A Brief History of Anti-Semitism
In the year 70 B.C.E. Pompey the Great, a powerful Roman military leader, conquered Jerusalem, the
capital of Palestine. Pompey defiled the Jewish temple, killed the priests, and ordered the Jews to begin
worshipping the Roman gods. Most Jews resisted, but pressure to worship the Roman gods only
mounted, and as the pressure increased, so did conflict within the Jewish community. Many Jews
called for open rebellion against Rome, while others argued that Jews must be willing to adapt.
A hundred years later the Romans still occupied Jerusalem and the situation was not much improved
when, Jesus, a Jew from Nazareth, began his ministry and travels in Palestine. The debate between the
rival Jewish factions grew increasingly heated, and the climax of the conflict was triggered by the
death of Jesus. Immediately afterwards, the followers of Jesus renounced Judaism, and Christianity
was born as distinctively separate religion.
Although Jesus' death had been ordered and carried out by non-Jews, most Christians believed that the
Jews and their priests were responsible. St. Paul later proclaimed that the Jews "killed the Lord Jesus
and the prophets and drove us out, the Jews who are heedless of God's will and enemies of their fellow
men..." (I Thessalonians 2:15-16)
As Christianity spread, the differences between Christianity and Judaism became more and more
pronounced. But it was not until Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire that
anti-Judaism became a serious threat to Jewish existence.
By the fourth century, Jews were generally despised by Christians everywhere. St. Augustine, one of
Christianity's most influential leaders, likened the Jewish people to Cain, who had murdered his own
brother and thus became the first criminal in biblical history. St. Augustine wrote that Jews were a
"wicked sect" and should be subjected to permanent exile because of their evil ways. John the author
of the book of Revelations even called them the children of Satan.
Laws were passed throughout the Christian world to "protect" the "faithful" from Jewish
"contamination" by forbidding them to eat with, do business with, or have sex with Jews, and by the
sixth century, Jews were not allowed to hold public office, employ Christian servants, or even show
themselves in the streets during Holy Week (the week commemorating the time between Jesus' "Last
Supper" and his crucifixion).
Beginning in 1096, Christian leaders launched a series of crusades against the Muslims to win control
of Palestine, the birthplace of Jesus. On their way to the Middle East, the crusader armies attacked
Jewish communities along the route. The First Crusade was especially bloody. Entire communities of
Jews were forced to choose between baptism or death, and since few Jews would renounce their faith,
the First Crusade resulted in nearly 10,000 Jews being slaughtered during the first six months alone.
Godfrey Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade, vowed "to leave no single member of the Jewish race
alive," and ordered the synagogue in Jerusalem burned to the ground with its entire Jewish
congregation trapped inside.
The Second Crusade, in 1146, was more sparing of Jewish lives; but, nevertheless, intensified the
religious persecution of Jews.
Thousands of Jews fled to Eastern Europe, but they were unable to escape the relentless oppression,
and by the thirteenth century, church leaders in what is now Germany required all Jews to wear coneshaped hats so that no one would mistake them from ordinary Germans. In Latin countries, Jews were
forced to sew yellow badges on their clothing as a means of instant identification. The persecutions,
large and small, went on and on.
Peter Abler, a twelfth century philosopher and priest wrote of the Jews:
"Heaven is their only place of refuge. If they want to travel to the nearest town, they have to buy
protection with huge sums of money from the Christian rulers who actually wish for the Jews' deaths
so that the rulers can confiscate the possessions of the Jews. The Jews cannot own land or vineyards.
Thus, all that is left to them as a means of livelihood is the business of money lending, and this in turn
brings the hatred of Christians upon them even more."
Jews were allowed to become moneylenders only because the Catholic Church considered it a sin for
Christians to do so. Because Jews had few other ways of earning a living, large numbers of them
eventually became bankers, which resulted in a stereotyping of Jews as money-hungry exploiters and
usurers. It was a stereotype that was to linger even after Jews were driven from the banking industry
years later, and still continues in many places up until the present day.
