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+========== PAGE 1 ==========
+
+KARMELA LIEBKIND
+
+Antisemitism
+
+A Multi-disciplinary Perspective on a Demonology
+
+with Variations
+
+doi.org/10.30664/ar.163571
+
+he aim of this article is to synthesize exist-
+‘Ti knowledge in a novel way by looking
+
+through a social psychological lens at his-
+torical manifestations of antisemitism and its
+most recent variant, presented as a case study
+which tracks its development and compares it
+with the core demonology of antisemitism. By
+reviewing literature representing many differ-
+ent disciplines, focusing particularly on history,
+theology and social psychology, the article aims
+to bridge disciplinary gaps, making social psy-
+chological insights on inter-group relations and
+social identities accessible to scholars in other
+fields and thus foster a cross-disciplinary dia-
+logue on antisemitism. Linguistic “innovation”
+has been needed whenever an existing variety
+becomes politically incorrect, which, on the indi-
+vidual level, may give rise to a denial that the new
+variety is antisemitism. It is concluded that com-
+pared to other racisms applied research is still
+needed to fill the existing lacuna to find remedies
+for antisemitism.
+
+Introduction
+
+Antisemitism is a deeply rooted preju-
+dice. Its manifestations have changed over
+thousands of years; they include medieval
+accusations such as the blood libel, which
+falsely claimed that Jews used Christian
+blood in religious rituals (e.g. Teter 2023)
+and modern conspiracies alleging Jewish
+control over global affairs (e.g. Czimbalmos
+2025), often linked to the State of Israel
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+©)@ Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
+
+\| VERTAISARVIOITU
+~ KOLLEGIALT GRANSKAD
+wy. PEER-REVIEWED
+
+www.tsv.fi/tunnus
+
+(e.g. Herf 2024). Antisemitic tropes rely
+on conspiratorial thinking, a feature which
+differentiates antisemitism from racism
+(e.g. Stégner 2025). Contemporary vari-
+ants of antisemitism can be classified into
+three main forms: Rightist, Leftist and
+Islamist (Herf 2024). The common factor
+is that Jews are portrayed as a threat that
+fuels cognitive, emotional and behavioural
+responses that constitute antisemitism.
+
+The aim of this article is to synthe-
+size existing knowledge in a novel way. By
+revisiting some definitions and historical
+manifestations of antisemitism through a
+social psychological lens, the article aims
+to bridge disciplinary gaps. Integrating a
+social-psychological perspective on inter-
+group relations with broader multi-disci-
+plinary work, focusing on how Jews and
+Judaism have been imagined in inter-group
+prejudice as opposed to how Jews have
+defined their own identity, this article also
+aims to make social psychological insights
+accessible to scholars in other fields, thus
+fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue and
+understanding of antisemitism.
+
+Some basic concepts and tenets of the
+social psychology of inter-group relations
+and social identity need to be addressed
+
+56
+
+
+========== PAGE 2 ==========
+
+in the introduction. Next, the basics of the
+social psychology of inter-group relations
+and social identities, ie. the “lens” through
+which this literature review is perceived, is
+briefly described. This is followed by a sec-
+tion discussing how to define and iden-
+tify antisemitism, while the next section
+addresses the historical roots, transforma-
+tions and core demonology of antisemitism
+as well as the role of academia in decisive
+junctions of those transformations. The
+largest section is a case study of the devel-
+opment of the latest variety of antisemitism
+and its connection to the core demonol-
+ogy of antisemitism. Before the conclusion
+drawn from all previous sections, a sepa-
+rate section discusses the consequences
+of the failed identity negotiations of Jews
+with other groups and the need for more
+research on all kinds of contemporary anti-
+semitism and on ways to curb the accelerat-
+ing increase of this hatred.
+
+On the social psychology of inter-group
+relations and social identities
+
+Intergroup behaviour occurs when individu-
+als are motivated by a salient social or collec-
+tive identity, that is, a heightened awareness
+of characteristics shared with an ingroup,
+a “we” group. This salient social iden-
+tity makes us look at ourselves and others,
+from both “we” and “they” groups, through
+that group lens and behave towards them
+accordingly. This is the basic tenet of both
+Social Categorization Theory (SCT, Turner
+et al. 1987) and Social Identity Theory (SIT,
+Tajfel and Turner, 1986). The degree of
+identification with our ingroup, but even
+more the subjective content and mean-
+ing of the salient social identity (the group
+lens) influences our intergroup attitudes, ie.
+our beliefs about, emotions and behaviour
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+towards a particular outgroup, in this case,
+the Jews, however that group is defined or
+defines itself. Prejudice is a negative attitude
+characterized by negative emotions which
+sparks negative behaviour whenever behav-
+iour follows. However, inter-group emotions
+and behaviour vary, the latter ranging from
+discrimination, confrontation/attack, avoid-
+ance and exclusion to repair of past wrongs
+or actions of support (Helkama et al. 2017;
+Mackie et al. 2016).
+
+In interpersonal behaviour, in turn, our
+personal identity is the most salient one. At
+the personal extreme of the salience con-
+tinuum Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
+are the iconic example of two individuals
+who defy the social identity they have as
+members of two warring families to enable
+their interaction as individuals only. The
+social extreme of that continuum can be
+illustrated by two enemies in combat who
+are expected to defy their own (and their
+enemies’) personal identity and thus act
+solely as soldiers fighting for their country.
+However, behaviour is seldom this “pure’,
+but rather the result of a mixture, salience
+leaning slightly towards one or the other
+end of the continuum.
+
+What is often ignored, however, is that
+everyone has more than one social iden-
+tity, creating intersecting social identities
+which are not just the sum of their parts.
+In addition, considering intergroup rela-
+tions between unequal groups such as
+minorities and majorities also disadvan-
+tage and inequality need to be addressed.
+Intersectionality Theory started with soci-
+ological research on the disadvantaged
+situation of Black women in the USA, ice.
+the intersection of class, race and gender
+1989) and
+ity research is still mostly sociological,
+
+(Crenshaw intersectional-
+
+5/
+
+
+========== PAGE 3 ==========
+
+focusing on social structures. However,
+the focus in social psychology is on the
+complexity of multiple, intersecting group
+memberships which shape each other.
+
+The political scientist and Associate
+Professor in Law David Schraub (2019)
+notes that intersectional studies rarely
+subjects, despite
+the framework’s potential to illuminate
+
+engage with Jewish
+
+Jewish experiences of marginalization. He
+attributes this absence to the widespread
+conflation of Jewishness with Whiteness,
+which leads scholars to overlook antisem-
+itism as a form of oppression (see also
+the section on the cultural roots and core
+demonology of antisemitism). Schraub
+calls for a more nuanced intersectional
+approach that recognizes Jewish identity as
+complex and distinct, rather than subsum-
+ing it under Whiteness (Schraub 2019).
+The Professor of Sociology Karin Stégner
+noted that antisemitism “does not position
+Jews unambiguously on one or the other
+side of these markers” but is characterized
+by ambivalence with regard to binary clas-
+sifications (Stogner 2023, 288), although a
+common tendency over recent decades in
+everyday language as well as in academia is
+to categorize people more or less unambig-
+uously along binary codes (e.g. black-white,
+hetero-lesbian/gay, oppressor-oppressed).
+Two social identities relevant for anti-
+semitism are ethnic identity and cultural
+identity. The former is in social psychol-
+ogy anchored in the identity process, part
+of one’s total social identity, and defined
+as identification with a group based on
+a belief in common ancestry. This belief
+makes ethnic identity distinct from other
+social identities (Verkuyten 2018). Cultural
+identity is defined in different ways within
+different disciplines, but here it will suffice
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+to note that it is a learnt relationship to the
+physical and social environment of one’s
+childhood and the result of a socialization
+process that anchors an individual to his/
+her environment. Religion is often consid-
+ered a part of culture, but in Jewish identity
+they are often separated. As culture is trans-
+mitted from early childhood on within the
+family it is partly subconscious. In addi-
+tion, culture changes with time, both his-
+torically and within an individual's lifetime.
+The subjective content and meaning of cul-
+ture vary between individuals within the
+same cultural group.
+
+Increasing the complexity of social
+identities, the content and meaning of any
+particular social or collective identity can
+individually be based on different charac-
+teristics. National identities can be based
+on shared culture (language, religion,
+values, norms), geographical anchoring
+(where one lives), and/or ethnicity (belief
+in common ancestry). One specific feature
+of antisemitism is the variety of rationali-
+ties it has applied over time. This is because
+Jewish identity is manifold at its core, a
+combination of religion, ethnicity and
+broader culture—and many other things
+on whose basis a person may call them-
+selves Jewish (e.g. Dencik 2009). At the
+beginning of Jewish history, Jewish culture,
+heritage and religion were very much inter-
+twined. This inherently manifold nature of
+Jewish identity has, unlike with some other
+religious groups, made it possible even for
+atheists to have a strong Jewish identity
+(Dencik 2009, 321), but has also offered
+several different grounds for discrimina-
+tion and persecution of Jews.
+
+An important aspect of the content and
+meaning of any identity, social or personal,
+is that people are not free to choose any
+
+58
+
+
+========== PAGE 4 ==========
+
+identity they want. Social as well as per-
+sonal identities are presented and nego-
+tiated in interaction; self-recognized and
+alter-ascribed ethnic/cultural/religious or
+any other social identities may not match
+(Liebkind 1992; 2006). Our
+are developed, changed, challenged and
+
+identities
+
+defended over time, in interaction with our
+social environment; alter-ascribed identi-
+ties reflected onto us may confirm or coun-
+ter our self-recognized ones. As we need
+positive rather than negative identities,
+we try to reach an agreement with at least
+significant others and groups on who and
+what we are. This poses special challenges
+for minority groups, whose self-recognized
+social identities may not be heard, and the
+alter-ascribed ones be tainted with preju-
+dice (Liebkind 1992; 2006). For example,
+the self-recognized Jewish identity of Soviet
+Jewry was countered when in the pre-1967
+period they began to develop what would
+become a Jewish national movement,
+where Jewish identity included both iden-
+tification with Israel and the pre-existing
+conception of all Jews as a people across
+national borders: According to Gjerde
+(2018), this “went far beyond the limits of
+what Soviet authorities considered accept-
+able Jewish identity” (Gjerde 2018, 280).
+When not conforming to approved Soviet
+Jewish identities, therefore, Jews who sub-
+scribed to national Jewish identities and
+supported Zionism were considered part of
+a vast anti-Soviet conspiracy (Gjerde 2018,
+291).
+
+On defining and identifying antisemitism
+
+While the goal of this article is not to define
+antisemitism, it is necessary to briefly
+reflect on the debate surrounding its defini-
+tion. As Czimbalmos and Pataricza (2024)
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+summarize, like other forms of discrimi-
+nation, antisemitism includes both easily
+recognizable and more subtle expressions
+(Czimbalmos and Pataricza 2024, 15). To
+cover these, several definitions of antisem-
+itism (e.g. the Jerusalem Declaration, the
+Nexus Document) have been proposed.
+Perhaps the most well-known and widely
+recognized is that of the International
+Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)
+from 2016. The IHRA definition serves as
+a guideline and is recommended by the
+European Commission in its 2022 conclu-
+sions on combating racism and antisem-
+itism, as well as in its 2018 declaration on
+countering antisemitism. Nevertheless, it
+is often regarded insufficient for scientific
+analysis (Czimbalmos and Pataricza 2024,
+15-16) and criticized for not providing an
+unchanging essence for all cases of anti-
+semitism. However, the philosopher Eve
+Garrard (2020) maintains that this is irrel-
+evant; there are too many other concepts in
+the same boat for this complaint to count.
+Another putatively moral objection is the
+claim that it represents an attack on the
+freedom of speech of critics of Israel. But
+this is simply not true, as it is full of con-
+ditional verbs: something “may’, “could” or
+“might” be antisemitic, but need not be. The
+only view which this definition threatens is
+that criticism of Israel can never, in any cir-
+cumstances, be antisemitic. Although this
+is not even remotely plausible, some crit-
+ics of the IHRA definition seem to find it
+attractive (Garrard 2020).
+
+Often used in research is Helen Fein’s
+definition of antisemitism as:
+
+a persisting latent structure of hos-
+
+tile beliefs towards Jews as a collective
+manifested in individuals as attitudes,
+
+59
+
+
+========== PAGE 5 ==========
+
+and in culture as myth, ideology, folk-
+lore and imagery, and in actions—
+social or legal discrimination, politi-
+cal mobilization against the Jews, and
+collective or state violence—which
+results in and/or is designed to dis-
+tance, displace, or destroy Jews as
+Jews. (Fein 1987, 67)
+
+Fein’s definition includes also a cultural level
+of antisemitism. As culture, often considered
+to include religion, is transmitted in early
+childhood, it becomes a part of our person-
+ality, and we may be unaware of it. The neg-
+ative, culturally transmitted alter-ascribed
+Jewish identity is very different from how
+Jews have perceived themselves over time.
+The Professor of Psychology Gordon Allport
+explained the persistence of most prejudice,
+relevant also for the stereotypical “imag-
+ined Jew”: “defeated intellectually, prejudice
+lingers emotionally” (Allport 1951, 328).
+Brekke (2021) notes that cultural models
+or schemas are widely shared but unavail-
+able to the cultural insider because they are
+taken for granted. Culturally acquired prej-
+udice, like antisemitism, influences individ-
+uals’ attitudes involuntarily. When normal-
+ized, such prejudice becomes structural, i.e.
+institutionalized (Johnson 2019). Thus, it is
+at the individual level mostly implicit, ice.
+invisible to the prejudiced (Greenwald and
+Banaji 2017).
+
+This concerns also antisemitism; on
+the basis of original material of that time,
+Gjerde (2018) claimed that most of the
+Soviet elite from 1967 onwards were “true
+believers” in conspiracy theories concern-
+ing Soviet Jews and thus may not have been
+aware of the antisemitism in their increas-
+ing antizionist rhetoric (Gjerde 2018, 291).
+The British researcher of antisemitism
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+Dave Rich has described how this unaware-
+ness is manifested:
+
+people who fall for antisemitic myths
+and conspiracies and stereotypes, who
+follow these built-in ideas about Jews,
+they are like hikers following a trail
+across an unfamiliar landscape who
+just instinctively follow the path trod-
+den into the Earth by countless people
+before them in times long forgotten
+[...] because these ideas [...] are deeply
+embedded in the mainstream of our
+culture. (Rich 2023)
+
+Regardless of what definition is employed,
+antisemitism offers Jews a negative alter-
+ascribed identity contradicting the self-
+recognized one. It manifests itself, like any
+prejudice, as negative stereotypes (gener-
+alizing beliefs) of Jews, emotions ranging
+from mild disapproval to passionate hatred
+triggered by stereotypes/beliefs
+and concomitant behavioural tendencies
+(Helkama et al. 2017).
+
+Although sharing features with racism,
+
+those
+
+antisemitism is also a form of xenopho-
+bia and has been perceived as the proto-
+type of conspiracy theories (Volli 2016;
+Czimbalmos and Pataricza 2024). The dif-
+ference between the classical concept of
+racism and antisemitism has been aptly
+illustrated by the Marxist sociologist Oliver
+Cromwell Cox:
+
+Antisemitism is an attitude directed at
+the Jews because they are Jews, while
+race prejudice is an attitude directed at
+the Negroes! because they want to be
+
+1 I recognize that the term “Negro” as used
+in historical texts like Cox’s is outdated and
+
+60
+
+
+========== PAGE 6 ==========
+
+something other than Negroes. A Jew,
+to the intolerant, is an enemy within
+society; but the Negro, to the race-prej-
+udiced, is a friend in his place. [...] the
+one condition of peace between Jews
+and Gentiles is that the Jews cease to
+be Jews. (Cox [1948]1959, 393, 395)
+
+Rather than perceiving Jews as merely infe-
+rior, antisemitism depicts Jews as an all-
+powerful collective, threatening non-Jews
+by aiming to harm them (Harrison 2019;
+Julius 2024). This has also been highlighted
+by Schraub (2019), as discussed in the sec-
+tion on the social psychology of intergroup
+relations and social identities.
+
+Despite the complexity of many key
+terms, definitions are still important as
+both conceptual under-specification and
+conceptual expansion are endemic. It is dif-
+ficult to observe, for example, if antisem-
+itism or ethnic identity is incompatible with
+observed variability without at least some
+idea about what antisemitism, ethnicity
+and identity are all about. Fragmentation
+and change can be understood only when
+it is clear what is fragmented and subject to
+change (Verkuyten 2018).
+
+The cultural roots of much of the world’s
+antisemitism and its core demonology
+Owing to its ever-changing nature, anti-
+semitism cannot be understood without
+tracing its origins in history. In Europe
+
+carries problematic connotations rooted
+in racial hierarchies and colonial legacies.
+While engaging with such language criti-
+cally is important for understanding the
+context in which it was written, it is equally
+necessary to acknowledge its offensive
+nature and avoid its use in contemporary
+discourse.
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+and in a large part of the world, a system
+of antisemitic traditions has since antiquity
+been used to identify the Jewish “Other”.
+According to a number of scholars (e.g.
+Mayerhofer and Lange 2021; Rutgers 2021;
+Teter 2023), Jew-hatred also significantly
+served the construction of a Christian
+identity. Although anti-Judaism was not
+born with Christianity, Christianity was
+born as a negation of Judaism, and was,
+like Islam, formed over several hundred
+years as emerging groups breaking with
+their parent religion(s) (Rutgers 2021, 34).
+Naturally, there are geographic and cul-
+tural-historical differences in antisemitism,
+e.g. in the “Muslim world” and in Christian
+majority societies, although commonalities
+also exist (Herf 2024).
+
+From a social-psychological perspec-
+tive, what all emerging groups have in
+common is the need to recruit new mem-
+bers. Consequently, they need to stand out
+in a positive way compared to their parent
+group(s), that is, they need to acquire so-
+called positive distinctiveness (e.g. Castelli
+and Carraro 2010). A strategy often used
+for that purpose is to engage in active inter-
+group comparison and depict the new ide-
+ology, in this case Christianity or Islam,
+as superior to the old one(s). Describing
+the Old Testament Divinity as unforgiv-
+ing, vengeful and bloodthirsty compared
+to the Christian one is one example. This
+alter-ascribed characterization of Judaism
+emerged in the long, successful process of
+acquiring a positively distinct Christian
+identity. Through missionary work Chris-
+tianity and Islam became majorities, while
+Judaism remained a minority, also because
+the new religions, when in power, forbid
+Jews to proselytize. The conception of the
+superiority of Christianity culminated in
+
+6]
+
+
+========== PAGE 7 ==========
+
+Christian supersessionism, i.e. the idea that
+Christianity would finally replace Judaism.
+
+The social psychological notion of the
+need for early Christianity to acquire posi-
+tive distinctiveness is entirely theoretical.
+However, it is independently corroborated
+by original sources, although not all histo-
+rians may agree with their interpretation.
+Professor Leonard Rutgers (2021) noted
+that:
+
+Early Christian texts dealing with
+the Jews are often not about the Jews
+at all but about Christians in search
+of their own distinct identity [...]
+Having begun its life as an offspring
+of Judaism and as a Jewish sect, early
+Christianity was facing a set of major,
+almost unsurmountable challenges
+when it came to delineate its self-iden-
+tity. [...] Clearly etched boundaries
+became crucially important. Christian
+theologians needed to succeed in
+highlighting the fact that Christianity
+was something altogether different
+and new. [...] [As] they tried to sever
+all ties from the Jewish past that had
+produced them [...] [they] could do
+little but engage in a considerable
+amount of negative identity-forma-
+tion. Judaism ended up at the receiv-
+ing end of the hostile rhetoric that this
+process of dissociation, separation,
+and identity formation entailed and
+engendered. (Rutgers 2021, 34)
+
+Another historian, Professor Magda Teter
+(2023), depicts the content of the Christian
+“group lens” on Jews by showing how
+Christian theology of late Antiquity cast
+Jews as “children born to slavery’, and
+how their supposed theological inferiority
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+became inscribed into law, institutional-
+izing a sense of Christian domination and
+superiority. Teter (2023) found that, in Etsi
+Judeos of Pope Innocent III (1205), Jews
+were not allowed to have Christian serv-
+ants, because they “shall recognize them-
+selves as slaves to those whom Christ’s
+death set free. In Cum Nimis Absurdum
+(1555) of Pope Paul IV, Jews were forbid-
+den to live as neighbours to Christians or
+churches, because “Jews, whose own guilt
+has consigned them to perpetual servi-
+tude” should, “as long as they persist in
+
+>
+
+their errors’, “recognize through experi-
+ence that they have become slaves while
+Christians have been made free through
+Jesus Christ”. Jews were supposed to aban-
+don their religious identity and cease to
+exist as Jews. Interestingly, Teter shows that
+the first racist laws which were introduced
+in Virginia, USA, in “An Act concerning
+Servants and Slaves” (Section XI) in 1705
+largely mirrored the anti-Jewish laws that
+had existed for centuries.
+
+Although “antisemitism has taken on
+radically different forms and supposed
+‘rationales’ in different cultures at different
+times” (Johnson 2019, 17), research shows
+that the core of antisemitism is rooted in
+Christian theology (Brekke 2021). Many
+scholars have formulated the essence
+of antisemitic myths and _ stereotypes.
+According to Professor of Law Anthony
+Julius (2024), for example, all versions
+of antisemitism libel Jews, as libels “are
+damaging to the good name of the Jewish
+people” (Julius 2024, 11). Julius lists five
+libels as the essence of antisemitism:
+
+The blood libel supposes that Jews enter-
+tain homicidal intentions towards non-Jews
+(and specifically, non-Jewish children), and
+commit acts of murder, either in re-enact-
+
+62
+
+
+========== PAGE 8 ==========
+
+ment of the Crucifixion, or to avenge their
+continuing, collective punishment for that
+cosmic crime.
+
+¢ The economic libel supposes that Jews,
+who are self-interested, materialist, acquis-
+itive and unproductive by nature, exploit
+non-Jews when they can, and seek monop-
+oly power, the better to pursue their greater
+objectives.
+
+¢ The conspiracy libel supposes that Jews
+act in concert, in secret pursuit of goals
+inimical to the interests of non-Jews. That
+is: Jews conspire with other Jews.
+
+¢ The silencing libel supposes that Jews
+cannot tolerate truth-tellers; they fear expo-
+sure of their plots. They conspire together
+to silence their virtuous enemies.
+
+¢ The mendacity libel supposes that Jews
+proceed by deception and other forms of
+deceit. That is: Jews lie to non-Jews. (Julius
+2024, 10-1)
+
+The mendacity libel has two variants,
+Holocaust denial and Weaponization of
+Antisemitism; Julius is most concerned
+about the latter, as it claims that:
+
+the Jews deploy such evidence of anti-
+semitism as may exist for an ulte-
+rior, improper purpose, (a) to deflect
+attention, or otherwise excuse, Israel’s
+and/or (b) to
+antizionists into silence, or to dis-
+
+crimes, intimidate
+credit them. They typically overstate
+the level or seriousness of antisem-
+itism, and their own concern about it.
+(Julius 2024, 142)
+
+Julius finds that libel bizarre, as “it would
+not be difficult to identify the racism, say,
+in equivalent claims about other minority
+groups” (Julius 2024, 142). Schraub (2022)
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+broadens the mendacity libel into general
+untrustworthyness, calling it epistemic
+antisemitism, which “injures, wrongs, or
+marginalizes Jews in their capacities as
+knowers—testifiers, communicators, expo-
+nents or purveyors of knowledge” (Schraub
+2022, 153). The long-time socialist, politi-
+cal scientist and journalist Alan Johnson
+(2019), in turn, compares antisemitism to
+a piano: its core demonology—the key ste-
+reotypes and myths describing the imag-
+ined Jew—are the unchanging keys, while
+the variations across time are the melodies
+played on those keys, each telling “a differ-
+ent story about the alien, powerful, malev-
+olent and tricksy Jew” (Johnson 2019, 17).
+Although delusional, this core demonol-
+ogy shaped European Christianity in the
+Middle Ages even without Jews (Julius
+2010). The “composers” and “pianists” of
+the variants—religions, ideologies, move-
+ments and their leaders—have adapted it
+to fit their norms. Older forms exist along-
+side new ones. Jews have been accused of
+being god-killers, arch-capitalist exploit-
+ers, revolutionary communists, too tribal
+and too rootless, too poor and too rich, etc.
+(Johnson 2019), while the core demonol-
+ogy has remained unchanged.
+
+An important shift occurred when the
+anti-Judaism became politically incorrect
+in the nineteenth century and was replaced
+with the more socially acceptable term
+antisemitism. In the seventeenth and eight-
+eenth centuries new ideas emerged, empha-
+sizing equality between citizens (Michman
+2023), which clashed with earlier notions of
+hierarchy between human groups. To deny
+equality to those deemed inferior, new
+ingroups and outgroups were needed. Jews
+were no longer compared with Christians,
+but, for example, with French or Germans
+
+63
+
+
+========== PAGE 9 ==========
+
+(Michman 2023). The aim was to show that
+they did not deserve equality, and if they
+enjoyed it, it had been “stolen” or was oth-
+erwise undeserved (Teter 2023).
+
+A primary example of how academia
+has rehabilitated Jew-hatred is the concept
+of the Aryan “race”, which emerged in sci-
+ence in the nineteenth century through
+misuse of the word Aryan. This word had
+referred only to Aryan (i.e. Indo-European)
+languages until Arthur de Gobineau (1853),
+called the father of racist ideology, started
+to misuse it to denote race. This allowed
+Jews to be classified as “Semites”. The term
+antisemitism improved the reputation of
+Jew-hatred because the prefix “anti-“ and
+the word “semitic” made it sound more
+
+«
+
+scientific and the “-ism” transformed it
+to an acceptable ideology among others
+(Michman 2023).
+
+Jew-hatred was thus rehabilitated simply
+by changing the language used to talk
+about it. However, the many dimensions
+of Jewish identity still posed a problem;
+even if Jews were in secular societies given
+a chance to emancipate without explicitly
+renouncing their Judaism, this applied only
+on an individual basis; what they had to
+abandon was their view of themselves as a
+people (Lappin 2019), ie. their ethnic iden-
+tity. Viewing the Jewish people as an illicit
+nation is deeply ingrained in both religious
+and secular European culture. Secular anti-
+semitism in Europe on both the Left and
+the Right mirrored for centuries before the
+Second World War the Christian superses-
+sionism in the view that:
+
+Jews are an illicit collectivity lacking
+any independent legitimacy. Its mem-
+bers need to be repaired and reconfig-
+
+ured. The intended result of each reply
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+[to the Jewish question] is to find an
+acceptable way of eliminating this col-
+lectivity. In the case of the right, this
+was to be through expulsion and, ulti-
+mately, physical annihilation. For the
+left, and some liberals, it would be
+achieved through a forced or a natural
+process of assimilation. (Lappin 2019,
+33)
+
+Currently, “a large part of the contempo-
+rary European left has inherited the lib-
+eral and revolutionary antipathy towards
+a Jewish collectivity, with Israel becoming
+the focus of this attitude” and, as a result,
+“a Jewish country is treated as an illegiti-
+mate entity not worthy of a people whose
+history should have taught them the folly
+of nationalism” (Lappin 2003, 23). This was
+the basis for one decisive event in the con-
+stant development of new variants of anti-
+semitism: the 2001 UN “World Conference
+against Racism”. At Durban, “the 1970s
+‘Zionism=Racism culture returned” (Hirsh
+and Miller 2022, abstract) and has grown
+ever since (see also the section on the
+cultural roots and core demonology of
+antisemitism).
+
+Western academia participates again,
+knowingly or not, in rehabilitating anti-
+semitism by using buzzwords aimed at pro-
+jecting, without proof of the validity of the
+claims, all the evil perceived to character-
+ize (the imagined) Judaism and Jews on
+Zionism and Zionists (see also the sections
+on the cultural roots and core demonology
+of antisemitism and the case study). For
+example, in Whiteness studies: “the color
+line is introduced into conflicts which have
+nothing to do neither with the American
+race relations, nor with a European type
+of colonialism” (Berkovits 2018, 88). Using
+
+64
+
+
+========== PAGE 10 ==========
+
+this frame, anti-racist ideology depicts Jews
+as “super-White’, thereby strengthening
+age-old antisemitic myths (Schraub 2019):
+
+Whiteness as a lens of analysis is
+designed to elevate or accentuate cer-
+tain aspects of experience that might
+otherwise go unnoticed [...] [T]he
+prevailing view of Jews—the view
+that subordinates Jews—is precisely
+that they are “particularly powerful,
+or privileged, or influential”. And so,
+when the Whiteness frame—which by
+design draws attention to these attrib-
+utes—is overlaid upon the White Jew
+(as a body or a concept), it serves not
+as a counterweight but as an accelerant.
+The hope in applying the Whiteness
+frame to a gentile White is to unsettle
+received understandings of the White
+experience—to make people see things
+they had not seen before. By contrast,
+the effect of applying Whiteness to
+Jewishness is confirmatory: “I always
+thought that Jews had all this power
+and privilege—and see how right I
+was!” (Schraub 2019, 393)
+
+Research on contemporary antisemitism
+faces an obstacle not encountered by
+research on earlier forms: as intergroup
+attitudes are sensitive to social norms,
+socially unacceptable ones may become
+implicit. When the “outgroup lens” on
+Jews, i.e. the content and meaning of their
+alter-ascribed identity, becomes politically
+incorrect, some new content needs to be
+created. Accordingly, antisemitism mutates
+to overcome negative connotations of ear-
+lier versions. Any new version of antisem-
+itism acquires by definition the status of
+being politically correct, thereby denying it
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+is a form of anti-Judaism. The newest vari-
+ant is discussed below.
+
+The most recent variant of antisemitism—
+
+a case study
+
+As Jew-hatred had lost its respectability
+after the Holocaust, the time was again ripe
+for its rehabilitation. Izabella Tabarovsky
+(2022), herself born in the Soviet Union
+and a researcher specialized in the history
+of Russia, characterizes the antizionism
+which was created there after the Second
+World War as grounded in antisemitic con-
+spiracy theory because it included the core
+demonology of antisemitism. Although
+another historian, Asmund Borgen Gjerde
+(2018), maintains that the antizionism of
