#and unfortunately see how this projection of internal guilt onto the Other is ongoing today

[ziskeyt]

When I wrote my thesis a few years back I read this article/book chapter that I found useful for the discussion of the ways that blaming Jews turns into caricatures of Jews which in turn became character tropes and narrative turns that we can find in literature, specifically children's fantasy per the scope of my research. Over the past number of months I keep thinking about this one piece specifically, and how I think it would be good for more people to read it.

The Ritual Murder or Blood Libel Legend: A Study of Anti-Semitic Victimization through Projective Inversion by Alan Dundes, edited by Simon J. Bronner. JSTOR stable link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctt4cgrzn.24.pdf It's openly available, you do not need institution access to be able to view it, please do give it a read.

It's a discussion about the blood libel legend, where it comes from, why it proliferates, and why Christians are so obsessed with it. I found it to be a really well argued take on the idea of projecting internal guilt onto the other and how that is a large aspect of the longevity of this particular antisemitic legend. Given what we've seen in the past four months, there is room to discuss the way that this idea of projective inversion is very relevant today.

I am a scholar in literary antisemitism, not in politics, not in war, not in human rights. I am looking at what is happening online and in leftist spaces from the view of someone who spent years studying antisemitic rhetoric.