# Why are jews hated and/or mocked so much? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 23, 2010, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709 "2010-11-23T22:28:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MinkyBinks735](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@MinkyBinks735](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinkyBinks735)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/21 "2010-11-24T03:58:54Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > For example? man Czarcasm, you like to be on every thread I write, don’t you? It is a question so I don’t understand what kind of example you are looking for. ---
**Author:** ![MinkyBinks735](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@MinkyBinks735](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinkyBinks735)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/22 "2010-11-24T04:01:26Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > It’s not the question, its the OP. This thread, combined with the ever intelligent raping a prostitute is shopliftinig thread, made it perfectly clear to me the OP has no real interest in the issue. I never said “raping a prostitute is shoplifting.” I ASKED it. And if you don’t think I am serious, then you can just step off and don’t contribute to the thread. I have read every post people have replied to on this thread. And I do care. I have always wondered why the hatred to this specific group of people. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/23 "2010-11-24T04:03:43Z")
> [@MinkyBinks735](#): > > And if you don’t think I am serious, then you can just step off and don’t contribute to the thread. Oh no you dinnit!!! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/24 "2010-11-24T04:13:54Z")
> [@MinkyBinks735](#): > > man Czarcasm, you like to be on every thread I write, don’t you? It is a question so I don’t understand what kind of example you are looking for. If you mean they call each other “jew” derisively, could you please show us an example. If you mean they call each other “jew” because they each believe the other is Jewish…so what? ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/25 "2010-11-24T04:24:20Z")
> [@](#): > > Why are jews hated and/or mocked so much? Because we’re cool. 😃 😛 Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/26 "2010-11-24T04:24:49Z")
> [@Grateful-UnDead](#): > > Clearly, the lessons of WWII are being ignored amongst those who should know better. Most important among them: Looting art treasures is fucking awesome! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/27 "2010-11-24T04:36:31Z")
> [@Grateful-UnDead](#): > > It was a fundamental aspect of Roman society that wealth and social status was gained from involvement in foreign wars. Therefore, there was a need to find enemies and keep in a constant state of war. > Many Romans gained their social position through their “conquests” in the eastern Mediterranean. However, the opposition was very weak. Therefore it was politically advantageous to make it seem as if they were far more formidable than they really were. > > Therefore, it became a political tactic and a means for social advancement to demonize the Jews. This is documented in the book by Josephus (Flavius???) entitiled “The Jewish Wars”. For a start status in Roman society was gained by successful foreign wars ANYWHERE. Witness Gaul, Britannia, et al, et sequitur nauseum. There was nothing whatever that differentiated successful foreign wars in the eastern Mediterranean. Indeed the Romans _lost_ more wars in that general area (against the Parthians in general, also sometimes against the Armenians) than in other areas. The [Jewish Wars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jewish-Roman_War) were not foreign wars in any sense, they were about suppressing internal rebellions. Why, even by this logic, did the Jews end up more demonised that, say, the Parthians? Or indeed than the Gauls, who had actually, you know, conquered and occupied Rome? Or the Goths, who brought down the western Roman empire? The truth is that the Jews were not specifically demonised by the Romans, over and above what opprobrium their rebellious nature drew. It was Christians who did that, at core because the Jews refused to recognise Jesus Christ as the Messiah (he was just a very naughty prophet). Witness the efforts of the Inquisitions to specifically convert Jews over precisely this issue. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/28 "2010-11-24T04:36:47Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > Methinks the tolerance of the moderators with idiot newbies is a tad too high. If you want the Mods to show a bit less tolerance for one type of poster or another, I suppose we could issue you a Warning as an example of one poster calling another poster an idiot in Great Debates. I strongly suggest that you back off. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/29 "2010-11-24T04:46:21Z")
Well OP, it’s been a while since you posted, what do _you_ think the reason(s) are? > [@Marley23](#): > > That’s not what the Chosen People thing means. I find the idea grating, but Jewish dopers have explained this in the past. It’s actually a classical anti-semitic claim. And if you think about it, there’s no real reason to take an isolated phrase/ritual out of context and use it as a slur. We’d laugh at people who claimed that all Catholics were cannibals because of the Eucharist. But if Jews have a phrase “the chosen people” then, why, they must have a superiority complex. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/30 "2010-11-24T04:48:11Z")
My only experience is that people who call each other “Jews” usually do it because they are. Why anti-Semitism? (And it is far from gone.) 1. Throughout the Christian world Jews were the “other” in the midst. Oh, Moslems were other also, but for most of those centuries they were the other in other lands, to be massacred on Crusades, not others in the midst. An other in the midst is always handy to have around when things go wrong. Handy enough that the image was even kept alive when they no longer existed in the midst: see “The Merchant of Venice”, written long enough after the expulsion of Jews form England that Shakespeare likely never even met a Jew. 2. Jews have had a segment that has been insular (allowing the “clannish” charge); a segment that have become secular and achieved - becoming wealthy (greedy money grubbing Jews), capitalists, Communists (rabble rousing Jews), involved in the media (controlling the news), and so on. Whatever your politics you could find a Jew to hate. 3. Ignorance. Some really do believe the idiocy that has been posted here about the meaning of “Chosen” in the Jewish tradition. (Although I can’t say that there was no arrogance in Yiddish tradition: a goyishe kopf is not a compliment, and a Yiddishe kopf meant smart or clever.) 4. Limited contact allowing for a few examples to over-represent a whole (confirmation bias). Amazingly enough there are pushy assholes and greedy obnoxious cheats that are Jewish just like there are one who are every other religion and ethnicity. Expect to see them and you can find them and have your stereotype confirmed. That’s my serious answer, if one was actually desired. **Minky** , “just asking questions” has very distinct pedigreed right now. Distinct but not distinguished. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/31 "2010-11-24T05:08:26Z")
