ABSTRACT
That a countertradition sanctioning the use of anti-Semitism now exists in the United States is a matter of the utmost importance. Just as the Jew is the best of scapegoats, so anti-Semitism is a favorite weapon of proved efficiency in the socio-economic conflicts of a class-riven society. The anti-Semitic myth rationalized all these consequences of the rise of industrial capitalism by fixing the blame on the Jews. On the contrary, the history of anti-Semitism, in both its classical and its modern form, shows that it is profoundly symptomatic of political, economic, and institutional change. For purposes of clarification, one might say that anti-Semitism is a social disease having a number of peculiar characteristics. It is a kind of undulant social fever: a deep-rooted persistent disease; a disease that seems to remain dormant for long periods; a disease the manifestations of which are correlated with social disorganization.
