Antisemitism

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This article is at the top of the anti-Semitism topic.

Arabs and anti-Semitism Christian anti-semitism Nation of Islam anti-semitism Anti-Semitism in Poland

Anti-Semitism is hostility toward Jews which greatly exceeds any legitimate grievances or results from no legitimate cause. Different academics researching the subject of anti-Semitism use different definitions of the term. For example, in Christian Beliefs & Anti-Semitism, Charles Glock and Rodney Stark define anti-Semitism as "The hatred and persecution of Jews as a group; not the hatred of persons who happen to be Jews, but rather the hatred of persons because they are Jews". Meanwhile, David Berger, a professor of history at Brooklyn College, said that "Essentially, anti-Semitism means either of the following: (1) hostility to Jews as a group which results from no legitimate cause or greatly exceeds any reasonable, ethical response to genuine provocation; or (2)a pejorative perception of Jewish physical or moral traits which is either utterly groundless or a result of irrational generalization and exaggeration".

Etymology and Usage

Wilhelm Marr is credited with coining the German word Antisemitismus in 1873, at a time when racial science was fashionable in Germany but religious hatred wasn't. So far as can be ascertained, the word was first printed in 1880. In that year Marr published "Zwanglose Antisemitische Hefte," and Wilhelm Scherer used the term "Antisemiten" in the "Neue Freie Presse" of January. The related word semitism was coined around 12 years later, in 1885.

Roots of anti-Semitism

Historically, there have been a number of motivating factors that spurred anti-Semitism, including social, economic, national, political, racial, and religious factors and any number of combinations of the above. In the twentieth century, the most visible forms of anti-Semitism were:

• Racist anti-Semitism. Some people perceive Jews as people of a racially distinct origin from other peoples, and claim that discrimination on the basis of such distinctness is valid.
• Religious anti-Semitism. Like almost every other religion in history, Judaism has faced discrimination and violence from people of competing faiths and in countries that practice state atheism.

Dennis Prager believes that the root cause of anti-Semitism is that Jews are socially and culturally different from the societies that they live in; in most eras Jews have not let themselves become assimilated into the majority culture. This led to belief that the Jews believed themselves superior to others, resulting in hatred towards Jews. Such phenomenon existed in ancient ancient Egypt, ancient Persia, and in the ancient Roman Empire. While other conquered peoples assimilated and joined the religion of the majority, Jews did not.

In consequence of their alien status, Jews were often excluded socially and politically from the societies in which they lived, or alternately, were forced to enter professions that were considered socially inferior (tax- and rent-collectors, money-lenders, etc.) Over time, these professions engendered animosity among the people who came into contact with Jews--peasants, who were forced to pay their taxes to Jews could personify Jews as the people taking their earnings, while remaining loyal to the lords on whose behalf the Jews worked.

Early forms of anti-Semitism

Disdain of Jews can be traced back to the Graeco-Roman period and the rise of Hellenistic culture. Most Jews rejected efforts to assimilate them into the dominant Greek (and later Roman) culture, and their religious practices, which conflicted with established norms, were perceived as being backward and primitive. Tacitus, for example, writes disparagingly of many real and imagined practices of the Jews, while there are numerous accounts of circumcision being described as barbarous.

Furthermore, throughout the Diaspora, Jews tended to live in separate communities, in which they could practice their religion. This led to charges of elitism, as appear in the writings of Cicero. As an ethnic minority, Jews were also dependent on the goodwill of the ruling imperial power, though this was considered irksome to the indigenous population, which regarded any vestiges of autonomy among the local Jewish communities as reminders of their subject status to a foreign empire. Nevertheless, this did not always mean that opposition to Jewish involvement in local affairs was anti-Semitic. In 411 A.D. an Egyptian mob destroyed the Jewish temple at Elephantine in Egypt, but many historians argue that this was provoked by anti-Persian sentiment, rather than by anti-Semitism per se--the Jews, who were protected by the imperial power, were perceived as being its representatives.

The enormous and influential Jewish community in the ancient Egyptian port city of Alexandria saw manifestations of an unusual brand of anti-Semitism in which the local pagan populace rejected the biblical narrative of the Exodus as being anti-Egyptian. In response, a number of works were produced to provide an "Egyptian version" of what "really happened": the Jews were a group of sickly lepers that was expelled from Egypt. This was also used to account for Jewish practices--they were so sickly that they could not even wander in the desert for more than six days at a time, requiring a seventh day to rest, hence the origin of the Sabbath. It was these charges that led to Philo's apologetic account of Judaism and Jewish history, which was so influential in the development of early church doctrine.

Judaic traditions extend at least a thousand years BCE (before the common era), and are the historical predecessor for the religions of Christianity and Islam, both of whom hold some Judaic traditions and texts as sacred, though differ in aspects that are central to each distinct branch of religion.