In 1517, Martin Luther, a Catholic priest in Germany, complained of corruption in the Church of Rome
and called on Church leaders to reform. Instead, the Church branded him a heretic and
excommunicated him. The result was the Protestant Reformation, which ultimately led to the founding
of New Christian churches in Western Europe and a series of devastating wars.
Luther had hopes of converting Jews to Christianity. In 1523, he told his followers, "...we in our turn
ought to treat the Jews in a brotherly fashion in order that we convert some of them ... we are but
Gentiles, while Jews are of the lineage of Christ."
But when Jews refused to convert, an angry Luther wrote, in part:
"First their synagogues... should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or
spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it. And this ought to be
done for the honor of God and of Christianity in order that God may see that we are Christians...if this
advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may be free of this
insufferable devilish burden -- the Jews."
Over time, most Jews were driven from central Europe. Many of them settled in Poland and Russia.
But there the persecution continued. In 1648 and 1649, thousands of Polish Jews were slaughtered.
During the late 1800's, in both Poland and Russia, Jews were murdered in organized mass killings
called pogroms.
Meanwhile, in France, many Christians were calling for the emancipation of Jews. This push for
Jewish civil rights was an outgrowth of the French Revolution (1789-1799) with its emphasis on
liberty and equality. The movement grew, and by the mid 1800's, most Western and Central European
Jews were fully emancipated.
Yet, during the late 1800's, "Jew-hatred" resurfaced as a formidable force throughout Europe, and that
is when Wilhelm Mahr coined the word "Anti-Semitism" to give the old hatred a modern and scientific
appeal.
About this same time a new Jewish movement called Zionism emerged, and many Jews began working
toward an independent Jewish state in Palestine, viewing this as the only sure way to avoid the
resurgent persecution. Zionists in large numbers bought land and settled in Palestine.
In 1917, during the Communist Revolution, anti-Semitism grew in Russian. Russians viewed Jewish
Russians as not real Russians. This led to severe discrimination and death.
In 1918, during the course of World War I, Britain captured Palestine from the Ottoman Turks. Fearing
the hostility of the local Palestinians and neighboring Arab nations, Britain soon limited Jewish
immigration to Palestine, even though many Jews had aided in the British takeover.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and set out on a concentrated program to
intensify his nations hatred of the Jews. Hitler once said that if the Jews hadn't existed he would have
had to invent them. In many respects that exactly what he did.
Hitler mounted a powerful propaganda campaign designed and implemented by Joseph Goebbels,
which blamed the Jews for Germany's many economic problems, as well as Bolshevism and the
worldwide threat of Communism.
This national hatred of the Jews ultimately lead to what was known as the "Final Solution:" the
physical annihilation of almost six million Jews -- in addition to almost five million other non-Jewish
"racial enemies" of the German people during World War II.
Vowing "Never Again" in reaction to the Holocaust, Jews the world over rallied to the Zionist cause.
Though faced with often violent opposition from Palestinian Arabs and others, Jews persisted in their
quest for freedom and autonomy
Finally in 1947, the United Nations partitioned Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. The Jewish state,
Israel, declared its independence on May 14, 1948.
Victims
Killed
Source
Jews
5.9 million
[30]
Soviet POWs
2–3 million
[31]
Ethnic Poles
Romani
Disabled
Freemasons
Homosexuals
Jehovah's
Witnesses
1.8–2 million
[32][33]
220,000–1,500,000
[34][35]
200,000–250,000
[36]
80,000–200,000
[37]
5,000–15,000
[38]
2,500–5,000
[39
Directions:
On a separate sheet of notebook paper, write a well written 1 paragraph history of Judaism.
Make sure to include 5 or 6 of the major events that happened to the Jews throughout their
history.
German Children’s Book (1935)
“Trust No Fox in the Green Meadow
and No Jew on his Oath”