The subject line pretty much says it all…
Why has such a tiny percentage of the world population been so consistently and adamently prosecuted?
I’m voting for “jealousy.”
Yeah - God’s being playing favorites again!!!
Grim
Not to be offensive, but have they really done anything to make themselves liked.
Sure…they made Animal Crackers (1930)!
I’d even like Bulgarians if they’d made that movie.
It’s easier than being introspective about your own culture.
I think part of it started back in the days of the plague, when millions were dropping like flies, and the jews, due to their strict dietary guidelines, boiling water and the like, bopped along without much of a dent. That caused a deep seated resentment, rumours, innuendo, and some dark misguided mythology that has lasted till this day.
The middle east didn’t have that much of a problem with them (unless you want to back to the times of nechubehedzar (sp?)) until they moved into the neighborhood.
Oy.
Funny, I never thought of that until now. That must be it. I shall start working on this angle immediately…
;j
I think most of it is rooted in Christian misconception - up until fairly recently, it was taught in many places that the Jews had killed Jesus. EEEP! Christian revenge aroused! Kill mode engaged!
Didn’t any of those so-called Christians realize that Jesus was SUPPOSED to die?
Even though Jews didn’t kill Jesus, they still got blamed for it. So when all of Europe became the vast Christian playground, I think Jews got the short end of the stick. The influx of Muslims in the Holy Land didn’t help either. What’s a pious Jew to do?
For a while at least, the only safe place in Europe for a Jew to go was Poland. (I think that this was sometime in the 1500s.) Then the leadership of Poland changed, and - POOF! - pogroms galore!
Jews (even then) had a reputation for being money-handlers. The Polish nobility were hard up on their luck, and needed a way to build up the treasury. They encouraged Jews to come to Poland to manage their finances. Pretty soon, they were in charge of collecting taxes, too. When the Polish peasants saw that they were paying their taxes to Jews, and that Jews even held the mortgages on their churches (and hence, had the keys with which to open the churches) they got…well, they got miffed.
Revolt! Civil unrest! Bring out the hounds! Them consarned foreigners have taken over!
So, to keep the peasants from revolting against the Jews, the nobility adopted a policy of killing the Jews. Hypocrites. They turned their backs on the very people that had helped them out of bankruptcy.
So, my point is
I forgot my point.
Drat.
I hate it when that happens!
Okie - um, Jews have been persecuted a long time.
SUPERKARLENE
WAG. People tend to hate and fear the different. Jews didn’t assimilate easily and were eventually actually prevented from assimilating into most communities. This meant they remained a small, close knit population with cultures and traditions that differed from the surrounding community. As time went on and Jews were more and more persecuted it became easier to persecute them – after all, everyone was doing it! Your country’s economy tanking? Blame the Jews! Your people dying of the plague? Blame the Jews! Here’s the equation:
small, close knit population
+
different culture and tradition
+
a nice, long history of persecution by others
scapegoats
Jess
Jealously of what?
. . . Because that was one of the few careers they were permitted to engage in; they were barred from most others by law.
kugel
I think that Christians considered profitting from interest to be a mortal sin. Jews didn’t.
Of course, I read this years ago and don’t know where. I may have read it in Reader’s Digest for all I know.
“Jews had a reputation for being money-handlers.
. . . Because that was one of the few careers they were permitted to engage in; they were barred from most others by law.”
I knew that. Sorry if I offended anyone by forgetting to mention it.
Except that, by all reports, Jews were more assimilated in pre-WWII Germany than at any other time and place in history until present-day US.
Not the most objective of sites, but:
Actually, you’re wrong on two counts.
-
Hatred of Jews started well before the Black Death of the 1400s. I could point you to the Crusades, the homilies of John Chrysostom, etc. show that there was plenty of hatred for Jews well before the Black Death.
-
To my knowledge, I’m not aware of any reliable Jewish source that states that the Jews were any more resistant to the plague than anyone else. Perhaps someone can verify this for me, or correct me on it.
Zev Steinhardt
Perhaps because gentiles are overly litigious?
Another thing that set Jews apart in the Middle Ages was that some engaged in usury (loaning of money with the expectation of interest due), then considered a serious sin by Christians. Since Jews did not have any religious objection to usury, many were able to provide money-lending services all over Europe – which proved to be a lucrative business.
Today, every financial institution in the free world engages in usury, and no one thinks twice about it. Obviously, there is no longer the objection to interest-based lending as there was 700 years ago.
The Black Death started to plague Europe in the mid-1300s. It is now believed that it was transmitted to anyone and everyone through fleas.
Flea bites infected person.
Flea gets sick.
While sick, flea bites human.
Human says “Wow! A flea! Never seen one of those before!”
Human gets infected.
Human dies.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think that fleas in the Middle Ages were pretty universal. Fleas want blood, regardless of your religion.