Anti-Semitism

This a series of posts explores anti-Semitism, its origins, the motivations behind it, its various manifestations, its consequences, and its possible future. The series also proposes a method for determining when an act or statement is anti-Semitic and concludes with some suggestions for remedying the consequences of anti-Semitism. A series of discussion questions is also included.

Review of the previous post.

The previous post, post number 1 of 33, was the first post in the series and provided a short introduction to the series and began a discussion of the background of the term “anti-Semitism”.

Preview of this post.

This post, post number 2 of 33, is the first of 4 posts discussing an overview of anti-Semitism and begins the discussion.

III. Overview

Jews were, and still are, persecuted in every age of history: under the Alexandrian and Roman empires they were persecuted; under early Christianity they were persecuted; under medieval Christianity and Islam they were persecuted; under the Crusades they were persecuted; under nineteenth century European nationalism they were persecuted; in Spain they were persecuted. They were expelled from country after country (England 1290, France 1394, Spain 1492 and on and on)^[1]. They have been blamed for the Black Death, for economic woes, for loss of wars, for joblessness, for political failings, for oppression of people. They have been persecuted in every country of the world: in France; in England; in Spain; in Germany; in the Middle East, in the Far East; in America. They have been persecuted in every era: in biblical times, during the Hellenistic period; during Roman times, during the Dark Ages; during the Enlightenment; during the Romantic Period; in modern times, especially in modern times when the Nazis murdered millions of Jews simply because they were Jews and for no reason other than because they were Jews, and other nations either stood by or, much more contemptibly, actually turned their backs on Jews seeking asylum from Nazi tyranny. Even in the so-called Golden Age in Spain, they were persecuted as can be understood from the letters of the great Moses Maimonides who had to move from his home in Cordoba and wander and finally settle in Egypt because of persecution of the Jews^[2].

Preview of the next post.

The next post, post number 3 of 33, is the second of 4 posts discussing an overview of anti-Semitism and continues the discussion.

^[1] A question might be raised regarding expulsions: could one reason behind an expulsion be that the Jews had obtained a position where perhaps gentiles, even monarchy, owed them a great deal of money (Jew were financiers, and merchants), and the debtors decided that it would be easier to expel the Jews and confiscate their property than it would be to pay their debts back? Confiscation of the property of the Jews would be a benefit added to the “clearing” of the debt, especially if the Jew was prominent and had amassed a substantial fortune and had substantial holdings. Still further, perhaps some Anti-Semitism and the prohibitions surrounding it were grounded on handicapping Jews so less educated and less business adept gentiles could compete. A still further “use” of anti-Semitic measures could be the ousting of Jews from positions that gentiles coveted. For example, if a Jew held a professorship coveted by a gentile, removing the Jew opened the position for the gentile, or ousting a Jewish student from a school opened up a spot for a gentile who was not as qualified as the Jew and would not otherwise have been accepted to the school. One way to survive a competitive situation is simply to remove one’s competition, which is what anti-Semitism did for the gentiles in Germany. Still further, many Jews had acquired a great deal of valuable belongings (such as art) which was coveted by their neighbors, and once the Jews were sent off to concentration camps, these neighbors could loot the Jew’s home (in some cases, the state allowed such looting as reward for turning in Jews).

^[2] In the epilogue to “Commentary on the Mishnah,” Maimonides wrote that his task of writing was difficult, but made more difficult because “I was agitated by the distress of our time, the exile which God had decreed upon us, the fact that we are being driven from one end of the world to the other. ”He further wrote in “Epistle to Yemen” “How could we study the law when we are being exiled from city to city, and from country to country?”