The acquiescence of the German Protestant churches in Nazi oppression and murder of Jews is well documented. In this book, Christopher J. Probst demonstrates that a significant number of German theologians and clergy made use of the 16th-century writings by Martin Luther on Jews and Judaism to reinforce the racial anti-semitism and religious anti-Judaism already present among Protestants. Focusing on key figures, Probst's study makes clear that a significant number of pastors, bishops, and theologians of varying theological and political persuasions employed Luther's texts with considerable effectiveness in campaigning for the creation of a "de-Judaized" form of Christianity. Probst shows that even the church most critical of Luther's anti-Jewish writings reaffirmed the anti-semitic stereotyping that helped justify early Nazi measures against the Jews.

Today, well over 150 million Europeans embrace a satanic view of the State of Israel. They believe that Israel is exterminating the Palestinians, despite their major population growth in recent decades. This current widespread demonic view of Israel is a new mutation of the diabolical beliefs about Jews which many held in the Middle Ages, and those promoted more recently by the Nazis and their allies. This demonization has been exacerbated by the consequences of the massive and non-selective immigration into Western Europe from Muslim countries, where incitement against Jews and Israel is often fanatic and ongoing. This collection of 57 interviews with scholars, politicians, and the like, depicts how extensive and intense the hate-mongering is. In his opening essay, Gerstenfeld puts the facts and views presented in the book into context. Praise: "Gerstenfeld helps us all understand the world's oldest hatred." -Rabbi Marvin Hier Founder and Dean Simon Wiesenthal Center "An authoritative, up-to-date guide to the cultural-ideological war being waged against the democratic Jewish state." -Prof. Frederick Krantz Director, Canadian Institute Jewish Research "This superb collection of incisive interviews on the demonization of Israel and the Jews should be located on the bookshelves of every committed Jewish activist." -Isi Leibler Former Chairman Governing Board World Jewish Congress "Manfred Gerstenfeld's collection of interviews on anti-Semitism and its proxy, delegitimization of Israel, is brilliantly selected and encyclopedic in scope. His own essay tying the interviews together makes this required reading for those who want to understand where anti-Semitism is today." -Richard B. Stone Chairman Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

At the close of the twentieth century the stereotyping and demonization of 'others', whether on religious, nationalist, racist, or political grounds, has become a burning issue. Yet comparatively little attention has been paid to how and why we fabricate images of the 'other' as an enemy or 'demon' to be destroyed. This innovative book fills that gap through an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural approach that brings together a distinguished array of historians, anthropologists, psychologists, literary critics, and feminists. The historical sweep covers Greco-Roman Antiquity, the MIddle Ages, and the MOdern Era. Antisemitism receives special attention because of its longevity and centrality to the Holocaust, but it is analyzed here within the much broader framework of racism and xenophobia. The plurality of viewpoints expressed in this volume provide fascinating insights into what is common and what is unique to the many varieties of prejudice, stereotyping, demonization, and hatred.

Today, well over 100 million Europeans embrace a satanic view of the State of Israel. They believe that Israel is exterminating the Palestinians, despite their major population growth in recent decades. This current widespread demonic view of Israel is a new mutation of the diabolical beliefs about Jews which many held in the Middle Ages, and those promoted more recently by the Nazis and their allies. This demonization has been exacerbated by the consequences of the massive and non-selective immigration into Western Europe from Muslim countries, where incitement against Jews and Israel is often fanatic and ongoing. This collection of 57 interviews with scholars, politicians, and the like, depicts how extensive and intense the hate-mongering is. In his opening essay, Gerstenfeld puts the facts and views presented in the book into context. "Gerstenfeld helps us all understand the world's oldest hatred." -Rabbi Marvin Hier Founder and Dean Simon Wiesenthal Center "An authoritative, up-to-date guide to the cultural-ideological war being waged against the democratic Jewish state." -Prof. Frederick Krantz Director, Canadian Institute Jewish Research "This superb collection of incisive interviews on the demonization of Israel and the Jews should be located on the bookshelves of every committed Jewish activist." -Isi Leibler Former Chairman Governing Board World Jewish Congress "Manfred Gerstenfeld's collection of interviews on anti-Semitism and its proxy, delegitimization of Israel, is brilliantly selected and encyclopedic in scope. His own essay tying the interviews together makes this required reading for those who want to understand where anti-Semitism is today." -Richard B. Stone Chairman Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

If there was one person who could be said to light the touch-paper for the epochal transformation of European religion and culture that we now call the Reformation, it was Martin Luther. And Luther and his followers were to play a central role in the Protestant world that was to emerge from the Reformation process, both in Germany and the wider world. In all senses of the term, this religious pioneer was a huge figure in European history. Yet there is also the very uncomfortable but at the same time undeniable fact that he was an anti-semite. Written by one of the world's leading authorities on the Reformation, this is the vexed and sometimes shocking story of Martin Luther's increasingly vitriolic attitude towards the Jews over the course of his lifetime, set against the backdrop of a world in religious turmoil. A final chapter then reflects on the extent to which the legacy of Luther's anti-semitism was to taint the Lutheran church over the following centuries. Scheduled for publication on the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation's birth, in light of the subsequent course of German history it is a tale both sobering and ominous in equal measure.

In this meticulously researched, unflinching, and reasoned study, National Book Award finalist David I. Kertzer presents shocking revelations about the role played by the Vatican in the development of modern anti-Semitism. Working in long-sealed Vatican archives, Kertzer unearths startling evidence to undermine the Church’s argument that it played no direct role in the spread of modern anti-Semitism. In doing so, he challenges the Vatican’s recent official statement on the subject, We Remember. Kertzer tells an unsettling story that has stirred up controversy around the world and sheds a much-needed light on the past.

Over the centuries, Jewish and Muslim writers transformed the biblical Queen of Sheba from a clever, politically astute sovereign to a demonic force threatening the boundaries of gender. In this book, Jacob Lassner shows how successive retellings of the biblical story reveal anxieties about gender and illuminate the processes of cultural transmission. The Bible presents the Queen of Sheba's encounter with King Solomon as a diplomatic mission: the queen comes "to test him with hard questions," all of which he answers to her satisfaction; she then praises him and, after an exchange of gifts, returns to her own land. By the Middle Ages, Lassner demonstrates, the focus of the queen's visit had shifted from international to sexual politics. The queen was now portrayed as acting in open defiance of nature's equilibrium and God's design. In these retellings, the authors humbled the queen and thereby restored the world to its proper condition. Lassner also examines the Islamization of Jewish themes, using the dramatic accounts of Solomon and his female antagonist as a test case of how Jewish lore penetrated the literary imagination of Muslims. Demonizing the Queen of Sheba thus addresses not only specialists in Jewish and Islamic studies, but also those concerned with issues of cultural transmission and the role of gender in history.

Analyzes and illustrates the demonization of women and Jews in medieval sermon stories, retelling over one hundred of these tales in modern English.

Luther and the Jews: Putting Right the Lies is a timely and important contribution to the debate about the legacy of the Protestant Reformation. It brings together two topics that sit uncomfortably: the life, ministry, and impact of Martin Luther, and the history of Jewish-Christian relations to which he made a profoundly negative contribution. As a Messianic Jew, Richard Harvey considers Luther and his legacy today, and explains how Messianic Jews have a vital role to play in the much-needed reconciliation not only between Protestants and Catholics, but also between Christians and Jews, in order for Luther's vision of the renewal and restoration of the church to be realized.