Lecture 13: February 23, 2009
THE HOLOCAUST AND ANTISEMITISM
QUIZ
Describe one difference between pre-modern
“religious anti-Judaism” and modern “antiSemitism.”
 What is one theological problem raised by the
Holocaust?
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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GOOGLE “JEW”?

Google "Jew"
CHRISTIAN ANTI-JUDAISM
Synagoga and Ecclessia
 Jews paradoxical position vis a vis Christianity

THE CRUSADES AND MEDIEVAL PERSECUTION
Rescue Christian Holy Sites (1099)
 Widespread massacres and forced conversion
 Blood Libels (1144)
 Fourth Lateran Council (1215)

 Limited
Usury, Jewish badge
Talmud on-trial-Why?
 Black Death and Poisen Wells (1348)
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JEWISH EXPULSION
1290 Expulsion from England
 1306-1394 Jews expelled from France
 1492 Expulsion from Spain
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THE NEW ANTISEMITISM

Traditional Christian anti-Judaism
 Theology
 Conversion

is a possibility
1879-New Term: “Antisemitism”
 Wilhelm
Marr and Karl Duehring
 Racial terminology
 Biological and unchangeable

1894 Alfred Dreyfus Affair
WHY ANTISEMITISM?
RISE OF ANTISEMITISM?

Economic
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Political
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Lower class resentment
Dislocation of capitalism, industrialization
Blame Jews for competition of capitalism
Resent democracy, equality, anticlericalism
Antisemitism as tool for illiberal forces
Yearn for a pre-modern utopia
Psychopolitical Terms


Glorification of German people
Need common enemy
THE HOLOCAUST
Systematic, state-sponsored persecution and
annihilation of approximately 6 million Jews by
Nazis and collaborators between 1933 and
1945
 Jews are less than 1% of German population
(500,000)
 Final Solution to Jewish Question

QUESTIONS RAISED BY HOLOCAUST

Why did the Nazis want to exterminate the Jews?



Hitler’s plan from the beginning?
Response to failure of other efforts to solve Jewish problem
How did Hitler and the Nazis succeed in imposing view
on millions of Germans?
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
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Germans wanted change after WWI
Nazis implemented totalitarian dictatorship
Bureaucratic proccess
MORE QUESTIONS…

How did Nazis manage to kill Jews outside of
Germany?
 Had
support of local governments
 Exterminate nearly all Jews living in Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Western Russia
 Most Jews in Hungary, Holland and Greece

How did America remain silent?
IMPACT OF THE HOLOCAUST ON JUDAISM

Demographic
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Wipes out center of Jewish life
Émigrés have huge impact on American Jewish community
Theological
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Is covenant broken?
Unprecedented destruction
Where is God?
614th commandment
IMPACT, CONTINUED

Centrality of Holocaust narrative
 Silence
in 1950s and 1960s
 Gains centrality in recent decades
 Connection with Israel
 Today: Is there too much victimization?

Political Question
 Will
Jews always be persecuted?
 Recent rise in antisemitsim
ANTI-SEMITISM TODAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAncuwwU
bj0
ANTISEMITIC THEMES
Jews conspiring to destroy Western Civilization
1.
•
•
•
Holocaust Denial
Racial distinction between good and evil groups
2.
3.
•
•
4.
Control politics, culture, press, and economics
Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Russia, 1903)
Jews and 9/11
Aryan vs. Semite
Jews are strangers, parasites
Dual Loyalties
The Protocols Today
IS AMERICA AN EXCEPTION?

No fight for emancipation in US

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Anti-Jewish antagonism muted

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Separation of Church and State
Jews get vote in all states by 1840
Founded as place for religious dissidents
Strong strain of civil nationalism
Also racial and religious notions of American identity
American society profoundly religious
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
Strong belief in denominations
Ideal citizen is connected to religious community