A Brief History of Antisemitism
Antisemitism- the hatred of the Jewish culture and faith
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 a
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 Jews the children of the devil. (John.8:44)
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 cone-shaped 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 largely because the Catholic Church
considered it a sin for Christians to charge interest for lending money. And because
Jews had few other ways of earning a living, large numbers of them eventually
became bankers and financiers, which resulted in a stereotyping of Jews as moneyhungry 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.
By the end of the fifteenth century, except for a few business encounters, Jews were
totally isolated from their Christian neighbors. In some countries, Jews were forcibly
confined in ghettos, sections of cities that were enclosed by high, prison-like walls.
With forced segregation came new myths and stereotypes. Increasingly Jews were
portrayed as agents of the devil, responsible for every catastrophe from random
crime to plague and drought. Artists portrayed Jews as having horns, tails, and evil
satanic faces. Christian priests and scholars often elaborated on the idea that Jews
were evil creatures who were somehow less than human.
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 hoped 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... Secondly, their
homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed... For, as has been said, God's
rage is so great against them that they only become worse and worse through mild
mercy, and not much better through severe mercy. Therefore away with them... To
sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, 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."
Other Protestant leaders were more tolerant of Jews, but even among the most
tolerant, the old stereotypes of Jews lingered on. As Malcolm Hay, a Catholic
historian, explains:
"Men are not born with hatred in their blood. The infection is usually acquired by
contact; it may be injected deliberately or even unconsciously by the parents, or by
the teachers... The disease may be spread throughout the land like the plague, so
that a class, a religion, or a nation will become the victim of popular hatred without
anyone knowing exactly how it all began; and people will disagree, and even quarrel
among themselves, about the real reason for its existence; and no one foresees the
inevitable consequences."
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 (17891799) 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 in 1879 the word "Anti-Semitism" was coined by the
German journalist and pre-Fascist Wilhelm Mahr who felt he needed a more
scientific, more benign, term than "Juden-hass" (German for "hatred of Jews") to
define a political movement centered upon hatred of Jews.
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 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 is 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.
Germany's nationalistic 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.
Jews the world over, vowing "Never Again" in reaction to the Holocaust, 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.
Please explain how the following dates, events, or people played a role in AntiSemitism.
1. Pompey2. Jesus’s Death and Christianity3. John (author of the 4th Gospel) said-
4. 4th century laws5. Crusades6. Peter Abler wrote7. Moneylending8. Martin Luther9. Juden-Hass10. Pogroms11. Zionism12. Adolf Hitler13. Final Solution14. 1948-