+the Soviet elite at the time was not a con-
+scious strategy to conceal antisemitism,
+as conspiracist thinking was common in
+Soviet politics, he does not deny its anti-
+semitism or consequences:
+
+If an antisemite sincerely believes Jews
+conspire against everything that is
+good in the world, this obviously does
+not make her or him any less antise-
+mitic than if she or he merely fabri-
+cates such charges, knowing them to
+be false [...]. For it remains true that
+these attacks were directed at any Jew
+who expressed a commitment to any
+form of Jewish identity beyond an
+absolute minimum tolerated by Soviet
+authorities; and it remains true that
+these attacks often echoed ideas that
+had previously been used to justify
+violence against Jews. (Gjerde 2018,
+292)
+
+Lenin himself condemned antisemitism,
+denouncing it as fascist, but under Stalin a
+
+65
+
+
+========== PAGE 11 ==========
+
+new linguistic shape, a “permission struc-
+ture for antisemitism” as the Professor of
+Literature Dara Horn (2024) has called it,
+was created. Horn used this term primarily
+to explain the soaring statistics of antisem-
+itism after Hamas's brutal attack on Israel
+on 7 October 2023, but she aptly described
+how the core demonology of the imagined
+collective Jew has been maintained through
+all the variations:
+
+This is the permission structure for
+antisemitism [...] announce a “uni-
+versal” ideal that all good people must
+accept and then redefine Jewish col-
+lective identity as lying beyond it.
+Hating Jews thus becomes a demon-
+stration of righteousness. The key is
+to define, and redefine, and redefine
+again, the shiny new moral reasoning
+for why the Jews have failed the uni-
+versal test of humanity. (Horn 2024)
+
+The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawn
+identified the new shapeshift in the Soviet
+Union when noting that antisemitism was
+“tolerated and sometimes encouraged [...]
+albeit now dressed up as anti-Zionism” and
+that antisemitism manifested itself after the
+establishment of the Jewish state “under the
+disguise of antizionism” (Hobsbawn 1980,
+502, 504).
+
+Soviet antizionist propaganda had
+right-wing antisemitic roots and was pro-
+duced, translated to many languages and
+disseminated to many countries from
+roughly 1967 to 1988 (Tabarovsky, 2022).
+This propaganda proclaimed, without evi-
+dence, that Zionism is Nazism, racism,
+apartheid, colonialism and _ genocide.
+So-called “Zionologists” were employed
+
+at the Soviet Academy of Sciences for the
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+purpose of producing that propaganda.
+The renowned Professor of History Robert
+Wistrich (2012) noted the crucial role of
+Soviet academics:
+
+a wide variety of classic anti-Jewish
+motifs became virtually obligatory
+in so-called academic Soviet publi-
+cations. Ostensibly concerned with
+Zionism, these writings insistently
+slandered Judaism as a creed that calls
+for genocide and the enslavement of
+non-Jews [...] Ultimately, this ideol-
+ogy [Zionism] was founded to jus-
+tify the “extermination” of Palestinian
+Arabs. (Wistrich 2012, 435)
+
+Wistrich saw the development of antise-
+mitic antizionism in the Soviet Union as an
+effort to explain away the defeat of the Arab
+allies 1967:
+
+Already in the summer of 1967 the
+Soviet media began to denounce
+Israel’s so called genocide against the
+Palestinian people. Within days of the
+Israeli victory, the Soviet press would
+brand Israeli Defense Minister Moshe
+Dayan as a “pupil of Hitler” and exe-
+crate world Zionism as a racialist,
+criminal conspiracy [...] The tone
+had been set for what would become
+a veritable tsunami of articles, lec-
+tures, broadcasts and films vilifying
+Judaism, Zionism and Israel in the
+Soviet mass media. The only compara-
+ble analogy would be the monstruous
+specter of Das Weltjudentum in Nazi
+propaganda of the 1930s and 1940’s—
+this time with the roles reversed.
+In place of the relentless Nazi myth
+about “Jewish Bolshevism’, the Soviet
+
+66
+
+
+========== PAGE 12 ==========
+
+Communists began to fabricate the
+equally mendacious “Jewish Nazism”.
+(Wistrich 2012, 433)
+
+Tabarovsky (2022) notes that Zionism and
+Zionists were demonized with the same
+core demonology with which Judaism
+and Jews had been depicted by the forged
+Protocols of the Elders of Zion and by the
+Nazis, creating an imagined Zionism which
+to a large extent was based on old antise-
+mitic myths. One pertinent example is
+from an antisemitism trial in Paris in 1973,
+where the defence quoted a right-wing
+author, who had:
+
+borrowed entire passages—typos
+included—from a 1906 pamphlet
+called The Jewish Question [...] or
+the Impossibility of Granting Full
+Rights to Jews, authored by S. Rossov,
+a member of the ultra-nationalist,
+antisemitic Black Hundreds move-
+ment which incited pogroms in pre-
+revolutionary Russia. The only dif-
+ference [...] was that whenever the
+former [Rossov] used the word “Jew’,
+the [1972 publication] used the word
+“Zionist”. (Tabarovsky 2022, 4)
+
+Discussing the link between antisemitic
+antizionism and the legacy of classical
+right-wing antisemitism in Russia, Wistrich
+(2012, 434) noted that in Soviet propa-
+ganda the virulent antisemitism of the
+Russian masses in older times was depicted
+as an understandable reaction to the eco-
+nomic exploitation by Jews. Even “the
+monarchist pogromchiks who had mobi-
+lized the ultra-reactionary Black Hundreds
+around 1905 in defense of Tsarism, were
+now being rehabilitated as precursors of a
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+new and better socialist world” (Wistrich
+2012, 434). Soviet mass media “openly
+embraced the language of the Protocols
+and did not shrink from Sturmer-like car-
+icatures which had acquired free reign
+since 1967” (Wistrich, 2012, 438). Wistrich
+(2012) noted also the journal published by
+the Russian Embassy in Paris 1972 which:
+
+contained extracts from a pamphlet
+originally published seventy years ear-
+lier by the antisemitic “Alliance of the
+Russian People”. The only significant
+divergence in the modernized Soviet
+version of Black Hundred antisem-
+itism was the substitution of the code-
+word “Zionist” for “Jew”. The article
+consisted of largely fabricated quota-
+tions from Jewish religious writings.
+(Wistrich 2012, 434-35)
+
+This pamphlet was what the defence
+had used in the Paris trial in 1973 when
+the French Communist publisher of the
+Embassy was found guilty of discrimina-
+tion, hatred and racial violence (Wistrich
+2012, 435).
+
+The transfer of the core demonology of
+antisemitism to antizionism can be exem-
+plified by a typical Nazi imagery of the Jew,
+an enormous spider with a star of David
+on his military hat, threatening innocent
+Soviet children beneath it (cf. Fig. 1). Even
+as it was endlessly repeated that this was
+not antisemitism, Soviet Jews were mer-
+cilessly persecuted (Tabarovsky 2022).
+Regrettably, however, also “contemporary
+left-wing antizionist discourse reproduces
+with stunning fidelity some of the central
+tropes of Soviet antizionist propaganda,
+which demonized Israel and Zionism”
+(Tabarovsky 2022, abstract).
+
+67
+
+
+========== PAGE 13 ==========
+
+Figure 1. The text on the spider's web reads “Zionism is a weapon for imperialism”. The image was
+taken at the parade on 1 May 1972 in Moscow by Vladimir Sichov. Image source: Huttunen 2019.
+Image: Courtesy Vladimir Sichov, all rights reserved.
+
+This antizionist narrative exempli-
+fies what Deborah Lipstadt (1994) named
+a “soft” form of Holocaust denial, also
+called Holocaust inversion (Klaff 2014).
+Despite Jews clearly qualifying globally
+as a vulnerable minority, constituting 0.2
+per cent of the world’s population, com-
+pared, for example, to Muslims at close to
+30 per cent (Illouz 2025), Holocaust inver-
+sion implies a victim-perpetrator rever-
+sal, where Israel is perceived as just as
+bad as the Nazis and denied any victim-
+hood while the Palestinians are the epito-
+mized victims. As the senior researcher at
+the Norwegian Centre for Holocaust and
+Minority Studies Vibeke Moe (2025, 10)
+has noted, most Jews in Europe and schol-
+ars of antisemitism perceive similar anal-
+ogies in connection with descriptions of
+Israel as expressions of Holocaust distor-
+tion and antisemitism.
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+The Professor of Social Psychology
+Michael Billig (1987) studied the discourse
+of the British far left in the late 1970s and
+early 1980s from a social psychological per-
+spective. He noted that this narrative was
+“typical of the way the revolutionary left in
+general” wrote about Zionism:
+
+Thus, comments about “genocidal
+suppression of Palestinians” and of
+the “Hitlerite policies of the Israeli
+Zionists” exemplify a more general
+trend in which the language used to
+describe Nazi crimes against Jews is
+now appropriated to describe Zionism.
+This is part of a general ideological
+process that is equating Zionism with
+Nazism. (Billig 1987, 125)
+
+Billig found in these left-wing publications
+“themes that suggest that Jews are forever
+
+68
+
+
+========== PAGE 14 ==========
+
+complaining about non-existent persecu-
+tions” and “as with right-wing antisem-
+itism, these themes are formulated against
+a background that assumes that the world
+would be a better place if the Jew were
+made impossible” (Billig 1987, 129). The
+historian Henrik Bachner (1999) found
+similar material in Sweden, noting that “the
+motif of ‘the Jew as Nazist and racist was
+linked to and co-existed with more tradi-
+tional perceptions of Jewish vengefulness,
+‘Old Testament’ cruelty and the ‘chosen
+people’ evil, murderousness, and dreams
+of domination and supremacy” (Bachner
+1999, 473).
+
+The Marxist Professor of History
+Moishe Postone (2010) disentangled differ-
+ent historical currents of antizionism, some
+virulently antisemitic, others not. The latter
+included Jewish Communists who con-
+sidered “any expression of Jewish iden-
+tity as anathema to their own notions of
+what I would call abstract Enlightenment
+notions of humanity”. Postone noted that
+“Trotsky, in an earlier phase, referred to
+the Bund [the Jewish Socialist Party] as
+
+22
+
+‘sea-sick Zionists”, rejecting any form of
+Jewish communal self-identification. This
+“critique of Zionism [...] had nothing to
+do with Palestine or the situation of the
+Palestinians, since the Bund was focused
+entirely on autonomy within the Russian
+empire and rejected Zionism” Postone
+added, however, that “frequently, this form
+of anti-Zionism is inconsistent—it is will-
+ing to accord national self-determination
+to most peoples, but not to Jews” (Postone
+2010).
+
+Another version, in turn, aimed “to
+eradicate actually existing Jewish self-
+determination. It converges with some
+
+forms of Arab nationalism—now coded
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+as singularly progressive” (Postone 2010).
+Postone calls it “deeply antisemitic’, noting
+that it was “introduced by the Soviet Union,
+particularly in the show trials in Eastern
+Europe after World War Two”. “Because the
+Soviet Union could not officially use the
+language of antisemitism’, he notes, “they
+began to use the word ‘Zionist’ to mean
+exactly what anti-Semites mean when they
+speak of Jews.” Postone was clear about
+the roots of this antisemitic antizionism:
+“The idea that every nation other than the
+Jews should be allowed self-determination
+does come back to the Soviet Union. One
+has only to read Stalin on the nationalities
+question” (Postone 2010).
+
+More recently, the Moroccan-born
+French, Professor of Sociology Eva Illouz
+has found that “two key tropes of tradi-
+tional antisemitism ‘happen’ to be the
+same as the ones bestowed on Zionists and
+Zionism: tentacular destructive power and
+malevolent scheming to evade accountabil-
+ity. These two key antisemitic motifs have
+been cut from antisemitism and pasted
+onto Zionism” (Illouz 2025). In addition,
+she identifies the cultural roots of these
+tropes:
+
+There is a semantic continuity between
+the ways in which Jews were vilified
+in a Christian world which associ-
+ated them with deicide, the spilling
+of Gentile blood—especially children,
+and ritual murder, and the view of
+Israel as uniquely destructive and
+criminal. A secular ideology whose
+aim was to restore dignity and inde-
+pendence to the Jews has been singled
+out as the bearer of a radical guilt and
+evil as no other. No sloganeering will
+manage to hide the obvious: antisem-
+
+69
+
+
+========== PAGE 15 ==========
+
+itism gives anti-Zionism its fuel and
+passion, its semantics and archetypes.
+If ‘woke’ ideology has marked a moral
+progress, it is precisely in making us
+aware that misogyny, homophobia,
+and racism have deep structures. If it
+is true for these, it is no less true of
+antisemitism. (Illouz 2025)
+
+With its roots in the antizionist propaganda
+of the Soviet Union contemporary anti-
+semitism utilizes antisemitism’s culturally
+transmitted core demonology and is now
+so normalized throughout the political
+spectrum that it has become invisible (Herf
+2024). The core demonology of antisem-
+itism in all the “melodies” played on the
+antisemitism “piano” over time can be illus-
+trated by one typical subhuman, i.e. dehu-
+manizing, symbol of the collective Jew,
+the spider (cf. Figs. 2.1-2.4). Antizionism
+becomes antisemitic when the Zionism
+or Zionists it addresses share characteris-
+tics with imagined Judaism or Jews and/or
+when only Jews are denied self-governance
+in a state of their own.
+
+Research confirms that the antisem-
+itism of contemporary antizionist discourse
+demonizes all Jews (e.g. Allington et al.
+2023). Moe (2025) found that high dislike
+of Jews among Norwegians increased from
+4.2 per cent in 2022 to 8.6 per cent in 2024
+(Moe 2025). In addition, she notes that no
+sudden decrease of knowledge of history
+can explain the simultaneous significant
+increase (from 33 per cent in 2022 to 51
+per cent in 2024) in support for the state-
+ment “Israel treats Palestinians as badly as
+the Jews were treated during World War
+ID; and that it rather reflects “a widespread
+Israel-critical opinion and massive media
+coverage of the war in Gaza and suffering
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+of its civilian population’, indicating “a
+lack of understanding of and sensitivity to
+Holocaust distortion, and a public debate in
+which the threshold for making extremely
+negative statements about Israel appears to
+be lower than before” (Moe 2025, 10).
+
+Also ECRI (the European Commission
+against Racism and Intolerance at the
+Council of Europe) has observed that an
+increase of antisemitism in many member
+states “is also characterized by contem-
+porary forms of antisemitism and by the
+spread of antisemitic hatred online” and
+that its “manifestations have also closely
+followed contemporary world develop-
+ments” (European Commission against
+Racism and Intolerance 2021, 3-4).
+
+The Professor of Linguistics Georges-
+Elia Sarfati (2004) noted that this demoni-
+zation has been so often repeated that it
+can be used autonomously, ie. the con-
+tent no longer needs to be verified. Thus,
+one only needs to be, for instance, against
+Nazism (and who is not?) to be an antizion-
+ist. These pseudo-equations and pseudo-
+equivalences justify every initiative hos-
+tile to Zionism, framing it into an act of
+progressiveness and humanism. Ironically,
+Europe supplied all that it now reproaches
+in Zionism: Nazism, totalitarianism, racism
+and colonialism. Linguistically, this is a
+“displacement”, psychologically, it is “pro-
+jection”. Europe's historical traumas are
+redirected towards the only Jewish state.
+Theologically, this recalls the scapegoat
+mechanism; loaded with everybody’s sins
+the scapegoat was expelled (Sarfati 2004).
+
+Research across history, philosophy, the-
+ology, linguistics, semiotics, literature, law,
+political science, sociology, psychology and
+social psychology converges. Empirical evi-
+dence shows that, individually, traditional
+
+70
+
+
+========== PAGE 16 ==========
+
+Figure 2.2. German cartoon, Der Sttirmer, February 1930. Image
+source: the German Propaganda Archive, published with permis-
+
+® Prtitst30 ‘Mamas sion from the page copyright holder Randall Bytwerk. All rights
+- reserved.
+
+Dipdt 1 O. P.M,
+‘, A. naan
+Figure 2.1. Title page from the French ver-
+sion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,
+1921. Image source: Tabarovsky 2019. All
+rights reserved. y \ yo
+| Courtesy of:
+PMW.ORG.IL g, ¢,
+
+Figure 2.4. Official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat
+Al-Jadida, 21 October 2001 as reprinted in Kill a Jew—
+Go to Heaven by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW),
+2005. Reproduced with permission from PMW. All
+rights reserved.
+
+Figure 2.3. “At his favorite work”, A. Zenin, Sovi-
+etskaya Moldavia, 29 August 1971. The cartoon is
+titled A Zionist Cobweb Spider. Image source: The
+Israeli-Arab Conflict in Soviet Caricatures, 1967-73
+by Yeshayahu Nir, Tcherikover Publishers, 1976. All Figure 2.1-2.4. The spider as a metaphor of the core
+rights reserved. demonology of antisemitism.
+
+Approaching Religion = Vol. 16, No. 1 * March 2026 7
+
+
+========== PAGE 17 ==========
+
+Jew-hatred strongly correlates in Europe
+with criticism against Israel (Kaplan and
+Small 2006). A recent large-scale study
+finds some differences between individual
+predictors of “old” and “new” (antizion-
+ist) antisemitic attitudes, but both are pre-
+dicted, at least in the UK, by ethnicity,
+conspiracist worldviews, a desire to over-
+turn the social order, and a preference for
+authoritarian government—all of which
+can be found on the right, the left and else-
+where (Allington et al. 2023).
+
+More research on antisemitism is needed
+
+to acknowledge common features of all
+variants and to curb their increase
+
+As shown above, Jews have repeatedly
+failed in their identity negotiations with
+religious and secular outgroups. The Italian
+Professor of Semiotics Ugo Volli (2016)
+discussed conspiracist antisemitism in
+Antiquity and asked: “Why the Jews?” His
+reply falls back on social psychology:
+
+Jews are a small group, often dis-
+persed among another people, but
+able to maintain its different identity,
+language, religion, habits. So they are
+perceived as different and secret. But
+they are also among “us’, indistin-
+guishable from “us’, behaving mostly
+like “us”, speaking “our” language etc.
+while keeping different, following a
+different religion and different habits
+and laws, eating other foods etc. In the
+antisemitic discourse they have collec-
+tive goals that are theirs, not ours, and
+therefore must (or just could) be evil.
+They can become a danger [...] This
+idea of the Jewish conspiracy is very
+old and widespread. (Volli 2016)
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+The process of antisemitic othering is con-
+spiracist in nature and creates the imag-
+ined Jew. Intergroup beliefs and emotions
+are socially constructed and embedded in
+the language of ideologies and worldviews
+(Billig 2002). Prejudice includes the emo-
+tion conveyed by discourse, producing hate
+speech. Group norms dictate the limits of
+prejudice expression—whether it is allowed
+or necessary to despise, discriminate, hate
+or eliminate “them” Norms define the
+politically correct forms of antisemitism;
+genocide becomes possible only with suf-
+ficient ideological importance, emotional
+investment and legitimizing norms.
+
+Currently, right-wing, left-wing and
+Islamist antisemitism are interconnected,
+yet this is rarely addressed (Herf 2024, 237).
+Herf explains this with the polarization of
+politics, intellectual life, and scholarship;
+rightists condemn leftist antisemitism but
+ignore their own, while leftists condemn
+rightist antisemitism, yet deny their own
+and are reluctant to condemn Islamist
+antisemitism for fear of being labelled
+“Islamophobes” (Herf 2024, 237). This may
+be yet another effect of the need for positive
+distinctiveness discussed in the section on
+the cultural roots and core demonology of
+antisemitism: to maintain self-esteem, we
+compare also our political ingroups with
+outgroups to acquire positive distinctive-
+ness (Tajfel and Turner 1986; Helkama et
+al. 2017). Herf (2024) shows his high-level
+scholarship by analysing all three variants
+with equal critical rigour.
+
+However, the normalization of the latest
+variant of antisemitism has led to a striking
+scarcity of serious research on its contem-
+porary variant. Schraub (2019) has noted
+that:
+
+72
+
+
+========== PAGE 18 ==========
+
+there is a consistent worry felt
+among many Jews—progressive Jews
+included—that left-wing critics depri-
+oritize the fight against antisemitism,
+viewing it as a marginal issue, a dis-
+traction from more immediate con-
+cerns, or a fight that (but for a few
+stray cranks) has already been won.
+This fear is exacerbated by noticeable
+lacuna surrounding antisemitism in
+progressive scholarship about con-
+temporary issues of discrimination,
+oppression, and identity-based mar-
+ginalization. Vigorous theoretical
+accounts of how antisemitism cur-
+rently manifests in Western societies
+lag behind the excellent work focused
+on other oppressions. [...] Yet the the-
+oretical gap in intersectionality analy-
+ses largely overlooking the Jews is not
+fully accidental. Specifically, the asso-
+ciation of Jews with power as an anti-
+semitic trope functions to classify Jews
+not just as “White”, but as exemplify-
+ing or embodying Whiteness. Insofar
+as Jewishness is not understood as
+existing as a materially distinct cat-
+egory from Whiteness, the failure to
+consider Jews as a case of a marginal-
+ized identity is not intuitively felt as an
+absence. (Schraub 2019, 382, 384)
+
+The philosopher and sociologist Balasz
+Berkovits (2018) considers it detrimental
+to serious research on antisemitism when
+Whiteness studies which represent more
+antizionist activism than academic research
+is given academic credibility:
+
+there is an extreme variability in the
+characterization of “Jewish white-
+
+»
+
+ness’, “Jewish hegemony and suprem-
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+»
+
+acism’, “Zionist racism and coloni-
+alism’, and so on. Most of the time,
+these interpretations are contradict-
+ing one another. Still, there is a unani-
+mous intention of radical criticism,
+and total political agreement on the
+evaluation of Zionism, Israel, and
+Jews in the Middle East. A furtive look
+into these texts would be sufficient
+to conclude that whenever it comes
+to Israel, political criticism fully sub-
+ordinates any interpretation [...] in
+these works, the arbitrary usage of the
+concept of “whiteness” becomes even
+more conspicuous than in Whiteness
+Studies proper, as it encompasses
+an increasingly diverse set of phe-
+nomena. However, this fact does not
+bother totalizing critics emboldened
+by their academic prestige. (Berkovits
+2018, 101)
+
+As in the nineteenth century, academia of
+today misuses terms to demonize the col-
+lective Jew, “genocide” used in Holocaust
+inversion being only one of them (Klaff
+2014). Apart from Schraub (2019), the his-
+torian Simon Sebag Montefiore (2023) has
+also noted misapplication of the antiracist
+paradigms drawn from accounts of the
+American Black/White experience to the
+history and society of modern Israel and of
+terms like imperialism and colonialism by
+those forced by that frame to squeeze Israel
+and Palestine into a wholly inappropriate
+colonialist mould (Montefiore 2023).
+Obviously, Israel can (or should) be
+criticized like any other country and even
+accused of genocide, as long as this is done
+on the basis of impartially established facts
+and by applying existing definitions of the
+term, just as they have been applied to
+
+73
+
+
+========== PAGE 19 ==========
+
+other countries. The Professor of Holocaust
+Studies Norman J. W. Goda (2025) shows
+how the term genocide has been applied
+to Israel since its establishment, noting a
+double standard, “an effort to redefine gen-
+ocide itself so that the constitutive elements
+of the crime itself are lowered” (Goda 2025,
+4) and that
+
+the genocide libel also deploys a range
+of antisemitic tropes. One is the link-
+age of genocide to violent passages
+in the Hebrew Bible, a linkage which
+plays on the theme of Jewish chosen-
+ness at the expense of others’ existence
+and which even claims that God is
+genocidal. Another is the whitewash-
+ing of Hamas’s own genocidal intent
+in lieu of tropes concerning the out-
+sized Jewish thirst for vengeance in the
+form of disproportionate response. A
+third is the coupling of the genocide
+charge with the deliberate killing of
+children, images of whom are ubiq-
+uitous on NGO, social media, and
+other platforms that charge Israel with
+genocide. A fourth is the attribution
+of special powers to the Israeli gov-
+ernment by which it and its support-
+ers have fooled western governments
+into believing that Israel’s actions are
+legitimate and that the history of the
+Israel-Arab conflict is too complex
+for snap judgments. A fifth, and this
+is what makes the genocide libel par-
+ticularly dangerous, is the association
+of all Jews with the crime. Jews world-
+wide are all in on it, either as Zionist
+enablers, as dishonest back-room lob-
+byists, or as community leaders who,
+we are told, “weaponize” the charge
+of antisemitism to silence the truth-
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+tellers. Other genocide charges over
+time have not targeted Hutus living in
+Belgium or Serbs living in Germany.
+(Goda 2025, 4-5)
+
+Linguistic “innovation” has always been
+central in the rehabilitation of Jew-hatred.
+Illouz calls for overcoming the denial of the
+antisemitism in its most recent form:
+
+transcendental anti-Zionism is deeply
+offensive to many or most Jews and
+does not serve the Palestinian cause. It
+prevents us from achieving the urgent
+tasks ahead: stop Israel’s reckless
+destruction of Gaza, rebuild the Strip,
+give a humane future to Palestinians
+and create durable regional peace,
+and ensure a future Gazan leader-
+ship without genocidal aspirations
+against Israel. As long as our language
+is contaminated by antisemitism, and
+as long as anti-Zionism continues to
+perniciously conflate critique of Israel
+with its demonization, we can only
+drift further away from these goals.
+(Illouz 2025)
+
+Illouz notes aptly that the progressive Left
+has traditionally relied on members of
+minority groups to decide whether or not “a
+word, behaviour, or idea is discriminatory,
+sexist, racist or Islamophobic” because,
+“if discrimination or racial hatred prof-
+its one group to the detriment of another,
+we cannot let the profiting group judge
+how harmful its own behaviour is” (Illouz
+2025). This is an accepted principle for all
+other minorities, but Jews are an excep-
+tion; their experiences of antisemitism are
+a priori interpreted as false, in accordance
+with the mendacity libel identified by Julius
+
+/4
+
+
+========== PAGE 20 ==========
+
+(2024) and with epistemic antisemitism
+as described by Schraub (2022; see also
+the section on the cultural roots and core
+demonology of antisemitism).
+
+Where, and as long as a new variety of
+antisemitism, the contemporary “imagined
+Jew’, is politically correct in accordance
+with prevailing norms and values, we are
+inclined to deny it in ourselves, although
+recognizing it in others. Research on anti-
+semitism has increased also in progressive
+scholarship since the noticeable lacuna
+(Schraub 2019) but still must increase to
+cover applied studies aimed at finding rem-
+edies for it, ie. research which has long
+existed for other forms of racism (cf. e.g.
+Liebkind et al. 2014). There is an obvious
+need to prevent a contemporary, politi-
+cally correct version of antisemitism from
+accomplishing the aim of, to paraphrase
+Billig (1987) have the (collective) Jew made
+impossible.
+
+Conclusions
+Through
+tions and social identity dynamics in rela-
+
+examining inter-group _ rela-
+tion to the historical evolution of antise-
+mitic narratives, key insights emerge that
+warrant reflection and further scholarly
+engagement.
+
+First, this work shows that antisem-
+itism is rooted in intergroup and identity
+processes. Seen through key theories in
+social psychology, the portrayal of Jews as
+an outgroup threat based on some dimen-
+sion of self-recognized Jewish identity has
+evolved across centuries while maintain-
+ing core psychological structures; con-
+spiratorial thinking, threat perception
+and core demonology remain consistent
+in driving this prejudice regardless of his-
+torical period or political context. Shifting
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+manifestations of antisemitism, from medi-
+eval blood libels to contemporary claims of
+global Jewish or “Zionist” influence and the
+double standards applied when criticizing
+Israel, demonstrate the adaptation of its
+core demonology to new social and politi-
+cal circumstances.
+
+Second, the multi-dimensional char-
+acter and linguistic variety of contempo-
+rary antisemitism encompassing Rightist,
+Leftist and Islamist variants indicates the
+complexity of addressing this prejudice.
+Recognizing their shared characteristics
+offers a more coherent analytical frame-
+work and enables scholars and practition-
+ers to identify potential intervention points
+across seemingly disparate contexts.
+
+Lastly, this work highlights a critical gap
+in contemporary research: while significant
+scholarship examines how antisemitism
+manifests and transforms, further research
+is needed into mitigation strategies and
+the societal factors that either facilitate
+or inhibit its spread. Future scholarship
+should combine analytical clarity with
+empirical investigation of which interven-
+tions can effectively address the emotional,
+cognitive, and behavioral components of
+antisemitism, particularly as digital com-
+munication platforms facilitate the rapid
+dissemination and radicalization of antise-
+mitic narratives.
+
+Moving forward, fostering cross-dis-
+ciplinary dialogue remains essential. Inte-
+grating insights from social psychology
+with historical, political and cultural anal-
+ysis offers promising avenues for develop-
+ing more comprehensive understandings
+of antisemitism and more effective strate-
+gies for addressing this persistent form of
+hatred. &
+
+15
+
+
+========== PAGE 21 ==========
+
+Karmela Liebkind is Professor Emerita of Social
+Psychology at the University of Helsinki, Finland,
+and specializes in intergroup relations. Areas of
+expertise include the ethnic identity and accul-
+turation of minority members, contact and
+prejudice between minority and majority mem-
+bers and prejudice-reduction interventions for
+schools.
+
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+S0364009419000461a.pdf/div-class-title-
+white-jews-an-intersectional-approach-div.
+pdf.
+
+Schraub, David. 2022. “The Epistemic Dimen-
+sion of Antisemitism” Journal of Jewish
+Identities 15 (2): 153-79.
+https://doi.org/10.1353/jji.2022.0017.
+
+Stégner, Karin. 2023. “Intersectionality and
+Antisemitism. A New Approach” In
+Mapping the New Left Antisemitism.
+The Fathom Essays, edited by A. John-
+son, 282-92. Rouledge. https://doi.
+org/10.4324/9781003322320.
+
+78
+
+
+========== PAGE 24 ==========
+
+Tabarovsky, Izabella. 2019. “Understanding the
+Real Origin of that New York Times Car-
+toon: How Antisemitic Soviet Propaganda
+Informs Contemporary Left Anti-Zion-
+ism.” Tablet, June 6. https://www.tablet-
+mag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/
+soviet-anti-semitic-cartoons.
+
+Tabarovsky, Izabella. 2022. “Demonization
+Blueprints: Soviet Conspiracist Antizion-
+ism in Contemporary LeftWing Discourse.”
+Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism 5 (1):
+1-20. https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/5.1.97.
+
+Tajfel, Henri and John C. Turner. 1986. “The
+Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behav-
+ior’ In Psychology of Intergroup Relations,
+edited by S. Worchel and W. G. Austin. Nel-
+son Hall.
+
+Teter, Magda. 2023. Christian Supremacy: Reck-
+oning with the Roots of Antisemitism and
+Racism. Princeton University Press.
+
+Turner, John. C., Michael A. Hogg, Penelope J.
+Oakes, Stephen D. Reicher and Margaret
+S. Wetherell. 1987. Rediscovering the Social
+Group: A SelfCategorization Theory. Basil
+Blackwell.
+
+Volli, Ugo. 2016. “AntiSemitism (and Now
+AntiZionism) as Prototype of Conspir-
+acy Theory. A Theoretical and Textual
+Approach.” Lexia 23-4: 19-34. https://www.
+researchgate.net/publication/316507907_
+Anti-Semitism_And_now_anti-zionism_
+as_prototype_of_conspiracy_theory_A_
+theoretical_and_textual_approach.
+
+Verkuyten, Maykel. 2018. The Social Psychology
+of Ethnic Identity. 2nd edition. Routledge.
+https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203338704.
+
+Wistrich, Robert S. 2012. From Ambivalence t
+From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the
+Jews, and Israel. Series: Studies in Antisemi-
+tism. University of Nebraska Press.
+https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1d9nqc.
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+79

