Meanings
alternative philosemitism
- uncountableInterest in or appreciation of Jewish people, their history, or the influence of Judaism, particularly on the part of a gentile.
The new civilizationism is a paradoxical combination of “identitarian” Christianity, secularism, philo-Semitism, Islamophobia, and even some elements of liberalism such as support for gender equality and gay rights.
2017 December 6, Rogers Brubaker, “The New Language of European Populism”, in brubaker.scholar.ss.ucla.edu, page 22 more examples
To an Englishman, German liberalism is a hybrid creature, lame of three legs and blind of one eye, and thus it is necessary to explain — if indeed explanation in its rational sense be possible — the position of the German Liberals in this matter of philo-Semitism.
1881 March 28, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, page 350The great sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argued that philo-Semitism and anti-Semitism both fall under “allosemitism”: literally Othering the Jew. He defined it not as resentment of what is different, which is xenophobia, but rather of what defies order and clear categories. In 1997, he wrote, “The Jew is ambivalence incarnate. And ambivalence is ambivalence mostly because it cannot be contemplated without ambivalent feeling: it is simultaneously attractive and repelling.”
2020 January 28, Mairov Zonszein, “Christian Zionist philo-Semitism is driving Trump’s Israel policy”, in The Washington Post
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Translations
Czech filosemitismus
- filosemitismusinterest in or appreciation of Jews
Dutch filosemitisme
- filosemitismeinterest in or appreciation of Jews
French philosémitisme
- philosémitismeinterest in or appreciation of Jews
German Philosemitismus
- Philosemitismusinterest in or appreciation of Jews
Hebrew פילושמיות
- פילושמיות (filoshémiyut)interest in or appreciation of Jews
Polish filosemityzm
- filosemityzminterest in or appreciation of Jews
Spanish filosemitismo
- filosemitismointerest in or appreciation of Jews
Cite this entry
philo-Semitism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/philo-Semitism
“philo-Semitism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/philo-Semitism. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “philo-Semitism,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/philo-Semitism.
Source: philo-Semitism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.