In 721 BCE, Assyria, a neighboring empire, captured…

“As accusations spread, so did the false belief that Jews routinely engaged in the practice of ritual murder. An accusation made repeatedly tends to…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Still, by the end of the thirteenth century, most European Jews were forced to wear badges or distinguishing clothing. The aim was to humiliate…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Mendelssohn’s books on philosophy and literature were hailed throughout Europe. He was described as “exceptional”—an “un-Jewish Jew,” one of a kind, a genius.”

— Phyllis Goldstein

“135 years later, in 586 BCE, the Babylonians conquered Judea, the southern kingdom. They destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and forced thousands of Jews…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“In Arab nations, many people opposed Zionism because they believed that the UN had no right to establish a Jewish state on what they…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“After the Black Death in the mid-1300s, the persecution of Jews intensified, and many Jews in Europe moved farther east. Some left because life…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Many Jews in the Byzantine Empire welcomed the Persians. Some saw their arrival as an opportunity to win independence or even just a little…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“In 1255, a five-year-old boy was found dead in a well in Lincoln, England. Many historians today believe that young Hugh accidentally fell into…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“The Greeks and Egyptians in Alexandria understood Flaccus’s announcement to mean that they could now treat Jews as they pleased. After all, people without…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“For hundreds of years, Christians had been trying to convert the Jews, and now, for the first time, they had real success. Suddenly thousands…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“With each new rumor, each new accusation, the way Christians thought about Jews became more and more distorted. Jews were increasingly seen as a…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“The “age of enlightenment” ended some of the isolation, discrimination, and humiliation Jews had experienced in earlier times in Europe. Jews now had more…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“When one group defeated another, the newly conquered people were expected to accept the gods of the victor. After all, the new gods had…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“Antisemitism did not begin in Germany, or anywhere else, in 1918; Jews had been regarded as dangerous outsiders for centuries, and anti-Jewish feeling usually…

— Phyllis Goldstein

“I first heard of antisemitism only later, when my father told me how Oswald Mosley had fomented riots in the thirties by marching his…

— Phyllis Goldstein