# Did any American in the past 50 years ever really think that Jews have horns? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 4, 2011, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-in-the-past-50-years-ever-really-think-that-jews-have-horns/595143 "2011-09-04T05:28:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-in-the-past-50-years-ever-really-think-that-jews-have-horns/595143/121 "2011-09-14T13:54:39Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > [Apparently so.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_Jews#Medieval_Europe) Sometimes people say the stereotype comes from [Michelangelo’s Moses.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_%28Michelangelo%29) I always saw it as more provincial and stupid than antisemitic, although people can certainly be all of those things at the same time. Like I said, I know at least one person who was asked her horns 10 or 15 years ago, and I don’t remember thinking that the questioner was Jew-bashing or anything - it just sounded like an honest, very stupid question from someone who had never met a Jew before and who was probably raised and surrounded by people who’d never met a Jew. I suspect the two have independent origins. The “Moses has horns” thing is very specific to Moses - it was, among other things, a symbolic way of identifying who Moses _was_ in artistic representations; it derived as noted from a mistaken Bible translation. The “Jews have horns” thing was I think originally derived from “the Jews are devils” idea - Jews are also thought on occasion to have tails and cloven hooves, attributes _not_ associated with Moses. In short, there are horns and then there are horns. 😉 Moses was a religious figure to Christians and Jews alike, and _his_ horns were benign–like associating the Evangelist Luke with an Ox, whereas calling someone an “Ox” is usually not a complement. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-in-the-past-50-years-ever-really-think-that-jews-have-horns/595143/122 "2011-09-14T15:10:10Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > “Widespread phenomenon” wasn’t the question, fuckhead. The question was did those kinds of signs “ever exist.” Obviously they did exist, so were not mythical. **Diogenes** , I am issuing you an official warning for insults in IMHO. **Ellen Cherry Moderator** ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-in-the-past-50-years-ever-really-think-that-jews-have-horns/595143/123 "2011-09-14T15:28:34Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > You cant have the three reasonings all at once, they’re clashing into one another). I’m not using all three. I’m saying that only two are reflected in the sculpture (symbol of power/Bible error) and one can certainly contribute to the other. Evil Jews were depicted with horns centuries before Michelangelo. > [@](#): > > When the origin of the myth might actually have been a positive thing, and not at all an antisemitic trope. It doesn’t sound that way. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-in-the-past-50-years-ever-really-think-that-jews-have-horns/595143/124 "2011-09-14T15:46:13Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > , the simile that they chose, and which seemed closest to their cultural and local experience was to compare them to “[Huguenots](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenot)”. Which, if I might say is a much more apt French translation of “Amish”. “Huguenots” certainly isn’t a correct translation of “Amish”. Regardless of whether or not there might have been historically a connection between both movements, “Huguenot” in French refers to a French protestant living during, say, the 16th-18th centuries. Translating “Amish” by “Huguenot” would completely puzzle the reader. Reading that, I would assume you’re referring to mainstream protestants descending from Huguenots who had emigrated from France to North-America during Louis XIV’s reign. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-in-the-past-50-years-ever-really-think-that-jews-have-horns/595143/125 "2011-09-15T04:30:42Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > I believe Huguenots were Calvinists, which is fairly different from Anabaptists. Yes, quite. But that’s not the point I am trying to make. An important distinction could be made within the French language and culture and those influenced by it with a translation including and dating the Amish within the approximacy and historically loaded definition of the Huguenot movement. This French girl is thinking that Mormons are Amish and vice versa… it’s a frisable and comparable cultural psychic wedge to show her the difference without going into preaching and apoplkectics. Mormons have very little in common with the amish, but the amish perhaps more in common with a native and familiar movement, historically. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-in-the-past-50-years-ever-really-think-that-jews-have-horns/595143/126 "2011-09-15T05:09:56Z")
Apparently many French folks mix up Mormons and Amish. I was just looking this up the other day–the story is that the movie _Witness_, when translated into the French, described the Amish people as Mormons, and they’ve been conflated in the French popular imagination ever since. I couldn’t pin it down with exactitude (since I don’t have a French copy of the movie) but traced it far enough that it looks like a credible story. I too have heard the story about Mormons having horns. People used to–jokingly–ask me about it. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-in-the-past-50-years-ever-really-think-that-jews-have-horns/595143/127 "2011-09-16T10:16:24Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Also, did “No Jews/Irish/Blacks/whoever or Dogs Allowed” signs ever really exist? A fictional depiction, and not in America, but exactly what you are talking about: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cvK-VGPocQU/hqdefault.jpg "No dogs and Chinese allowed. Seriously.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvK-VGPocQU) In Bruce Lee’s “Fist of Fury” there is a park with a sign by the entrance that says “No dogs and Chinese allowed”, which causes good ol’ Bruce to commence with a major asskicking. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-american-in-the-past-50-years-ever-really-think-that-jews-have-horns/595143.md?page=6)