Listening to a History lesson on Nazi Germany, there was a moment of surprise for me when one of the students asked if there had been anti-Semitism elsewhere. Didn’t the student realise how widely and deeply anti-Semitism had extended?

It recalled a class in a Dublin primary school. a decade ago.

“Mr Poulton, why did people hate the Jews?”

We had been looking at the history of the Bible and the question arose as we thought about the heritage of the Hebrew Scriptures. The normally noisy class sat attentive.

“Anti-Semitism …