Download Three Major Historical Examples of Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism
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hostility toward and prejudice against Jews
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can take many forms e.g. jokes, stereotypes, slogans, vandalism of synagogues and
cemeteries, persecutions, killing, and genocide.
Three Major Historical Examples of Anti-Semitism
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Ghettos
during the Middle Ages in throughout Europe
special area of a city where Jews were required by law to live
often overcrowded, sunless quarters in the worst part of cities
gated and locked at night
ravaged by Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land
Pogroms
eviction and massacre of Jews in Russia at many sites (1881 – 1921)
forced many Jews to immigrate to North America
between 1870 - 1940 the Jewish population in the U.S. rose from
0.25 million to 4.5 million
Sho’ah or the Holocaust
Holocaust:
-from the Hebrew “burnt offering”
-suggests an offering of something sacred to god, which the
event certainly was not, so many prefer the term…
Sho’ah -Hebrew term for “catastrophe”, “disaster”, or “devastation”
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Horrific acts of anti-Semitism by the Nazi government in Germany (1935-45)
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At death camps throughout eastern Europe, Jews suffered starvation,
mutilation, infection, gassing and burning
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corpses were robbed of hair and gold teeth, skins, bones and body fat were put to
experimental or industrial uses
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attempted genocide/extermination of Jews from Europe
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6 million Jews died (5 million adults and 1 million children), one third of the world’s Jewish
population
exhaustion, beating,
Theories to Explain Anti-Semitism
from Witty , I.E. “A Rabbi Discusses Anti-Semitism” in Canada and the world, (09/72)
1.
Religious Minority theory
Jews are set apart religiously from the dominant Christian society
They do not accept the divinity of Jesus, the authority of the New Testament, or the
observance of Christian ritual (Christmas, Easter etc)
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Christian Propaganda Theory
Belief that the Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus and other atrocities, as was
taught by Christian churches promoted and condoned anti-Semitic acts/laws
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Non-Assimilation theory
Refusal of the Jews to assimilate into the general society in which they live
E.g., food, clothing, Sabbath
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Racist theory
Claims the Jewish race is of inferior genetic stock
backed by pseudo-scientific proof
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Scapegoat theory
in any given society a scapegoats are needed upon whom social ills can be blamed
Jews are convenient and easily identifiable targets to blame for complex social/
political/economic problems
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Psychoanalytic theory
Anti-Semitism is really an unconscious hatred of Christianity itself
It is unacceptable for a Christian to condemn his own faith, which makes strong moral
and ethical demands,
he displaces his aggression by aiming his hatred at Jews from those ranks the founder of
the church emerged
Similar to Oedipal conflict
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Xenophobia theory
The fear/hatred of strangers
Jews constantly being expelled, moving to new places
Jews are often seen as aliens in society, a sense of Judaeophobia (fear of Jews) develops