Anti-Semitism: How Bad Is It?

First things first. Deborah E. Lipstadt's spelling of the subject of her new book is a matter of debate. Her subject is "antisemitism," de-hyphenated and consigned to the lower case. Marc Weitzmann, whose reporting is on a specific instance of the phenomenon, sticks with the more widely used "anti-Semitism" (as does Moment). The seemingly trivial discrepancy actually hides broader disputes.

Lipstadt argues that the conventional spelling falsely implies there is something called Semitism and gives rise to the mischievous claim by speakers of Semitic languages that they are incapable of being against themselves. Given the term's coinage by a 19th-century German Jew-hater, she takes the further step of denying it the dignity of capital letters. Weitzmann, whose spelling is more conventional, has written an unconventional work, a blend of family history, national history and police reporting to explore the subject in his native France.