ANTISEMITISM, a term coined in 1879, from the Greek by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr to designate the then-current anti-Jewish campaigns in Europe. “Antisemitism” soon came into general use as a term denoting all forms of hostility manifested toward the Jews throughout history. It is often qualified by an adjective denoting the specific cause, nature or rationale of a manifestation of anti-Jewish passion or action : e.g., “economic antisemitism,” “social antisemitism,” “racial antisemitism,” etc. In Antiquity Prejudice against Jews appeared in antiquity almost exclusively in those countries which later became part of the Roman Empire. Some manifestations were noted in the Parthian Empire, which contained Babylonian Jewry, but such hatred never attained serious proportions. Josephus states it as a well-known fact that in the lands of the Babylonian exile antisemitism did not exist (Apion 1:71). In those countries that afterward formed part of the Roman Empire, a distinction must be drawn between Erez. Israel and the Diaspora. IN EREz. ISRAEL. Even in the days of David and Solomon the land of Israel contained a substantial Gentile population. In Hellenistic times it was primarily concentrated in the coastal towns and in certain districts of Transjordan, but the boundaries between the Jewish and non-Jewish regions were not fixed and the seeds of friction were ever present. Of particular importance, however, was the difference in occupations between the Jews and Gentiles of those areas. The Jewish population engaged principally in agriculture, particularly in small-scale farming ; the non-Jewish population occupied itself primarily with commerce. The transit and sea trade was almost entirely in the hands of the inhabitants of the coastal cities, or of the Transjordanian cities situated along the routes that connected Syria, Asia Minor, and the regions of the Euphrates with the Arabian countries. The inhabitants of Erez. Israel who engaged in commerce, with connections abroad, were thus mainly non-Jewish. These Gentiles were therefore in close contact with the foreign powers in the region and were confident of their support ; in Erez. Israel they were contemptuous of the Jewish population, whom they regarded as an isolated people that eschewed civilization and refrained from all contact with the outside world. Moreover, the non-Jews who dwelt in Erez. Israel knew that the Jews looked upon that land as their divine inheritance, and upon themselves as a unique and elevated people. In the eyes of the Jews, as these Gentiles knew, their pagan religions and practices rendered them “unclean” ; intermarriage with them was forbidden and, as a consequence of the dietary laws, no real social intercourse was possible. In normal times these two segments of the population dwelt alongside each other without any undue hostility. In time of crisis, however, relations deteriorated sharply. The first serious manifestation of antisemitism in history was the concentrated attack on the Jewish religion in the days of *Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.E.). The immediate cause was anger by the Seleucids at the fact that the vast majority of Jews traditionally sided with the Ptolemies against the Seleucids. Tension was exacerbated still further by the image that Hellenistic rulers such as Antiochus had of themselves. Their role was not only political ; they were also to be torchbearers of the ideals of *Hellenism within their dominions. The seeming unfriendliness of the Jews toward all Gentiles, and their refusal to adopt any other religion, was therefore seen as an obstacle to the realization of this cultural mission. An echo of this attitude can be seen in the account of the negotiations that took place outside Jerusalem in 133 B.C.E., when John Hyrcanus was compelled to yield to Antiochus Sidetes after the latter had besieged the capital for a year. Antiochus Sidetes’ officers counseled him to seize the opportunity to conquer the city and completely destroy the Jewish people, since the Jews were the only people in the world that refused to associate with other peoples. Pressing the point, they reminded Antiochus Sidetes of the course taken by Antiochus Epiphanes, who undertook to abrogate those laws of the Torah that he regarded as inimical to humanity. To this end, he had sacrificed a swine on the altar at Jerusalem and ordered that juices from the sacrificial flesh be sprinkled over the books containing the statutes that were directed against the Gentile world (Diodorus, Bibliotheca 34:1, 1ff.). This reiterated insistence on the alleged antipathy of the Jews to other nations is best understood against the background of the peculiar conditions and circumstances obtaining in the Hellenistic period. No other nation at that time deantisemitism nied the gods of its neighbors ; on the contrary, it recognized them, identifying them with its own deities. This pan-religiosity was used with considerable success by the Hellenistic ruling authorities to create a social bond between the various peoples in their domains. None of the peoples refrained from dining at one table with their neighbors and from partaking of the sacrifices offered to their gods, except the Jews. None of the peoples refused to send gifts to its neighbors’ temples, except the Jews. None of the peoples was unequivocally hostile to intermarriage, except the Jews. They characterized it as a misanthropy in general, and as a flagrant denial of the Hellenic principle of the unity of mankind in particular. As the Hasmonean kingdom expanded and established its dominion over the whole land, its kings occasionally adopted a policy of political and religious oppression vis à vis the inhabitants of the pagan cities of Palestine, who had sided earlier with Antiochus Epiphanes and had joined the war of Antiochus Sidetes against the Jews. Against this background, libels began to circulate, denying that the Jews had any right to remain in the land. Underlying these libels were Egyptian legends concerning shepherd kings who had once ruled over Egypt and oppressed its people but who had subsequently been expelled. There were also stories about a leprous or unclean people who had been banished from Egypt so that the land and its temples, which they had defiled, might be purified. These legends were now related to the biblical tale of the Exodus ; the composite version was that the Jews had been expelled from Egypt because of their uncleanliness and had continued to separate themselves from the other nations in Erez. Israel. If such was their origin and the reason for their present habits, they had no legitimate claims on this or any other land, or on being unique and elevated. Descriptions of the Jews as homeless wanderers are found in the allegations of Antiochus Sidetes’ officers, who regarded their nomadic status as justification for destroying them. The general motif, however, is undoubtedly much older, having been employed by non-Jews to counter the Jewish claim that Erez. Israel was the inheritance of the Lord and that idolaters had no share in it. However, if in the period preceding the Hasmonean conquests this Jewish conception of Erez. Israel made little practical difference to its non-Jewish inhabitants, in the Hasmonean epoch it became the justification for eradicating idolatry from the land, and not idolatry alone. The sins of the Canaanites, as they are enumerated in the Wisdom of Solomon (12:3ff.), an apocryphal book composed in this period, were depicted as so offensive to the Holy Land that their perpetrators would have to be cast out if they did not mend their ways and conduct themselves in a manner compatible with the sanctity of Erez. Israel. This view, in turn, aroused more animosity against the Jews.