In this article I attempt to find in the post-1945/8 renewal of the imperial role of the Jew a complementary framework to understand the supposed de-colonial anti-Semitism. Departing from the analysis of anti-Semitism by the Frankfurt School, I will demonstrate the need to go beyond the vicious circles of the current debate and include the interplay between the centre and periphery regarding the imperial role of the Jew. Tracing the latter through a five-hundred year period, I will re-evaluate typologies of anti-Semitism and point out the need to read post-1945/8 de-colonial anti-Semitism as a confrontation with the colonial legacy that universalizes otherness through the Jewish experience. By tracing the renewal of this construction in the debate between radical Jews and de-colonizers, I will conclude that this role of the Jew is as important for Jewish identity as its disruption necessary for de-colonizers.