The current mailbag article on The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion got me thinking… How is it that folks who call themselves Christian came to hate Jews in the first place? For well over half of the Bible, we’re all rooting for the Jews. Their holy writings are part of our holy writings, and all of the Jewish beliefs are accessable to anyone with an Old Testament. I mean, how do you attribute vampirism to a people forbidden from consuming any blood in their meat, from any animal? Four thousand years of being the “good guys”, and they’re cursed and reviled for ages thanks to the actions of one unruly mob? It just doesn’t make sense.
Umm, well part of it was that thing Caiaphas, the High priest did to our Messiah* (not an “unruly mob” a deliberate act). But the Romans were just as much to blame, and we forgot that grudge early. And so has the Pope, but it did take him 2000 years. 
Really; any small sucessful group, that considers themselves “special”, and keeps themselves different, will be persecuted. It is a tribute to the perserverance of the Jews, that despite some 6000 years of this persecution, they still follow the Law that they think is right. Note also that until we became the majority, the persecutions of the Christians by the Romans were legendary.
And it was not just Christians that persecuted the Jews, the Romans did, and so did the Egyptians and several other OT nations, and the Muslims do A LOT*2, unless that little tension in the Mid-east has passed you by.
*1 and in any case, that was the actions of one group of religous leaders, and they got theirs a few years later. That should have been an end to that grudge.
*2 When they can, and of course this does not mean they ALL do, by any means.
This is a tangential to the Protocols, and so is being moved to the Great Debates forum.
Let’s add in to what Daniel said, that there was straightforward rivalry between Judaism and early Christianity. The earliest Christians attempted to convert the Jews, not the pagans, and those efforts were pretty soundly put down. In turning to the pagans, the Christian leaders needed a reason that the Jews had rejected them, and so some very virilent anti-Jewish writings can be found in some of the letters in the New Testament.
The more they were embraced by the pagans and rejected by the Jews, the more the Jews became a symbol of evil (or misguided ignorance.) Once the Christians were in the power seat, 'twasn’t hard to move from simple dislike to government-led persecution.
In a broader sense, the pagans disliked the Jews because of their unswerving monotheism. When one pagan society came in contact with another, it was pretty easy to “identify” their gods, one with another: the sun god, the sky god, the water god, etc. And to introduce new gods into their pantheon. Thus, pagan societies rarely had fights about religion. If one pagan society warred on and overran another, then the gods of the victor were obviously stronger than the gods of the vanquished, and so the conquered people adopted (or adapted) the new gods.
Not so the Jews, who flatly rejected the pagan pantheons.
Hence the dislike mentioned by Daniel, by the Romans and Egyptians and so on.
And, in yet a broader sense, most societies seem to need a scapegoat: some group that is “other”, that can be blamed or where attention can be focused… Much easier to blame an outsider than to blame your own government; or, to focus attention on an outsider “enemy” rather than on societal ills. American society is not immune to this, as can be well-testified by blacks and Orientals and Jews and Irish and Italians and Russians and …
First, Jews actually have not historically suffered as much at the hands of Muslims. In fact, throughout much of the Muslim period (since the 7th century) Jews have often found a refugee in Islamic lands, and have often been respected there as the “People of the Book”. Of course, recent developments (in the past century) have given Muslims a reputation for hating Jews, but that is another story.
In Europe, it is in fact astounding that the Jewish faith and cultures have survived 2000+ years of persecution, etc. Of course, hundreds of thousands of Jews have converted over the centuries, but many remained Jewish – those who became the forbears of today’s Jews. It was the process of steadfastly maintaining their faith and culture which required social separation from the surrounding peoples that indeed led to a great deal of the anti-Semitism that has plagued Europe for all this time.
An additional thought: IIRC, in medieval times, Christianity as practiced in Europe forbade Christians from engaging in certain economic practices (charging any interest as usury comes to mind). Jews filled these necessary economic roles in European society, and, as a result, certain members of Jewish society became rich. So, two phenomena arose: 1) Jewish moneylenders became the creditors of Christians rulers, and 2) Jewish moneylenders were making money doing something Christians didn’t allow themselves to do. This led to tension, and the stereotype of Jews and money-grubbing. It also led to a get-rich-quick scheme by the Christian rulers: persecute the Jews (using the “they killed Jesus” theme, etc.) and drive them away/kill them, so that the ruler could cancel his debts and confiscate the Jewish property. In the long run, it was a poor policy, as the moneylenders wouldn’t loan to the ruler again.
