Self-hating Jew or
self-loathing Jew is a pejorative term used for a
Jewish person that holds
antisemitic views. The concept gained widespread currency after
Theodor Lessing's 1930 book
Der Jüdische Selbsthass ("Jewish Self-hatred"), which tries to explain the prevalence of Jewish intellectuals inciting antisemitism with their extremely hateful view toward Judaism. Jewish self-hate has been described as a neurotic reaction to the impact of antisemitism by Jews accepting, expressing, and even exaggerating the basic assumptions of the
anti-Semite. The term became "something of a key term of opprobrium in and beyond
Cold War-era debates about
Zionism". Similar accusations of being uncomfortable with one's Jewishness were already being made by groups of Jews against each other before
Zionism existed as a movement.