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+KARMELA LIEBKIND
+
+Antisemitism
+
+A Multi-disciplinary Perspective on a Demonology
+
+with Variations
+
+doi.org/10.30664/ar.163571
+
+he aim of this article is to synthesize exist-
+‘Ti knowledge in a novel way by looking
+
+through a social psychological lens at his-
+torical manifestations of antisemitism and its
+most recent variant, presented as a case study
+which tracks its development and compares it
+with the core demonology of antisemitism. By
+reviewing literature representing many differ-
+ent disciplines, focusing particularly on history,
+theology and social psychology, the article aims
+to bridge disciplinary gaps, making social psy-
+chological insights on inter-group relations and
+social identities accessible to scholars in other
+fields and thus foster a cross-disciplinary dia-
+logue on antisemitism. Linguistic “innovation”
+has been needed whenever an existing variety
+becomes politically incorrect, which, on the indi-
+vidual level, may give rise to a denial that the new
+variety is antisemitism. It is concluded that com-
+pared to other racisms applied research is still
+needed to fill the existing lacuna to find remedies
+for antisemitism.
+
+Introduction
+
+Antisemitism is a deeply rooted preju-
+dice. Its manifestations have changed over
+thousands of years; they include medieval
+accusations such as the blood libel, which
+falsely claimed that Jews used Christian
+blood in religious rituals (e.g. Teter 2023)
+and modern conspiracies alleging Jewish
+control over global affairs (e.g. Czimbalmos
+2025), often linked to the State of Israel
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+©)@ Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
+
+\| VERTAISARVIOITU
+~ KOLLEGIALT GRANSKAD
+wy. PEER-REVIEWED
+
+www.tsv.fi/tunnus
+
+(e.g. Herf 2024). Antisemitic tropes rely
+on conspiratorial thinking, a feature which
+differentiates antisemitism from racism
+(e.g. Stégner 2025). Contemporary vari-
+ants of antisemitism can be classified into
+three main forms: Rightist, Leftist and
+Islamist (Herf 2024). The common factor
+is that Jews are portrayed as a threat that
+fuels cognitive, emotional and behavioural
+responses that constitute antisemitism.
+
+The aim of this article is to synthe-
+size existing knowledge in a novel way. By
+revisiting some definitions and historical
+manifestations of antisemitism through a
+social psychological lens, the article aims
+to bridge disciplinary gaps. Integrating a
+social-psychological perspective on inter-
+group relations with broader multi-disci-
+plinary work, focusing on how Jews and
+Judaism have been imagined in inter-group
+prejudice as opposed to how Jews have
+defined their own identity, this article also
+aims to make social psychological insights
+accessible to scholars in other fields, thus
+fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue and
+understanding of antisemitism.
+
+Some basic concepts and tenets of the
+social psychology of inter-group relations
+and social identity need to be addressed
+
+56

