According to Sartre, antisemitism (and hate more broadly) is, among other things, a way by which the middle class lay claim to the nation in which they reside, and an oversimplified conception of the world in which the antisemite sees "not a conflict of interests but the damage an evil power causes society."

"[1] Sartre begins by defining antisemitism as characterized by certain opinions: attributing "all or part of his own misfortunes and those of his country to the presence of Jewish elements in the community, ... proposes to remedy this state of affairs by depriving the Jews of certain of their rights, by keeping them out of certain economic and social activities, by expelling them from the country, by exterminating all of them ...."[2]: 7  He then describes the concept that these antisemitic opinions are produced by external causes, such as the experience of objective situations involving Jews.

[2]: 8–9  Sartre states that these non-contradictory conceptions are "dangerous and false" and refuses to "characterize as opinion a doctrine that is aimed directly at particular persons and that seeks to suppress their rights or to exterminate them.

"[2]: 9 Sartre argues that antisemitism is not an "idea" in the commonly understood sense of the word: it is not a point of view based rationally upon empirical information calmly collected and calibrated in as objective a manner as is possible.

"[2]: 10-11; 23; 53–54  It is also often a deep passion, "Some men are suddenly struck with impotence if they learn from the woman with whom they are making love that she is a Jewess.

"[2]: 10–11 Sartre tells of a classmate of his who complained that he had failed the agrégation exam while a Jew, the son of eastern immigrants, had passed.

There was – said Sartre's classmate – no way that that Jew could understand French poetry as well as a true Frenchman.

The rational man groans as he gropes for the truth; he knows that reasoning is no more than tentative, that other considerations may intervene to cast doubt on it."

"[2]: 22  Antisemitism is a way of feeling good, proud even, rather than guilty at the abandonment of responsibility and the flight before the impossibility of true sincerity.

"[2]: 27  He pulls down shutters, blinds, mirrors and mirages over his consciousness to keep himself in his bad faith away from his responsibilities and his liberty.

The antisemite is afraid "of himself, of his own consciousness, of his own liberty, of his instincts, of his responsibilities, of solitariness, of change, of society, and the world – of everything except the Jews."

David Nirenberg faults Sartre for his inability to "let go of the conviction that in a more perfect world the particularities of Judaism would vanish into one universal French identity—and this at a time when, in the not-yet-liberated East, Jews were still being liquidated in the name of a competing program for the improvement of society".