Why have people hated Jews?

[MH84]

Is it because Christian societies have held that they were responsible for the death of Christ? I know, based on the Bible, that the Jewish people were the ones who pushed for His death. But what about the Romans, they crucified Christ Himself and persecuted and killed His followers for centuries?

Or does anti-semiticism exist because of political reasons? For example, I understand that Hitler fuelled hatred for them because they seemed to be very rich and successful, while the German people in general were going through a hard time in the depression. Is this an over generalisation? Werent those living in Germany of Jewish decent now German citizens anyway?!

I understand the anti-semitism is common in America as well.

Finally, is anti-semitism based on their religion or the people themselves?

I don’t get anti-semiticism, though. Catholics like Mel Gibson have this attitude. Ive even heard that in Japan there has been some anti-semitic attitudes. I have a limited knowledge regarding anti-semitism, so fill me in.

 

[Yerusalyim]

Tough to answer that question…partially…mostly perhaps…it’s because as the Jews met the world in the diaspora they were clannish, stuck to themselves, had “strange” dietary practices, etc, and people fear the unknown. The accusations of “Christ Killers” I think is incidental to the fear of the unknown. Being God’s Chosen People isn’t easy.

 

[zjl56]

While the whole Nazi fear that the Jews were rich at the time was mostly bunk, it had some historical truth. During most of the Middle Ages the Church decided that giving out loans with interest was an injustice, and no moral catholic could go into banking. This wasn’t a problem for the Jews, and they fulfilled that necessary function to society. Obviously Jews gained large sums of wealth compared to their neighbors, and this persona stuck in a society that reveled in ancient myths and folklore.

Another large reason for the anti semitism is the huge wave of immigration of Russian Jews. We see general intolerance to Hispanics in our day saying “they take our jobs” even though we live in the richest country on earth, you can only imagine how the intolerance was to immigrants when Germany was burdened by hug e reparation payments and some of the worst effects of the Great Depression. When everyone was just struggling to survive in a weak nation like Germany, it was easy for a charismatic leader like Hitler to emerge and target a small minority of the population.

 

[rpp]

I think there are a number of issues at play. Foremost among these is that Jews never assimilated into the countries they lived in. They kept their own traditions of dress, profession, even language. So they were always “different”.

As for antisemitism in the USA, I simply have not seen any. To say it is common I think is inaccurate.

As for Japan, I lived there for a time and was married to one. I have also known and worked with people from all over the world. There is simply no group of people who are as racist as the Japanese. While the Japanese single-out only a couple of groups for “special attention”, Koreans and Chinese, they do not tend to seperate Western ethnic groups. So they dislike Jews as much as the dislike Germans or Italians. They do tolerate Americans a little better than most, but they really have no clue about Jew versus other Western people. To their credit, the Japanese are just more polite about it.

 

[zab]

In my nearly 58 years of being a Catholic, I have never heard my fellow parishioners declare hatred for the Jews. That is not to say that there could not be any predudice among the members, but hatred and predjudice is not taught nor condoned. I have always known and believed that it was all of our sins that were responsible for the death of Jesus, not a group or race of people. To give an example, when we pray the Stations of the Cross, we repeatedly say, “…it was MY sins that condemned you to die…”

As for Mel Gibson having an attititude of anti-semetism-. I don’t know about that. I do know that he put his personal touch in the movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, by taking the role himself of the soldier hammering the nail in the crucifixion scene, thereby illustrating that it was his sins (and ours) that condemned Jesus to die. That does not seem like an anti-semetic gesture to me.

 

[MH84]

As for Mel Gibson having an attititude of anti-semetism-. I don’t know about that.

Let me fill you in (or at least wikipedia):

According to a leaked report on Gibson’s July 28, 2006 arrest for driving under the influence, Gibson made anti-Semitic remarks to arresting officer James Mee, who is Jewish, saying, “****ing Jews… Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?”[92] Gibson issued two apologies for the incident through his publicist, and in a later interview with Diane Sawyer, he affirmed the accuracy of the alleged quotations.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Gibson#Controversy

 

[Ridgerunner]

I am not a historian, but my impression is that the bases for anti-semitism varied with time and place.

