Antisemitism : A History

1. Antisemitism: term coined in 1879 by German journalist Wilhelm Marr • Think about -- “Jews are not hated because they have evil qualities; they are given evil qualities so they can be hated.” • From the Orthodox point of view, anti-Semitism goes back to Sinai Antisemitism: A History

2. Anti-Semitism has waxed and waned through time and place Pagan times: reasons • Economic: Jews competed with non-Jews, particularly in Alexandria • Political: Maccabean conquests • Cultural: pagans resented monotheism and its demands and separatism • Messianism: Greeks and Romans had a problem here

3. Christian times Jews refuted: • Jesus as the Messiah • The Trinity • God became human • Original sin • Nullification of the law • Faith in Jesus as only way to salvation • Sacraments of the Church • New Testament as Divine

4. Christian times The Jews were accused of deicide (murder of God/Jesus) • Matthew 27:25 (New International Version) 25All the people answered, "Let his blood be on us and on our children!"

5. Christian times 4th Century CE: Christianity became legal in Rome, then the official religion • St. Augustine, 4th C: “the witness people” • Jews should live, in a degraded condition to a) show what happens to those who reject Christ, and b) witnessing through their Hebrew prophecies about the coming of Christ

6. Christian Times St. John Chrysotum, 4th C: sermons in Antioch (“God hates the Jews…”) Pope Gregory, 6th C: conversion of the Jews preferred; they must be tolerated

7. High Middle Ages (1000-1300) 1096: 1st Crusade to Holy Land begins 1144: first ritual murder accusation (Norwich, England) 1179: Third Lateran Council of church leaders from across Europe reaffirms Jewish second-class citizenship

8. High Middle Ages (1000-1300) 1215: Fourth Lateran Council called by Pope Innocent III • Jews must wear a patch (badge), because God marked Cain as a vagabond 1239: Pope Gregory IX issued a bull condemning the Talmud

9. Later Middle Ages (1300-1500) 1347-52: Black Death killed 25-33% of population of Europe 1391: Riots began in Seville and spread throughout Spain after sermons by a fanatical priest 1411: Eventually, Christians turned against the conversos

10. Later Middle Ages (1300-1500) 1480: Spanish Inquisition began • went not after the Jews, but the conversos • limpieza de sangra = purity of the blood • beginnings of racial antisemitism

11. 1500 – Turning Point 1492: Jews, Muslims expelled after conquest of Grenada • Jews had been expelled from England (1290), France (1304), and German lands 1497: expulsion from Portugal

12. 1500 – Turning Point By 1500 there was no one living as a practicing Jew in any country bordering the Atlantic • Jewish focus shifted to the East • Turks, some Poles welcomed the Jews • Jews had been forced out of land-holding, guilds; money-lending (usury) became main economic activity • Jews were seen as “royal sponges”, because they worked as tax collectors

13. Martin Luther’s Reformation 1517: Luther launches Protestant Reformation • at first befriended Jews, hoping to convert them • 1543: Luther issued a violent pamphlet against Jews 1555: spread of ghetto system in Europe • part of Counter-Reformation By the end of the Middle Ages, the Jew had been reduced to less than human

14. Christian Antisemitism and the Holocaust Causation for the Holocaust is all here: Antisemitismexists where there are no Jews, in definitions, stereotypes, etc. Counter-arguments – • There is a difference between antisemitism and anti-Judaism • There are pro-Jewish passages in the New Testament • The Jews could escape from pre-Holocaust persecution by baptism

15. The Enlightenment Enlightenment ideas: • Reason • Progress • Science • Natural rights • (life, liberty, property) • Tolerance • Universalism • Cosmopolitan spirit

16. The Philosophes Voltaire: antisemitism not religiously based (secular) • Anti-Jewish diatribes • Wanted to crush Catholic Church Enlightenment thinkers saw organized religion as their main enemy • Revelation is unreasonable, irrational • Judaism the root of Christianity • Believed in deism • Writers looked back to pagan works for inspiration

17. French Revolution and Beyond Liberty, Equality, Fraternity • USA was first modern nation to grant Jews equal rights under a constitution • Fraternity = nationalism By end of 1700’s, Jews in Europe had gained citizenship • “to the Jew as an individual, everything; to the Jew as a nation, nothing.” • Industrial Revolution gave Jews new opportunities

18. End of 19th C: Antisemitism again in Europe Religious: antisemitism had never disappeared Political: Prussia united Germany through war and became the strongest nation in Europe Socioeconomic: early socialists were antisemites Sociopsychological: Jews were associated with modernity (cities, capitalism, Industrial Revolution)

19. Social Darwinism Social Darwinism: humans of different races are in a struggle for natural resources • Racist characteristics of Jews: • Soulless • materialistic, carnal • Ruthless, cosmopolitan • Unchangeable • Present everywhere • Diabolical, powerful • Alien, other • Germ, microbe to be purged • Over-intellectual • Unproductive, parasitical, associated with money

20. The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion