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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. • 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 • • 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) • 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.