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+in the introduction. Next, the basics of the
+social psychology of inter-group relations
+and social identities, ie. the “lens” through
+which this literature review is perceived, is
+briefly described. This is followed by a sec-
+tion discussing how to define and iden-
+tify antisemitism, while the next section
+addresses the historical roots, transforma-
+tions and core demonology of antisemitism
+as well as the role of academia in decisive
+junctions of those transformations. The
+largest section is a case study of the devel-
+opment of the latest variety of antisemitism
+and its connection to the core demonol-
+ogy of antisemitism. Before the conclusion
+drawn from all previous sections, a sepa-
+rate section discusses the consequences
+of the failed identity negotiations of Jews
+with other groups and the need for more
+research on all kinds of contemporary anti-
+semitism and on ways to curb the accelerat-
+ing increase of this hatred.
+
+On the social psychology of inter-group
+relations and social identities
+
+Intergroup behaviour occurs when individu-
+als are motivated by a salient social or collec-
+tive identity, that is, a heightened awareness
+of characteristics shared with an ingroup,
+a “we” group. This salient social iden-
+tity makes us look at ourselves and others,
+from both “we” and “they” groups, through
+that group lens and behave towards them
+accordingly. This is the basic tenet of both
+Social Categorization Theory (SCT, Turner
+et al. 1987) and Social Identity Theory (SIT,
+Tajfel and Turner, 1986). The degree of
+identification with our ingroup, but even
+more the subjective content and mean-
+ing of the salient social identity (the group
+lens) influences our intergroup attitudes, ie.
+our beliefs about, emotions and behaviour
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+towards a particular outgroup, in this case,
+the Jews, however that group is defined or
+defines itself. Prejudice is a negative attitude
+characterized by negative emotions which
+sparks negative behaviour whenever behav-
+iour follows. However, inter-group emotions
+and behaviour vary, the latter ranging from
+discrimination, confrontation/attack, avoid-
+ance and exclusion to repair of past wrongs
+or actions of support (Helkama et al. 2017;
+Mackie et al. 2016).
+
+In interpersonal behaviour, in turn, our
+personal identity is the most salient one. At
+the personal extreme of the salience con-
+tinuum Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
+are the iconic example of two individuals
+who defy the social identity they have as
+members of two warring families to enable
+their interaction as individuals only. The
+social extreme of that continuum can be
+illustrated by two enemies in combat who
+are expected to defy their own (and their
+enemies’) personal identity and thus act
+solely as soldiers fighting for their country.
+However, behaviour is seldom this “pure’,
+but rather the result of a mixture, salience
+leaning slightly towards one or the other
+end of the continuum.
+
+What is often ignored, however, is that
+everyone has more than one social iden-
+tity, creating intersecting social identities
+which are not just the sum of their parts.
+In addition, considering intergroup rela-
+tions between unequal groups such as
+minorities and majorities also disadvan-
+tage and inequality need to be addressed.
+Intersectionality Theory started with soci-
+ological research on the disadvantaged
+situation of Black women in the USA, ice.
+the intersection of class, race and gender
+1989) and
+ity research is still mostly sociological,
+
+(Crenshaw intersectional-
+
+5/

