| Sumario: | The article reviews Ivan G. Marcus's book *How the West Became Antisemitic: Jews and the Formation of Europe, 800–1500*, which examines the development of antisemitism in medieval Christian Europe through the concept of "moral imagination." Marcus argues that Jews were not merely victims but active participants in shaping Christian identity, as Christian society imagined Jews as necessary figures to define moral order, hierarchy, and purity. The book traces key elements shaping Christian views of Jews: the rivalry over chosenness, the portrayal of Jews as internal enemies from the First Crusade onward, and the belief in the permanence of Jewish identity despite conversion. Marcus also explores how accusations such as ritual murder and host desecration emerged from Christian theological frameworks rather than Jewish actions, and how Jewish communities responded with linguistic and ritual assertiveness. The work concludes that medieval antisemitic structures provided a durable conceptual foundation that modern antisemitism secularized and adapted, demonstrating the persistent role of moral imagination in sustaining exclusion and hostility.
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