Anti-Semitism and its Metaphysical Origins

David Patterson holds the Hillel Feinberg Chair in Holocaust Studies at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas, Dallas. A winner of the National Jewish Book Award and the Koret Jewish Book Award, he has published more than 30 books and 150 articles and book chapters. His most recent books include Genocide in Jewish Thought (Cambridge, 2012); A Genealogy of Evil: Anti-Semitism from Nazism to Islamic Jihad (Cambridge, 2010); Emil L. Fackenheim: A Jewish Philosopher's Response to the Holocaust (2008); Open Wounds: The Crisis of Jewish Thought in the Aftermath of Auschwitz (2006); Wrestling with the Angel (2006); Along the Edge of Annihilation (1999); and Sun Turned to Darkness (1998). He is the editor and translator of The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry (2002) and the co-editor (with Alan L. Berger) of the Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature (2002).

'David Patterson's remarkable book offers a new method for a provocative evaluation of anti-Semitism. It uses a 'Jewish approach to understanding Jew hatred' and sees the roots of this hatred springing from ancient, metaphysical origins. Analyzing the human ambition for unlimited power, it argues that longing to kill God drives the desire to kill the Jews. Incisive, lucid and extremely well researched, this work opens up new questions and gives new answers to the urgent issue of the hatred of the Jews.' Zsuzsanna Ozsvath, Leah and Paul Lewis Chair of Holocaust Studies, Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas, Dallas

• Introduction: anti-Semitism as deicide; 1. Preliminary explanations; 2. The arrogation of God: Christian theological anti-Semitism; 3. Islamic jihadism: religious-fanatic anti-Semitism; 4. The elimination of God: philosophical anti-Semitism in modern thought; 5. National socialist anti-Semitism; 6. Antihistorical anti-Semitism: Holocaust denial; 7. Anti-Zionist anti-Semitism; 8. Jewish Jew hatred; 9. Sounding the depths of the anti-Semitic soul: Arthur Miller's Focus; Concluding reflection: the messianic side of the soul of Adam.