History of antisemitism

The history of antisemitism traces anti-Jewish prejudice, discrimination, and violence from antiquity to the present, including changing religious, political, and racial forms.

Antisemitism in the ancient world: Hostility toward Jews in ancient societies, expressed through polemic, legal restrictions, and occasional violence. Greek and Roman accounts supplied early accusations later reused in anti-Jewish hostility.
Blood libel: The false accusation that Jews murder Christians, often children, to use their blood in religious rituals. This accusation repeatedly provoked persecution and forged trials across medieval and modern Europe.
Rhind papyrus: An ancient Egyptian mathematical manuscript copied around 1550 BCE, sometimes discussed in accounts of ancient Egyptian attitudes toward foreigners. Its historical setting is sometimes invoked in debates over the earliest evidence for anti-Jewish hostility.
Martin Luther: A German theologian and Reformation leader whose later writings advocated harsh measures against Jews. His polemics became influential sources for later Christian anti-Jewish hostility.
The Holocaust: The genocide of six million European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during the Second World War. The Holocaust was the most extensive and systematic episode in this history.
Hellenistic Judaism: Jewish religious and cultural life shaped by interaction with Greek language and institutions after Alexander's conquests. Cultural tensions in Hellenistic cities formed part of the setting for ancient anti-Jewish polemic.
Host desecration libel: The false claim that Jews stole and abused the consecrated Eucharistic wafer. The charge turned Christian beliefs about the Eucharist into grounds for anti-Jewish violence.
Disputation of Paris: A 1240 public religious disputation in Paris involving the Jewish convert Nicholas Donin and leading rabbis. The proceedings led to the burning of Jewish books and show coercive Christian scrutiny of Judaism.
Édouard Drumont: A French journalist and politician who popularized racial and political antisemitism in late nineteenth-century France. His work helped make antisemitism a mass political force during the Dreyfus era.
Nuremberg trials: A series of postwar trials prosecuting leading Nazi officials and other perpetrators for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The trials established legal and historical records of Nazi persecution and mass murder.

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Jewish exodus from the Muslim worldNarrower topic: Assessments differ over how much antisemitism, alongside nationalism and other pressures, explains departures.