"Few sociocultural phenomena are more pervasive yet poorly understood today than the interplay of negative and positive attitudes toward Jews in nations around the world.  In this highly original and brilliantly written book, Sumanto Al Qurtuby – one of today’s most accomplished scholars of Islam in Indonesia – brings his scholarly eye to bear on the history and contemporary dynamics of antisemitism and philosemitism in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority society.  Both richly detailed and engagingly well-written, this is a book that forever alters our received views on anti-semitism and philosemitism both in Indonesia and in all nations of the world."
- Robert W. Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and Global Affairs, Boston University; President, American Institute for Indonesian Studies

“Sumanto Al Qurtuby has given us an impressive, incisive, and refreshingly balanced study that maps the rarely charted terrain of both antisemitism and philosemitism in Indonesia. With the rigor of a historian and the care of an ethnographer, Sumanto moves effectively from colonial archives to contemporary media feeds and on-the-ground interviews to reveal how ideas about Jews, Israel, and Zionism have been constructed, contested, and transformed across centuries—and why they matter for Indonesia’s present and future. Clear-eyed yet empathetic, the book dismantles clichés, surfaces neglected voices, and shows how religion, politics, identity, and geopolitics entangle in surprising ways. This is an indispensable and timely work which should be essential reading for scholars, journalists, policymakers, interfaith leaders, and anyone seeking a nuanced understanding of easy narratives."
- Joseph Chinyong Liow, Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore

"What drives many Indonesians to be antisemitic when they live a world away from Israel and have never met any Jews? Why do Indonesian Muslims tend to be more antisemitic than Indonesian Christians? And how and why have some Indonesian leading Muslim leaders and scholars, such as the late Abdurrahman Wahid and Nurcholish Madjid, managed to develop a ‘philosemitism’?  In this study drawing on texts, surveys, and empirical research, Dr. Sumanto Al Qurtuby tackles these difficult but important questions, which have worldwide resonance, with admirable care and respect."
- Dr. Richard McCallum, Director, Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies Oxford, UK  

Sumanto Al Qurtuby is the co-founder and chairman of the Center for the Study of Religion and Christian-Muslim Relations, a new Center of Excellence initiative at Satya Wacana Christian University (SWCU). Sumanto is also a senior lecturer in anthropology and interreligious studies in the Faculty of Theology’s Sociology of Religion Doctorate Program at SWCU and a Research Associate at the Center for Muslim-Christian Studies in Oxford, United Kingdom. Previously, he was a Visiting Research Scholar at Kyoto University's Center for Southeast Asian Studies, a professor at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, a Senior Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore, and a Research Fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame. A specialist in Southeast Asia (especially Indonesia) and the Middle East (particularly Saudi Arabia), he earned his PhD in cultural anthropology from Boston University. His research interests include studying the impact (positive or negative) of world religions and local beliefs on societies and the influence of societies on religious discourses and practices. Sumanto has written a dozen scholarly articles and authored or edited more than 40 books (both in Indonesian and English), including Terrorism and Counter-terrorism in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), Saudi Arabia and Indonesian Networks (Bloomsbury, 2020), and Religious Violence and Conciliation in Indonesia (Routledge, 2016).