Download There are many different types of antisemitism, many different

ANTISEMITISM
There are many different types of antisemitism,
many different definitions and even different ways
of spelling it. Here is a basic definition:
Hostility to or prejudice against Jews.
Some scholars believe the definition should
describe hatred rather than hostility, and include the
idea that Jews are judged as a group rather than
simply as individuals.
SEMITIC
“Semitic” originally referred to a family of languages
from the Middle East, including Aramaic, Arabic,
Hebrew, and many others. A Semite is a person who
speaks a Semitic language.
The word “Semite” is an adjective traced to the
Greek spelling of the name Shem (one of Noah’s
three sons in the Bible).
Over time it became used to refer to cultures and
ethnic groups who spoke Semitic languages.
However: Antisemitism is hatred of Jews,
specifically, and not of all Semiticspeaking peoples.
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JEWISH HISTORY BASICS
~2000 BCE?: Abraham’s covenant (agreement) with the
one God (monotheism)
•
•
~1200 BCE?: Moses receives the Ten Commandments
from God on Mt. Sinai
•
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Judaism is believed to be first monotheistic religion in world history. This
immediately set it in potential conflict, being surrounded by polytheistic
empires.
Moses’ story is at the heart of much of the Torah (the first 5 books of the
Hebrew Bible). The Torah includes 613 commandments (but about 300 of
those related specifically to the Temple of Jerusalem).
66-73 CE: First Jewish-Roman War: Romans destroy
Temple of Jerusalem (70 CE)
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While there was already a Jewish Diaspora (the spread of Jews around the
world) underway, the destruction of the Temple and conquest of Judea led
to a much larger diaspora. The result was that Jews came to live in many
different cultures in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, but as a minority in
each, with no nation or empire of their own.
WHO IS A JEW?
Throughout history, there have been many different
definitions of who should be considered Jewish. It is
an ongoing question.
According to the Mishnah (a collection of oral
teachings of Rabbis), the oldest definition is this: A
person whose mother is Jewish, or who converts to
Judaism, is Jewish.
Nazi Germany, in the Nuremberg Laws, labeled
someone as Jewish if 3 of their 4 grandparents
were Jews. If someone had 2 Jewish grandparents,
they were labeled as of “mixed blood.”
ANTISEMITISM has a very long
history and has taken many forms.
The Anti-Defamation League explains it like this:
“Anti-Semitism is the hatred of the Jewish people and / or Judaism, the
Jewish religion. It has been called anti-Judaism when it
targets Jewish beliefs and practices, and anti-Semitism
when it targets the Jewish people as a perceived race.
Sometimes referred to as “the oldest hatred,” it began as a conflict over
religious beliefs, but in certain places and times, it evolved into a
governmental policy of political, economic and social isolation, exclusion,
degradation, and attempted annihilation. It did not begin in the Nazi era,
nor did it end with the close of World War II. Its continuance over the
millennia speaks to the power of scapegoating a group that
is defined as “the other.”
ANTI-JUDAISM: Religious antisemitism
DEICIDE
The killing of a god.
“BLOOD
LIBEL”
A false accusation, often made
throughout European history, that Jews
murder children to use their blood in
certain rituals or holidays.
This became a major accusation made by some Christians against the Jews,
especially between ~300 CE and the 1600s CE. The Romans executed Jesus, but
some of the Christian Gospels mention the role of Jewish leaders in getting Jesus
arrested. Religious antisemites believed all Jews should be held responsible, as a
group, for the murder of Jesus, whom Christians believed was the Christ (Savior)
and Son of God.
Similarly, Jews were accused of purposely poisoning wells or “desecrating” the holy
bread used for Christian communion. These false accusations, against a religious
minority, often led to pogroms.
POGROM
An organized massacre of Jewish people.
FORMS OF ANTISEMITISM
Louis Harap, a Jewish scholar, identified six categories
of antisemitism:
RACIAL
RELIGIOUS
(the
Jew
is
accused
of
belonging
(the Jew is accused of being a
to
a
separate
and
inferior
“Christ-killer”)
“race”)
ECONOMIC
IDEOLOGICAL
(the Jew is accused of being
(the Jew is accused of being a
greedy, money-obsessed, a
revolutionary or subversive; the
banker, a usurer*)
Jew as “Communist”)
SOCIAL
CULTURAL
(the Jew is accused of being a (the Jew is accused of being part
pushy social inferior, leading to of a separate minority culture
social exclusion)
that threatens the main culture)
Source: “Antisemitism.” Wikipedia. 9 March 2012. Wikimedia Foundation. 9 March 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism>
Origins of Economic Antisemitism
MEDIEVAL EUROPE:
* Due to religious antisemitism, European rulers and church
officials made it illegal for Jews to work in many types of jobs and
professions.
* As a result, many Jews took up jobs that were considered
socially inferior, such as moneylending, and rent and tax
collecting.
* Jews were able to dominate moneylending in many medieval
societies because the Catholic Church considered it a sin to lend
money to other people and charge interest in return.Very few
Christians were willing to do this.
* This hurt the Jews’ reputation in at least two major ways: 1) Many
Christians resented Jewish lenders and collectors because they
owed them money; 2) they also resented them because it
reinforced the idea that Jews did “sinful” work.