Sua
What’s interesting about Rome, is despite anti-semitism. The Jews were quite powerfull. Julius and Augustus Caesar did quite a bit to try and curry favor with them.
Goddamnit, why can’t I find my book with the cites.
They were the only group that was allowed assembly under the empire, and they were allowed to forgo work on Sunday’s. No other religious or political group was given this kind of leeway. As such they were big supporters of Julius.
You do mean Saturdays, right? And a lot of religous groups got support & leeway from the Romans, in fact that was one of their secrets of conquering- leave the local religion alone. It was only later, that the Christians & the Jews, being Monotheists, refused to admit Caesar was a god, that they were persecuted.
I think the key reason has already been mentioned: Jews are “different” – and they stay that way. When you need a scapegoat, who do you go for? Those who are in the minority and different. So Jews, blacks, etc. get targeted.
Hmm, I guess it all comes down to folks not doing what they’re supposed to (yes, I know that sounds corny). If you go by what the Bible (or the Q’uran, for that matter) says, Christians and Muslims ought to respect the Jews. However, there’s very few folks of any religion who actually follow all of the guidlines of their official religious teachings, and so human nature takes over.
As an interesting sidenote: The Christian prohibition against usury (moneylending for profit) actually comes from the Old Testement, not the New. One presumes, then, that either the Jews had a different interpretation for that passage, or that the Jewish moneylenders weren’t very religious Jews.
I reccommend Jewich Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Why did Christians hate Jews?
1 30 pieces of silver.
For a long time 60 was considered whole and complete in much the same way we think of 100 today (check Cecil’s columns on clocks). Judas betrays Jesus for half that amount. Does he want gold? No, he’ll betray his friend for silver.
2 The Judas Kiss
Does Judas just point to Jesus? He identifies him with a kiss. Jesus says to the centurions “When I was with you day after day in the Temple, you did not lay hands on me.” (Luke 22:53) So the Romans knew without help who Jesus was. It seems likely that the bribe and the kiss were later additions whose purpose was to justify hatred of Jews. Considering that the clergy were among the very few who could read or write, it wouldn’t be difficult to tamper with the New Testament.
As far as the Jews demanding the crucifixion, I’ll qoute Telushkin.
“Concerning Jesus’ executioner, Pontius Pilate, we have a considerable body of data that contradicts the largely sympathetic portrayal of him in the New Testament.”
And
“The gentle, kind-hearted, Pilate of the New Testament-who in his `heart of hearts’ really did not want to harm Jesus-is fictional”
Pilate had absolute authority over his subjects and the military force to back it up. If he had really wanted to spare Jesus, he could have done so with ease. Further, Pilate hated the Jews and his bowing to their will is like Jesse Helms submitting to the NEA.
This change had two effects. It further justified hatred of the Jews. It also absolved the Romans of guilt. Had Christianity blamed the Romans, the empire would have seen the new faith as a threat and crushed it.
The Jews suffered no oppression under Mohammed. Once he was gone, the opression of Jews and Christians began.
To qoute Telushkin again
“There is a popular myth in the West that Jews lived as equal citizens in the Muslim world until the rise of Zionism provoked anti-Jewish feelings among the Arabs. In truth, throughout almost all of their more than thousand-year sojourn in the orbit of Islam, Jews-and Christians too-lived as humiliated second-class citizens.”
The Pact of Umar, a document dating roughly 720 (ad for you Christians ce for us) established laws governing the lives of Christians and Jews. Think of the Jim Crow laws and you’ve got the general idea. These laws prohibited raising their voices at funeral processions, riding horses or mules and other things. Later additions demanded the wearing of ridiculous clothing.
On another note, the Dome of the Rock is built on top of the Temple Mount. The Muslims deliberatley built a temple on the most sacred site of Judaism. Imagine how Christians would feel if they had done the same on the site of the Holy Sepulcher. Muslims treated Jews and Christians better than others. But consider others were given the choice of Islam or the sword, that isn’t saying much
The specific passages/prohibitions regarding usury are in Ex 22:25 and Lv 25:36-37. In those passages, the prohibition is explicitly against charging interest to fellow countrymen or “your brother.” Christians and Jews each chose to read the passages as saying that Christians could not loan at interest to Christians and Jews could not loan at interest to Jews, but that “others” could be charged interest. (There were several occasions when wealthy bishops loaned money at interest to Jewish merchants, expecting interest.)
