the myth has changed, yet the structural composition is the same. In both the Jew is represented as an omnipotent threat. Both myths identify the Jew with a current subject of man's fears, the formal changes in the myths being the results of historical developments.
One of the most persistent of the medieval myths is called 'the ritual murder' myth, one that reveals an abysmal hatred and fear of Jews. The reappearance of that myth as recently as July 6, 1946 (6) proves that there is more continuity to group hatred than was hitherto suspected.
The myth revolves about the alleged murder of Christian