Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

June 9, 2020

Bernard Lewis on Why It’s Possible to Hate Jews Without Being an Anti-Semite

The great scholar chose his words carefully.

In commemoration of the second anniversary of Bernard Lewis’s death, Martin Kramer notes that the great scholar of the Middle East had a deep commitment to the careful and precise use of language. For instance, Lewis believed that, properly defined, anti-Semitism involves the attribution to Jews of “cosmic evil,” so that “it is perfectly possible to hate Jews, even to persecute Jews, without being anti-Semitic.” (Video, 12 minutes.)

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