Longest Hatred, The - A Revealing History Of Anti-Semitism

Why can´t Jews, Arabs, and Palestinians coexist? The answers are deep-rooted, complex, and fully detailed in this stunning history of Jewish persecution.

"They are the other. They are not us." Throughout time, words suchias these have been used to justify and vilify. The Longest Hatred takes an unsparing look at the ways such words have shaped the experience of Jewish people in this revealing history of anti-Semitism, a hatred with roots long before the Holocaust and enduring intensity that continues to erupt in the violent conflicts of today.

Part One
From the Cross to theiSwastika traces an image that begins with the earliest writings of Christianity, which leveled the charge that Jews were responsible for Jesus´ death. In this segment, historians show how demonizing dogma has affected Jews through the centuries - in Italy, Spain, England, and Germany - reaching its zenith with the development of Nazi ideology.

Part Two
Enemies of the People shows how anti-Semitic sentiment has accompaniedia growing nationalism in Europe in recent decades, causing a mass exodus of Jews from Russia, and even resurfacing in Poland and Austria, where few Jews remain. And in Germany, the remarkable collapse of the Berlin wall has been followed by the rise of neo-Nazism among German youth.

Part Three
Between Moses and Muhammed takes a humanistic look at relations between Arabs and Israelis, once linked by pseudo-science under the degrading label "Semite" and now enmeshed in one of the world´s most violent conflicts. Experts on both sides tell how Arabs and Jews, who for centuries lived in relative peace, have been drastically alienated by political turmoil - and how the anti-Jewish propaganda now disseminated in the Arab world is so eerily like that seen in Europe before World War II.