The Oldest Hatred, in Order

The Oldest
Hatred

You have probably heard antisemitism explained as a reaction, to Israel, to something Jews did. It is neither. It is older than Christianity and older than Islam, and it keeps the same shape while it changes its words: the poisoner, the conspirator, the alien who must be expelled or killed. Here it is in order, from the first recorded pogrom to the record numbers of this year, and the answer a people built so the cycle would not own the ending.

Every generation tells itself its hatred of the Jew is new, and rational, and this time deserved. It never is. The same accusations return in each century's costume: the Jew poisons the wells, the Jew murders children for their blood, the Jew secretly runs the world, the Jew is loyal to no country. The wells became banks, the blood libel became the Protocols, the Protocols became 'Zionism' (the word for the Jewish people's movement to rebuild their home in the land of Israel, twisted into a slur), but the charge underneath never changes.

This page lays the record end to end so the pattern is impossible to miss. Filter by the form it took, the massacre, the expulsion, the lie, the decree, the genocide, the modern terror, and watch the same thing wear new clothes. And follow the green thread, the answer: each time the hatred peaked, the Jewish people answered not with hatred back but with a congress, a trial, a rescue, a state. Read the whole thing, not the latest headline.

One hatred, a hundred costumes

It is never new

Every age insists its hatred of the Jew is rational, and this time deserved. It never is. A single accusation simply changes clothes.

Watch one charge wear each century's costume, from the medieval well to the modern campus.

Medieval Europe

"He poisons the wells"

When the Black Death killed a third of Europe in 1348, the rumour spread that Jews had poisoned the wells. Whole communities were burned alive, around 2,000 in Strasbourg in a single day in 1349, before the plague had even reached the town.

The charge needed no evidence. The Jew was simply the explanation for catastrophe. That was always enough.

The blood libel

"He murders our children"

From Norwich in 1144, the lie that Jews kill Christian children for their blood swept the world for eight centuries, killing in waves from England to Damascus in 1840 to Tsarist Russia.

It was always a forgery, condemned even by popes. It killed anyway. And it is still broadcast on Hamas and Iranian television today.

Runs the world

"He secretly rules"

In 1903 the Russian secret police forged The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fake blueprint for Jewish world domination. The Times exposed it as plagiarism in 1921. It became the most translated hoax of the century.

Henry Ford printed it across America. Hitler cited it as proof. It still sells as fact across the Middle East.

Loyal to no one

"He belongs to no country"

Forever the alien within: too foreign to belong, too connected to trust. "Cosmopolitan," "rootless," a fifth column. The Nazi boycott of 1 April 1933 began with a single word painted on the glass: Jude.

Six years later the same charge became law, then ghetto, then cattle car.

The newest word

Same hatred, new word

Now the wells are "apartheid," the puppet-master is "the lobby," the blood libel is recycled frame by frame, and the one Jewish state is held to a standard no other nation on earth is asked to meet. The noun changed. The charge did not.

See the old libels dressed as politics today →
Now read the record, century by century, below.

In Memoriam

The Roll of the Murdered

The record above traces the pattern. This is the toll: Jewish lives taken in antisemitic attacks, in Israel and around the world, from the pogroms of the last century to the attacks of this one. A partial remembrance, drawn from the public record, and still only a fraction.

Tap to light a candle in their memory

1903

Kishinev Pogrom

Kishinev, Russian Empire

49 killed

Over Easter, a mob whipped up by blood-libel rumors and the antisemitic press rampaged through the Jewish quarter for three days, killing 49 and wounding hundreds. The world's revulsion helped ignite the early Zionist movement.

1929

Hebron Massacre

Hebron, British Mandate Palestine (the territory Britain administered 1920-1948)

67 killed

During riots incited over Jerusalem's holy sites, Arab mobs slaughtered 67 Jews of Hebron's ancient community, ending a Jewish presence in the city that had lasted centuries. Some were sheltered by Arab neighbors.

1941

The Farhud

Baghdad, Iraq

~180 killed

Over two days of pro-Nazi violence in Baghdad, mobs murdered roughly 180 Jews, raped women and looted thousands of homes and shops, shattering 2,600 years of Jewish life in Iraq and foreshadowing the exodus to come.

