Connections - Two New Books About Anti-Semitism
excerpt:
Anti-Semitism is a metaphysical passion, not a materialist one. It doesn’t even require a Jewish presence (as many anti-Semitic societies with Jews have proven). One reason anti-Semites have been so obsessed with the issue of finance in the modern world is that money is the circulatory system of capitalist society. It is mysterious, manipulable: the Jew’s perfect instrument. The Jew, first seen as a theological spoiler, becomes a metaphysical and monetary spoiler. The medieval image of the Jew was related to the vampire, Mr. Julius shows; the modern anti-Semitic vision sees the Jew as a guzzler of a society’s lifeblood.