ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the socioreligious character of the Jewish community in the form it assumed after the Prophetic Period and the Babylonian Exile–that is, its modern form–as well as that of the larger society within which the Jewish community exists. It discusses three primary interdependent aspects to describe the role of religion in the Jewish community: the Jewish God and his peculiar relation to his people, the Law, and the fact that Judaism was, in a sense, the religion of a "people" and not a mere cult of a group of individuals. The most important source of virulent anti-Semitism is probably the projection on the Jew, as a symbol, of free-floating aggression, springing from insecurities and social disorganization. Anti-Semitism is a manifestation of social disorganization. Two factors are particularly responsible for the spread of anti-Semitism in Germany. One is the extreme form of nationalism of the German people, and the other is the Fascist movement.