In some situations, it did seem to be motivated by simple aversion to “the outsider”. In some, greed. In some, scapegoating. In some circumstances, where there were changes of regime, they paid the price for being too closely identified with the previous regime or a foreign power. In some cases, the old “Christ killer” thing.

Sometimes it seems to have nothing to do with being Jewish, per se. Right now, there does seem to be a resurgence of an “oblique” or “indirect” anti-semitism in the U.S. Certain ultra-left groups are virulently anti-Israel because they support the agendas of, e.g., Hamas or Hezbollah, and accuse Israel of things that are manifestly unture. One can see that even in here. It’s not exactly anti-semitism in the classic sense, but neither was it in some other contexts in history. It’s more a matter of being on the wrong side of someone else’ political agenda. Jews in the U.S. are sometimes accused by rightists of “controlling the media” when they don’t. If the truth be told, the reason why the Democrat left tried to run Joe Leiberman out of office was precisely because he is a Jew supporting Israel. Because anti-Israeli sentiment is rife in the far left, they didn’t think they could trust him to ever get with the agenda, no matter how liberal he is in other ways.

It’s the same with prolife Catholics in a way. Prolife positions don’t fit the agenda of the far left, and so prolife Catholics are not welcome in some political circles. Even in here, one gets hammered for being prolife more and more all the time. All one has to do is espouse prolife voting and this left-wing “tag team” comes in and dominates the thread. Maybe that will go away once the political season is over. But it does make one nervous to realize what lengths some will go to to stifle opposition to their political point of view. I am giving some thought to simply taking a “vacation” from CAF for that reason. In the outside word, it pays to keep one’s head down as a prolifer, and it could get a lot worse. The “culture war” is no mere metaphor. Catholics who are faithful to the Magesterium would do well to really study anti-semitism. Certainly, Jews have received some of the worst treatment history ever had to offer. But the phenomenon of intolerance is not limited to Jews.

 

[sarah_anne_628]

Ridgerunner…I agree with most of what you have said. But I think I disagree with the last paragraph. Maybe it’s because I’ve only been a part of this forum for a few weeks and so I haven’t “seen” it…but I think being prochoice is definately the unpopular position in the particular forum…if the last few threads regarding abortion are of any indication. But like I said, I’ve only been here a short while-perhaps I am wrong.

Peace, friend.

 

[sarah_anne_628]

Anti-semitism is as old as the Bible.

The Jews were God’s people…and as many passages in the Old and New Testament…evil and darkness hate the light, which before Christ, the Jews were the light. So that accounts for most of the anti-semitism that dates before Christ.

After Christ, it wasn’t the Christians who started or perpetuated anti-semitism. Rather, it was previously anti-semetic people using the Bible as ammunition for their hatred…particuarly passages such as where Peter publically admonishes the Jews for calling for Christ’s death and calling them to repent.

As far as whether or not anti-semitism is geared towards Jews as a religious order or Jews as a race (they are both)…I am not sure. Probably both. But my guess is that it has more to do with the Jewish race, not the religion. Even under Hitler’s regimes…Jews who converted to Christianity, Messianic Jews, Non-Orthadox, Non Practicing and Secular Jews were all imprisoned and/or murdered right along side of their religious brethen.

Same thing in the middle east…I don’t think it matters one lick to the anti-semites whether or not the Jews are practicing Judaism.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ridgerunner…I agree with most of what you have said. But I think I disagree with the last paragraph. Maybe it’s because I’ve only been a part of this forum for a few weeks and so I haven’t “seen” it…but I think being prochoice is definately the unpopular position in the particular forum…if the last few threads regarding abortion are of any indication. But like I said, I’ve only been here a short while-perhaps I am wrong.

Peace, friend.

I hope you’re right, Sarah Anne. But it isn’t direct, and I apologize if I made it seem so. The approach is really “seamless garment” stuff. Possibly talking about it openly will induce a greater degree of caution.