1972

Lod Airport Massacre

Lod, Israel

26 killed

Three Japanese Red Army gunmen, acting for the Palestinian PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), opened fire with rifles and grenades in the arrivals hall at Lod (now Ben Gurion) Airport, killing 26, many of them Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico.

1972

Munich Olympics Massacre

Munich, Germany

11 Israeli athletes

Palestinian 'Black September' terrorists seized the Israeli Olympic team at the Munich Games. A botched German rescue ended with all 11 Israeli athletes and coaches murdered, watched live around the world.

1974

Ma'alot Massacre

Ma'alot, Israel

25 killed · mostly children

Palestinian terrorists seized a school in Ma'alot and held scores of teenagers hostage. When troops stormed the building, the gunmen murdered 25, most of them children.

1978

Coastal Road Massacre

Israel

38 killed

Fatah militants who landed by sea hijacked a bus on the coastal highway and killed 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, one of the deadliest attacks in Israel's history.

1980

Rue Copernic Synagogue Bombing

Paris, France

4 killed

A bomb hidden on a motorbike exploded outside a Paris synagogue during Friday-night services, killing 4, the first deadly attack on French Jews since the Nazi occupation.

1982

Jo Goldenberg Restaurant Attack

Paris, France

6 killed

Gunmen hurled a grenade into a famous Jewish restaurant in the Marais and sprayed it with automatic fire, killing 6 and wounding 22.

1986

Neve Shalom Synagogue Massacre

Istanbul, Turkey

22 killed

Abu Nidal gunmen burst into Istanbul's main synagogue during Sabbath prayers and machine-gunned the congregation, murdering 22 worshippers.

1992

Israeli Embassy Bombing

Buenos Aires, Argentina

29 killed

A suicide truck bomb destroyed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29. Investigators attributed it to Hezbollah acting on Iran's orders.

1994

AMIA Jewish Center Bombing

Buenos Aires, Argentina

85 killed

A suicide bombing leveled the AMIA Jewish community center, killing 85 and wounding hundreds, the deadliest antisemitic attack since the Shoah at the time. Argentina charged Hezbollah and senior Iranian officials.

2001

Dolphinarium Disco Bombing

Tel Aviv, Israel

21 killed · mostly teens

A Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up in a queue of teenagers outside a Tel Aviv seaside disco, killing 21, most of them teenage girls from immigrant families.

2001

Sbarro Restaurant Bombing

Jerusalem, Israel

15 killed

A Hamas bomber detonated in a crowded pizzeria in central Jerusalem at lunchtime, killing 15, among them 7 children and a pregnant woman.

2002

Passover Massacre · Park Hotel

Netanya, Israel

30 killed

A Hamas bomber struck the Park Hotel during the Passover Seder, murdering 30, mostly elderly guests, the deadliest attack of the Second Intifada and the trigger for Israel's Operation Defensive Shield.

2002

Hebrew University Bombing

Jerusalem, Israel

9 killed

A bomb planted in a bag detonated in a packed cafeteria at Hebrew University, killing 9 students and staff, several of them Americans.

2003

Bus No. 2 Bombing

Jerusalem, Israel

23 killed

A Hamas bomber disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew boarded a crowded bus returning from the Western Wall and detonated, killing 23, many of them children.

2003

Istanbul Synagogue Bombings

Istanbul, Turkey

24 killed

Two truck bombs struck the Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues during Sabbath services, killing 24 and wounding hundreds, in attacks tied to al-Qaeda.

2008

Mercaz HaRav Shooting

Jerusalem, Israel

8 killed

A gunman entered the library of a prominent Jerusalem yeshiva and opened fire on students, murdering 8, most of them teenagers.

2008

Chabad House Attack

Mumbai, India

6 killed

Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists singled out the Chabad House amid the coordinated 26/11 assault on Mumbai, torturing and murdering Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and four others. Their toddler son was saved by his nanny.

2012

Ozar Hatorah School Shooting

Toulouse, France

4 killed

After murdering French paratroopers, a gunman opened fire at a Jewish school, killing a rabbi and three young children, one of whom he chased down and shot point-blank.