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+focusing on social structures. However,
+the focus in social psychology is on the
+complexity of multiple, intersecting group
+memberships which shape each other.
+
+The political scientist and Associate
+Professor in Law David Schraub (2019)
+notes that intersectional studies rarely
+subjects, despite
+the framework’s potential to illuminate
+
+engage with Jewish
+
+Jewish experiences of marginalization. He
+attributes this absence to the widespread
+conflation of Jewishness with Whiteness,
+which leads scholars to overlook antisem-
+itism as a form of oppression (see also
+the section on the cultural roots and core
+demonology of antisemitism). Schraub
+calls for a more nuanced intersectional
+approach that recognizes Jewish identity as
+complex and distinct, rather than subsum-
+ing it under Whiteness (Schraub 2019).
+The Professor of Sociology Karin Stégner
+noted that antisemitism “does not position
+Jews unambiguously on one or the other
+side of these markers” but is characterized
+by ambivalence with regard to binary clas-
+sifications (Stogner 2023, 288), although a
+common tendency over recent decades in
+everyday language as well as in academia is
+to categorize people more or less unambig-
+uously along binary codes (e.g. black-white,
+hetero-lesbian/gay, oppressor-oppressed).
+Two social identities relevant for anti-
+semitism are ethnic identity and cultural
+identity. The former is in social psychol-
+ogy anchored in the identity process, part
+of one’s total social identity, and defined
+as identification with a group based on
+a belief in common ancestry. This belief
+makes ethnic identity distinct from other
+social identities (Verkuyten 2018). Cultural
+identity is defined in different ways within
+different disciplines, but here it will suffice
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+to note that it is a learnt relationship to the
+physical and social environment of one’s
+childhood and the result of a socialization
+process that anchors an individual to his/
+her environment. Religion is often consid-
+ered a part of culture, but in Jewish identity
+they are often separated. As culture is trans-
+mitted from early childhood on within the
+family it is partly subconscious. In addi-
+tion, culture changes with time, both his-
+torically and within an individual's lifetime.
+The subjective content and meaning of cul-
+ture vary between individuals within the
+same cultural group.
+
+Increasing the complexity of social
+identities, the content and meaning of any
+particular social or collective identity can
+individually be based on different charac-
+teristics. National identities can be based
+on shared culture (language, religion,
+values, norms), geographical anchoring
+(where one lives), and/or ethnicity (belief
+in common ancestry). One specific feature
+of antisemitism is the variety of rationali-
+ties it has applied over time. This is because
+Jewish identity is manifold at its core, a
+combination of religion, ethnicity and
+broader culture—and many other things
+on whose basis a person may call them-
+selves Jewish (e.g. Dencik 2009). At the
+beginning of Jewish history, Jewish culture,
+heritage and religion were very much inter-
+twined. This inherently manifold nature of
+Jewish identity has, unlike with some other
+religious groups, made it possible even for
+atheists to have a strong Jewish identity
+(Dencik 2009, 321), but has also offered
+several different grounds for discrimina-
+tion and persecution of Jews.
+
+An important aspect of the content and
+meaning of any identity, social or personal,
+is that people are not free to choose any
+
+58

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+identity they want. Social as well as per-
+sonal identities are presented and nego-
+tiated in interaction; self-recognized and
+alter-ascribed ethnic/cultural/religious or
+any other social identities may not match
+(Liebkind 1992; 2006). Our
+are developed, changed, challenged and
+
+identities
+
+defended over time, in interaction with our
+social environment; alter-ascribed identi-
+ties reflected onto us may confirm or coun-
+ter our self-recognized ones. As we need
+positive rather than negative identities,
+we try to reach an agreement with at least
+significant others and groups on who and
+what we are. This poses special challenges
+for minority groups, whose self-recognized
+social identities may not be heard, and the
+alter-ascribed ones be tainted with preju-
+dice (Liebkind 1992; 2006). For example,
+the self-recognized Jewish identity of Soviet
+Jewry was countered when in the pre-1967
+period they began to develop what would
+become a Jewish national movement,
+where Jewish identity included both iden-
+tification with Israel and the pre-existing
+conception of all Jews as a people across
+national borders: According to Gjerde
+(2018), this “went far beyond the limits of
+what Soviet authorities considered accept-
+able Jewish identity” (Gjerde 2018, 280).
+When not conforming to approved Soviet
+Jewish identities, therefore, Jews who sub-
+scribed to national Jewish identities and
+supported Zionism were considered part of
+a vast anti-Soviet conspiracy (Gjerde 2018,
+291).
+
+On defining and identifying antisemitism
+
+While the goal of this article is not to define
+antisemitism, it is necessary to briefly
+reflect on the debate surrounding its defini-
+tion. As Czimbalmos and Pataricza (2024)
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+summarize, like other forms of discrimi-
+nation, antisemitism includes both easily
+recognizable and more subtle expressions
+(Czimbalmos and Pataricza 2024, 15). To
+cover these, several definitions of antisem-
+itism (e.g. the Jerusalem Declaration, the
+Nexus Document) have been proposed.
+Perhaps the most well-known and widely
+recognized is that of the International
+Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)
+from 2016. The IHRA definition serves as
+a guideline and is recommended by the
+European Commission in its 2022 conclu-
+sions on combating racism and antisem-
+itism, as well as in its 2018 declaration on
+countering antisemitism. Nevertheless, it
+is often regarded insufficient for scientific
+analysis (Czimbalmos and Pataricza 2024,
+15-16) and criticized for not providing an
+unchanging essence for all cases of anti-
+semitism. However, the philosopher Eve
+Garrard (2020) maintains that this is irrel-
+evant; there are too many other concepts in
+the same boat for this complaint to count.
+Another putatively moral objection is the
+claim that it represents an attack on the
+freedom of speech of critics of Israel. But
+this is simply not true, as it is full of con-
+ditional verbs: something “may’, “could” or
+“might” be antisemitic, but need not be. The
+only view which this definition threatens is
+that criticism of Israel can never, in any cir-
+cumstances, be antisemitic. Although this
+is not even remotely plausible, some crit-
+ics of the IHRA definition seem to find it
+attractive (Garrard 2020).
+
+Often used in research is Helen Fein’s
+definition of antisemitism as:
+
+a persisting latent structure of hos-
+
+tile beliefs towards Jews as a collective
+manifested in individuals as attitudes,
+
+59

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+and in culture as myth, ideology, folk-
+lore and imagery, and in actions—
+social or legal discrimination, politi-
+cal mobilization against the Jews, and
+collective or state violence—which
+results in and/or is designed to dis-
+tance, displace, or destroy Jews as
+Jews. (Fein 1987, 67)
+
+Fein’s definition includes also a cultural level
+of antisemitism. As culture, often considered
+to include religion, is transmitted in early
+childhood, it becomes a part of our person-
+ality, and we may be unaware of it. The neg-
+ative, culturally transmitted alter-ascribed
+Jewish identity is very different from how
+Jews have perceived themselves over time.
+The Professor of Psychology Gordon Allport
+explained the persistence of most prejudice,
+relevant also for the stereotypical “imag-
+ined Jew”: “defeated intellectually, prejudice
+lingers emotionally” (Allport 1951, 328).
+Brekke (2021) notes that cultural models
+or schemas are widely shared but unavail-
+able to the cultural insider because they are
+taken for granted. Culturally acquired prej-
+udice, like antisemitism, influences individ-
+uals’ attitudes involuntarily. When normal-
+ized, such prejudice becomes structural, i.e.
+institutionalized (Johnson 2019). Thus, it is
+at the individual level mostly implicit, ice.
+invisible to the prejudiced (Greenwald and
+Banaji 2017).
+
+This concerns also antisemitism; on
+the basis of original material of that time,
+Gjerde (2018) claimed that most of the
+Soviet elite from 1967 onwards were “true
+believers” in conspiracy theories concern-
+ing Soviet Jews and thus may not have been
+aware of the antisemitism in their increas-
+ing antizionist rhetoric (Gjerde 2018, 291).
+The British researcher of antisemitism
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+Dave Rich has described how this unaware-
+ness is manifested:
+
+people who fall for antisemitic myths
+and conspiracies and stereotypes, who
+follow these built-in ideas about Jews,
+they are like hikers following a trail
+across an unfamiliar landscape who
+just instinctively follow the path trod-
+den into the Earth by countless people
+before them in times long forgotten
+[...] because these ideas [...] are deeply
+embedded in the mainstream of our
+culture. (Rich 2023)
+
+Regardless of what definition is employed,
+antisemitism offers Jews a negative alter-
+ascribed identity contradicting the self-
+recognized one. It manifests itself, like any
+prejudice, as negative stereotypes (gener-
+alizing beliefs) of Jews, emotions ranging
+from mild disapproval to passionate hatred
+triggered by stereotypes/beliefs
+and concomitant behavioural tendencies
+(Helkama et al. 2017).
+
+Although sharing features with racism,
+
+those
+
+antisemitism is also a form of xenopho-
+bia and has been perceived as the proto-
+type of conspiracy theories (Volli 2016;
+Czimbalmos and Pataricza 2024). The dif-
+ference between the classical concept of
+racism and antisemitism has been aptly
+illustrated by the Marxist sociologist Oliver
+Cromwell Cox:
+
+Antisemitism is an attitude directed at
+the Jews because they are Jews, while
+race prejudice is an attitude directed at
+the Negroes! because they want to be
+
+1 I recognize that the term “Negro” as used
+in historical texts like Cox’s is outdated and
+
+60

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+something other than Negroes. A Jew,
+to the intolerant, is an enemy within
+society; but the Negro, to the race-prej-
+udiced, is a friend in his place. [...] the
+one condition of peace between Jews
+and Gentiles is that the Jews cease to
+be Jews. (Cox [1948]1959, 393, 395)
+
+Rather than perceiving Jews as merely infe-
+rior, antisemitism depicts Jews as an all-
+powerful collective, threatening non-Jews
+by aiming to harm them (Harrison 2019;
+Julius 2024). This has also been highlighted
+by Schraub (2019), as discussed in the sec-
+tion on the social psychology of intergroup
+relations and social identities.
+
+Despite the complexity of many key
+terms, definitions are still important as
+both conceptual under-specification and
+conceptual expansion are endemic. It is dif-
+ficult to observe, for example, if antisem-
+itism or ethnic identity is incompatible with
+observed variability without at least some
+idea about what antisemitism, ethnicity
+and identity are all about. Fragmentation
+and change can be understood only when
+it is clear what is fragmented and subject to
+change (Verkuyten 2018).
+
+The cultural roots of much of the world’s
+antisemitism and its core demonology
+Owing to its ever-changing nature, anti-
+semitism cannot be understood without
+tracing its origins in history. In Europe
+
+carries problematic connotations rooted
+in racial hierarchies and colonial legacies.
+While engaging with such language criti-
+cally is important for understanding the
+context in which it was written, it is equally
+necessary to acknowledge its offensive
+nature and avoid its use in contemporary
+discourse.
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+and in a large part of the world, a system
+of antisemitic traditions has since antiquity
+been used to identify the Jewish “Other”.
+According to a number of scholars (e.g.
+Mayerhofer and Lange 2021; Rutgers 2021;
+Teter 2023), Jew-hatred also significantly
+served the construction of a Christian
+identity. Although anti-Judaism was not
+born with Christianity, Christianity was
+born as a negation of Judaism, and was,
+like Islam, formed over several hundred
+years as emerging groups breaking with
+their parent religion(s) (Rutgers 2021, 34).
+Naturally, there are geographic and cul-
+tural-historical differences in antisemitism,
+e.g. in the “Muslim world” and in Christian
+majority societies, although commonalities
+also exist (Herf 2024).
+
+From a social-psychological perspec-
+tive, what all emerging groups have in
+common is the need to recruit new mem-
+bers. Consequently, they need to stand out
+in a positive way compared to their parent
+group(s), that is, they need to acquire so-
+called positive distinctiveness (e.g. Castelli
+and Carraro 2010). A strategy often used
+for that purpose is to engage in active inter-
+group comparison and depict the new ide-
+ology, in this case Christianity or Islam,
+as superior to the old one(s). Describing
+the Old Testament Divinity as unforgiv-
+ing, vengeful and bloodthirsty compared
+to the Christian one is one example. This
+alter-ascribed characterization of Judaism
+emerged in the long, successful process of
+acquiring a positively distinct Christian
+identity. Through missionary work Chris-
+tianity and Islam became majorities, while
+Judaism remained a minority, also because
+the new religions, when in power, forbid
+Jews to proselytize. The conception of the
+superiority of Christianity culminated in
+
+6]

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+Christian supersessionism, i.e. the idea that
+Christianity would finally replace Judaism.
+
+The social psychological notion of the
+need for early Christianity to acquire posi-
+tive distinctiveness is entirely theoretical.
+However, it is independently corroborated
+by original sources, although not all histo-
+rians may agree with their interpretation.
+Professor Leonard Rutgers (2021) noted
+that:
+
+Early Christian texts dealing with
+the Jews are often not about the Jews
+at all but about Christians in search
+of their own distinct identity [...]
+Having begun its life as an offspring
+of Judaism and as a Jewish sect, early
+Christianity was facing a set of major,
+almost unsurmountable challenges
+when it came to delineate its self-iden-
+tity. [...] Clearly etched boundaries
+became crucially important. Christian
+theologians needed to succeed in
+highlighting the fact that Christianity
+was something altogether different
+and new. [...] [As] they tried to sever
+all ties from the Jewish past that had
+produced them [...] [they] could do
+little but engage in a considerable
+amount of negative identity-forma-
+tion. Judaism ended up at the receiv-
+ing end of the hostile rhetoric that this
+process of dissociation, separation,
+and identity formation entailed and
+engendered. (Rutgers 2021, 34)
+
+Another historian, Professor Magda Teter
+(2023), depicts the content of the Christian
+“group lens” on Jews by showing how
+Christian theology of late Antiquity cast
+Jews as “children born to slavery’, and
+how their supposed theological inferiority
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+became inscribed into law, institutional-
+izing a sense of Christian domination and
+superiority. Teter (2023) found that, in Etsi
+Judeos of Pope Innocent III (1205), Jews
+were not allowed to have Christian serv-
+ants, because they “shall recognize them-
+selves as slaves to those whom Christ’s
+death set free. In Cum Nimis Absurdum
+(1555) of Pope Paul IV, Jews were forbid-
+den to live as neighbours to Christians or
+churches, because “Jews, whose own guilt
+has consigned them to perpetual servi-
+tude” should, “as long as they persist in
+
+>
+
+their errors’, “recognize through experi-
+ence that they have become slaves while
+Christians have been made free through
+Jesus Christ”. Jews were supposed to aban-
+don their religious identity and cease to
+exist as Jews. Interestingly, Teter shows that
+the first racist laws which were introduced
+in Virginia, USA, in “An Act concerning
+Servants and Slaves” (Section XI) in 1705
+largely mirrored the anti-Jewish laws that
+had existed for centuries.
+
+Although “antisemitism has taken on
+radically different forms and supposed
+‘rationales’ in different cultures at different
+times” (Johnson 2019, 17), research shows
+that the core of antisemitism is rooted in
+Christian theology (Brekke 2021). Many
+scholars have formulated the essence
+of antisemitic myths and _ stereotypes.
+According to Professor of Law Anthony
+Julius (2024), for example, all versions
+of antisemitism libel Jews, as libels “are
+damaging to the good name of the Jewish
+people” (Julius 2024, 11). Julius lists five
+libels as the essence of antisemitism:
+
+The blood libel supposes that Jews enter-
+tain homicidal intentions towards non-Jews
+(and specifically, non-Jewish children), and
+commit acts of murder, either in re-enact-
+
+62

