Cognitive Model of the Causal Explanation of Anti-Semitism

The subjectively written content of the New Testament have long been academically thought as one source responsible for the historical persecution of Jews. Theological judeophobia is a cornerstone of the models explaining anti-Semitism. However, recent history (and the present) involves the very differently evolved political anti-Semitism. If trying to explain contemporary prejudices and perception of Jewry, political anti-Semitism should be as important a factor as the theological one. The causal explanatory models discussed here are models which use statistical methods to analyze the contribution of different sources onto a final phenomena, in this case anti-Semitism. Since the existing models reviewed (including cognitive models) do not contain the political factor, the most relevant model is modified to accommodate political anti-Semitism into it's structure. The statistical analysis is based on a previously done, large Hungarian empirical survey project of anti-Semitism. The study concludes, that models including both source of anti-Jewish sentiments are superior in explaining contemporary anti-Semitism. The author has a background in cognitive and social psychology, but also learned Jewish studies at the U.S. accredited Central European University, Budapest.