In some quarters of the globe, hatred of Jews has assumed epidemic proportions and is intensifying by the day. In the Muslim world, irrational charges verging on mass psychosis involving allegations of Jews' deceit and bloodthirstiness have assumed the status of "common knowledge." Lurid conspiracy theories—that the Jews orchestrated 9/11 and shifted the blame to Mohammed Atta and his gang is one of the mildest—have spread like a virus. In distant locales where there are almost no Jews at all, as in Pakistan and on the Malay peninsula, the hatred has also taken root and is spreading with astonishing momentum. In Europe—especially France with its growing Muslim population—where anti-Semitism has long been thought to be dormant or even nearly extinct, an unexpected resurgence is under way. Even here in the United States, where anti-Semitism has never found fertile soil, hatred of the Jews has now established an open presence on college campuses and other sectors where it formerly was considered taboo.

In his brilliantly written and profoundly disquieting book, Gabriel Schoenfeld explores how and why a murderous anti-Semitic rage has once again come into being and examines its likely trajectory. The Return of Anti Semitism traces the confluence of several lethal currents: the infusion of anti-Semitism into Islamic fundamentalism; the rise of terrorist movements (including al Qaeda) which are motivated in large measure by a pathological hatred of Jews; the deliberate and well-financed export of anti-Semitism from the Muslim world into Europe and from there into the United States; and the reemergence of older anti-Semitic traditions in the West which were thought to have ended along with Nazism.

Based on the extensive and penetrating historical research for which its author is renowned, The Return of Anti-Semitism is certain to stir controversy and become essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the peril today confronting Jews, Israel, and Western democracy as a whole.

Gabriel Schoenfeld has written on world affairs for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the New Republic, and other publications including Commentary magazine, where he is the senior editor. Schoenfeld lives in New York City.