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+ment of the Crucifixion, or to avenge their
+continuing, collective punishment for that
+cosmic crime.
+
+¢ The economic libel supposes that Jews,
+who are self-interested, materialist, acquis-
+itive and unproductive by nature, exploit
+non-Jews when they can, and seek monop-
+oly power, the better to pursue their greater
+objectives.
+
+¢ The conspiracy libel supposes that Jews
+act in concert, in secret pursuit of goals
+inimical to the interests of non-Jews. That
+is: Jews conspire with other Jews.
+
+¢ The silencing libel supposes that Jews
+cannot tolerate truth-tellers; they fear expo-
+sure of their plots. They conspire together
+to silence their virtuous enemies.
+
+¢ The mendacity libel supposes that Jews
+proceed by deception and other forms of
+deceit. That is: Jews lie to non-Jews. (Julius
+2024, 10-1)
+
+The mendacity libel has two variants,
+Holocaust denial and Weaponization of
+Antisemitism; Julius is most concerned
+about the latter, as it claims that:
+
+the Jews deploy such evidence of anti-
+semitism as may exist for an ulte-
+rior, improper purpose, (a) to deflect
+attention, or otherwise excuse, Israel’s
+and/or (b) to
+antizionists into silence, or to dis-
+
+crimes, intimidate
+credit them. They typically overstate
+the level or seriousness of antisem-
+itism, and their own concern about it.
+(Julius 2024, 142)
+
+Julius finds that libel bizarre, as “it would
+not be difficult to identify the racism, say,
+in equivalent claims about other minority
+groups” (Julius 2024, 142). Schraub (2022)
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+broadens the mendacity libel into general
+untrustworthyness, calling it epistemic
+antisemitism, which “injures, wrongs, or
+marginalizes Jews in their capacities as
+knowers—testifiers, communicators, expo-
+nents or purveyors of knowledge” (Schraub
+2022, 153). The long-time socialist, politi-
+cal scientist and journalist Alan Johnson
+(2019), in turn, compares antisemitism to
+a piano: its core demonology—the key ste-
+reotypes and myths describing the imag-
+ined Jew—are the unchanging keys, while
+the variations across time are the melodies
+played on those keys, each telling “a differ-
+ent story about the alien, powerful, malev-
+olent and tricksy Jew” (Johnson 2019, 17).
+Although delusional, this core demonol-
+ogy shaped European Christianity in the
+Middle Ages even without Jews (Julius
+2010). The “composers” and “pianists” of
+the variants—religions, ideologies, move-
+ments and their leaders—have adapted it
+to fit their norms. Older forms exist along-
+side new ones. Jews have been accused of
+being god-killers, arch-capitalist exploit-
+ers, revolutionary communists, too tribal
+and too rootless, too poor and too rich, etc.
+(Johnson 2019), while the core demonol-
+ogy has remained unchanged.
+
+An important shift occurred when the
+anti-Judaism became politically incorrect
+in the nineteenth century and was replaced
+with the more socially acceptable term
+antisemitism. In the seventeenth and eight-
+eenth centuries new ideas emerged, empha-
+sizing equality between citizens (Michman
+2023), which clashed with earlier notions of
+hierarchy between human groups. To deny
+equality to those deemed inferior, new
+ingroups and outgroups were needed. Jews
+were no longer compared with Christians,
+but, for example, with French or Germans
+
+63

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+(Michman 2023). The aim was to show that
+they did not deserve equality, and if they
+enjoyed it, it had been “stolen” or was oth-
+erwise undeserved (Teter 2023).
+
+A primary example of how academia
+has rehabilitated Jew-hatred is the concept
+of the Aryan “race”, which emerged in sci-
+ence in the nineteenth century through
+misuse of the word Aryan. This word had
+referred only to Aryan (i.e. Indo-European)
+languages until Arthur de Gobineau (1853),
+called the father of racist ideology, started
+to misuse it to denote race. This allowed
+Jews to be classified as “Semites”. The term
+antisemitism improved the reputation of
+Jew-hatred because the prefix “anti-“ and
+the word “semitic” made it sound more
+
+«
+
+scientific and the “-ism” transformed it
+to an acceptable ideology among others
+(Michman 2023).
+
+Jew-hatred was thus rehabilitated simply
+by changing the language used to talk
+about it. However, the many dimensions
+of Jewish identity still posed a problem;
+even if Jews were in secular societies given
+a chance to emancipate without explicitly
+renouncing their Judaism, this applied only
+on an individual basis; what they had to
+abandon was their view of themselves as a
+people (Lappin 2019), ie. their ethnic iden-
+tity. Viewing the Jewish people as an illicit
+nation is deeply ingrained in both religious
+and secular European culture. Secular anti-
+semitism in Europe on both the Left and
+the Right mirrored for centuries before the
+Second World War the Christian superses-
+sionism in the view that:
+
+Jews are an illicit collectivity lacking
+any independent legitimacy. Its mem-
+bers need to be repaired and reconfig-
+
+ured. The intended result of each reply
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+[to the Jewish question] is to find an
+acceptable way of eliminating this col-
+lectivity. In the case of the right, this
+was to be through expulsion and, ulti-
+mately, physical annihilation. For the
+left, and some liberals, it would be
+achieved through a forced or a natural
+process of assimilation. (Lappin 2019,
+33)
+
+Currently, “a large part of the contempo-
+rary European left has inherited the lib-
+eral and revolutionary antipathy towards
+a Jewish collectivity, with Israel becoming
+the focus of this attitude” and, as a result,
+“a Jewish country is treated as an illegiti-
+mate entity not worthy of a people whose
+history should have taught them the folly
+of nationalism” (Lappin 2003, 23). This was
+the basis for one decisive event in the con-
+stant development of new variants of anti-
+semitism: the 2001 UN “World Conference
+against Racism”. At Durban, “the 1970s
+‘Zionism=Racism culture returned” (Hirsh
+and Miller 2022, abstract) and has grown
+ever since (see also the section on the
+cultural roots and core demonology of
+antisemitism).
+
+Western academia participates again,
+knowingly or not, in rehabilitating anti-
+semitism by using buzzwords aimed at pro-
+jecting, without proof of the validity of the
+claims, all the evil perceived to character-
+ize (the imagined) Judaism and Jews on
+Zionism and Zionists (see also the sections
+on the cultural roots and core demonology
+of antisemitism and the case study). For
+example, in Whiteness studies: “the color
+line is introduced into conflicts which have
+nothing to do neither with the American
+race relations, nor with a European type
+of colonialism” (Berkovits 2018, 88). Using
+
+64

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+this frame, anti-racist ideology depicts Jews
+as “super-White’, thereby strengthening
+age-old antisemitic myths (Schraub 2019):
+
+Whiteness as a lens of analysis is
+designed to elevate or accentuate cer-
+tain aspects of experience that might
+otherwise go unnoticed [...] [T]he
+prevailing view of Jews—the view
+that subordinates Jews—is precisely
+that they are “particularly powerful,
+or privileged, or influential”. And so,
+when the Whiteness frame—which by
+design draws attention to these attrib-
+utes—is overlaid upon the White Jew
+(as a body or a concept), it serves not
+as a counterweight but as an accelerant.
+The hope in applying the Whiteness
+frame to a gentile White is to unsettle
+received understandings of the White
+experience—to make people see things
+they had not seen before. By contrast,
+the effect of applying Whiteness to
+Jewishness is confirmatory: “I always
+thought that Jews had all this power
+and privilege—and see how right I
+was!” (Schraub 2019, 393)
+
+Research on contemporary antisemitism
+faces an obstacle not encountered by
+research on earlier forms: as intergroup
+attitudes are sensitive to social norms,
+socially unacceptable ones may become
+implicit. When the “outgroup lens” on
+Jews, i.e. the content and meaning of their
+alter-ascribed identity, becomes politically
+incorrect, some new content needs to be
+created. Accordingly, antisemitism mutates
+to overcome negative connotations of ear-
+lier versions. Any new version of antisem-
+itism acquires by definition the status of
+being politically correct, thereby denying it
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+is a form of anti-Judaism. The newest vari-
+ant is discussed below.
+
+The most recent variant of antisemitism—
+
+a case study
+
+As Jew-hatred had lost its respectability
+after the Holocaust, the time was again ripe
+for its rehabilitation. Izabella Tabarovsky
+(2022), herself born in the Soviet Union
+and a researcher specialized in the history
+of Russia, characterizes the antizionism
+which was created there after the Second
+World War as grounded in antisemitic con-
+spiracy theory because it included the core
+demonology of antisemitism. Although
+another historian, Asmund Borgen Gjerde
+(2018), maintains that the antizionism of
+the Soviet elite at the time was not a con-
+scious strategy to conceal antisemitism,
+as conspiracist thinking was common in
+Soviet politics, he does not deny its anti-
+semitism or consequences:
+
+If an antisemite sincerely believes Jews
+conspire against everything that is
+good in the world, this obviously does
+not make her or him any less antise-
+mitic than if she or he merely fabri-
+cates such charges, knowing them to
+be false [...]. For it remains true that
+these attacks were directed at any Jew
+who expressed a commitment to any
+form of Jewish identity beyond an
+absolute minimum tolerated by Soviet
+authorities; and it remains true that
+these attacks often echoed ideas that
+had previously been used to justify
+violence against Jews. (Gjerde 2018,
+292)
+
+Lenin himself condemned antisemitism,
+denouncing it as fascist, but under Stalin a
+
+65

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+new linguistic shape, a “permission struc-
+ture for antisemitism” as the Professor of
+Literature Dara Horn (2024) has called it,
+was created. Horn used this term primarily
+to explain the soaring statistics of antisem-
+itism after Hamas's brutal attack on Israel
+on 7 October 2023, but she aptly described
+how the core demonology of the imagined
+collective Jew has been maintained through
+all the variations:
+
+This is the permission structure for
+antisemitism [...] announce a “uni-
+versal” ideal that all good people must
+accept and then redefine Jewish col-
+lective identity as lying beyond it.
+Hating Jews thus becomes a demon-
+stration of righteousness. The key is
+to define, and redefine, and redefine
+again, the shiny new moral reasoning
+for why the Jews have failed the uni-
+versal test of humanity. (Horn 2024)
+
+The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawn
+identified the new shapeshift in the Soviet
+Union when noting that antisemitism was
+“tolerated and sometimes encouraged [...]
+albeit now dressed up as anti-Zionism” and
+that antisemitism manifested itself after the
+establishment of the Jewish state “under the
+disguise of antizionism” (Hobsbawn 1980,
+502, 504).
+
+Soviet antizionist propaganda had
+right-wing antisemitic roots and was pro-
+duced, translated to many languages and
+disseminated to many countries from
+roughly 1967 to 1988 (Tabarovsky, 2022).
+This propaganda proclaimed, without evi-
+dence, that Zionism is Nazism, racism,
+apartheid, colonialism and _ genocide.
+So-called “Zionologists” were employed
+
+at the Soviet Academy of Sciences for the
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+purpose of producing that propaganda.
+The renowned Professor of History Robert
+Wistrich (2012) noted the crucial role of
+Soviet academics:
+
+a wide variety of classic anti-Jewish
+motifs became virtually obligatory
+in so-called academic Soviet publi-
+cations. Ostensibly concerned with
+Zionism, these writings insistently
+slandered Judaism as a creed that calls
+for genocide and the enslavement of
+non-Jews [...] Ultimately, this ideol-
+ogy [Zionism] was founded to jus-
+tify the “extermination” of Palestinian
+Arabs. (Wistrich 2012, 435)
+
+Wistrich saw the development of antise-
+mitic antizionism in the Soviet Union as an
+effort to explain away the defeat of the Arab
+allies 1967:
+
+Already in the summer of 1967 the
+Soviet media began to denounce
+Israel’s so called genocide against the
+Palestinian people. Within days of the
+Israeli victory, the Soviet press would
+brand Israeli Defense Minister Moshe
+Dayan as a “pupil of Hitler” and exe-
+crate world Zionism as a racialist,
+criminal conspiracy [...] The tone
+had been set for what would become
+a veritable tsunami of articles, lec-
+tures, broadcasts and films vilifying
+Judaism, Zionism and Israel in the
+Soviet mass media. The only compara-
+ble analogy would be the monstruous
+specter of Das Weltjudentum in Nazi
+propaganda of the 1930s and 1940’s—
+this time with the roles reversed.
+In place of the relentless Nazi myth
+about “Jewish Bolshevism’, the Soviet
+
+66

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+Communists began to fabricate the
+equally mendacious “Jewish Nazism”.
+(Wistrich 2012, 433)
+
+Tabarovsky (2022) notes that Zionism and
+Zionists were demonized with the same
+core demonology with which Judaism
+and Jews had been depicted by the forged
+Protocols of the Elders of Zion and by the
+Nazis, creating an imagined Zionism which
+to a large extent was based on old antise-
+mitic myths. One pertinent example is
+from an antisemitism trial in Paris in 1973,
+where the defence quoted a right-wing
+author, who had:
+
+borrowed entire passages—typos
+included—from a 1906 pamphlet
+called The Jewish Question [...] or
+the Impossibility of Granting Full
+Rights to Jews, authored by S. Rossov,
+a member of the ultra-nationalist,
+antisemitic Black Hundreds move-
+ment which incited pogroms in pre-
+revolutionary Russia. The only dif-
+ference [...] was that whenever the
+former [Rossov] used the word “Jew’,
+the [1972 publication] used the word
+“Zionist”. (Tabarovsky 2022, 4)
+
+Discussing the link between antisemitic
+antizionism and the legacy of classical
+right-wing antisemitism in Russia, Wistrich
+(2012, 434) noted that in Soviet propa-
+ganda the virulent antisemitism of the
+Russian masses in older times was depicted
+as an understandable reaction to the eco-
+nomic exploitation by Jews. Even “the
+monarchist pogromchiks who had mobi-
+lized the ultra-reactionary Black Hundreds
+around 1905 in defense of Tsarism, were
+now being rehabilitated as precursors of a
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+new and better socialist world” (Wistrich
+2012, 434). Soviet mass media “openly
+embraced the language of the Protocols
+and did not shrink from Sturmer-like car-
+icatures which had acquired free reign
+since 1967” (Wistrich, 2012, 438). Wistrich
+(2012) noted also the journal published by
+the Russian Embassy in Paris 1972 which:
+
+contained extracts from a pamphlet
+originally published seventy years ear-
+lier by the antisemitic “Alliance of the
+Russian People”. The only significant
+divergence in the modernized Soviet
+version of Black Hundred antisem-
+itism was the substitution of the code-
+word “Zionist” for “Jew”. The article
+consisted of largely fabricated quota-
+tions from Jewish religious writings.
+(Wistrich 2012, 434-35)
+
+This pamphlet was what the defence
+had used in the Paris trial in 1973 when
+the French Communist publisher of the
+Embassy was found guilty of discrimina-
+tion, hatred and racial violence (Wistrich
+2012, 435).
+
+The transfer of the core demonology of
+antisemitism to antizionism can be exem-
+plified by a typical Nazi imagery of the Jew,
+an enormous spider with a star of David
+on his military hat, threatening innocent
+Soviet children beneath it (cf. Fig. 1). Even
+as it was endlessly repeated that this was
+not antisemitism, Soviet Jews were mer-
+cilessly persecuted (Tabarovsky 2022).
+Regrettably, however, also “contemporary
+left-wing antizionist discourse reproduces
+with stunning fidelity some of the central
+tropes of Soviet antizionist propaganda,
+which demonized Israel and Zionism”
+(Tabarovsky 2022, abstract).
+
+67

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+Figure 1. The text on the spider's web reads “Zionism is a weapon for imperialism”. The image was
+taken at the parade on 1 May 1972 in Moscow by Vladimir Sichov. Image source: Huttunen 2019.
+Image: Courtesy Vladimir Sichov, all rights reserved.
+
+This antizionist narrative exempli-
+fies what Deborah Lipstadt (1994) named
+a “soft” form of Holocaust denial, also
+called Holocaust inversion (Klaff 2014).
+Despite Jews clearly qualifying globally
+as a vulnerable minority, constituting 0.2
+per cent of the world’s population, com-
+pared, for example, to Muslims at close to
+30 per cent (Illouz 2025), Holocaust inver-
+sion implies a victim-perpetrator rever-
+sal, where Israel is perceived as just as
+bad as the Nazis and denied any victim-
+hood while the Palestinians are the epito-
+mized victims. As the senior researcher at
+the Norwegian Centre for Holocaust and
+Minority Studies Vibeke Moe (2025, 10)
+has noted, most Jews in Europe and schol-
+ars of antisemitism perceive similar anal-
+ogies in connection with descriptions of
+Israel as expressions of Holocaust distor-
+tion and antisemitism.
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+The Professor of Social Psychology
+Michael Billig (1987) studied the discourse
+of the British far left in the late 1970s and
+early 1980s from a social psychological per-
+spective. He noted that this narrative was
+“typical of the way the revolutionary left in
+general” wrote about Zionism:
+
+Thus, comments about “genocidal
+suppression of Palestinians” and of
+the “Hitlerite policies of the Israeli
+Zionists” exemplify a more general
+trend in which the language used to
+describe Nazi crimes against Jews is
+now appropriated to describe Zionism.
+This is part of a general ideological
+process that is equating Zionism with
+Nazism. (Billig 1987, 125)
+
+Billig found in these left-wing publications
+“themes that suggest that Jews are forever
+
+68

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+complaining about non-existent persecu-
+tions” and “as with right-wing antisem-
+itism, these themes are formulated against
+a background that assumes that the world
+would be a better place if the Jew were
+made impossible” (Billig 1987, 129). The
+historian Henrik Bachner (1999) found
+similar material in Sweden, noting that “the
+motif of ‘the Jew as Nazist and racist was
+linked to and co-existed with more tradi-
+tional perceptions of Jewish vengefulness,
+‘Old Testament’ cruelty and the ‘chosen
+people’ evil, murderousness, and dreams
+of domination and supremacy” (Bachner
+1999, 473).
+
+The Marxist Professor of History
+Moishe Postone (2010) disentangled differ-
+ent historical currents of antizionism, some
+virulently antisemitic, others not. The latter
+included Jewish Communists who con-
+sidered “any expression of Jewish iden-
+tity as anathema to their own notions of
+what I would call abstract Enlightenment
+notions of humanity”. Postone noted that
+“Trotsky, in an earlier phase, referred to
+the Bund [the Jewish Socialist Party] as
+
+22
+
+‘sea-sick Zionists”, rejecting any form of
+Jewish communal self-identification. This
+“critique of Zionism [...] had nothing to
+do with Palestine or the situation of the
+Palestinians, since the Bund was focused
+entirely on autonomy within the Russian
+empire and rejected Zionism” Postone
+added, however, that “frequently, this form
+of anti-Zionism is inconsistent—it is will-
+ing to accord national self-determination
+to most peoples, but not to Jews” (Postone
+2010).
+
+Another version, in turn, aimed “to
+eradicate actually existing Jewish self-
+determination. It converges with some
+
+forms of Arab nationalism—now coded
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+as singularly progressive” (Postone 2010).
+Postone calls it “deeply antisemitic’, noting
+that it was “introduced by the Soviet Union,
+particularly in the show trials in Eastern
+Europe after World War Two”. “Because the
+Soviet Union could not officially use the
+language of antisemitism’, he notes, “they
+began to use the word ‘Zionist’ to mean
+exactly what anti-Semites mean when they
+speak of Jews.” Postone was clear about
+the roots of this antisemitic antizionism:
+“The idea that every nation other than the
+Jews should be allowed self-determination
+does come back to the Soviet Union. One
+has only to read Stalin on the nationalities
+question” (Postone 2010).
+
+More recently, the Moroccan-born
+French, Professor of Sociology Eva Illouz
+has found that “two key tropes of tradi-
+tional antisemitism ‘happen’ to be the
+same as the ones bestowed on Zionists and
+Zionism: tentacular destructive power and
+malevolent scheming to evade accountabil-
+ity. These two key antisemitic motifs have
+been cut from antisemitism and pasted
+onto Zionism” (Illouz 2025). In addition,
+she identifies the cultural roots of these
+tropes:
+
+There is a semantic continuity between
+the ways in which Jews were vilified
+in a Christian world which associ-
+ated them with deicide, the spilling
+of Gentile blood—especially children,
+and ritual murder, and the view of
+Israel as uniquely destructive and
+criminal. A secular ideology whose
+aim was to restore dignity and inde-
+pendence to the Jews has been singled
+out as the bearer of a radical guilt and
+evil as no other. No sloganeering will
+manage to hide the obvious: antisem-
+
+69

