The introduction opens with the claim that essence of Jew hatred is critical to an understanding of the extermination of the Jews. If the Jews were the target of the Nazis’ extermination project, we must ask: Why the Jews? Who are the Jews? What makes them Jews? What, exactly, were the Nazis attempting to annihilate in the extermination of the Jews? If the Event is driven by antisemitism, what is antisemitism anti-? It explains that the investigation is guided by the categories of Jewish thought. It explains the the book begins with Judaism as the key to making connections between antisemitism and the Holocaust. The introduction also states how this book differs from others, and contains a brief summary of each of the chapters.