"Anti-Semite," the very word can evoke a strong emotional reaction in many people, sometimes this reaction manifests itself as fear and discomfort, other times it may create confusion and uncertainty, which may then cause that individual to rethink their former position on various matters and perhaps even change their mind. The word itself is something of a misnomer, in that its modern application generally is associated with identifying and/or defining someone that "exhibits hostility towards Jews as a religious, ethnic or racial group."[1] The term, as it is used however is contradictory and prejudicial in that it excludes every other member of the Semitic racial-ethnic group except Jews. The very same modern dictionary that defines "anti-Semitism" in the aforementioned manner clearly identifies a Semites as "a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arabs."[2] This may at first seem to be a rather meaningless and even petty argument, after all it’s just a word right? In many instances this might be true, but not so this particular word, it has special connotations and purpose. There may not be another word in the entire English language with as much power and influence as the word "anti-Semite, it is truly a unique expression, reserved for those unfortunate enough to feel the effects associated with its malignant label.

Although evidence as to when the phrase was first coined is inconclusive, we do know that it was popularized when German Jew-Hater Wilhelm Marr used it in his "The Way to Victory of Germanicism over Judaism" as a substitute for "Jew-Hatred." Marr thought that getting people to adopt "anti-Semitism" would make demonizing Jews sound more scientific and legitimate... "Anti-Semitism" began as a term designed to give Jew haters a way to stack the rhetorical deck in their favor by making their bigotry seem scientific. Now that they've succeeded in crowding out any other way to talk about their bigotry, they want to manipulate word further to make it not about hating Jews at all... first hating Jews becomes respectable, and then it disappears as a concept at all. If accusing someone of "Jew hatred" sounds so hysterical that just using it delegitimizes the accuser rather than the accused and now if "anti-Semitism" isn't about Jew hatred but about religious bigotry in general - then there would be literally no word or phrase left that described the world's oldest hatred.