Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World Paperback – October 1, 1998

I was impressed with Shafer's discussion of Roman envy of Jews' sexual libidos particularly their insecurities concerning comparatve male genital size, complete with quotations from leader Roman writers of the times.....yet another reason for people to hate Jews.

The author places the roots of classical anti-Semitism in Egypt, and although the texts he quotes are mostly in Greek, he clearly points the finger at the Egyptian natives, not the colonizers, as the source of the prejudice. The first pogrom against a Jewish community in the diaspora occurred in Egypt in the 5th century, when a Jewish place of worship was burned down in a riot instigated by Egyptian priests assisted by renegade Persian overlords. Five hundred years later in Alexandria there was another pogrom, destruction of synagogues and Jewish homes and property, and herding of Jews into a ghetto, by native Egyptians with the support of renegade Greek overlords. The author recognizes that there are anti-Semitic passages in the Roman authors too, but says the situation there is more "complex," and not as serious. In my view, the author places too much weight on the niceties of specific texts, and ignores the fact that those renegades responsible for the pogrom in Alexandria were executed, while in pagan Rome within two centuries two official decrees exiled either the entire Jewish community in the city or significant parts of it. Which is more anti-Semitic, an official decree that exiles an entire community, or a riot by renegades that meets with severe official punishment? The responsibility for anti-Jewish agitation in the ancient world is wider than the author wants us to believe. Nevertheless this is a well written book by a scholar of Judaism with a bent for classical languages that is unusual in this field.

I want to make sure people know I have given three stars for the kindle edition, not the book itself, which has been very helpful. Buyer beware: the Kindle edition has no hyperlinks for the endnotes, which makes the book extremely difficult to navigate. Also, when you go to the index, for example, it references page numbers that don't exist on the kindle. Very cumbersome.