Introduction: The Folklore and Ethnology of Antisemitism

Authors

• Simon J. Bronner

Abstract

A global rise in incidents and beliefs in the twenty-first century that monitoring and polling organizations label “antisemitic” raises several questions addressed by contributors to this special issue. A basic one is definitional regarding discourse about the shifting meaning of antisemitism in light of post-Holocaust events and digital age communication. A historical question is whether contemporary forms of antisemitism are connected to or a break from the term’s nineteenth-century roots. Related to that issue in modern discourse is whether antisemitism is an umbrella concept or separate from anti-Judaism, anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, and anti-Zionism movements. The materials of folklore—both as esoteric forms transmitted by Jews about antisemitism and exoteric ones by non- Jews that traditionally constituted antisemitism—are discussed as central to the recognition of prejudice and violence against Jews. The distinctive directions of antisemitism studies using folkloric and ethnological evidence in the special issue are outlined that are applied to a re-examination of “classical” antisemitism and the “new” antisemitism of the digital age.

Recommended Citation

Bronner, Simon J. (2026) "Introduction: The Folklore and Ethnology of Antisemitism," Jewish Folklore and Ethnology: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, Article 1.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/jewishfolklore/vol5/iss1/1