The term “antisemitism” is anesthetized, imprecise, and historically obtuse jargon that is meant to obscure evil beliefs. Regrettably, I’ve been using the term to describe hatred toward Jews for decades.

For one thing, the term was coined by Jew-baiting German journalist Wilhelm Marr in 1879 to give the age-old bigotry a modern pseudoscientific framing. Outbursts of violence and discrimination against Jews were nothing new in Europe, but Marr, an atheist and socialist, wanted a systematic philosophy to sustain the antipathy.