> [@FE3O4ENAIL](#): > > Please do not argue with me about what I read in a book. I am just relating what someone else wrote. I thought it offensive and posted it as a reason a bigoted person could use to dislike Jews. No one is arguing with what you read. The argument is with your utterly erroneous interpretation of what you read that is in direct conflict with anything that a Jewish author has ever written on the topic. I would be very curious as to what was actually written that you so clearly misinterpreted. The notion of the “Chosen people” is never expressed in a way that indicates that the rest of humanity is “shit.” Certainly, no writer such as Sholem Aleichem or Leo Rosten ever made such a remark. The theological meaning of the phrase has always held that the Jews were chosen to act in the most righteous manner possible as an example to the world of the behavior that God wanted. It was generally considered more of an obligation than an exaltation. This is reflected in Tevye’s comment to God in Fiddler on the Roof: “_I know. I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can’t You choose someone else?_” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/32 "2010-11-24T05:49:55Z")
They were readily available. For much of western history, they were one of the few recognizably distinct groups that lived among Europeans. So they became an easy target for local bigotry. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/33 "2010-11-24T06:07:40Z")
Also: Biblical history aside, the Jews of old Europe had no nationhood and therefore no military tradition, and all power and notions of honor were derived from warfare. The heathen Saracens were hated but also feared and therefore respected. The Jews had no such claim to warlike glory; they were a people who lived and died purely at the behest of whatever local leader (whose power was derived from war) happened to be in charge of the Jews’ fate. As a people, the Jews were “feminized,” with all the negative connotations that would carry in ages when warrior-kings ruled. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/34 "2010-11-24T06:15:11Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > No one is arguing with what you read. The argument is with your utterly erroneous interpretation of what you read that is in direct conflict with anything that a Jewish author has ever written on the topic. Why do you think it is **FE3O4ENAIL** ’s misinterpretation? Why could it not be an explication of the sort of misinterpretation of the concept of “the chosen people” commonly made by anti-semites? (It seems to me that it also may well sometimes be a real factor in tipping some of those people who are not well informed about the subtleties of actual Jewish beliefs - i.e., most gentiles - into anti-semitism. It may not be the _right_ interpretation of the expression. but it is the most _prima facie_ obvious one.) The fact that the notion was found in “a book on yiddish” does not preclude the possibility that the book was written by an anti-semite (they do tend to be rather obsessed with matters Jewish), and even if the book was by a Jew, they may have been attempting to explain one of the sources of anti-semitism. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/35 "2010-11-24T06:17:16Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > My only experience is that people who call each other “Jews” usually do it because they are. I’d wager that the OP (should he ever return) is either European or hangs out on the internet. “Jew” is an insult in some places in Europe. At least, while I was living there I heard it used several times, especially by kids. On some uglier corner of the 'net (I’m talking video gaming sort of stuff, not st_rmfr_nt), “Jew” is simply mixed into the list of insults along side “nigger” and “faggot”. Then again, a guy I went to college with thought that the proper noun was “Jewish” as he’d only ever heard the word “Jew” used as an insult. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/36 "2010-11-24T06:18:36Z")
They’re always clumsily ( maliciously? ) stepping on my feet with their little cloven hoofs. Thankfully they’re a small people on the whole. But still, those things hurt. And if you’re all “hey man, watch where you’re treading with your damned ( literally ) feet”, they get all indignant and try to gore you with the little horns they’re always trying to conceal under their wiry Jew hair. Jews, man. If they’re not leavening their bread with the blood of good Christian babies, they’re out charging outrageous vig to solid, upstanding Christian gamblers :(. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/37 "2010-11-24T06:26:58Z")
Is it not also a factor that since, in the middle ages, usury (lending money at interest) was forbidden to Christians, and many professions were closed to Jews, the necessary economic function of money lending fell largely to Jews? Moneylenders, as they eventually want to be repaid, and with interest, do tend to become unpopular (and this is going to be especially true in a society that thinks usury of any sort is a sin). This also explains why financial meanness and greed, specifically, is such a central part of the negative stereotype of the Jew. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/38 "2010-11-24T14:34:04Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > If you want the Mods to show a bit less tolerance for one type of poster or another, I suppose we could issue you a Warning as an example of one poster calling another poster an idiot in Great Debates. > > I strongly suggest that you back off. > > [/Moderating] Where is that suprised face smiley? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/39 "2010-11-24T14:40:22Z")
“One of the oldest problems puzzled over in the Talmud is: ‘Why did God create goyim?’ The generally accepted answer is _'somebody_ has to buy retail.’” – Arthur Naiman ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709/40 "2010-11-24T14:50:39Z")
Back to the o.p. the only people I know of who retain the outdated Jew hating thing are neo fascists and muslims. Maybe I’m missing something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-jews-hated-and-or-mocked-so-much/561709.md?page=3)