These Facts Prove Antisemitism has Been a Problem for Centuries

1. Between 100, 000 and 150, 000 Jews were massacred during the White Terror in Russia, 1918-21

Antisemitism in Russia was at fever pitch after the publication of Protocols, and when the Tsar was toppled by communist revolutionaries in 1917, the blame fell squarely on the ‘Jewish authors’ of the conspiracy for world domination. It didn’t help matters that the Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin, had a Jewish father, or that Leon Trotsky was Jewish. Though Bolshevik ideology was militantly atheist and anti-religion, the racial science of the preceding century seemed to prove to their opponents that these men were evil agitators because of their ‘race’. Thus an antisemitic storm was further whipped up, with appalling consequences.

The Bolshevik regime had to defend itself against the White Army, who fought to reinstate the old Tsarist regime, between 1917 and 1921. When possible, the White Army focused its campaign of terror and violence upon Jewish people, whom they unjustly blamed for the Russian Revolution. Under the leadership of Anton Denikin, the White Army massacred 100-150, 000 Jews across Southern Russia and Ukraine in just 4 years. Many Jewish people chose to flee Russia altogether and resettle in Europe, where things seemed somewhat safer. These appalling figures were soon to be eclipsed by the Holocaust.

Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

Miriamne Ara Krummel, Tison Pugh. Jews of Medieval England. London: Edward Goldston, 1939.

“Anti-Semitism in Europe akin to 1930s: Jewish leader.” The Daily Telegraph, March 24, 2015.

Baskin, Judith Reesa, and Kenneth Seeskin, eds. The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Berger, David, ed. History and Hate: The Dimensions of Anti-Semitism. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1986.

Berger, David. Persecution, Polemic, and Dialogue: Essays in Jewish-Christian Relations. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2010.

Chrisafis, Angelique, “‘Spreading like poison’: flurry of antisemitic acts alarms France”, The Guardian, February 12^th 2019.

Cohn-Sherbok, Dan. Anti-Semitism. Stroud: The History Press, 2009.

Keel, Terence. Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018.

Myers, David N. Jewish History: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Phillips, Gervase. “Antisemitism: how the origins of history’s oldest hatred still hold sway today.” The Conversation

Philpot, Robert. “Unprecedented EU poll finds 90% of European Jews feel anti-Semitism increasing.” The Times of Israel, December 10, 2018

Schama, Simon. Belonging: The Story of the Jews, 1492-1900. London: Vintage, 2017.

Stow, Kenneth R. Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Utterback, Kristine T., ed. Jews in Medieval Christendom: ‘Slay them Not’. Leiden: Brill, 2013.