Antisemitism: Difference between revisions

Anti-Semitism is hatred directed against Jews. It typically takes the form of

• hostility toward Jews in a degree that greatly exceeds any legitimate grievances or resulting from no legitimate cause whatsoever ; or
• disdain for supposed physical or moral features of Jews.

Etymology and Usage

The word was coined in Germany in 1873 by Wilhelm Marr as a more euphonious way of saying "Judenhass" (Jew-hatred). This name was chosen because Marr and others believed in a now discredited theory that held that certain racial groups and linguistic groups coincide. Semites, at the time, were defined as natives of a group of Middle Eastern nations related in ethnicity, culture and language. Under this theory Semites would include: Jews, the various Arab groups, and ancient nationalities such as the Assyrians, Canaanites, Carthaginians, Aramaeans and Akkadians (one of the ancestors of the ancient Babylonians). The theory of Semitic races has long since been discredited, but the Semitic languages are still considered to be those of the above groups.

The only Semitic people found in significant numbers in Germany at the time the word was coined were Jews, and because of that, anti-Semitism was considered a convenient way to name the hatred of Jews without reminding one of either hatred or Jews. It was also considered to be a more "scientific" way of describing Jew-hatred; at the time racial and religious prejudice against many groups was commonly held to have a scientific basis. Since that time, these ideas have long been regarded as pseudoscience.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, in line with this Nazi use of the term, some have argued that since Arabs speak a Semitic language, they by definition cannot be "anti-Semitic". Similarly, some writers and speakers have used "anti-Semitism" to mean hatred of either Jews or Arabs, considering both groups as "Semites". This controversial usage is highly nonstandard. Those who use it have been accused of creating a semantic dispute for propaganda purposes.

The term anti-Semitism, like other emotive words like homophobia usually implies irrational hatred and fear of Jews or the Jewish culture or religion. Some people use the term to mean any sort of disapproval of Jews or Jewishness or Jewish aims, whether subtle or explicit, unconscious or conscious, completely unreasoning or in some way principled. These advocates make no distinction between these two forms of anti-Semitism, and consider all opposition to Jews irrational. Others believe that it is possible to have rational reasoning for disapproval of Jews, but characterize it as unusual.

People who are called anti-Semites in the second sense typically do not accept that label. They believe they have rational and morally sound reasons for opposing some aspect of Jewishness. People who are called anti-Semites in the first sense, that of extreme irrational hatred, usually actively embrace the label and are happy to proclaim themselves anti-Semitic.

Roots of anti-Semitism

Historically, there have been a number of motivating factors that spurred anti-Semitism, including social, economic, national, political, racial, and religious factors and any number of combinations of the above. In the twentieth century, the most visible forms of anti-Semitism were:

• Racist anti-Semitism. Some people perceive Jews as people of a racially distinct origin from other peoples, and claim that discrimination on the basis of such distinctness is valid.
• Religious anti-Semitism. Like almost every other religion in history, Judaism has faced discrimination and violence from people of competing faiths and in countries that practice state atheism.

Some people have a disdain for Jews based on widespread mythical physical characteristics of Jews (e.g. Jews have hooked noses, or devil-like horns), or of mythical immoral teachings by Jews (e.g. Jews hate gentiles and love money.)

As with all ethnic conflicts, traditions developing separately find differences which are based on any number of triggers. The developped traditions of an ethnic group are called a culture, and religion is one aspect of culture which has historically proven volatile in creating fear, and hostility, when provoked by the presence of a foreign culture.

Early Forms of Anti-Semitism

Disdain of Jews can be traced back to the Graeco-Roman period and the rise of Hellenistic culture. Most Jews rejected efforts to assimilate them into the dominant Greek (and later Roman) culture, and their religious practices, which conflicted with established norms, were perceived as being backward and primitive. Tacitus, for example, writes disparagingly of the refusal to work on the Sabbath, while there are numerous accounts of circumcision being described as barbarous.

