Tradition and Infantile Fantasy in the Shape of Modern Antisemitism

It is distressing to live in an era when it is easier to split an atom than to destroy a prejudice.

Political antisemitism arose as a new twig on an old branch during the latter part of the 19th century. How new this twig is has been widely disputed by historical researchers. Arendt (1955) holds the extreme view that it is a secular phenomenon and not the rekindled religiously motivated hatred towards the Jews. Whilst it is clearly correct that political antisemitism has secularised traits, it is at the same time made up of sufficiently numerous and elementary, though not always clearly distinguishable, traditional elements. It is even more contested as to whether antizionism can be placed on an equal footing with antisemitism. Moreover, this modern political opinion, widespread even among Jews, has concealed within its origins, fragments of the medieval religious tradition. We will have more to say about this later. We will focus our attention on the many ways in which our picture of the Jews is shaped, from early infantile conflicts to the style and pattern of traditional, handed-down models.

Evidently it is difficult for us to penetrate our protective fantasies and express them in clear thoughts, because of our lack of ability to prevent one group of people being permanently exposed to a threat posed by another group, throughout the course of history. There is an intimate relationship between the extent of our imagination and realistic awareness