Since there were far more Christians than Jews, most of the loans were by Jews who then gained a significant control of the money supply. When they were persecuted for being greedy or for trying to “wield too much power,” they were being persecuted for having been forced into a situation.
Thanks, tom… I knew I had read that somewhere in the OT, but I was too lazy to look up references. In other words, it wasn’t for the activity itself that they were persucuted, but just because they got rich off of it? Sounds like about par for the course.
There are two biblical citations that encapsulate much of historical anti-semetism.
The first is when Jacob, having been enormously successful as a shepard for his father-in-law Lavan (Laban?), overheard his brothers-in-law saying “Jacob has taken away all that belongs to our father, and from our father’s possessions he has amassed all this wealth”. (From subsequent conversations of Jacob and Lavan it is clear that it was a mutually successful arrangement). At this point Jacob began to realize that he had overstayed his welcome, and it was time to hit the road again.
Second was when the Jews were doing well in Egypt, and Pharoh and the Egyptians said “The Jewish people are too numerous and strong for us, when a war comes they will turn against us…”. The enslavement followed.
These two themes have been repeated throughout history.
There is anti-Semitism and there is anti-Semitism.
There is undoubtedly an especially nasty place in the Christian hell for jackbooted thugs who beat up rabbis and desecrate Torahs. However, aforementioned jackboot up the backside of David B. would only count as a venial sin.
DocCathode wrote:
“Jewich”? What’s that, a sandwich on Kosher bread? <rimshot>
No, sorry, you are wrong. I have it on the “highest” authority that such an act would get you all your sins remitted, and a special party “up there”.
Here is my take on this. Not until the Europeans started using Christianity as the main religion to control the masses was anti-Semitism openly pursued and even encouraged. The Jews had no reason to accept the various rules and laws put forth in the name of Christianity and therefor were considered to be outside the scope of control and therefor a potential threat to the rulers. Uncontrolled religion (not necessarily Jewish) had previously proven to be potentially fatal to previous rulers.
As they were considered to be a threat, the rulers encouraged the persecution of the Jews in the name of Christ. It was a brilliant move. By persecuting the Jews through torture and execution, the rulers obtained their objective of eliminating the threat of an uncontrolled religion, and as a bonus, it sent a signal to the Christian subjects that they should remain faithful or suffer similar fate. And of course it also showed the gentle side of Christ when a converted subject was so graciously absolved and forgiven his sins and brought back into the fold.
That (in my humble opinion), is how it started, the rest is history.
Wasn’t Jesus originally Jewish? Why would any Christian/follower of Christ attack that from which he rose to become our Lord?
OK - two different issues:
FIRST:
Chronos asked:
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I heard an excellent lecture by Rabbi Motti Berger (of Aish HaTorah) called something like “Why Hate the Jews?” In it he basically said that, despite lots and lots of excuses, the fact of the matter is that people hate Jews for only one reason - they don’t like the message we carry. ;j
You see, we Jews believe that God asked us to be a “light unto the nations;” to live as a model of behavior for the rest of humanity. In other words, we are God’s Moral Task Force… it’s up to Jews to see that the population of the Earth does as God wants.
Anyone ever make fun of the teacher’s pet? People generally don’t like to be told how to behave.
Basically, if you don’t like the message, you ignore it and kill the messenger. That’s it.
Of course, there is more detail… Aish HaTorah put it all online in an excellent seminar. Check it out… it’s good.
SECOND: warning - Hijack ahead
CKDextHavn posted:
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Concerning the underlined section, isn’t it more accurate to say that the earliest Christians were Jews?
If I understand the early chapters of Acts correctly (daniel, can you provide a cite?), the early Christians, who were Jews found that their numbers weren’t growing since thier “reformation” of Judaism wasn’t as popular as they had hoped it would be. So, they decided to allow Pagans to join the club to bolster their numbers.
It is interesting to note that, until this change in policy, mainstream Jews (of the time) had no problem with Christians… they were simply non-observant Jews. But, once the Christians decided to let Pagans in, their children were no longer technically Jewish (due to non-Jewish lineage). It was only at this point that the mainstream Jewish society was forced to push the Christian movement away… similar to contemporary mainstream, observant Judaism’s response to the Reform Movement’s adoption of Patrilinial (?) Descent.