Furthermore, throughout the Diaspora, Jews tended to live in separate communities, in which they could practice their religion. This led to charges of elitism, as appear in the writings of Cicero. As an ethnic minority, Jews were also dependent on the goodwill of the ruling imperial power, though this was considered irksome to the indigenous population, which regarded any vestiges of autonomy among the local Jewish communities as reminders of their subject status to a foreign empire. Nevertheless, this did not always mean that opposition to Jewish involvement in local affairs was anti-Semitic. In 411 A.D. an Egyptian mob destroyed the Jewish temple at Elephantine in Egypt, but many historians argue that this was provoked by anti-Persian sentiment, rather than by anti-Semitism per se--the Jews, who were protected by the imperial power, were perceived as being its representatives.

The enormous and influential Jewish community in the ancient Egyptian port city of Alexandria saw manifestations of an unusual brand of anti-Semitism in which the local pagan populace rejected the biblical narrative of the Exodus as being anti-Egytian. In response, a number of works were produced to provide an "Egyptian version" of what "really happened": the Jews were a group of sickly lepers that was expelled from Egypt. This was also used to account for Jewish practices--they were so sickly that they could not even wander in the desert for more than six days at a time, requiring a seventh day to rest, hence the origin of the Sabbath. It was these charges that led to Philo's apologetic account of Judaism and Jewish history, which was so influential in the development of early church doctrine.

Interestingly, while many more subtle manifestations of Church anti-Semitism can be traced to anti-Jewish sentiment in Egypt, these more blatant early accusations of anti-Egyptian sentiment and the rejection of the Exodus mythology were not coopted by the Church since they countered Christian doctrine.

Religious Incompatibility

Judaic traditions extend at least a thousand years BCE (before the common era), and are the historical predecessor for the religions of Christianity and Islam, both of whom hold some Judaic traditions and texts as sacred, though differ in aspects that are central to each distinct branch of religion.

Hence Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, each took different course in terms of beliefs, as well as traditional customs; each creating a separate and distinct culture, from the parent Judaism. Those who held to traditional Judaic belief were considered "deniers" of the newer beliefs and traditions, in much the same way that every religion considers people of other religions to be denying the truth.

Some people believe that it is largely for these reasons of religious incompatibility that modern incarnations of anti-Semitism exist.

Ethnicity as basis for belief

Judaism is distinct in a more fundamental way; historically it has been an ethnic religion, and has been termed by some an evolving religious civilization.

Like Christianity and Islam, Judaism is universalist, and allows people from any heritage or background to convert to Judaism. Unlike Christianity and Islam, Judaism has a stronger ethnic component, and Judaism is usually considered to be passed down from the mother to the child, matrilineal descent. Conversion to Judaism differs from conversion to Christianity, in the sense that conversion to Christianity is purely religious, while conversion to Judaism legally is treated as a quasi-adoption, in which one choose to adopt not only Jewish beliefs, but Jewish ethnicity.

In 2002, the Israeli Supreme Court made a landmark decision saying in essence converted Jews are Jews - a decision which angered Orthodox Jews, but was met with praise by people who wished to convert to Judaism, but were relegated to 'Converted Jew' status, and not considered "Jews" by the Orthodoxy or the government.

Theological anti-Semitism

Disagreement with the religion of Judaism, as such, does not constitute anti-Semitism. Christians, Hindus, atheists, and others are not considered antisemitic for believing that Judaism's tenets are not true. However, theological anti-Semitism is not merely a rejection of Judaism: it is a set of theological teachings which condemn the Jews as a people or tradition and which uses hatespeech to attack Jewish beliefs. Theological anti-Semitism is referred to by some historians and scholars as anti-Judaism to emphasize its relationship to the Jewish religion, and to distinguish it from racist anti-Semitism.

Theological anti-Semitism has been particularly prevalent in Christianity. Until 1965, for instance, the Catholic Church preached that "the wicked Jews", as a people, were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. This doctrine was repudiated as part of Vatican II. A small number of Protestant sects still teach it. A number of Christian preachers, particularly in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, additionally taught that religious Jews choose to follow a faith that they actually know is false out of a desire to offend God. Christian theological anti-Semitism was created by the New Testament's replacement theology, or supersessionism, which taught that with the coming of Jesus a new covenant has rendered obsolete and has superseded the religion of Judaism.

Mystical, or Demonic, anti-Semitism

From the medieval era to the 1900s many Christians believed that some (or all) Jews possessed magical powers; depending on the culture, people believed that the Jews gained these magical powers from making a deal with the devil.

