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"...and everybody hates the Jews"
- Tom Lehrer
- Tom Lehrer
I've been thinking about why anti-semitism is so attractive, and TBH I think it's just that Jews seem like a soft target. There just aren't that many Jews in the world so it feels safer to go after them.
There are only maybe 15 to 17 million Jews on the whole planet. If your political fantasy narratives require a cabal of sneaky manipulative evil wizards, you might as well pick a small group of people to vilify.
Plus, as someone pointed out, the fact that there are so few Jews means that fewer people actually know any personally. It's possible to vilify people you know, but probably easier to vilify someone you've only heard about.
I can easily imagine a world in which Judaism dies out completely but anti-semitism just keeps going. People blaming hypothetical imaginary Jews, or accusing non-Jews of secretly being Jews...
