The Hungarian Quarterly April-June, 1965

Előszó

ON THE CAUSES OF ANTI-SEMITISM1
BY
ISTVAN BARANKOVICS
'"THE toughest question of the entire problem of anti-Semitism is
the discovery of its deeper causes and a consequent satisfactory
explanation of anti-Semitism as a whole. Brilliant inquirers, includ-
ing Freud, have arrived at the conclusion that though several
causes may be found for the persecution of the Jews through the
centuries, no one has so far succeeded in giving a wholly satisfying
explanation. Different thinkers, philosophers, theologians, psycholo-
gists and historians have identified the general and principal cause
of anti-Semitism in more or less different phenomena. They have,
of course, given various main reasons for the local, concrete man-
ifestations of anti-Semitism in histoiy. These circumstances explain
the burgeoning of psychological, economic, sociological and other
theories on the causes of anti-Semitism: they range from xenophobia
all the way down to Christophobia. The truth is, however, that
whatever main reason may be given in general or in a particular
circumstance for anti-Semitism, it is always and everywhere the
outcome of a complicated web of causes. Anti-Semitism is every-
where and at all times a highly complex phenomenon whose pre-
vention and cure can only come about in every single instance
through circumspect and manifold counteraction.
-k k k
A remarkable theory seeks to explain the causes of anti-
Semitism on the basis of the relationship between majorities and
minorities.
In the light of the majority-minority theory, the root cause of
anti-Semitism would appear to be the status of the Jews as an
ethnic and/or religious minority in all the national states in which
the dominant majority is looking for the unity, peace and progress
of society in the direction of a religious or national homogenization.
In other words, in all the national states which reject the idea of a Vissza