A Brief History of Antisemitism 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. 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 calledpogroms. 1844 Benjamin Disraeli ---------------------------------------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 in ______ Wilhelm Mahr coined the word "Anti-Semitism" to give the old hatred a modern and scientific appeal. Karl Marx ----------------------------------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. Houston Stewart Chamberlain------------------------------------1917 Communist Revolution, Lenin and Trotsky----------------------------------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. Balfour Declaration ............ British believed in power of the international Jews-------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. Results of Anti-Semitism There is, evidently, a rather infantile and distorted notion about the results of anti-Semitic beliefs. That is, it is often believed that prior to the Holocaust, anti-Semitism did not often result in physical harm to anyone, though Jews may have suffered "indignities." For example, one racist airhead proposes the following "explanation" of anti-Semitic imagery in German cathedrals: Isn't the explanation clear? "In the middle ages, Jews weren't so much respected as not. This is a cathedral that has been around since then." The lack of "respect" expressed itself in its milder forms in depictions of Jews copulating with pigs, and in more outspoken forms it expressed itself in massacres of Jews. Anti-Semitism was not a matter of lack of "respect." It resulted resulted in repeated riots, pogroms and mass murders, in which thousands were murdered, often the entire Jewish community of a town, and many lost their homes and property. Jews were expelled from country after country, forced to convert to Christianity, burned at the stake, hanged and beheaded for imagined crimes. Notable massacres of Jews took place during the Crusades and the period of the Black Death in Europe, and in the Ukraine during the Russian civil war that followed the Soviet revolution. European anti-Semitism ultimately led to the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered. It is not pleasant to contemplate this history, but it seems it is necessary to do so when the bloody history of anti-Semitism is euphemized into "indignities" and lack of "respect." Modern Anti-Semitism Surveys A 2008 survey found that anti-Semitic attitudes persist in Europe: Substantial numbers of people in seven European countries agreed with these statements: Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country. Jews have too much power in the business world. Jews have too much power in international financial markets. Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust. In some countries there were were clear majorities who agree with anti-Semitic beliefs. For example, for the question, "Jews have too much power in the business world:" Blood libels are sensationalized allegations that a person or group engages in human sacrifice, often accompanied by the claim that the blood of victims is used in various rituals and/or acts of cannibalism. The alleged victims are often children. Host desecration is a form of sacrilege in Christianity, involving the mistreatment or malicious use of a consecrated Host, or communion wafer. Throughout history, a number of groups have been accused of desecrating hosts; because of the religious importance of the consecrated wafer, the accusation is one of metaphysical evil and hostility towards God. Anti-Semitism since the Holocaust and outside Europe For a period of time after the Nazi defeat in 1945, anti-Semitism lost favour in western Europe and the United States. Yet anti-Semitism persisted in many countries. In the Soviet Union, opposition to the State of Israel and to the attempts of Soviet Jews to emigrate was linked to historic Russian antiSemitism. In postcommunist Russia, political opposition to the regime or to the disproportionate representation of Jews among the powerful oligarchy has often had anti-Semitic overtones. In Poland in 1968, there were anti-Semitic purges, involving firings, denunciations, and expulsions of Jews, that prompted a mass emigration of Jews. More recently, international controversy over the legacies of Nazism in Austria and Switzerland has triggered increased anti-Semitism in those countries. Foreign concern over Kurt Waldheims Nazi past provoked angry anti-Semitic reactions among some of his supporters during his successful 1986 campaign for the Austrian presidency. During the late 1990s, when it was revealed that Swiss banks had laundered Nazi gold (much of it likely confiscated from Jews) during World War II and had failed to return money to Jewish depositors after the war,

international criticism and demands for restitution provoked increased anti-Semitism in Switzerland. In several European countries, xenophobic and nativistic parties opposed to immigration and the European Union engaged in anti-Semitic statements or actions. Even countries with few Jewish residents can manifest anti-Semitism. The discredited and anti-Semitic Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion enjoyed significant popularity in Japan during the 1980s and 90s.