Both Christianity and modern Judaism sprang from Second-Temple Judaism, which came to an end in AD 70, with the suppression of the Jewish revolt by the Romans. Second-Temple Judaism was not monolithic. There were several different parties and sects, of which the best known were the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots. By the end of the first century AD there were in effect only two - Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism, both of which sprang largely from the Pharisees. Much of the New Testament was written about the time that Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism were going their separate ways, and to some extent it reflects the theological polemics of the split. For example, the gospels report on Jesus' disputes with leaders of the Pharisee and Sadducee parties. There is very little mention of the Zealots (other than that one of Jesus' disciples belonged to them - Luke 6:15) and none of the Essenes.
In some ways Jesus could be seen as a Pharisee reformer, critical of some of the leaders of the group for their vanity and hypocrisy, but generally sympathetic with their theology. In English we often use the term "Pharisaical" as if it were a very bad thing, but if we read the gospels, the complaint of Jesus was not that the Pharisees were too Pharisaical, but that they were not Pharisaical enough. They were playing the role, acting the part, but the reality was missing (the word "hypocrite" means "actor").
Those who say that Christianity was fundamentally antisemitic point to the Gospel according to St John, where Jesus debates not so much with the Pharisees as with "the Jews", and the Jews are made to seem the villain of the piece. St John even has Jesus say that the Jews were children of the devil (John 8:44), and you can't get much more antisemitic than that! If Jews are children of the devil, then they must be fair game, and the gas chambers of Auschwicz are too good for them.
Another verse used to support the thesis that Christianity was antisemitic from the beginning is Matthew 27:27, when the crowd demand the death of Jesus. When Pilate hesitates, the crowd shout that they will accept responsibility: "His blood be on us and on our children." This verse, the critics say, was intended to justify Christians in hating Jews as "Christ-killers", and to perpetuate this hatred for all generations.
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