The Man in Seat 22A: True Stories of the great Rabbis who Changed the Course of Jewish History from the Time of King David to the Birth of the Jewish Nation

"There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king's laws; therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them." (Esther 3:8)

This is Haman in the 4th century B.C.E., petitioning the king of Persia for agency to kill all the Jews in the land. The story is emblematic of the irrational and virulent anti-Semitism which came before and presaged the future: kill...