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The Holocaust:
A Quest for Meaning
Holocaust Denial: Iran Holocaust
Cartoon Exhibition
Holocaust Denial
• In December 2015, two state-sponsored
Iranian cultural organizations, the Owj
Media & Art Institute and the Sarcheshmeh
Cultural Complex, announced a Holocaust
cartoon contest, expecting to receive entries
from cartoonists in dozens of countries.
Holocaust Denial
• These contests occur in the context of
official Iranian policy and practice of
promoting Holocaust denial, as well as what
the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum has called “genocidal language
against Israel” from top Iranian leaders.
Holocaust Denial
• The Iranian government has prevented
Iranians from learning about the Holocaust.
• Iranian citizens should have access to
accurate information about this history,
including Iran’s unique connection to it.
Holocaust Denial
• During World War II, Nazi Germany targeted
Iran for its resources, and Allied forces
invaded and occupied the country.
• Iran accepted some 116,000 Polish refugees
and Anders Army personnel fleeing horrible
conditions in labor camps in the Soviet
Union.
Holocaust Denial
• Among the civilians were 1,000 Jewish
children, the majority of them orphans.
• Abdol Hossein Sardari, an Iranian diplomat,
provided critical assistance to Iranian and
other Central Asian Jews in occupied France.
• Nevertheless, some Iranian Jews were still
deported to concentration camps.
Holocaust was Catharsis but
preceded the Shoa?
• The history of the Holocaust shows that
targeting an entire group has far-reaching
consequences.
• It can lead to an increase in xenophobia,
racism, and extremism throughout society,
with potentially devastating consequences
for individuals, communities, and nations.
• https://www.ushmm.org/confrontantisemitism/european-antisemitism-fromits-origins-to-the-holocaust
Answer the following
questions…
• Why watch this film?
• How have Jews been affected by antisemitism? What impact does
antisemitism have on others?
• What is the meaning of “scapegoat”? What do people gain from
scapegoating?
• What is the effect of hateful images and speech? Do images and
words reflect existing attitudes or create them?
• (How has antisemitism changed throughout history? What are some
differences among religious, political, and racial antisemitism?
• Why would political or religious leaders espouse antisemitic ideas?
• How is antisemitism similar to or different from other forms of group
hatred?
Intro into Judaism
Ashkenazic
• Descendants of Jews
from France, Germany
and Eastern Europe
Sephardic
• Descendants of Jews
from Spain, Portugal,
North Africa and the
Middle East
• Mizrachi: Descendants
of Jews from North Africa
and the Middle East
• Other subgroups are
Yemenite, Ethiopian and
Oriental
Split
• It's not clear when the split began, but it has
existed for more than a thousand years,
because around the year 1000 Rabbi
Gershom ben Judah issued an edict against
polygamy that was accepted by Ashkenazim
but not by Sephardim.
Slight Difference
• The beliefs of Sephardic Judaism are
basically in accord with those of Orthodox
Judaism, though Sephardic interpretations
of halakhah ( Jewish Law) are somewhat
different than Ashkenazic ones.
• The best-known of these differences
relates to the holiday of Pesach (
Passover) .
• Sephardic Jews may eat rice, corn,
peanuts and beans during this holiday,
while Ashkenazic Jews avoid them.
• Although some individual Sephardic Jews
are less observant than others, and some
individuals do not agree with all of the
beliefs of traditional Judaism, there is no
formal, organized differentiation into
movements as there is in Ashkenazic
Judaism.
Sephardic Jews
• Historically, Sephardic Jews have been more integrated into the
local non-Jewish culture than Ashkenazic Jews.
• In the Christian lands where Ashkenazic Judaism flourished, the
tension between Christians and Jews was great, and Jews tended to
be isolated from their non-Jewish neighbors, either voluntarily or
involuntarily.
• In the Islamic lands where Sephardic Judaism developed, there
was less segregation and oppression.
• Sephardic Jewish thought and culture was strongly influenced by
Arabic and Greek philosophy and science.
Yiddish
• The Yiddish language, which many people
think of as the international language of
Judaism, is really the language of
Ashkenazic Jews.
