The Manichaean and the Jew

Jean-Paul Sartre's Mythology of Antisemitism

Drawing on Sartre’s writings, interviews, and conversations throughout his life, this work is a critical examination of his views on antisemites and Jews set against the backdrop of existentialism, Marxism, and his own sexuality. While Sartre is often considered an opponent of antisemitism, his near-total disregard for the fate of the Jews until the end of the Second World War, when he wrote Anti-Semite and Jew, suggests a different perspective. In particular, Sartre’s claim that the antisemite is first a Manichaean who only later identifies the Jew as an embodiment of evil is interpreted as an attempt to minimize the gravity of antisemitism—a conclusion consistent with Sartre’s own admission, late in life, that he had held antisemitic views.