Hence Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, each took different course in terms of beliefs, as well as traditional customs; each creating a separate and distinct culture, from the parent Judaism. Those who held to traditional Judaic belief were considered "deniers" of the newer beliefs and traditions, in much the same way that every religion considers people of other religions to be denying the truth.

While many more subtle manifestations of Church anti-Semitism can be traced to anti-Jewish sentiment in Egypt, these more blatant early accusations of anti-Egyptian sentiment and the rejection of the Exodus mythology were not coopted by the Church since they countered Christian doctrine.

Medieval Anti-Semitism, Blood Libels, the Black Death, and the Crusades

From the medieval era to the 1900s there were Christians who believed that some (or all) Jews possessed magical powers; depending on the culture, people believed that the Jews gained these magical powers from making a deal with the devil.

This was also often accompanied by beliefs that Jewish religious practice entailed devil worship, or "Satanic" actions, such as drinking the blood of Christian children in mockery of the Christian Eucharist (blood libel), or torturing consecrated host wafers in a reenactment of the Crucifixion (host desecration).

Passion plays, dramatic stagings representing the trial and death of Jesus, have been used in some Christian communities to arouse hatred of local Jews, because some of the plays depict the Jews as condemning Jesus to crucifixion.

Anti-Semitism and the Church (incl. Martin Luther, Ghettoes, etc.)

Theological anti-Semitism has been particularly prevalent in Christianity. Until 1965, for instance, the Catholic Church preached that "the wicked Jews", as a people, were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. This doctrine was repudiated as part of Vatican II. A small number of Protestant sects still teach it. A number of Christian preachers, particularly in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, additionally taught that religious Jews choose to follow a faith that they actually know is false out of a desire to offend God. Christian theological anti-Semitism was created by the New Testament's replacement theology, or supersessionism, which taught that with the coming of Jesus a new covenant has rendered obsolete and has superseded the religion of Judaism.

The Englightenment and the Rise of Racial Anti-Semitism

Racial anti-Semitism, the most modern form of anti-Semitism, is a type of racism mixed with religious persecution. Racial anti-Semites believe erroneously that the Jewish people are a distinct race. They also believe that Jews are inherently inferior to people of other races.

Modern European anti-Semitism has its origin in the ethnological theory that the Jewish people are a sub-group of Semitic peoples; Semetic people were thought by many Europeans to be entirely different from the Aryan, or Indo-European, populations, and that they can never be amalgamated with them. In this view, Jews are not opposed on account of their religion, but on account of their supposed racial characteristics. As such are mentioned: greed, a special aptitude for money-making, aversion to hard work, clannishness and obtrusiveness, lack of social tact, and especially of patriotism.

The Pale of Settlement, Pogroms, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

One of the most damaging anti-Semitic tractates published is the infamous Russian literary hoax, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This subject has its own entry.

Modern Anti-Semitism in American and Western Europe

• In the years leading up to America's entry into World War II, Father Charles Coughlin, an anti-Semitic radio preacher, as well as many other prominent public figures, condemned "the Jews" because they were leading America into war. While most Jews in America supported the interventionist camp, not all did.
• Jews were condemned by populist politicians for their leftwing politics at the turn of the century. Many Jews were leftwing, but not most.
• Jews are condemned for their supposed "high level of participation" in the slave trade.

Holocaust Revisionism

Holocaust revisionists often claim that "the Jews" or a "Zionist conspiracy" is responsible for the exaggeration or wholesale fabrication of the events of the Holocaust. Critics of such revisionism point to an overwhelming amount of historical evidence that supports the mainstream historical view of the Holocaust. It should be noted that most academics also agree that there is no reliable evidence for any such conspiracy.

Contemporary Manifestations of Anti-Semitism

In recent years some Jewish groups have noticed what they are describing as "the new anti-Semitism". The large increase in anti-Semitism over the last twenty years is taking on new forms that had not previously existed. Concern exists over anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the anti-Globalization movement, among many in the political left-wing, and among those who consider themselves anti-colonialist.

In October 2003 Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad called for all of the world's Muslims to unite in a holy war against "the Jews"; this speech was given to the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Anti-Defamation League has denounced this speech as "virulently anti-Semitic"

References

• The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust As Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Michael Berenbaum. Little Brown & Co, 1993.
• The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945 Lucy S. Davidowicz. Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub, 1991.
• Antisemitism in America, Leonard Dinnerstein, Oxford Univ. Press, 1995.
• Antisemitism in the New Testament, Lillian C. Freudmann, University Press of America, 1994.
• Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews, Sander L. Gilman, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990, ISBN 0801840635
• The Destruction of the European Jews Raul Hilberg. Holmes & Meier, 1985. 3 volumes
• Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory Deborah Lipstadt, 1994, Penguin.
• Why the Jews? The Reasons for Antisemitism Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin, Simon & Schuster, 1983
• Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred, Robert S. Wistrich. Pantheon Books, 1992.