• Sephardic Jews have their own
international language: Ladino, which was
based on Spanish and Hebrew in the
same way that Yiddish was based on
German and Hebrew.
Assimilation
• Sephardic Jews have a different
pronunciation of a few Hebrew vowels and
one Hebrew consonant, though most
Ashkenazim are adopting Sephardic
pronunciation now because it is the
pronunciation used in Israel.
Other Jewish Subcultures
• There are some Jews who do not fit into
this Ashkenazic/Sephardic distinction.
• Yemenite Jews, Ethiopian Jews (also
known as Beta Israel and sometimes
called Falashas), and Asian Jews also
have some distinct customs and traditions.
• These groups, however, are relatively
small and virtually unknown in America.
Evolution of Hatred :Life before the Holocaust
Kielce's Market: Kielce Museum, Jewish artist P.Schultz
What is Anti-Semitism?
• Simply put, Anti-Semitism is hatred of the
Jews.
• The term Anti-Semitism did not exist until
1873 C.E. The term was coined by
Wilhelm Marr.
The History of Anti-Semitism
• The history of Anti-Semitism can be
broken into 3 main periods of history:
• Ancient/Roman times
• Christian/Medieval period
• Modern Anti-Semitism
History of Anti-Semitism
• Cultural differences
made the Jews
standout
– Only monotheistic
religion
– Refusal to accept
dominant religion
• Labeled by the
Romans as “stubborn,”
“clannish,” and
“hostile”
History of Anti-Semitism
• As Roman pressure on the Jews mounted, some urged
rebellion—while others (like Jesus) suggested a
reforming of ways
• 30 CE –Jesus is killed, disciples separated themselves
from Judaism
• Christian-anti-Judaism grows as Christians are made up
of more gentiles (non-Jews) than former Jews
• 70 CE– Jewish Diaspora (forced exile) from Jerusalem
after failed revolt against Rome
History of Anti-Semitism
• Middle Ages - Jews less than
human, killed in the Crusades,
demonized, blamed for Black
Death
• Renaissance/Reformation - Jews
had to wear badges or cones on
head, in Italy and Germany they
were separated into ghettos
• Council of Basel (1431-43)
established ghettos, required to
attend Christian services
• Spanish Inquisition (1478-1765),
1492 expulsion from Spain
History of Anti-Semitism
• Many occupations were closed to Jews
– Not allowed to own land, no farmers
– Trading guilds—not allowed to join
• Money lending (banking)
– Was considered a sin by Christians
– Given jobs as tax collectors,
– Usury—charging interest for loans
– Caused deep hatred among peasants
History of Anti-Semitism
• Enlightenment (Age of Reason)
– 1700s
– Jews were allowed out of the
ghettos
– 1791 Jews got full citizenship
in France
– Although they gained more
rights—had a hard time
joining “outside world,” spoke
Yiddish
– Instead of religion, “science”
and “reason” found
differences between Jews and
non-Jews
History of Anti-Semitism
• Blood libel—the idea
that Jews used the
blood of Christian
children for the
Passover meal
• Used as an excuse to
attack Jewish
communities
History of Anti-Semitism
• 325 CE - Christianity becomes official
religion of the Roman Empire. Jews
negatively portrayed.
– Refused to convert to Christianity despite
insistence of Church
• 5th-7th Centuries - Violence escalates
– “contamination” laws
– Could not hold public office
– Or show themselves during Holy Week
• Justinian Code 527-625
– Forbade reading of Torah in Hebrew
History of Anti-Semitism
•
The Protestant Reformation
– Martin Luther called Jews
“poisonous, bitter worms”
– Suggested they be forcibly
converted or expelled from
Germany
First their synagogues or
churches should be set on
fire…Secondly, their homes
should likewise be broken down
and destroyed…They ought to be
put under one roof or in a stable,
like gypsies…Thirdly, they should
be deprived of their prayer
books…Fourthly, their rabbis
must be forbidden under threat
of death to teach anymore…
Of Jews and Their Lies,
Martin Luther
History of Anti-Semitism
• French diplomat Joseph
Arthur Gobineau, father
of “modern” racial
thought
– Blamed decline of
civilization on
interbreeding of superior
and inferior racial groups
– white race or Aryans,
peoples speaking IndoEuropean languages
Race Replaces Religion
• Word Anti-Semitism first
appeared in 1873 in book
Victory of Judaism over
Germany by Wilhelm Marr
– Jews ought to be
eliminated because
they were members of
an alien race
Russia and France late 1800s
• Pogroms, massacres of Jews,
ordered by the czar
– Continued into 20th
century
• Dreyfus Affair--France
– Dreyfus, the first Jew
appointed to general
staff was accused of
giving info to Germany
– Pointed out level of antiSemitism in France
Keep the “Christ-Killers” Down!
