The 'Jewish Body' as Stigma

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to point out that the structure of anti-Jewish stereotypes concerning the body has a long tradition and dates back to the Middle Ages. By ascribing to it various imagined qualities, the skin of Jews is singled out as the crucial organ for stigmatisation in antisemitic discourses. As Jews are considered especially vulnerable to leprosy and susceptible to syphilis, they are also regarded as having a strong proclivity to other skin diseases. Anthropologists, physicians and ethnologists also tried to sexualize the Jewish mind as well as the Jewish body. According to them male Jews were highly oversexed, exhibited a high rate of veneral diseases and indulged in white slavery and pimping. In sum, all these factors add up to a racist concept of an allegedly perceivable difference between Jews and the non-Jewish population.