On 7 October2023, Hamas killed over a thousand Israelis, sparking a devastating new phasein the long-running conflict in Israel and Palestine. In the days and weeksthat followed, a wave of anti-Jewish hatred swept across the world. Synagogueswere burned, Jews attacked and protests raged, with calls for Israel to beerased from the map. Despite our abhorrence of racism, this most ancient ofprejudices continues to seduce even the most educated, empathetic andwell-meaning members of society. This, Dave Rich argues, is the particularquality of antisemitism: it hides in plain sight. Our task is to understandwhere it came from in order that it might be rooted out.This book isa tour de force of the history and present reality of antisemitism; fromShakespeare to South Park, Israel to Covid-19, Rich shows us where eachof the enduring stereotypes about Jews came from, what they look like in modernsociety and how they can be challenged. Fully updated to address the events of7 October and all that followed, this book shines a light on thealmost-unnoticed prejudices that perpetuate anti-Jewish hatred, explaining howantisemitism continues to thrive in the interactions, assumptions and views ofdecent people around the world – and how we can change this for the better.