This was also often accompanied by beliefs that Jewish religious practice entailed devil worship, or "Satanic" actions such as drinking the blood of Christian children, in mockery of the Christian Eucharist. This latter belief is known as the blood libel.

• The Satanizing of the Jews: Origin and Development of Mystical Anti-Semitism Joel Carmichael, 1992

Economic Anti-Semitism

From the medieval era to today, many people believed that Jewish people unfairly took away jobs and money from Christians. One historical theory for the growth of this sentiment points to the medieval Christian prohibition of usury, then defined as the practice of loaning money at interest. Because there remained a demand for the receipt of loans, non-Christians were much more likely to practice moneylending. Furthermore, Roman-Catholic restrictions on what positions could be held by Jews closed off many alternatives, leaving banking as one of the few areas open to them. This connection became established as a social stereotype in many medieval minds, leading to unjustified resentment of "usurious" Jews. These feelings may well have been fanned by the cynical efforts of debtors to escape their debts. The play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare contains a character that is an example of such a stereotype, and attitudes toward that character reflected by the play suggest the prevalence of this economic anti-Semitism in medieval and Renaissance Europe.

More commonly, there is prejudice against Jews largely on account of the fact that Jews are often, in spite of what ethnic and religious differences they have with the population at large, in positions of power and prestige. Hence, anti-Jewish prejudice is very often, by the defenders of Jews and Jewishness, ascribed to envy more than to any sort of religious concern.

Racial Anti-Semitism

Racial anti-Semitism, the most modern form of anti-Semitism, is a type of racism mixed with religious persecution. Racial anti-Semites believe erroneously that the Jewish people are a distinct race. They also believe that Jews are inherently inferior to people of other races.

In fact the Jews are an evolving religious civilization that started out as a nationality in exile. Most historians, as well as most Jewish people, consider Jews to be an ethnic group with the religion of Judaism at its core.

Relation to Anti-Zionism

Most anti-Semites are opposed to Zionism. Some anti-Zionists are also anti-Semites. In the popular media of the Arab Middle East, the terms "Israeli", "Zionist" and "Jew" are often used interchangeably, indicating a conjoining of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. The conflation of the three terms is false, as there exist non-Israeli Jews, and non- and anti-Zionist Jews.

Most Jews hold that in the vast majority of cases ideological anti-Zionists are also anti-Semites, combining the two concepts in a way that cancels the distinction between them. They hold that the conceptual denial of the right of Jews for a state is indicative of considering Jews inferior - which is exactly anti-Semitism. Self-proclaimed anti-Zionists almost always fail to distinguish between Israel the state, and Israelis and Jews as individuals; this often leads to anti-Semitic demonization.

Jews distinguish between anti-Zionism and a specific criticism of the Israeli government, or of a facet of Israeli society. For instance, most Israelis and Jews hold that one can oppose the occupation of the West Bank without being anti-Zionist.

Jews hold that one's racial group had no relevance at all to his Judaism and therefore the ability to participate in the Jewish national revival. They claim that has been carried out in practice, as the State of Israel has allowed millions of people of all races and skin colors to become Israeli citizens including Hispanics, Vietnamese, Yemenites, Druze, Bedouins, black Africans, etc. Those belonging to another religion but still being Jewish face greater hurdles in citizenship and civil liberties in Israel.

History of anti-Zionism

Anti-Zionism has been used to promote anti-Semitism include events in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the former Soviet Union. It is a common phenomenon in the Arab Middle East, where in most sources there is no distinction whatsoever between the terms "Zionist", "Zionist enemy" and "Jew"; this confluence of terms is held by definition to be anti-Semitic.

Some Anti-Semitism existed in Poland in 1956 when Gomulka rose to power, but only at minor levels. His government was opposed to anti-Semitism. During this time period many Jewish Poles were repatriated from the U.S.S.R., and many of them immigrated to the State of Israel or other nations. However, in line with the official policy of the Soviet Union, after the Six-Day War of 1967 the government of Poland turned against its Jewish citizens. Gomulka publicly warned Jews against becoming a "fifth column" against Poland, and merely expressing sympathy for Israel was stated as reason to believe that someone was a traitor. Thus, most Jews instantly became suspected of treason if they had expressed any support for Israel. Immediately following this was an explosion of anti-Semitic books and articles filled with anti-Zionism, all carrying traditional anti-Semitic overtones. Immediately following this was a nation-wide anti-Jewish purge, removing Jews from their jobs in the government, universities, and many other fields. This purge was directed by the minister of the interior, and head of the security police, Mieczysław Moczar.

