The Devil and the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Antisemitism

Writing as a Reform rabbi and historian in the United States during World War II, Joshua Trachtenberg illustrates how modern antisemitism is not a new phenomenon but one that has roots in medieval tropes that believed Jews were agents of Satan. These stereotypes were particularly displayed in modern German cultural productions such as folktales featuring sinister Jews and in the works of Richard Wagner, some of whose characters in his operas seem to take on antisemetic stereotypes. Trachtenberg points out “types” that continued negative Jewish characteristics from the Middle Ages: the belief that Jews possessed tails and horns; the accusation that Jews practiced magic and used their powers to poison wells; and that Jews ritually murdered Christian children.