Jew in Mandatory Medieval Hat
Since the early Catholic Church
espoused that Jews were responsible
for the crucifixion on Jesus, it was the
policy to keep the Christ-Killers down
and portray the Jewish religion and
people as the “old” religion, now
replaced the new, true religion.
In 1267, one way of doing this was to
require Jews to wear "the horned hat"
that they earlier had been accustomed
to wear, but that they had "presumed
in their temerity” to stop wearing (this
law applied also to Poland). In some
manuscript drawings a cap, unpointed,
may be seen secured around the chin
with cloth or a strap.
Merchants and Court Jews wore these
in areas of Germany, England and
Poland and in other areas of Europe.
Rotella Round Badge Used in Germany and
“Tablets” Badge Used in England During the 12-14th Centuries
Translation of the wording in the Rotella:
‘The Jewish badge of guilt which is their
tragedy to wear’.
• You Can’t Live Among Us;
These represent the earliest
Clothing separation and
identification of Jews in the
middle ages.
• The tablets were also badges
assigned by the rulers in
England and worn on the chest
and sometimes back to
differentiate and humiliate
Jews Translation of the wording
in the Rotella: ‘The Jewish
badge of guilt which is their
tragedy to wear’.
Badges and Hats Used in France in 14th Century
You Can’t Live Among Us; Note hats and marking
s on chests. Note dragon-serpents hovering
over the Jews
• You Can’t Live; Just a
sampling of the hundreds
of depictions of Crusaders
finding Jews along the
route and destroying
communities of “heretics
and infidels in their path
The Crusades
Even though the Crusades
(religious wars initiated by the
Pope) were made to rid the Holy
Land (Israel) of the Muslims who
were thought to be infidels (nonbelievers), Jews lived in many
places along the way. As Jews
were considered non-believers
and widely believed to have been
the killers of Jesus Christ, it was
convenient and easy for the
Crusaders, in their fervor, to
massacre whole populations.
Tens of thousands of Jews were
killed because of these religious
wars.
• You Can’t Live; Just a
sampling of the hundreds
of depictions of Crusaders
finding Jews along the
route and destroying
communities of “heretics
and infidels in their path
BLOOD LIBEL (Ritual Murder)
Jews were falsely accused of using the
blood of Christian children as part
of the Passover holiday ritual. The
blood libel is a phenomenon of
medieval and modern Christian
antisemitism, but spread to the
Middle East as early as 1775, when
there was a blood libel in Hebron. A
second blood libel occurred in
Damascus in 1840 and one occurred
in Cyprus in the same year.
RIGHT: Simon of Trent went missing
around Easter, 1475. His father decided
that he must have been kidnapped and
murdered by Jews. According to his story,
the Jews had drained Simon of his blood,
supposedly for use in baking their
Passover matzot and for occult rituals that
they allegedly practiced in private.
42
You Can’t Live Among Us; Blood Libel and Ritual Murder was a
fantasy used to further demonize and isolate the Jews.
43
Simon of Trent Blood Libel
(Ritual Murder Accusation)- 1475
• You Can’t Live Among Us; Simon of Trent
became a ‘cult” saint.
• The rumors and the antisemitic priests who
supported this created a long standing cult of
haters who keep the the myth of ritual murder
alive.
