Jews and Judaism between Bedevilment and Source of Salvation: Christianity as a Cause of and a Cure against Antisemitism

We begin our talk today with a set of images that are both appalling to modern eyes and strangely consistent with one another: they present Jews and Judaism as intimately linked with the devil, as demonic in their fundamental nature and their individual and collective intentions. While such accusations sound medieval at best, they are widespread even in the present day: as recently as June, 2016, Mahmoud Abbas repeated the accusation that Jews poison wells in a speech to the European parliament.