Abdulhamit Kırmızı

I am afraid that Francesca has been mislead. The term antisemitism was coined by a Zionist (Steinschneider in 1860) in criticism of a scholar (Renan) who was actually a Judeophile and believed that Semites were inferior to the Aryan race. He did not - however - believe that speakers of Yiddish (Ashkenazi Jews) were Semites. He thought they were too 'civilised'. Steinschneider had form. In 1838 he and two lifelong friends (one of whom was later the editor of the Jewish Chronicle) created a secret Zionist society at the University of Vienna. The reason he called Renan an 'antisemite' was because he wanted to advance the idea that the Ashkenazim had some meaningful connection to the Levant. He wanted - in other words - to define Jews as a 'race'. No wonder this move was (nineteen years later) taken up with enthusiasm by a far-right journalist who most people (including almost all Zionists) credit with inventing the term - Wilhelm Marr. Then as now, Zionists and Nazis are united in claiming the Jews are a race. They are not. So the term 'semite' as advanced by Renan did not refer to the Ashkenazim. Do you know who it did refer to? Yes, Muslims. Much later Renan wrote that he had consecrated his life to the Jews and revealed an a note published after his death that he was 'without pity for Islam. I wish Islamism death with ignominy.'. So, the term semite - as used by Renan - originally did not refer to Ashkenazi Jews at all and only - instead - to Muslims. I wrote about this. Link in replies.