Though anti-Jewish hatred dates back to Biblical times, the actual term ‘anti-Semitism’ was devised by the German anti-Jewish provocateur, Wilhem Marr in 1879 to describe the violent anti-Jewish hostilities in his country. It very soon became the singular term to cover all aspects of anti-Jewish hatred.

Herbert A. Strauss has said that three models of enquiry used in the social sciences can be applied to researching the problem of anti-Semitism. The first is the cultural-anthropological approach, which can be used to probe the degree to which cultural stereotypes persist among various strata of a particular social structure. Then there is psychologically oriented research, to help discover what motivates hatred of Jewish people. Finally, building on the previous two, is an exploration of the historical circumstances which have led to wider social and political expressions of this prejudice. ^[12] Simon N. Herman reminds us that often a missing element in the study of anti-Semitism is its effect upon Jewish attitudes and behaviour both towards the Gentiles among whom they live and within their own community. ^[13] Further, Todd M. Endelman also notes that when examining the problem of anti-Semitism in a particular place, frequently absent is a discussion of its influence on ‘the Jews themselves – their occupations, religious practices, social habits, and intellectual and cultural predilections’. ^[14]

The denigration of Judaism and the persecution of Jews over centuries of Western Christendom has been well documented. ^[15] Even after the European Enlightenment took hold, and when the political and social hegemony of Christianity was replaced by secularism, much anti-Semitism was decanted into Left and Right political and cultural versions. The eminent historian J. L. Talmon recalls that when Jews were emancipated into Gentile society allegedly on an equal basis, the ‘Jewish Problem’ became even more difficult and complex, since Jews were then excoriated by both the Left and the Right:

… We are thus faced with a striking paradox: to the Conservatives the Jews are the symbol, beneficiary, finally the maker of the capitalist revolution, which was in their eyes a kind of preparation for the Socialist revolution; to the Socialists - the embodiment and pillar of that capitalism, which  the  revolution  was  rising  to  destroy. ^[16]

In various ways Jews were stereotyped as uncouth, immoral, insufferable, incapable of ethical behavior, and as a group, a danger to civil society. Ronald B. Sobel has argued that anti-Semitism is resilient because it is a 'disease and a virus embedded in the bloodstream of Western civilisation'. ^[17] By that he means it is not manifest at every moment, but Jews have remained the ever present ‘outsider’, to be used as a scapegoat for any perceived fundamental social, cultural, and even political wrong or difficulty. These observations are pertinent if only because ‘Western Civilization’ is the very construct to which Australia has always claimed cultural allegiance.