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+itism gives anti-Zionism its fuel and
+passion, its semantics and archetypes.
+If ‘woke’ ideology has marked a moral
+progress, it is precisely in making us
+aware that misogyny, homophobia,
+and racism have deep structures. If it
+is true for these, it is no less true of
+antisemitism. (Illouz 2025)
+
+With its roots in the antizionist propaganda
+of the Soviet Union contemporary anti-
+semitism utilizes antisemitism’s culturally
+transmitted core demonology and is now
+so normalized throughout the political
+spectrum that it has become invisible (Herf
+2024). The core demonology of antisem-
+itism in all the “melodies” played on the
+antisemitism “piano” over time can be illus-
+trated by one typical subhuman, i.e. dehu-
+manizing, symbol of the collective Jew,
+the spider (cf. Figs. 2.1-2.4). Antizionism
+becomes antisemitic when the Zionism
+or Zionists it addresses share characteris-
+tics with imagined Judaism or Jews and/or
+when only Jews are denied self-governance
+in a state of their own.
+
+Research confirms that the antisem-
+itism of contemporary antizionist discourse
+demonizes all Jews (e.g. Allington et al.
+2023). Moe (2025) found that high dislike
+of Jews among Norwegians increased from
+4.2 per cent in 2022 to 8.6 per cent in 2024
+(Moe 2025). In addition, she notes that no
+sudden decrease of knowledge of history
+can explain the simultaneous significant
+increase (from 33 per cent in 2022 to 51
+per cent in 2024) in support for the state-
+ment “Israel treats Palestinians as badly as
+the Jews were treated during World War
+ID; and that it rather reflects “a widespread
+Israel-critical opinion and massive media
+coverage of the war in Gaza and suffering
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+of its civilian population’, indicating “a
+lack of understanding of and sensitivity to
+Holocaust distortion, and a public debate in
+which the threshold for making extremely
+negative statements about Israel appears to
+be lower than before” (Moe 2025, 10).
+
+Also ECRI (the European Commission
+against Racism and Intolerance at the
+Council of Europe) has observed that an
+increase of antisemitism in many member
+states “is also characterized by contem-
+porary forms of antisemitism and by the
+spread of antisemitic hatred online” and
+that its “manifestations have also closely
+followed contemporary world develop-
+ments” (European Commission against
+Racism and Intolerance 2021, 3-4).
+
+The Professor of Linguistics Georges-
+Elia Sarfati (2004) noted that this demoni-
+zation has been so often repeated that it
+can be used autonomously, ie. the con-
+tent no longer needs to be verified. Thus,
+one only needs to be, for instance, against
+Nazism (and who is not?) to be an antizion-
+ist. These pseudo-equations and pseudo-
+equivalences justify every initiative hos-
+tile to Zionism, framing it into an act of
+progressiveness and humanism. Ironically,
+Europe supplied all that it now reproaches
+in Zionism: Nazism, totalitarianism, racism
+and colonialism. Linguistically, this is a
+“displacement”, psychologically, it is “pro-
+jection”. Europe's historical traumas are
+redirected towards the only Jewish state.
+Theologically, this recalls the scapegoat
+mechanism; loaded with everybody’s sins
+the scapegoat was expelled (Sarfati 2004).
+
+Research across history, philosophy, the-
+ology, linguistics, semiotics, literature, law,
+political science, sociology, psychology and
+social psychology converges. Empirical evi-
+dence shows that, individually, traditional
+
+70

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@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+Figure 2.2. German cartoon, Der Sttirmer, February 1930. Image
+source: the German Propaganda Archive, published with permis-
+
+® Prtitst30 ‘Mamas sion from the page copyright holder Randall Bytwerk. All rights
+- reserved.
+
+Dipdt 1 O. P.M,
+‘, A. naan
+Figure 2.1. Title page from the French ver-
+sion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,
+1921. Image source: Tabarovsky 2019. All
+rights reserved. y \ yo
+| Courtesy of:
+PMW.ORG.IL g, ¢,
+
+Figure 2.4. Official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat
+Al-Jadida, 21 October 2001 as reprinted in Kill a Jew—
+Go to Heaven by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW),
+2005. Reproduced with permission from PMW. All
+rights reserved.
+
+Figure 2.3. “At his favorite work”, A. Zenin, Sovi-
+etskaya Moldavia, 29 August 1971. The cartoon is
+titled A Zionist Cobweb Spider. Image source: The
+Israeli-Arab Conflict in Soviet Caricatures, 1967-73
+by Yeshayahu Nir, Tcherikover Publishers, 1976. All Figure 2.1-2.4. The spider as a metaphor of the core
+rights reserved. demonology of antisemitism.
+
+Approaching Religion = Vol. 16, No. 1 * March 2026 7

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+Jew-hatred strongly correlates in Europe
+with criticism against Israel (Kaplan and
+Small 2006). A recent large-scale study
+finds some differences between individual
+predictors of “old” and “new” (antizion-
+ist) antisemitic attitudes, but both are pre-
+dicted, at least in the UK, by ethnicity,
+conspiracist worldviews, a desire to over-
+turn the social order, and a preference for
+authoritarian government—all of which
+can be found on the right, the left and else-
+where (Allington et al. 2023).
+
+More research on antisemitism is needed
+
+to acknowledge common features of all
+variants and to curb their increase
+
+As shown above, Jews have repeatedly
+failed in their identity negotiations with
+religious and secular outgroups. The Italian
+Professor of Semiotics Ugo Volli (2016)
+discussed conspiracist antisemitism in
+Antiquity and asked: “Why the Jews?” His
+reply falls back on social psychology:
+
+Jews are a small group, often dis-
+persed among another people, but
+able to maintain its different identity,
+language, religion, habits. So they are
+perceived as different and secret. But
+they are also among “us’, indistin-
+guishable from “us’, behaving mostly
+like “us”, speaking “our” language etc.
+while keeping different, following a
+different religion and different habits
+and laws, eating other foods etc. In the
+antisemitic discourse they have collec-
+tive goals that are theirs, not ours, and
+therefore must (or just could) be evil.
+They can become a danger [...] This
+idea of the Jewish conspiracy is very
+old and widespread. (Volli 2016)
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+The process of antisemitic othering is con-
+spiracist in nature and creates the imag-
+ined Jew. Intergroup beliefs and emotions
+are socially constructed and embedded in
+the language of ideologies and worldviews
+(Billig 2002). Prejudice includes the emo-
+tion conveyed by discourse, producing hate
+speech. Group norms dictate the limits of
+prejudice expression—whether it is allowed
+or necessary to despise, discriminate, hate
+or eliminate “them” Norms define the
+politically correct forms of antisemitism;
+genocide becomes possible only with suf-
+ficient ideological importance, emotional
+investment and legitimizing norms.
+
+Currently, right-wing, left-wing and
+Islamist antisemitism are interconnected,
+yet this is rarely addressed (Herf 2024, 237).
+Herf explains this with the polarization of
+politics, intellectual life, and scholarship;
+rightists condemn leftist antisemitism but
+ignore their own, while leftists condemn
+rightist antisemitism, yet deny their own
+and are reluctant to condemn Islamist
+antisemitism for fear of being labelled
+“Islamophobes” (Herf 2024, 237). This may
+be yet another effect of the need for positive
+distinctiveness discussed in the section on
+the cultural roots and core demonology of
+antisemitism: to maintain self-esteem, we
+compare also our political ingroups with
+outgroups to acquire positive distinctive-
+ness (Tajfel and Turner 1986; Helkama et
+al. 2017). Herf (2024) shows his high-level
+scholarship by analysing all three variants
+with equal critical rigour.
+
+However, the normalization of the latest
+variant of antisemitism has led to a striking
+scarcity of serious research on its contem-
+porary variant. Schraub (2019) has noted
+that:
+
+72

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+there is a consistent worry felt
+among many Jews—progressive Jews
+included—that left-wing critics depri-
+oritize the fight against antisemitism,
+viewing it as a marginal issue, a dis-
+traction from more immediate con-
+cerns, or a fight that (but for a few
+stray cranks) has already been won.
+This fear is exacerbated by noticeable
+lacuna surrounding antisemitism in
+progressive scholarship about con-
+temporary issues of discrimination,
+oppression, and identity-based mar-
+ginalization. Vigorous theoretical
+accounts of how antisemitism cur-
+rently manifests in Western societies
+lag behind the excellent work focused
+on other oppressions. [...] Yet the the-
+oretical gap in intersectionality analy-
+ses largely overlooking the Jews is not
+fully accidental. Specifically, the asso-
+ciation of Jews with power as an anti-
+semitic trope functions to classify Jews
+not just as “White”, but as exemplify-
+ing or embodying Whiteness. Insofar
+as Jewishness is not understood as
+existing as a materially distinct cat-
+egory from Whiteness, the failure to
+consider Jews as a case of a marginal-
+ized identity is not intuitively felt as an
+absence. (Schraub 2019, 382, 384)
+
+The philosopher and sociologist Balasz
+Berkovits (2018) considers it detrimental
+to serious research on antisemitism when
+Whiteness studies which represent more
+antizionist activism than academic research
+is given academic credibility:
+
+there is an extreme variability in the
+characterization of “Jewish white-
+
+»
+
+ness’, “Jewish hegemony and suprem-
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+»
+
+acism’, “Zionist racism and coloni-
+alism’, and so on. Most of the time,
+these interpretations are contradict-
+ing one another. Still, there is a unani-
+mous intention of radical criticism,
+and total political agreement on the
+evaluation of Zionism, Israel, and
+Jews in the Middle East. A furtive look
+into these texts would be sufficient
+to conclude that whenever it comes
+to Israel, political criticism fully sub-
+ordinates any interpretation [...] in
+these works, the arbitrary usage of the
+concept of “whiteness” becomes even
+more conspicuous than in Whiteness
+Studies proper, as it encompasses
+an increasingly diverse set of phe-
+nomena. However, this fact does not
+bother totalizing critics emboldened
+by their academic prestige. (Berkovits
+2018, 101)
+
+As in the nineteenth century, academia of
+today misuses terms to demonize the col-
+lective Jew, “genocide” used in Holocaust
+inversion being only one of them (Klaff
+2014). Apart from Schraub (2019), the his-
+torian Simon Sebag Montefiore (2023) has
+also noted misapplication of the antiracist
+paradigms drawn from accounts of the
+American Black/White experience to the
+history and society of modern Israel and of
+terms like imperialism and colonialism by
+those forced by that frame to squeeze Israel
+and Palestine into a wholly inappropriate
+colonialist mould (Montefiore 2023).
+Obviously, Israel can (or should) be
+criticized like any other country and even
+accused of genocide, as long as this is done
+on the basis of impartially established facts
+and by applying existing definitions of the
+term, just as they have been applied to
+
+73

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@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+other countries. The Professor of Holocaust
+Studies Norman J. W. Goda (2025) shows
+how the term genocide has been applied
+to Israel since its establishment, noting a
+double standard, “an effort to redefine gen-
+ocide itself so that the constitutive elements
+of the crime itself are lowered” (Goda 2025,
+4) and that
+
+the genocide libel also deploys a range
+of antisemitic tropes. One is the link-
+age of genocide to violent passages
+in the Hebrew Bible, a linkage which
+plays on the theme of Jewish chosen-
+ness at the expense of others’ existence
+and which even claims that God is
+genocidal. Another is the whitewash-
+ing of Hamas’s own genocidal intent
+in lieu of tropes concerning the out-
+sized Jewish thirst for vengeance in the
+form of disproportionate response. A
+third is the coupling of the genocide
+charge with the deliberate killing of
+children, images of whom are ubiq-
+uitous on NGO, social media, and
+other platforms that charge Israel with
+genocide. A fourth is the attribution
+of special powers to the Israeli gov-
+ernment by which it and its support-
+ers have fooled western governments
+into believing that Israel’s actions are
+legitimate and that the history of the
+Israel-Arab conflict is too complex
+for snap judgments. A fifth, and this
+is what makes the genocide libel par-
+ticularly dangerous, is the association
+of all Jews with the crime. Jews world-
+wide are all in on it, either as Zionist
+enablers, as dishonest back-room lob-
+byists, or as community leaders who,
+we are told, “weaponize” the charge
+of antisemitism to silence the truth-
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+tellers. Other genocide charges over
+time have not targeted Hutus living in
+Belgium or Serbs living in Germany.
+(Goda 2025, 4-5)
+
+Linguistic “innovation” has always been
+central in the rehabilitation of Jew-hatred.
+Illouz calls for overcoming the denial of the
+antisemitism in its most recent form:
+
+transcendental anti-Zionism is deeply
+offensive to many or most Jews and
+does not serve the Palestinian cause. It
+prevents us from achieving the urgent
+tasks ahead: stop Israel’s reckless
+destruction of Gaza, rebuild the Strip,
+give a humane future to Palestinians
+and create durable regional peace,
+and ensure a future Gazan leader-
+ship without genocidal aspirations
+against Israel. As long as our language
+is contaminated by antisemitism, and
+as long as anti-Zionism continues to
+perniciously conflate critique of Israel
+with its demonization, we can only
+drift further away from these goals.
+(Illouz 2025)
+
+Illouz notes aptly that the progressive Left
+has traditionally relied on members of
+minority groups to decide whether or not “a
+word, behaviour, or idea is discriminatory,
+sexist, racist or Islamophobic” because,
+“if discrimination or racial hatred prof-
+its one group to the detriment of another,
+we cannot let the profiting group judge
+how harmful its own behaviour is” (Illouz
+2025). This is an accepted principle for all
+other minorities, but Jews are an excep-
+tion; their experiences of antisemitism are
+a priori interpreted as false, in accordance
+with the mendacity libel identified by Julius
+
+/4

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@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+(2024) and with epistemic antisemitism
+as described by Schraub (2022; see also
+the section on the cultural roots and core
+demonology of antisemitism).
+
+Where, and as long as a new variety of
+antisemitism, the contemporary “imagined
+Jew’, is politically correct in accordance
+with prevailing norms and values, we are
+inclined to deny it in ourselves, although
+recognizing it in others. Research on anti-
+semitism has increased also in progressive
+scholarship since the noticeable lacuna
+(Schraub 2019) but still must increase to
+cover applied studies aimed at finding rem-
+edies for it, ie. research which has long
+existed for other forms of racism (cf. e.g.
+Liebkind et al. 2014). There is an obvious
+need to prevent a contemporary, politi-
+cally correct version of antisemitism from
+accomplishing the aim of, to paraphrase
+Billig (1987) have the (collective) Jew made
+impossible.
+
+Conclusions
+Through
+tions and social identity dynamics in rela-
+
+examining inter-group _ rela-
+tion to the historical evolution of antise-
+mitic narratives, key insights emerge that
+warrant reflection and further scholarly
+engagement.
+
+First, this work shows that antisem-
+itism is rooted in intergroup and identity
+processes. Seen through key theories in
+social psychology, the portrayal of Jews as
+an outgroup threat based on some dimen-
+sion of self-recognized Jewish identity has
+evolved across centuries while maintain-
+ing core psychological structures; con-
+spiratorial thinking, threat perception
+and core demonology remain consistent
+in driving this prejudice regardless of his-
+torical period or political context. Shifting
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+manifestations of antisemitism, from medi-
+eval blood libels to contemporary claims of
+global Jewish or “Zionist” influence and the
+double standards applied when criticizing
+Israel, demonstrate the adaptation of its
+core demonology to new social and politi-
+cal circumstances.
+
+Second, the multi-dimensional char-
+acter and linguistic variety of contempo-
+rary antisemitism encompassing Rightist,
+Leftist and Islamist variants indicates the
+complexity of addressing this prejudice.
+Recognizing their shared characteristics
+offers a more coherent analytical frame-
+work and enables scholars and practition-
+ers to identify potential intervention points
+across seemingly disparate contexts.
+
+Lastly, this work highlights a critical gap
+in contemporary research: while significant
+scholarship examines how antisemitism
+manifests and transforms, further research
+is needed into mitigation strategies and
+the societal factors that either facilitate
+or inhibit its spread. Future scholarship
+should combine analytical clarity with
+empirical investigation of which interven-
+tions can effectively address the emotional,
+cognitive, and behavioral components of
+antisemitism, particularly as digital com-
+munication platforms facilitate the rapid
+dissemination and radicalization of antise-
+mitic narratives.
+
+Moving forward, fostering cross-dis-
+ciplinary dialogue remains essential. Inte-
+grating insights from social psychology
+with historical, political and cultural anal-
+ysis offers promising avenues for develop-
+ing more comprehensive understandings
+of antisemitism and more effective strate-
+gies for addressing this persistent form of
+hatred. &
+
+15

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@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+Karmela Liebkind is Professor Emerita of Social
+Psychology at the University of Helsinki, Finland,
+and specializes in intergroup relations. Areas of
+expertise include the ethnic identity and accul-
+turation of minority members, contact and
+prejudice between minority and majority mem-
+bers and prejudice-reduction interventions for
+schools.
+
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+
+//

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+well, 147-85. Academic Press/Surrey Uni-
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+Liebkind, Karmela. 2006. “Ethnic Identity and
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+book of Acculturation Psychology, edited by
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+Cambridge University Press. https://doi.
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+Lahti. 2014. “Prejudice-Reduction in Cul-
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+edited by Todd D. Nelson. Psychology Press.
+
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+
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+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
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+
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+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+79

