From Eisenmenger to @Amnesty: Scholarly antisemitism since 1700 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Friday, September 05, 2025

From Eisenmenger to @Amnesty: Scholarly antisemitism since 1700

Johann Andreas Eisenmenger was a 17th century German figure who may have done more to influence antisemitism over the past half-millennium than anyone else.

He is best known for his work Entdecktes Judenthum (Judaism Unmasked), the original source for the false and out-of-context Talmudic and rabbinic quotes that remained popular in the 19th century, that the Nazis popularized and that still are used in neo-Nazi (and far Left) antisemitic rhetoric today.

Eisenmenger studied Jewish texts for many years. He was an expert in Hebrew and Aramaic. Some accounts say that he studied with rabbis under the pretext of wanting to convert.

Entdecktes Judenthum was the culmination of this work - a 2,000 page, seemingly scholarly treatise on Jewish sources, organized well.

Eisenmenger's quotes were accurate, but cherry picked - no counter-examples were given, snippets of discussion were yanked out of the full text, minority opinions were promoted as Jewish law. He intended from the start to create a work that appeared scholarly but his conclusions were decided before he wrote a word: all the quotes are intended to promote his thesis of Judaism as anti-Christian, dishonest, and morally corrupt.

While there were anti-Jewish works before, they were usually framed as theological or polemic, not scholarly. Eisenmenger opened up an entirely new field - antisemitism within the academy masquerading as scholarship.

Is there any difference between the methods of this German antisemite and, say, Amnesty International's report declaring Israel guilty of genocide?

Amnesty had lots of footnotes. Its quotes were accurate. Yet is was, in the aggregate, a huge lie.

Like Eisenmenger, Amnesty took quotes out of context. Like Eisenmenger, Amnesty picked and chose the facts they would present and not even acknowledge the many other quotes that disprove the thesis. And like Eisenmenger, Amnesty decided on their conclusions before writing their report, and therefore only chose the facts that fit their antisemitism. Like Eisenmenger, their published works are propaganda and incitement disguise as scholarship.

Since Eisenmenger, antisemitism has become a respected tradition in the academy. And he is quoted even today by antisemites to justify their hate - just as Amnesty is.