• The papacy under Pope Paul rejected this in
1965
William of Norwich, England
First Known Blood Libel - 1144
USURY – TAX COLLECTORS . Jews Cannot Own Land
Lending Money for interest was prohibited by the Catholic church for Christians.
It was left for the Jews to do, as they were limited in what professions they could
pursue and were not allowed to own land. Some Jews became tax collectors for
the nobles and lords of the varied medieval countries and lands
You Can’t Live Among Us; Note Jewish
Hats. Note the use of the “noses”
DESECRATION of the HOST
Claim that Jews would steal consecrated host
wafers and desecrate them by stabbing
them to make them bleed. According to
the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation,
which became dogma at that time, a
consecrated host wafer becomes the flesh
of Jesus Christ. It was thus believed that
Jews would steal and desecrate these
wafers to reenact the crucifixion of Christ.
In numerous cases Jews were executed in
horrible ways for this imaginary "crime."
In the 19th century it was shown that the
red color often found on the wafers was
due to a fungus.
Jews depicted desecrating the
Eucharist Host from a tapestry at the
LEFT:
Cathedral of St. Gudule
48
Desecration of the Host
A 15th-century German woodcut
showing an alleged host desecration.
In the first panel the hosts are stolen;
in the second the hosts bleed when
pierced by a Jew; in the third the Jews
are arrested; and in the fourth they
are burned alive
Images of Desecration of the Host in Christian Art
Judensau Images
You Can’t Live Among Us; The demonization
of Jews and making them “sub-human”
through the use of a ‘pig’ – anathema to most
Jews who shunned Pork because of kashrut
laws.
• You Can’t Live Among Us; The demonization
of Jews and making them “sub-human”
through the use of a ‘pig’ – anathema to most
Jews who shunned Pork because of kashrut
laws.
Judensau Images
Judensau Images
DISPUTATION
Talmud on Trial – 1240
By the early thirteenth century, the Catholic Church had
become extremely powerful and was committed to
exerting the fullest possible control over western
Christendom. It was also increasingly well informed about
Judaism and its Talmud, largely through learned converts.
Initially, knowledge of the Talmud was used to mock Jews
for their purported lack of religious sophistication.
In 1236, an apostate named Nicholas Donin appeared at
the court of Pope Gregory IX, claiming that the Talmud
was much worse than simply foolish. Donin argued that,
for many reasons, the Talmud was in fact harmful and thus
intolerable in a Christian society. Pope Gregory sent Donin
off throughout Europe in 1239 with a message to secular
authorities and leading clergy: The allegations of Nicholas
Donin were to be carefully investigated, and – if
substantiated – the
Talmud was to be destroyed and Jews were to be
prohibited from using it.
Only one European ruler acted on the papal injunction,
“pious” King Louis IX of France, who convened a trial of
the Talmud in Paris.
This unprecedented trial of the Talmud is richly reflected
in a variety of sources – both Christian and Jewish. From
these diverse sources emerges a dramatic portrait of
Christian accusations against the Talmud and Jewish
rebuttals. While the Talmud was condemned by the Paris
court and burned in large quantities, eventually Pope
Gregory’s successor modified the Paris findings and
ordered that the Talmud simply be censored, with the
offending passages removed. Thus, a major catastrophe
for European Jewry was averted, and Europe’s Jews could
continue to ground their religious lives in Talmudic
ordinances and teachings.
Other Disputations of the Talmud:
Barcelona (1263) and Tortosa (1413)
Barcelona
Tortosa
Jews Burned because of Black Death 1348-1350
Because Jews were
less susceptible to
the Black Plague
than their neighbors
(likely the result of
Jewish ritual
regarding personal
hygiene), Jews were
accused of poisoning
Christian wells, were
thought to be the
source of the plague.
As this image
illustrates, Jews
were expelled,
tortured and
murdered for the
"crime."
• You Can’t Live; Jews did
have lesser mortality rates
because of mikveh and
keeping clean, compared
the masses during feudal
times. Therefore they were
seen as perpetrators and
poisoners of water. Killing
Jews by burning would
cleanse the souls of the
heretics. Torture for
confessions was used
frequently.
