antiJewish

Anti-Jewish, or anti-Jewish sentiment, is a descriptor used to refer to attitudes, policies, or actions that are hostile toward Jews as a religious, ethnic, or cultural group. In academic and public discourse, the term antisemitism is more common and is used to describe a system of beliefs and social practices that stigmatize Jews, often combining prejudice with political or social objectives.

Anti-Jewish attitudes can manifest as stereotypes and conspiracy theories about Jewish influence, discriminatory laws or workplace practices, social exclusion, or violence ranging from vandalism to pogroms. They may be religiously motivated, ethnically or racially framed, or tied to political ideologies that portray Jews as a threat. Distinctions are sometimes made between religious opposition to Judaism and antisemitic hostility directed at Jews as a people.

Historically, anti-Jewish sentiment has appeared in many societies and periods, including religious polemics in medieval Christian Europe, expulsions and forced conversions, blood libel myths, and state-sponsored persecution. In the 19th and 20th centuries, racial antisemitism framed Jews as an inferior or dangerous race, contributing to the Holocaust in which six million Jews were murdered. After World War II, international norms rejected antisemitism, yet it persists in various forms and regions.

Today, efforts to combat anti-Jewish prejudice include education, human rights enforcement, Holocaust remembrance, and monitoring of hate crimes. Debate exists about the line between legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies and antisemitic hostility; many scholars emphasize caution to avoid conflating anti-Jewish hatred with anti-Zionism. The term anti-Jewish remains primarily descriptive, while antisemitism is the widely used analytical framework for understanding the phenomenon.