2014

Jewish Museum Shooting

Brussels, Belgium

4 killed

A returning ISIS fighter walked into the Jewish Museum of Belgium and opened fire, killing 4, an early sign of the wave of jihadist attacks about to strike Europe.

2014

Har Nof Synagogue Attack

Jerusalem, Israel

6 killed

Two Palestinians attacked worshippers with axes, knives and a gun during morning prayers, murdering 5 rabbis and a responding police officer.

2015

Hyper Cacher Siege

Paris, France

4 killed

Two days after the Charlie Hebdo attack, a gunman pledging allegiance to ISIS seized a kosher supermarket before the Sabbath, killing 4 hostages.

2018

Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting

Pittsburgh, USA

11 killed

A gunman shouting 'all Jews must die' opened fire during Shabbat services, murdering 11, the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history.

2019

Halle Synagogue Attack

Halle, Germany

2 killed · Yom Kippur

On Yom Kippur, a heavily armed gunman tried to storm a synagogue; unable to force the door, he murdered two passers-by instead, livestreaming the attack.

2019

Jersey City Kosher Market Shooting

Jersey City, USA

4 killed

Two shooters targeted a kosher grocery, killing three people inside and a police detective nearby, in an assault driven by antisemitic hatred.

2023

October 7 Massacre

Israel

~1,200 killed

Hamas and allied gunmen poured across the Gaza border, murdering about 1,200 people in their homes and at a music festival and dragging 251 into Gaza, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

memorial

2025

Capital Jewish Museum Shooting

Washington, DC, USA

2 killed

A gunman shouting 'free Palestine' shot dead two young Israeli embassy staff, a couple soon to be engaged, outside a Jewish museum event in Washington.

2025

Boulder Firebombing · hostage march

Boulder, Colorado, USA

1 killed

A man shouting 'free Palestine' threw incendiary devices at a peaceful weekly march for the Israeli hostages, burning a dozen people; an 82-year-old woman later died of her injuries.

2025

Heaton Park Synagogue · Yom Kippur

Manchester, UK

2 killed

On Yom Kippur, an attacker rammed his car into worshippers and stabbed others outside the Heaton Park synagogue, killing two.

2025

Bondi Beach · Hanukkah Massacre

Sydney, Australia

15 killed

A father and son inspired by Islamic State ideology opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney's Bondi Beach, murdering 15, the deadliest antisemitic attack in Australia's history.

Tolls cross-checked against the Jewish Virtual Library, the USHMM and contemporaneous reporting. The full toll of these years could never fit on a single page.

Who, and why. These were not random. The Buenos Aires bombings of 1992 and 1994, the deadliest antisemitic attacks in the Americas, were carried out by Hezbollah at Iran's direction; Argentine prosecutors indicted Iranian officials, and the prosecutor who pursued them, Alberto Nisman, was later found dead. The Mumbai Chabad House was singled out for slaughter amid the 2008 Lashkar-e-Taiba assault that killed 166 across the city. One network, one hatred, runs through much of this list. Iran's Ring of Fire →
Not only the dead. A memorial counts the murdered, but the hatred runs far wider than any body count. Since October 7, antisemitic harassment, assault and intimidation have surged to record levels across the West. In the United States, the Department of Education opened Title VI civil-rights investigations into more than 60 universities over antisemitic harassment; on American university campuses, Jewish students have been mobbed, blockaded, and made afraid to wear a kippah to class. It rarely ends in a funeral. It is the same fire. The claims, checked →
יְהִי זִכְרָם בָּרוּךְ

May their memory be a blessing.

Why this is here. Naming the pattern is the defence against it. Read top to bottom, the record answers the most common evasion, that today's antisemitism is just criticism of a government. The costume changes; the hatred is the same one the Jewish people have outlived for three thousand years. For how the old libels are dressed up as politics today, see Same Hatred, New Words; for the communities erased in living memory, see The Other 1948. This is the same three thousand years as The Timeline, told a second way: that page is the story of the land and the people; this one is the story of the hatred against them.