Jews in Hell
Jews, Conversos, Marranos Burned at the Stake in Auto da Fes
Inquisition and Expulsions
Expulsion Edict signed
by Ferdinand and
Isabella. The Jews had
to leave on Tishah B’Av
in 1492. The same day,
Christopher Columbus
was to have begun his
first exploratory mission
to the New World.
Columbus wrote in his
diary that there were so
many ships in the
harbor that his ships
could not leave until
two days later.
.
Inquisition and Expulsions
There were expulsions from many lands
including Germanic lands, Spain, Portugal,
England, parts of France and other European
areas. Jews went wherever they could. Some
ended up in Poland. Many went to Italy,
Holland, German lands. Some went to Israel,
then known as Palestine.
They used all forms of transportation to save
their lives. Many stayed in Spain and Portugal
and converted to Christianity. They were known
as Conversos and Marranos (pigs) when they
were discovered practicing Judaism in secret.
Ghettos – Not a Modern Term
In 1516, Venice’s ruling council were unsure if they should allow Jews to continue
living in the city, even after 500 years of having a Jewish population. They let the Jews
stay. The only way, though, was to segregate them into Ghetto Nuova, a small, dirty
island. This introduced the world to the first ghetto. The word “ghetto” is from the
Italian getto meaning “casting” or Venetian geto meaning “foundry,” which is what
was near the Gheto Vechio. Soon after many European City Councils adopted this
means of keeping the Jews in a position of continuing to be the “Old religion.”
Modern Antisemitism
The 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew in the French army was
accused of “high treason” on trumped-up charges. The Dreyfus
Affair, directly influenced, then journalist, Theodore Herzl to
realize that there must be homeland for the Jews. He covered the
Dreyfus case and witnessed the disgrace of the French-Jewish
Captain. Herzl, an assimilated Jew, heard the venomous
antisemitic catcalls from the crowd. This helped him realize that
the Jews needed a homeland. This one event made Herzl act and
he initiated the first Zionist Congress in Katowitz, Poland in 1897.
51 years later the modern state of Israel was born.
Nazi Antisemitism
NAZI Germany: Warning on a Jewish Business in 1933:
“You
Jewish Pig; May Your hands rot off”
Nazi Antisemitism
Images Used During Nazi Era
How Did They Do It?
Nazi as Master Race Powerful
Jew as Shylock and
Communist
Propaganda
Der Sturmer
Evil Caricatures
Nazi Antisemitism
Images Used During Nazi Era from Der Sturmer (Julius Streicher)
“A frog sat in the green grass. He
didn’t do this, he didn’t do that,
he didn’t do anything at all.
Blinded by the glitter of gold,
everyone flew into his mouth.”
1933
“Ignorant, lured by gold, They stand
disgraced in Judah’s fold. Souls
poisoned, blood infected, Disaster
broods in their wombs.” 1934
Palestinian Antisemitism
Palestinian Authority and its Media Messages to the Palestinians
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-vXcqh82Phc
This is one of thousands of videos from Palwatch, an organization that monitors the
Palestinian Authority. They, reveal what the official “representative governmental
entity”, the Palestinian Authority shows on TV to their people.
Is There a Connection Between the Nazis and the
Palestinians?
Is There a Connection Between the Nazis and the
Palestinians?
Antisemitism in the USA & Europe
Despite our cozy lives, many hate
websites exist that emanate out of the
United States. Jews, among others are
the targets of these narrow-minded sites
and extremists. One of the oldest
websites is called “Stormfront”, a white
supremacist site that is headquartered in
West Palm Beach, FL. Many of these
hate sites include the Longest Hatred,
antisemitism, as a cornerstone of their
scape-goading practices. Many
“revisionist” websites support this or are
linked to this site. Revisionists deny the
Holocaust ever happened.
The Longest hatred persists, even worse,
in Europe, where as many 1/3 of all Jews
who live in Europe say they would
emigrate from their countries because of
fear of the rising tide of antisemitic acts
of violence and threats.
If you tell a lie enough, it becomes the
Big Lie. Less informed and hateful
people believe the lies and half-truths.