Some Anti-Semitism existed in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, but not much. Tolerance towards Jews in this nation was traditional. The situation began to change when strong differences emerged between the liberal regime in Prague and the more conservative Soviet Union. By August 1968 the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to destroy the liberal regime, and the Soviet's instituted an anti-Zionist campaign against the nation's Jews. Soviet propaganda claimed that Zionist attempted a "counter-revolution", which the Soviet Union had to save the nation from. Immediately following this invasion Jews were purged from many government and university positions.

Anti-Semitic Zionist conspiracy theories

Many people in fringe groups, such as Neo-Nazi parties and Hamas claim that the true aim of Zionism is world dominance; they call this the Zionist conspiracy and use this to support anti-Semitism. The idea of a Zionist conspiracy is one of the oldest conspiracy theories. This position has historically been associated with Fascism and Nazism. The most important text in this regard may be the false document the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

In addition, believers in Holocaust revisionism often claim that this "Zionist conspiracy" is responsible for the exaggeration or wholesale fabrication of the events of the Holocaust; critics of such revisionism point to an overwhelming amount of historical evidence that supports the mainstream historical view of the Holocaust. It should be noted that most academics also agree that there is no reliable evidence for any such conspiracy.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

One of the most damaging anti-Semitic tractates published is the infamous Russian literary hoax, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This subject has its own entry.

Occurrence of anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitic beliefs are held by people of many different ethnicities. Anti-Semitism has a long history, including persecution of Jews in Europe, the Middle East and the Western world at large. In recent years there has been much reconciliation between Jews and Christians. In some nations there has been a remarkable decline in anti-Semitism. This subject is discussed in more detail in the following entries.

Anti-Semitism in the 20th and 21st century Middle East

Anti-Semitism, sponsored by church and state, is abundant in many Arab Middle-Eastern countries, even those with which Israel has followed a path of normalization. For instance, during Ramadan 2002, the Egyptian state television aired the series "Knight without a Horse", based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Saudi Arabia forbids the entry of Jews onto its territory; the Palestinian Authority has sponsored the sale of anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying materials.

There are two major causes of anti-Semitism in the modern Middle East: the religious and the nationalistic. Some Muslims resent Jews and Israel for religious reasons. Examples include followers of the Shi'ite movement of Iran and Lebanon, and followers of the Wahabi School of Saudi Arabia. According to their tractation of the Islamic law, all lands fall into one of only two possible legal categories (A) Land currently under Islamic control, and (B) Land once controlled by Muslims, that all Muslims worldwide are bound to re-conquer; such lands, including the State of Israel and Spain, are termed "lands under the sword".

The second cause is nationalistic: as in many other countries (for instance the 19th century Russia), a rise in nationalism is accompanied by increased xenophobia. The grievances caused to Arabs during the Arab-Israeli conflict give these feelings a powerful boost; Israel and Jews are often demonized - up to the extent that blood libel theories are routinely revived by Arab television networks. Some advocates explain the bitterness of Palestinian Arabs as a natural response to what they call unfair expulsion from "their country", an argument which presumes that all of the land on which Israel was created was rightfully "theirs" (see Palestinian homeland).

See the articles below for more details.

Common occurrences of anti-Semitism:

• Arab anti-semitism
• Islam and anti-Semitism
• Christian anti-semitism
• KKK anti-semitism (see KKK)
• Nazi anti-semitism (see Nazism)
• Nation of Islam anti-semitism

See also:

• Anti-Zionism
• Unification Church and anti-semitism
• Middle East, Israel, Zionism, Holocaust, nazism, Anti-Arab
• White supremacy, conspiracy theory
• Semitic, Semitic languages, Shem

External link

• Christian-Jewish relations
• The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary anti-Semitism and Racism (includes an annual report)