The Jewish Roots of the West and the Nature of Anti-semitism

The origins of anti-semitism, sometimes called "the world's oldest hatred," have been explained in many different ways: political, social, cultural, economic, national, etc. These various theories, however, are often contradictory. Indeed, Jews have been hated for opposite reasons and even in places where hardly a Jew ever set foot. This bizarre phenomenon points us to another possibility: that the problem is existential. This course will explore how Judaism's great realization - that man is a covenantal creature without a nature like others - challenged and scandalized a diverse array of peoples throughout history, all of whom saw man differently. As a new wave of Anti-semitism has begun to spread around the world, this course seeks to explicate the connection between Judaism and human liberty.