ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter, in discussing the socio-economic causes of anti-Semitism, is to arrive at a sociological theory of anti-Semitism. The Jews are a marginal people; their marginal individuals, namely the men of means and all others who are continually in contact with outsiders, are doubly exposed. The Jew was welcome whenever he was a trailblazer of urbanism in rural surroundings. This was true in late antiquity and in the early middle ages, when he brought the wares of the East to the undeveloped West. The Jews would only be admitted to a territory or locality by the ruler of that territory or locality and it was he who promised protection against considerable and frequently renewed payment. The ability of the Jews to pay depended on the permission which was granted them to lend money against interest. Without ever constituting a ruling class, or part ruling class, the Jews found their interests linked to those of the ruling class.
