Antisemitism 101: Untangling the History and Politics of Antisemitism

posted on: Aug 20, 2025

By: Laila Mamdouh / Arab America Contributing Writer

In today’s fast-moving political debates, the word “antisemitism” is everywhere. It’s hurled in arguments, defended against in news cycles, and wielded as a charge in social media disputes. But pause for a moment: do we actually know what “Semitism” even means? Is it a religion? A race? A language group? Or something else entirely?

The truth is, the word has a long and complicated history, one that stretches from ancient mythological genealogies to modern politics. To understand what “antisemitism” really refers to, we first need to ask a deceptively simple question: who are the Semites?

The Origins of the “Semites”

The word Semite comes from Shem, one of the three sons of Noah. In the Hebrew Bible, Shem is seen as the ancestor of the Hebrews, Assyrians, and Arameans, placing him at the center of the peoples of the ancient Near East (Genesis 10). In Jewish tradition, Shem is considered not only the ancestor of Israel but also a righteous man, one whose descendants carried the covenant forward. The Talmud even describes Shem as a priestly figure who blessed Abraham.

In Islamic tradition, Shem, known as Sām ibn Nūḥ, is regarded as the son who inherited his father Noah’s wisdom and prophethood. Islamic genealogies connect Shem to the lineage of the Arabs, particularly through the Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim), whose sons, Isaac and Ishmael, would become the ancestors of the Israelites and the Arabs, respectively. Thus, in both Judaism and Islam, Shem’s descendants occupy sacred and central roles in the unfolding of the Abrahamic faiths.

From the very beginning, Semites were understood mythohistorically as the peoples descended from Shem, including the Hebrews, Arabs, Arameans, Assyrians, and others. This isn’t just a biblical curiosity; it became the framework for how later generations mapped peoples, languages, and even religions.

From Myth to Linguistics: What “Semitic” Really Means

Fast forward to the 18th and 19th centuries, when European scholars began classifying world languages. August Ludwig Schlözer and Johann Gottfried Eichhorn popularized the label “Semitic” to group together languages like Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian, Amharic, and Phoenician. Suddenly, “Semitic” was no longer just about Noah’s son; it became a linguistic family (Lewis 1979).

But here’s the catch: according to Ernest Renan, a French philologist, language doesn’t always equal lineage. He warned that calling people “Semites” because they spoke a Semitic language could be misleading. A person’s tongue didn’t mean they literally descended from Shem. Still, the term stuck, and Semitic has been a linguistic designation ever since.

This means that Arabs, Jews, Ethiopians, Assyrians, and Phoenicians are all considered Semitic peoples, not because of race or religion, but because of the languages their ancestors spoke.

Jews in Context: Ashkenazi and Sephardic

Within Judaism itself, we see how geography and history shaped identity. Ashkenazi Jews, whose communities developed in Central and Eastern Europe, often spoke Yiddish (a Germanic language with Hebrew influence). Sephardic Jews, rooted in the Iberian Peninsula and later North Africa and the Ottoman Empire, developed Ladino (a Judeo-Spanish language).

While Hebrew, a Semitic language, has always been a part of Jewish religious life, not all Jews are technically “Semitic” in the linguistic sense. The term Semitic originally referred to people who spoke Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, and others. Over time, 19th-century racial and political discourse shifted the jargon from a linguistic classification to a racial/ethnic marker. Culturally and politically, it was used as shorthand for people of Jewish origin, regardless of whether their ancestry or spoken language traced directly back to the Semitic family. This is why groups such as Ashkenazi Jews, who historically spoke Yiddish (a Germanic language), are still categorized as “Semitic” in modern usage, even though the label rests more on cultural and political convention than on strict linguistic criteria.

The Birth of “Antisemitism”

Here’s where things take a sharp turn. The word “antisemitism” did not come from the Bible or Islam, or even Jewish tradition. It was coined in 19th-century Europe, in an age obsessed with racial categories.

In 1860, the scholar Moritz Steinschneider used the phrase “anti-Semitic prejudice” to criticize Ernest Renan’s theories of “Semitic races.” But it was Wilhelm Marr, a German polemicist, who popularized the word Antisemitismus in 1879. Marr wasn’t talking about Arabs, Ethiopians, or Arameans; he was specifically targeting Jews, framing hostility toward them as a racial and political movement. From then on, “antisemitism” became the standard term for hatred of Jews (Zimmermann 1986).

When Words Become Weapons

Over time, “antisemitism” hardened into a political category. By the 20th century, it carried the weight of centuries of prejudice, culminating in the horrors of the Holocaust. But its meaning also became narrower: while Semitic linguistically referred to many peoples, antisemitism referred only to anti-Jewish hatred.

This narrowing has led to widespread confusion and misuse. One striking example is when Arabs are labeled “antisemitic.” From a purely linguistic standpoint, this is simply incorrect: Arabs are Semites themselves, as Arabic is one of the central Semitic languages. To call an Arab “antisemitic” is therefore a contradiction, as it implies hostility toward a family of peoples that includes the Arab speakers themselves.

The problem deepens when the word is politicized. In many contemporary debates, criticism of Israel, whether of its government policies or military actions, gets labeled as “antisemitism.” But this conflates political critique with racial or religious hatred. Disagreeing with a government’s policies is not the same as hating a people or their faith. By stretching the definition of antisemitism to include any criticism of Israel, the word loses precision and risks silencing legitimate political discourse (Lewis 1986; Wistrich 1991).

So, where does that leave us?

• Semitic = a linguistic family (Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Amharic, etc.) tied historically to the mythic descendants of Shem.
• Semites = not just Jews, but also Arabs, Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Ethiopians.
• Antisemitism = a term invented in 19th-century Europe to describe hatred of Jews specifically, later politicized in modern contexts.

Why Getting the Words Right Matters

At its core, antisemitism has a very specific meaning: hatred, prejudice, or discrimination directed at Jews as a people and as a faith community. It does not mean opposition to a government, and it cannot logically be applied to Arabs or other Semitic peoples, who share the same linguistic and cultural roots. To call an Arab “antisemitic” is a contradiction, and to call all criticism of Israel “antisemitism” is a distortion.

When language is politicized in this way, it does more than confuse; it silences. It transforms words into weapons, blunting legitimate critique and hiding uncomfortable truths behind rhetorical shields. If antisemitism is stretched so far that it becomes a label for anything inconvenient or dissenting, then the real fight against genuine antisemitism is weakened. We no longer see the prejudice for what it is, because the word has been emptied of clarity.

This is why discourse matters. Words shape how we think, and how we think shapes what we allow. To misuse “antisemitism” is to flatten history and erase the complexity of who the Semites actually are. It turns a precise term for Jewish-directed hatred into a blunt political tool. And that serves no one; not Jews, not Arabs, and not the integrity of honest debate.

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