The style debate over "antisemitism" is settled. But the root challenge remains.

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Support our nonprofit journalism]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     May 10, 2024 Hi there. I'm Daniel King, the copy chief and standards editor at Mother Jones. In the six months since the FBI announced that antisemitic incidents are at historic levels, and the three years since the Associated Press, the New York Times, and several other news organizations changed “anti-Semitism” to “antisemitism,” a [lot has happened](. Not just in Gaza and Israel and on college campuses, but in the proxy wars waged over the vocabulary of violence. The very meaning of terrorism, genocide, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, oppressor, and oppressed are under sharp scrutiny. Even the shorthands “pro” and “anti,” no doubt useful, challenge us to see how the most basic devices can do as much to collapse and conceal the positions many people hold as to summarize them. These shorthands can oversimplify protesters' views, as if all-or-nothing, binary choices, in a war that does permit of certain compatible pros and antis. The word “antisemitism” presents a unique challenge, right down to the letters: “Is it antisemitism or anti-Semitism?” a reporter asked me the other day. So, I’ve [answered it here](. I hope you’ll [give my response a read](. What’s laid bare in this word is a distinct mix of malice and misnomer. Stare at it long enough, study its etymology closely enough, and there's no mistake: “Semite” is a category created to be hated. It was born from bigotry by design, popularized as a pejorative by a German propagandist who wanted a euphemism to energize his movement. The “Semite” in “anti-Semitism” was never a religious or ethnic or linguistic group. It was simply the slur he chose to cultivate contempt for Jews. Lowercasing today is an attempt to mitigate that hatred by undoing its capitalization, to demote an uppercase whose meaning is clear (and essential) but whose capitalization makes little sense. I’ll be the first to admit that parsing this stuff gets awfully pedantic and narrowly academic. It can feel largely divorced from the reality of what’s at stake. Tinkering with letters solves next to nothing. Restyling won't improve understanding. Nor will it restore to life and land the families and futures laid waste. But understanding the word’s path can reveal, in a small way, how the tropes, forces, and tactics of antisemitism, and its most ardent apologists, continue to flourish. [See how it works](. —Daniel King Advertisement [House Donations Ad]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [The Emperor Had Very Few Clothes]( I watched Stormy Daniels’ testimony. It’s too bad most people can’t. BY TIM MURPHY SPONSORED CONTENT BY HEIFER INTERNATIONAL   Your Gift, Their Future: Generate 5X the Change! 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