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+
+
+========== PAGE 1 ==========
+
+ANOO NISKANEN
+
+Leaving the Faith, Preserving the Self
+
+Identity Processes among Former Sweden-Finnish Conservative
+
+Laestadian Siblings
+
+doi.org/10.30664/ar.163854
+
+his article examines how identity motives
+[sis siblings’ disaffiliation from the Con-
+
+servative Laestadian revival movement in
+a Sweden-Finnish context, highlighting apos-
+tasy as a multifaceted identity process marked
+by renegotiation between inherited and emerg-
+ing identities. Drawing on life-story interviews,
+the study shows that religious exit is influenced
+by age, motivational structures and family rela-
+tions: adolescent departures were accompanied
+by destructive behaviour, while adult apostasy
+involved reflection and negotiation within the
+family. Although the siblings left Conservative
+Laestadianism, some retained elements of Chris-
+tian faith, suggesting reformulation rather than
+outright rejection. By situating these narratives
+within Identity Process Theory and Motivated
+Identity Construction Theory, the article demon-
+strates how motives such as continuity, belong-
+ing and psychological coherence shape religious
+identity processes. The findings also reveal the
+risks of marginalization and the vacuum state
+described in role-exit theory, where individuals
+feel suspended between identities and struggle
+to establish new roles. By foregrounding sibling
+dynamics and motivational structures, this arti-
+cle contributes new insights into how religious
+disaffiliation unfolds as an ongoing negotiation
+of continuity and belonging.
+
+Introduction
+Building on previous research on Sweden-
+Finnish Conservative Laestadians (Nis-
+
+kanen 2025), this article explores how
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+©)@ Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
+
+\| VERTAISARVIOITU
+~ KOLLEGIALT GRANSKAD
+wy. PEER-REVIEWED
+
+www.tsv.fi/tunnus
+
+identity motives shape siblings’ religious
+disaffiliation and highlights apostasy as a
+multifaceted identity process.
+
+Laestadianism is a Lutheran revival-
+ist tradition within the Church of Sweden
+that originated in Karesuando in the mid-
+nineteenth century under the leadership
+of Dean Lars Levi Laestadius. The move-
+ment spread to Norway, Finland and the
+United States (Andreassen 2020, 92). It was
+marked by strict sobriety, confession and
+absolution, and ecstatic religious experi-
+ences. Over time, the movement devel-
+oped an exclusive ecclesiology, emphasis-
+ing salvation only within its fellowship, and
+remains characterized by large families,
+a familycentred lifestyle and devotional
+meetings led by lay preachers (Niskanen
+2025, 42-43). In Sweden, it has been par-
+ticularly influential in the northern regions,
+shaping both religious and social life (SOU
+2023:68, 195-96). In Finland, it is the larg-
+est revivalist movement (van den Brandt
+and Rantala 2024, 227). The Conservative
+Laestadian branch, historically linked
+to the SRK (Suomen Rauhanyhdistysten
+Keskusyhdistys), is distinguished by a fam-
+ilyoriented and theologically conservative
+profile (Andreassen 2020, 92).
+
+24
+
+
+========== PAGE 2 ==========
+
+Recent scholarship has highlighted
+the scarcity of Swedish research on
+Laestadianism compared to the extensive
+Finnish literature (Andreassen et al. 2020).
+By focusing on Sweden-Finnish experiences,
+this article seeks to address this gap and
+contribute to a more comprehensive under-
+standing of Laestadianism as a Lutheran
+revival movement, particularly in relation
+to processes of disaffiliation. By examining
+sibling dynamics and motivational struc-
+tures, the study demonstrates how individ-
+uals negotiate continuity, belonging and
+psychological coherence when leaving the
+religious group. Specifically, it investigates
+how siblings differ in their identity motives
+and in the consequences they experience
+following disafhliation, thereby illuminat-
+ing the layered and individualized nature of
+religious exit.
+
+Theory
+
+Identity motives are explored within the
+frameworks of Identity Process Theory
+(IPT) (Jaspal and Breakwell 2014) and
+Motivated Identity Construction Theory
+(MICT) (Vignoles 2011; 2018). According
+to Vignoles, there are at least six universal
+identity motives (2011, 412): self-esteem,
+distinctiveness, continuity, meaning, effi-
+cacy and belonging. Jaspal and Cinnirella
+propose a seventh motive, psychological
+coherence, defined as the experience of
+one’s interconnected identities as compat-
+ible (Jaspal and Breakwell 2014, 176). This
+complements the six universal motives
+by emphasizing the importance of inter-
+nal consistency across different aspects of
+the self. According to MICT, these motives
+are culturally universal and guide identity
+construction. They share three core prop-
+erties (Vignoles 2011, 405): first, satisfac-
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+tion of these motives typically has a posi-
+tive impact, while frustration tends to
+negatively affect psychological well-being;
+second, people generally desire and strive
+for identities that satisfy these motives and
+typically avoid those that frustrate them;
+and third, situations that temporarily or
+chronically frustrate these motives often
+lead to intensified efforts to fulfil them.
+
+In this study, the interview material has
+been analysed through the combined lens of
+IPT and MICT, which facilitates a nuanced
+examination of how siblings negotiate their
+sense of self when leaving a tightly knit reli-
+gious community. This analytical frame-
+work demonstrates that apostasy is not
+merely a rejection of belief, but a complex
+identity process shaped by motivational
+structures such as continuity, belonging
+and psychological coherence. Drawing on
+my previous study about Sweden-Finnish
+Conservative Laestadians (Niskanen 2025),
+the article introduces a distinct analytical
+focus on sibling dynamics and differenti-
+ated experiences of religious disaffiliation.
+Rather than framing religious exit as rup-
+ture, the article highlights how inherited
+beliefs and emerging perspectives coexist
+and evolve. In line with Streib’s (2021, 139)
+view of deconversion as a dynamic life pro-
+cess, the narratives of the interviewed sib-
+lings demonstrate that religious exit often
+unfolds gradually through emotional and
+relational renegotiations. This perspec-
+tive challenges binary notions of belief and
+non-belief and instead foregrounds the lay-
+ered and biographical nature of identity
+transformation.
+
+Method and data collection
+In the preceding study, a novel method
+in religious studies, Faith Q-Sort, was
+
+25
+
+
+========== PAGE 3 ==========
+
+employed alongside 26 life-story inter-
+views. Faith Q-Sort (FQS) is a qualitative
+tool that allows participants to rank state-
+ments about religion and spirituality along
+a continuum of agreement. FQS captures
+subjective viewpoints on religion, spiritual-
+ity and life views (Wulff 2019; Nynas et al.
+2021; Nynas 2022).
+
+The analysis in the previous study sug-
+gested that close relationships significantly
+shaped participants’ subjective viewpoints
+(Niskanen 2025, 139). However, the results
+from the FQS are not presented in this
+article, which instead focuses on identity
+motives rather than life views.
+
+Life-story interviews were conducted
+between 2020 and 2022, with participants
+recruited through snowball sampling. One
+family, comprising four siblings, one in-law
+and two parents, was featured in a dedi-
+cated chapter of my dissertation (Niskanen
+2025, 138-68). This article focuses spe-
+cifically on the siblings and the in-law,
+all of whom have left the Conservative
+Laestadian revival movement. It extends
+the analysis of the interviews by examin-
+ing the consequences of religious disaffili-
+ation through the lens of identity motives
+and age-related differences.
+
+Ethical considerations were central
+to the study design. All participants pro-
+vided informed consent, and pseudonyms
+are used throughout the article to protect
+anonymity.
+
+The siblings: narratives of exit
+
+During data collection, efforts were made
+to select closely related participants to
+explore whether kinship influenced reli-
+gious perspectives. The findings suggested
+that siblings and married couples often
+expressed similar views (Niskanen 2025,
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+139), which may reflect shared experiences
+and relational dynamics.
+
+This article focuses on a family
+where most of the siblings had left the
+Conservative Laestadian movement. Four
+siblings and the husband of one of them
+participated in the study. The parents, who
+remain members of the religious group,
+were also interviewed in the previous study
+but are not included in this article. The sib-
+lings’ pseudonyms are Anne, Piia, Aki and
+Petri, and Piia’s husband is referred to as
+Erkki.
+
+Anne: continuity and rediscovered faith
+Anne was the first to be interviewed. Her
+responses indicated a continued engage-
+ment with personal faith, while her siblings
+expressed more critical perspectives on reli-
+gion. During the interview, Anne described
+how she gradually rediscovered her per-
+sonal faith after stepping away from it fol-
+lowing her departure from Conservative
+Laestadianism:
+
+Anne: And to discover my own con-
+viction, my personal belief, really, and
+then to reconnect with God again, the
+connection I’ve always had, though
+it was on hold at the time. (Niskanen
+2025, 140)
+
+Although Anne left Laestadianism as a
+young adult, she retained the Christian
+faith from her childhood:
+
+Anne: Mm, I am, I still have my inher-
+ited faith. I believe that if I hadn't been
+born into the family I was, it’s hard
+to imagine I would have become a
+believer, a Christian believer.
+(Niskanen 2025, 141)
+
+26
+
+
+========== PAGE 4 ==========
+
+She was critical of the Conservative
+Laestadian revival movement. Nevertheless,
+her interview statements indicate that con-
+tinuity remained essential to her, as shown
+by her claim that she still holds onto her
+innate faith. Even after pausing her spirit-
+ual engagement and despite a shift in per-
+spective, she retained the core beliefs of
+her childhood, even outside the Laestadian
+movement. This suggests that the continu-
+ity motive (Vignoles 2011, 412) was sig-
+nificant for her. The motive of belonging,
+however, seemed less prominent. Still, she
+did seek out another religious community
+after leaving the Conservative Laestadian
+congregation, indicating that belonging
+remained relevant.
+
+Piia and Erkki: the impact of family
+
+Among the siblings, Anne was the one who
+most clearly self-identified as a religious
+believer. Her brothers Aki and Petri also
+expressed some form of religious belief,
+even though all the siblings interviewed
+had left the movement. Her sister Piia and
+Piia’s husband Erkki were the most vocal
+in rejecting Conservative Laestadianism,
+despite Erkki showing a need for continu-
+ity and belonging through maintaining ties
+with his family and attending events hosted
+by the congregation. In contrast to Piia,
+who left first, Erkki comes from a family
+in which most siblings remain within the
+movement. This may have made it more
+difficult for him to follow Piia (Niskanen
+2025, 142):
+
+Piia: Yes. I was... I was more... I was
+more... or rather, I dared to take the
+step before my husband. He stayed,
+even though I left.
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+Erkki stated that his decision to leave was
+due to no longer living in accordance
+with Conservative Laestadian teachings
+(Niskanen 2025, 144-45):
+
+Erkki: No, it was that I didn't live as
+a Laestadian, and then I thought...
+I was cowardly for not leaving ear-
+lier, I don’t know why I was afraid or
+what I was thinking, but I didn’t live
+as a Laestadian and thought it was just
+better not to be involved.
+
+Interviewer: Yeah. How do you feel
+about it now, a few years later?
+
+Erkki: It feels good, absolutely.
+Interviewer: What feels good about it?
+
+Erkki: You don't feel that pressure, that
+you have to go to meetings and please
+everyone. How do I explain it? But I
+still go sometimes, to bazaars and
+things like that.
+
+Interviewer: Do you keep in touch
+with your parents and siblings who are
+still involved?
+
+Erkki: Yes.
+
+Interviewer: So you still see each
+other?
+
+Erkki: Yes, absolutely.
+
+Erkki had told his parents directly that he
+was leaving the religious group. They were
+not surprised, as his wife had left earlier.
+Later in the interview, he reflected on their
+reaction (Niskanen 2025, 146):
+
+2]
+
+
+========== PAGE 5 ==========
+
+Interviewer: How did your parents
+react?
+
+Erkki: They were sad, but they
+accepted me too.
+
+Piia comes from a family in which most sib-
+lings have left Conservative Laestadianism.
+This probably made it easier for her than
+for Erkki to leave. But even among her
+siblings, not everyone found it easy. Her
+brother Aki, who left as a teenager, had
+a much more difficult experience, as did
+Anne and Petri, who also left early.
+
+Aki: distinctiveness and identity enactment
+through rebellion
+
+In the interview, Aki described what it was
+like when he left Conservative Laestadianism
+as a teenager. Most interviewees referred to
+it simply as “Laestadianism’, particularly
+those who had left the movement (Niskanen
+2025, 147).
+
+Aki: I left, I consider that I left fairly
+early, around age thirteen.
+
+Interviewer: Thirteen. Was it a con-
+scious decision?
+
+Aki: Yeah, I'd say so. It was really a
+lot of conflicts in the family... And
+I absolutely didn’t want to remain
+in Laestadianism, so it turned into
+a huge conflict. I think part of the
+reason I started using drugs was just
+to show, in every possible way, that I
+didn’t want that life.
+
+Interviewer: So it was a kind of
+protest?
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+Aki: Yeah. Drinking, drugs, fighting.
+Doing everything the opposite way,
+basically.
+
+Interviewer: Like defiance?
+
+Aki: Yes, exactly. Today I'm outspo-
+ken, but back then I couldn't express
+things in words.
+
+Aki was not the first in his family to leave;
+two older siblings had left before him. Still,
+his parents seemed particularly affected by
+his rejection, perhaps out of concern for
+him. After middle school, he attended a
+Laestadian folk high school in Finland for a
+year. He described that time positively:
+
+Aki: Yeah, I mean, it was kind of excit-
+ing and stuff like that, but I didn't
+get any schooling at all, really. I liked
+being there, though I’m not sure why,
+maybe because I didn't feel at home
+back where I lived either.
+
+Upon returning to Sweden for high school,
+things escalated. He began using drugs,
+social services got involved and he was
+placed in treatment facilities, with little
+success. Eventually, Aki himself asked for
+help and entered a 12-step programme. He
+became drug-free around age 20 (Niskanen
+2025, 148).
+
+In the interview, Aki said his rebellious
+behaviour was a form of identity expres-
+sion, trying to show that he did not want to
+be a Conservative Laestadian. This reflects
+identity enactment (Vignoles 2011, 412)
+and a public rejection of a former identity
+(Ebaugh 1988, 123). When I asked about
+his current faith, he said (Niskanen 2025,
+148-49):
+
+28
+
+
+========== PAGE 6 ==========
+
+Aki: I think some of it came from
+my addiction and the treatment pro-
+grammes, especially the 12-step pro-
+gramme. I don't know the founda-
+tions, but I believe a lot of it draws
+on Christianity somehow. They talk
+a lot about higher powers. At first,
+when they said “higher power, I
+wanted to throw chairs at them. Not
+again! So they really had to explain
+a higher power as you understand it.
+And somehow, I feel that the Christian
+higher power is mine, that I identify
+with it. To the level that I person-
+ally feel. That it can come to a certain
+point, but then I think it goes too far.
+And that’s where it kind of, if I got
+some of it back, in a way, like I started
+to believe in my own way anyway. That
+it was connected to that.
+
+Interviewer: What does that belief
+mean to you today?
+
+Aki: It means quite a lot. I can abso-
+lutely talk about Christian things with
+my kids. I don't feel ashamed any-
+more, but earlier, I felt deep shame. If
+someone said the word “God”, Td turn
+and walk away. Now I feel secure in it,
+on my own terms. It feels good.
+
+Interviewer: What about your sib-
+lings? How do they view faith now?
+
+Aki: Among us who have rejected it?
+Most (of them) probably feel the same,
+when someone says “God’, they walk
+away. But my younger brother has
+gone through a similar journey to the
+one I have. We've talked and we think
+pretty similarly.
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+Aki explained that he now regards the
+Christian higher power as his own and
+that he has come to terms with it and
+feels secure in it in his own way. That may
+be interpreted as an indication that the
+continuity motive holds significance for
+him. Although he distanced himself from
+Conservative Laestadianism in every con-
+ceivable way during his youth, he is now
+able to express Christian ideas to his own
+children. This indicates a desire to pass on
+the Christian tradition, but in his own way,
+outside the religious movement, which
+suggests that the distinctiveness motive
+(Vignoles 2011, 415) has also played a role
+for Aki.
+
+Petri: marginalization
+
+The brother (Petri) whom Aki refers to in
+the quotation above has also been inter-
+viewed. This took place at their sister Piia’s
+home. It happened after the interview
+with Aki, who had told his siblings about
+it (Niskanen 2025, 149). Participants talk-
+ing to one another about the interviews
+was something that could not be avoided
+during the data-collection process. It is also
+inevitable in studies where participants are
+in some way related to each other.
+
+Petri’s views aligned more closely with
+Piias than with Anne’s or Aki’s, which is
+not particularly surprising given their close
+relationship and the fact that the interview
+was conducted at Piia’s home. These sib-
+lings appeared to have a strong bond, and
+Piia was the one who suggested that Petri
+participate in the study (Niskanen 2025,
+149).
+
+Aki mentions in his interview that Petri
+also holds a personal form of belief, which
+is confirmed when Petri describes his
+experiences of beginning to work within
+
+29
+
+
+========== PAGE 7 ==========
+
+a congregation of the Church of Sweden
+(Niskanen 2025, 150-51):
+
+Petri: Then I suppose I realised, well, I
+gradually noticed that it’s just an ordi-
+nary church, not like the one I grew up
+with. So no, I felt that it’s... it’s a health-
+ier relationship to faith and religion, at
+least.
+
+Interviewer: In what way is it different?
+Petri: It’s more everyday.
+Interviewer: More everyday?
+
+Petri: No... no finger-wagging, and
+you're allowed to have your faith just
+the way you want, I think.
+
+Interviewer: Right. So no one tells
+you how you're supposed to believe or
+anything like that?
+
+Petri: Yeah, well, I suppose they do...
+in principle, in the Church of Sweden,
+they encourage you to try to lL... live
+as a Christian, but it’s not like... no, I
+don't really know. I... I mostly just sit
+there... in the church during services
+and things, so yeah.
+
+Interviewer: Okay, okay, okay. So...
+you dont really take part in that way?
+
+Petri: Not actively, no.
+
+Interviewer: No, not actively. But you
+listen?
+
+Petri: Yes, I do. I mean, I find it a bit...
+quite... or well, it’s interesting to... no, I
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+suppose I’m still trying to understand
+[laughs] ... still trying to understand
+what religion’s all about, really. I don't
+think I... I think I had blinkers, or ear-
+plugs, on when I was little, at least
+[laughs].
+
+Interviewer: Okay. Do you remember
+having to listen to sermons when you
+were a child or teenager?
+
+Petri: Yeah, no, I just remember it as a
+kind of mumbling that was filled with
+anxiety.
+
+Petri was highly critical of the Conservative
+Laestadian Association for Peace, of which
+he was a member in his youth. Nevertheless,
+the quotation above suggests that he does
+not reject religion entirely; rather, he is
+seeking to grasp its meaning. He perceives
+the congregation in which he works as
+healthier, with less moralising and greater
+scope for forming one’s own view of faith
+(Niskanen 2025, 150-51).
+
+The older brother, Aki, said that Petri
+has had more or less the same journey in
+life as himself. Yet what Petri shared differs
+in part from his brother’s life story. While
+Aki claims that he tried in every possi-
+ble way to show that he did not want to
+be a Laestadian, including drug use, Petri
+described a different experience when he
+left the movement as a teenager (Niskanen
+2025, 151-53):
+
+Petri: I mean, it hasn't exactly been
+easy leaving the church. It’s been... I
+mean, you believed certain things, like
+if you're not religious, then you'll burn
+in hell for all eternity and stuff like
+that. And then you've just had to... I
+
+30
+
+
+========== PAGE 8 ==========
+
+mean, I’ve realised that’s not actually
+true, but somehow you did believe it.
+
+[...]
+
+Interviewer: Did it take a long time to
+get rid of that thought?
+
+Petri: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don’t
+know. I tried... I did other things to
+maybe avoid it.
+
+Interviewer: Okay.
+
+Petri: Yeah, it ... I mean, it ended up
+being way too much alcohol and,
+yeah. I mean, things pretty much spi-
+ralled out of control straight away,
+really... a... after that.
+
+Bjérkmark et al. describe how alcohol
+use may increase after leaving a religious
+group: “Some mentioned that they had
+tried to suppress their pain with alcohol
+and ended up drinking excessively, for a
+period of time” (2022, 4729). When asked
+what might have caused the excessive
+drinking, Petri answered it was because of
+frustration:
+
+Interviewer: Yeah. About what?
+
+Petri: Well, it was like... even though it
+was bad, it was still a kind of security.
+And then when you didn't have that, it
+felt like you were just floating out into
+the air.
+
+Interviewer: Yeah. A sense of security...
+Petri: I mean, you... you completely
+
+lost your stable foundation [...] I
+mean, I didnt really have a solid
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+ground to stand on, I think.
+
+Interviewer: Yeah. Was it hard to
+know who you were, like in terms of
+identity and all that?
+
+Petri: Yeah, I think so. I wasn't
+Laestadian any more, and I wasn't like
+other Swedes either, so... I was some-
+
+thing entirely my own.
+
+Interviewer: Yeah. How... how do you
+feel today, who are you today?
+
+Petri: ’'m much calmer and more
+secure in myself at least, but I still
+dont really know who I am [laughs].
+
+Petri’s response suggests a marginal-
+ized identity: he describes himself as nei-
+ther Laestadian nor like other Swedes, but
+rather as something entirely different. He
+does not appear to have adopted any alter-
+native identity after leaving the movement,
+which may have contributed to a sense of
+disconnection and rootlessness.
+
+His sister Piia and her husband Erkki,
+by contrast, became members of a secu-
+lar Finnish cultural association after leav-
+ing the revival movement (Niskanen 2025,
+268). This suggests that they were able to
+adopt a secular Sweden-Finnish identity as
+a replacement for their previous identity as
+Conservative Laestadians with a Finnish
+background:
+
+Interviewer: And are you both active
+members of the Finnish association in
+
+[...]?
+
+Piia: Yes. And as I said, all our children
+were involved too.
+
+
+========== PAGE 9 ==========
+
+Interviewer: Yeah. Is it easier to feel a
+sense of belonging with other Sweden-
+Finns who aren‘ Laestadian than with
+Swedes?
+
+Piia: Yes.
+
+Interviewer: What do you think that’s
+due to?
+
+Piia: I think it’s the Finnish language,
+there's something about it that makes
+you... you feel a connection in a
+strange way.
+
+Interviewer: Yeah. Exactly.
+
+Piia: Because the people we sing with,
+were the youngest, and they're all 70
+to 80 plus. And what do we really have
+in common with them? [laughs] But
+it’s the Finnish language and yeah.
+
+Piia stated that it was easier to feel con-
+nected to other Sweden-Finns who were
+not Laestadian than to Swedes, which indi-
+cates that the identity of “Swede” was not
+available to her as an alternative. This may
+help explain why Petri described himself
+as “not like other Swedes” in the quote
+above. Former cult members who have
+left a minority culture can be described as
+migrants or strangers in their own country,
+as the culture within the cult often differs
+markedly from mainstream society across
+multiple areas of life (Hadding 2023, 12).
+Since Petri and his siblings are part of the
+national minority of Sweden Finns, their
+sense of difference may be heightened.
+
+Piia and Erkki were able to connect with
+others in the secular cultural association,
+suggesting that their Finnish background
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+and language were crucial to their sense of
+belonging. Petri, by contrast, may not have
+found a similar group where he could feel
+connected, which could have contributed
+to a marginalized identity (Niskanen 2025,
+151-53).
+
+Hadding suggests that
+facing marginalization are at greater risk
+
+individuals
+
+of poor mental health. When someone
+leaves a context shaped by a specific cul-
+ture, certain aspects of that culture may no
+longer be accessible or may lose their sig-
+nificance and meaning. This can lead to a
+disruption in the individual's worldview. If
+the exit is linked to difficult experiences or
+trauma, the person becomes more vulner-
+able. Certain patterns of thought may also
+be deeply tied to identity, making change
+more difficult (Hadding 2023, 12-13).
+
+Exiting the movement and the vacuum state
+In Becoming an Ex: The Process of Role
+Exit, Helen Rose Ebaugh (1988) writes that
+three-quarters of the exiters in her study
+experienced a sense of being in a vacuum,
+suspended in mid-air, or in a rootless state.
+The interviewees had left various roles,
+both secular and religious, but many shared
+similar experiences (Ebaugh 1988, 148).
+What Petri described as “it felt like you
+were just floating out into the air” and “you
+completely lost your stable foundation”
+aligns closely with the feelings expressed
+by Ebaugh’s interviewees. This suggests that
+the experience is not solely about leaving a
+religious group, but rather about exiting a
+role without having found another.
+Interviewees in Ebaugh’s study who had
+built bridges to new roles before leaving the
+old one, such as a new job or new friends,
+found it easier to emerge from the vacuum
+state and form a new identity, compared
+
+32
+
+
+========== PAGE 10 ==========
+
+to those who lacked such connections.
+However, all those who entered the ex-role
+state faced similar challenges in establish-
+ing a new role identity that also acknowl-
+edged their status as an “ex” from the previ-
+ous role (Ebaugh 1988, 148).
+
+Petri stated, “I wasn't Laestadian any
+more, and I wasn't like other Swedes either,
+so ... | was something entirely my own” and
+“T still don't really know who I am.” This
+suggests that he has struggled to establish
+a new role identity, as no alternative identi-
+ties appeared to be available in the context
+in which he found himself. In contrast, Piia
+and Erkki seemed to have found a new role
+as secular Sweden Finns within a Finnish
+cultural association.
+
+According to Bjérkmark et al. (2021),
+feelings of having lost one’s identity can
+arise when someone leaves a religious con-
+gregation, especially if they have grown up
+within it since childhood. Letting go of a
+deeply rooted identity can bring about a
+profound sense of disconnection and inner
+confusion. It may feel as though one’s very
+sense of self has vanished, leaving a person
+adrift and uncertain. In the beginning, life
+is often marked by insecurity and a lack of
+orientation (Bjérkmark et al., 2021, 5-6).
+
+Ebaugh argues that the experience of a
+stable identity can be disrupted when an
+individual leaves a role that has been incor-
+porated into the self-structure, or when a
+new identity is adopted. She suggests that
+self-identity is gradually built through
+internalized meanings and expectations of
+the roles people occupy. Leaving a role or
+entering a new one is closely related to self-
+identity, as the roles people play in society
+become part of their self-definition. When
+a role is exited, self-identity is threatened
+and elements from the new or previous role
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+must be negotiated and reintegrated into
+the self-concept before stability and secu-
+rity can be re-established (Ebaugh 1988,
+22). This reflects the uncertainty and inse-
+curity described by Bjorkmark et al. (2021)
+and concerns the limbo state that arises
+after an internalized role identity has been
+abandoned, regardless of whether the role
+is religious or secular. If no alternative role
+identity is available, the uncertainty per-
+sists and may result in marginalization
+(Niskanen 2025, 153).
+
+The experience of leaving the Laestadian
+congregation that Petri describes also corre-
+sponds with what is outlined in Bjorkmark
+
+«ce
+
+et al’s article “Living between Two Different
+Worlds’: Experiences of Leaving a High-
+Cost Religious Group” (2022). The study
+explores the experiences of individuals who
+have left religious groups in Finland that
+are considered “high-cost religious groups’,
+including Laestadianism. These groups
+are defined as demanding and costly, both
+theologically and culturally exclusive. The
+article describes how, for example, alcohol
+use may increase after leaving the religious
+group, and how those who leave may expe-
+rience feelings of emptiness and emotional
+numbness (Bjorkmark et al. 2022, 4729).
+Petri’s account offers a poignant insight
+into the emotional consequences of leaving
+the Conservative Laestadian community.
+He describes a profound sense of empti-
+ness and the loss of a stable foundation,
+experiences that closely mirror Ebaugh’s
+(1988) concept of the vacuum state, in
+which individuals feel suspended between
+identities after exiting a deeply internal-
+ised role. His narrative also reflects several
+dimensions of deconversion identified by
+Streib and Keller, including emotional suf-
+fering, the loss of religious experience and
+
+33
+
+
+========== PAGE 11 ==========
+
+disaffiliation from a tightly knit community
+(2004, 191). Rather than a purely intellec-
+tual shift, Petri’s experience underscores
+the complexity of deconversion as a pro-
+cess that disrupts existential orientation,
+fractures relational bonds and destabilises
+one’s sense of self.
+
+Petri described how he continued to
+experience emotional numbness, a linger-
+ing effect that he associates with having left
+the congregation (Niskanen 2025, 154-55):
+
+Interviewer: Do you think it has
+affected your identity in some way?
+
+Petri: I think so, absolutely. Mm. No,
+I dont know if it’s that, but I think
+maybe it comes from there, yeah, I
+mean from this whole process, maybe
+I've become a bit more... what’s the
+word? Indifferent.
+
+Interviewer: Yeah. Indifferent to what?
+Petri: Things in general. I mean, what
+can you say? Yeah, a bit emotionally
+cold, I think. At least I believe it came
+from there.
+
+Interviewer: Okay. What do you think
+caused that? Or what might have
+made it happen?
+
+Petri: Hm. Hard to say really.
+
+Interviewer: Did you have to shut off
+certain feelings?
+
+Petri: I have.
+
+This enduring numbness suggests that the
+psychological consequences of role exit
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+are not confined to the immediate after-
+math but can persist over time, particularly
+when the exited role was deeply embed-
+ded in one’s identity from childhood. Petri’s
+experience aligns with Bjorkmark et al’s
+(2021, 6) findings that individuals raised
+within religious congregations may face a
+profound sense of disconnection and inner
+fragmentation upon leaving. The absence
+of a clear alternative identity, coupled with
+the exclusivity of high-cost religious groups
+like Conservative Laestadianism, may con-
+tribute to prolonged marginalization and
+emotional detachment.
+
+Different identity motives
+
+Petri had to shut off his emotions and had
+tried to cope with the emptiness he expe-
+rienced after leaving the congregation,
+most notably through heavy drinking. In
+contrast, Aki more actively demonstrated
+his rejection of Conservative Laestadian
+norms by deliberately doing the opposite
+of what was expected. He also used alcohol
+and drugs, but likely not out of a sense of
+inner void. Rather, his substance use seems
+to have been a way to create distance from
+the Conservative Laestadian lifestyle. They
+seem to have had different motivations,
+and it may be that Petri had a greater need
+for belonging and/or continuity than Aki,
+which made it harder for him to leave the
+movement. When asked whether it might
+be harder to leave Laestadianism if many
+siblings remain in the movement, Petri
+responded (Niskanen 2025, 155):
+
+Petri: I definitely think so, because... I
+don't know how it is for others, but for
+me, family is really important. I think
+they’re the ones I’m closest to. So I def-
+initely think it can be really hard... you
+
+34
+
+
+========== PAGE 12 ==========
+
+might hear little digs and things.
+Interviewer: Yeah. Could that make it
+harder to leave as well?
+
+Petri: I think so.
+
+The belonging motive (Vignoles, 2011, 412)
+seems particularly strong in Petri, and it is
+possible that his decision to leave was influ-
+enced by the fact that most of his siblings
+had already left. In a family where all or
+most siblings remain within the movement,
+Petri might not have made the decision to
+leave. Aki, by contrast, does not appear
+to be driven as strongly by the motive of
+belonging and might have left regardless
+of his siblings’ choices. He seems more
+influenced by the distinctiveness motive
+(Vignoles, 2011, 412), which became espe-
+cially clear during the interview when he
+described his behaviour at a confirmation
+camp in Finland (Niskanen 2025, 156):
+
+Aki: Back then, I had already started
+to rebel a bit, so I dressed completely
+differently, for example. Some looked
+at me with maybe a bit of contempt,
+and some looked at me with curiosity,
+that I really stood out from the crowd.
+
+Interviewer: How did you dress?
+
+Aki: If you think of today’s youth,
+maybe those who live in a suburb
+or want to express themselves more
+through clothing, yeah, it was like that.
+
+It is possible that Aki adopted the role
+of “the before he left
+Laestadianism and therefore did not expe-
+
+different one”
+
+rience the same level of emptiness or iden-
+tity loss as Petri. In contrast, Piia’s decision
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+to leave the congregation may be explained
+by the motives of self-efficacy and psycho-
+logical coherence. She stated clearly that
+she was not living as a Laestadian: “Why
+should I pretend to be something I’m not?”
+(Niskanen 2025, 143).
+
+According to Jaspal and Cinnirella, the
+psychological coherence motive refers to
+the experience of interconnected identi-
+ties as compatible. Identity is perceived as
+threatened when the social context pre-
+vents the satisfaction of identity motives.
+One way of managing such an identity
+threat is to deny an identity element that
+is incompatible with another, more cen-
+tral identity element (Bardi et al. 2014, 176;
+Niskanen 2025, 156).
+
+When Piia chose to leave Conservative
+Laestadianism, she had already recognised
+that she was not truly part of the movement
+but had merely pretended to be. This may
+explain why her departure was easier com-
+pared to Petri’s, who expressed greater emo-
+tional difficulty, possibly because he lacked
+a bridge to a new role identity at the time
+of his exit. His younger age may also have
+contributed to the emotional hardship. Piia
+left the movement later in adulthood and
+appears to have done so after reflecting on
+her identity (Niskanen 2025, 156).
+
+Piias husband Erkki may have left for
+similar reasons, guided by the psycho-
+logical coherence motive. However, his
+stronger need for belonging may explain
+why he found it more difficult to leave the
+congregation (Niskanen 2025, 156-57):
+
+And what does RY
+(Rauhanyhdistys/The Peace Associ-
+
+Interviewer:
+
+ation) mean to you... or what did RY
+mean to you?
+
+35
+
+
+========== PAGE 13 ==========
+
+Erkki: Well, meeting friends.
+
+Interviewer: So you were involved
+mostly for the social aspect?
+
+Erkki: Yeah. I mostly got tired of the
+preaching [laughs].
+
+Interviewer: So would you say that
+being involved for so long was really
+about meeting people, or...
+
+Erkki: Yeah... yeah, exactly. And then
+there was not wanting to let mum and
+dad down, and just... a whole bunch of
+stuff like that on your mind.
+
+Erkki seems to have been involved in the
+congregation primarily for social reasons
+and out of a desire to please his parents.
+This suggests that relationships are impor-
+tant to him and can be interpreted as a
+strong belonging motive. He has shown a
+need to be included and accepted by those
+who matter to him (Vignoles 2011, 412).
+His greater difficulty in leaving may also be
+linked to challenges in establishing a new
+role identity (Ebaugh 1988, 148).
+
+As for Anne, although she left the con-
+gregation, she stated that she did not want
+to say she had renounced her faith:
+
+Anne: And I didn’t want to say that
+I had denied the faith, because I’ve
+never denied my faith. I've only denied
+the way of “practising my faith’, but
+Ive never denied my belief.
+
+During the interview, Anne mentions sev-
+eral reasons for leaving the congregation, but
+what recurs is that she did not want or was
+not able to live according to Laestadian rules:
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+Anne: In my opinion, it was so diffi-
+cult, such pressure to be Laestadian.
+Almost like torture, sometimes it felt
+that way.
+
+Anne believed that it has now become
+easier and more flexible to be Laestadian,
+for example, regarding contraception,
+as fewer children are being born among
+members. She is critical of this shift, as
+she is accustomed to a more rigid frame-
+work where there was no middle ground
+
+(Niskanen 2025, 158):
+
+Anne: In my view, or I’m used to it
+being either you're Laestadian or
+youre not... That there are no in-
+betweens... Or we always said, either
+youre a believer or a non-believer.
+That there are no middle grounds.
+
+Anne’s sister Piia did not live according to
+Conservative Laestadian rules during part
+of her teenage years. She recalls facing a
+choice when she met her husband, who
+also had a background in the congregation:
+the choice between marrying and having
+children or living a different life. She ulti-
+mately chose to marry him, which may
+explain why she remained in the congrega-
+tion for so long. The fact that Piia chose to
+marry young to a man with a Conservative
+Laestadian background, even though both
+had experimented with different lifestyles
+in their youth, suggests that the continu-
+ity motive may have been stronger in Piia
+than in Anne, who did not make the same
+choice. Piia explained her decision this way
+(Niskanen 2025, 159):
+
+Piia: I think I had a... a moment before
+I got married. Like, “Yeah, should I
+
+36
+
+
+========== PAGE 14 ==========
+
+go into this?” and then yeah, I kind of
+chose which direction my life would
+go, roughly.
+
+And_ what
+
+Interviewer: did you
+
+choose?
+
+Piia: That I would... that I married...
+I broke up three times and thought,
+“Maybe I should go to Finland for a
+bit or travel and just live life” [laughs].
+Mm. Because it... yeah, it was almost
+like, “Should I become a mum... a
+mum even?’ like have... have kids or
+something, and I did want that.
+
+Interviewer: Yeah. How old were you
+when you... when you got married?
+
+Piia: 20, I think.
+
+Interviewer: Yeah. And that’s when
+you made the choice to stay, so to
+speak, was that it?
+
+Piia: Stay in the faith?
+
+Interviewer: Yeah, exactly. Was that
+the choice you think you made?
+
+Piia: Yeah, kind of.
+
+The continuity motive seems to have influ-
+enced Piia’s decision to marry young and
+remain in the congregation, even though
+the family may not have lived a strictly
+Conservative Laestadian life. This may be
+because both Piia and her husband had
+lived differently before marriage. They
+inhabited a middle ground that, according
+to Piia’s sister Anne, does not exist. Perhaps
+the ambivalence about not living “the right
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+way” eventually led Piia to want to leave the
+congregation, an example of the psycho-
+logical coherence motive (Niskanen 2025,
+159).
+
+Anne, Petri and Aki have not verbally
+renounced their faith, unlike Piia, who
+declared she no longer believes. Petri and
+Aki “drifted away” from faith during their
+teenage years but did not claim to have
+explicitly renounced it, even though Aki
+expressed his rejection in other ways. Anne
+says she never wanted to say she renounced
+her faith, as she has never denied her belief
+in God. She has therefore opposed the idea
+of renouncing faith (Niskanen 2025, 159-
+60). This supports the view of apostasy as a
+fluid and sequential process without a pre-
+determined destination (Enstedt 2020, 300).
+Apostasy does not necessarily mean reject-
+ing belief; it can instead involve distancing
+oneself from religious practice, as Anne
+said she did when she left Conservative
+Laestadianism. Likewise, for her brothers
+Aki and Petri, the endpoint has not been
+non-religiosity, as both express some form
+of religious belief despite distancing them-
+selves from the Conservative Laestadian
+revival movement (Niskanen 2025, 160).
+
+For the siblings, the consequences right
+after leaving varied, possibly depending
+on age. For Aki and Petri, breaking away
+from the Laestadian movement during
+their teenage years had destructive conse-
+quences, such as family conflicts and sub-
+stance abuse. Piia, who left later in life,
+reports that she did not receive any reac-
+tions at all, at least not from her own par-
+ents, although her mother-in-law ques-
+tioned the decision (Niskanen 2025,
+142-43). Anne, who left the movement as
+a young adult, did receive reactions from
+those around her, which may have been
+
+37
+
+
+========== PAGE 15 ==========
+
+because she openly demonstrated her exit
+from the Conservative Laestadian lifestyle
+(Niskanen 2025, 160):
+
+Anne: But I was open about leaving.
+And I know, for a fact, that many lived
+like I did, but they hadn't openly left
+Laestadianism, and they were greeted
+in shops and invited home, and they
+were considered good people, even
+though we were the same...
+
+Those who did not publicly declare their
+exit were not perceived as non-members,
+which suggests that public disclosure plays
+a significant role in leaving a role identity
+(Ebaugh 1988, 123). Vignoles argues that
+presenting one’s identity to a real or imag-
+ined audience is a key part of the social
+process through which individuals claim a
+particular kind of identity (Vignoles 2011,
+412). Although Anne did not verbally
+renounce Conservative Laestadianism, she
+did so through her lifestyle, and was there-
+fore perceived as non-Laestadian, unlike
+those who did not openly demonstrate
+that they lived outside Laestadian norms
+(Niskanen 2025, 160-61).
+There are also notable differences
+between the siblings in terms of identity
+motives. Aki appears to have been driven by
+the distinctiveness motive and possibly also
+the self-efficacy motive, while Petri seems to
+have had a stronger need for belonging. It is
+possible that Petri wanted to feel connected
+to his older siblings and that this influenced
+his decision to leave, since several of them
+had already exited the movement. He may
+have experienced an emotional conflict in
+deciding which side to feel aligned with:
+the religious group or the non-Laestadian
+friends and the siblings who had left.
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+For Piia, the psychological coherence
+and self-efficacy motives seem to have
+guided her decision to leave the movement.
+This may also be true for Anne, although it
+is more difficult to assess, as she left a long
+time ago. Anne was clear that she did not
+want to renounce her faith, a stance that
+some found problematic, given that faith
+and the practice of faith were perceived as
+synonymous within the group (Niskanen
+2025, 161):
+
+Anne: And that, mm, many wondered
+about, why I didn’t say it. But I said,
+I don't deny my faith. I believe, but I
+don't want ... I don’t want those ways,
+those behaviours, that, I want to get
+rid of that. And that, they couldn't
+understand, because to them it’s the
+same thing.
+
+Interviewer: Mm. That they’re kind of
+inseparable?
+
+Anne: Yes, it was one and the same.
+
+Anne’s distinction between personal faith
+and communal religious practice reflects
+a desire to maintain agency over her own
+beliefs. This aligns with the self-efficacy
+motive: she sought to define her faith on
+her own terms, rather than conform to
+externally imposed behaviours that no
+longer resonated with her. Her stance sug-
+gests a need to feel competent and in con-
+trol of her identity, even in the face of social
+pressure. The distinctiveness motive, which
+involves a desire to maintain a unique iden-
+tity, is also evident in Anne's insistence on
+retaining her faith while rejecting behav-
+ioural expectations, an effort to resist being
+absorbed into a singular group identity.
+
+38
+
+
+========== PAGE 16 ==========
+
+The quote above illustrates that the
+Conservative Laestadian lifestyle appears
+to be central to belonging within the move-
+ment. What happens when an individual
+cannot, or does not wish to, live accord-
+ing to the lifestyle promoted by the move-
+ment, yet remains driven by the motives of
+continuity and belonging? In Anne's case,
+she sought out another religious context.
+Piia and her husband Erkki, by contrast,
+became members of a secular Sweden-
+Finnish cultural association after leaving
+the movement (Niskanen 2025, 268). The
+brothers Aki and Petri, however, ended up
+in destructive environments involving sub-
+stance abuse right after leaving the religious
+revival movement in their youth, high-
+lighting the importance of understanding
+identity processes not only on an individ-
+ual level but also within broader societal
+structures.
+
+Conclusion
+
+This article has explored how Sweden-
+Finnish Conservative Laestadian siblings
+manage religious disaffiliation as a gradual
+process of identity renegotiation. While
+distancing themselves from doctrinal
+norms, they maintain cultural and familial
+ties, reflecting a complex interplay between
+tradition and transformation.
+
+Identity motives such as continuity, dis-
+tinctiveness and psychological coherence
+shaped how the siblings redefined them-
+selves. Petri’s need for belonging, Aki’s
+drive for distinctiveness, Piia’s pursuit of
+coherence and Anne’s emphasis on self-
+efficacy illustrate how individual trajecto-
+ries vary within the same family context.
+
+This study has explored how former
+Conservative Laestadian siblings navi-
+gate the psychological and _ relational
+
+Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
+
+complexities of religious disaffiliation.
+Their narratives reveal that leaving the
+faith is not merely an act of rejection, but
+a gradual reformulation of self in response
+to conflicting identity motives. As Streib
+emphasises, deconversion should be under-
+stood as a process of biographical change,
+involving emotional suffering, loss of reli-
+gious experience and disaffiliation from
+community (2021, 139). This perspective
+aligns with the findings presented here,
+where apostasy emerges not as a moment
+of rupture, but as an unfolding negotia-
+tion of belonging. By situating these indi-
+vidual trajectories within a broader theo-
+retical framework, the study contributes
+to a more nuanced understanding of reli-
+gious exit as a dynamic and identity-driven
+transformation.
+
+While the empirical focus of this arti-
+cle is on one Sweden-Finnish family, the
+findings have broader implications for the
+study of religious disaffiliation. The case
+illustrates how identity motives operate in
+contexts where religious identity is deeply
+intertwined with ethnic and cultural herit-
+age. Thus, the article contributes to a more
+general understanding of religious exit as a
+dynamic and identity-driven transforma-
+tion, relevant to scholars of religion, psy-
+chology and minority studies.
+
+The siblings’ narratives illustrate that
+religious disaffiliation is best understood
+as a layered identity process shaped by
+motivational structures, family dynamics
+and cultural contexts. Among the identity
+motives, continuity emerges as particu-
+larly decisive: even when individuals reject
+Conservative Laestadianism, some retain
+elements of inherited faith or cultural
+belonging that provide a thread of stability
+across time. This underscores that apostasy
+
+39
+
+
+========== PAGE 17 ==========
+
+is not merely a rupture but a reconfigura-
+tion, in which old and new aspects of iden-
+tity coexist. Ultimately, continuity stands
+out as the crucial motive, enabling individ-
+uals to preserve a stable sense of self while
+renegotiating belonging beyond religious
+
+boundaries. ™
+
+Anoo Niskanen, Doctor
+of Theology (Study of
+Religions, Abo Akademi
+University), specialises
+in minority studies with
+a focus on Sweden's
+national minorities. Her
+research explores iden-
+tity motives and_ reli-
+gious life choices among
+Sweden-Finnish Conser-
+vative Laestadians. She works as a Language
+Promoter for Finnish at the Institute for Language
+and Folklore (lsof) in Sweden and coordinates
+the Finnish administrative area in Sk6vde munici-
+pality. She also has professional experience as an
+interpreter and translator between Finnish, Bur-
+mese/Myanmar and Swedish.
+
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+