The Roots of Anti-Semitism - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

The Roots of Anti-Semitism

A brief history of persecution focused on the Jewish PeopleSlide2

Why were/are Jews singled out to be persecuted?

They were/are different. (In what they believe and their cultural traditions)

They were/are a small group of people who had no governmental power.

They were/are easy targets for the those in power to bully.Slide3

Historically:

For a long time anti-Semitic teachings were part of Christian church sermons. As Christianity was the religion that most Europeans practiced, essentially, the “majority” of Europeans were taught, by the most influential guiding force in their lives, to blame Jews for a variety of illegitimate and ridiculous reasons.Slide4

An example of those terrible early teachings:

Saint John Chrysostom (alive in the 300s) accused the Jews of being less than human. He wrote that “the Jews sacrifice their children to Satan” and emphatically stated to his followers the he “hated Jews” and came up with a variety of reasons for feeling that way. (Today, Christianity has evolved substantially and the concept of “hating” another human being is gravely frowned upon by most denominations) Slide5

Some of the most terrible lies:

When bad things happen, people in power are looked to for answers. In an attempt to lay blame when a child went missing, Jews were accused of killing Christian children and using their blood in religious ceremonies.

If a natural disaster occurred (flood, draught, hurricane, infestation) Jews were blamed for causing it and creating hardship for everyone.Slide6

The “Black Death”

Another example of these ridiculous accusations comes from the 1300s when a plague swept across Europe killing whole villages off.

Jews were blamed for the disease and the proof given was that many of them were not affected.

Doctors of today would cite the poor hygiene of most Europeans at that time as the real culprit and, due to religious requirements found in Judaism, the good hygiene of most Jews the cause for them avoiding contracting the illness.Slide7

The “Christ Killer” accusation

The New Testament holds that Jesus' disciple Judas (Jewish), the Roman governor Pontius Pilate along with Roman forces, Jewish leaders and people of Jerusalem were (to varying degrees) responsible for the death of Jesus (Jewish) . While modern observers see how ridiculous it would be to blame an entire group of people for the supposed acts of a few individuals centuries ago, for centuries this was not the case.

After Jesus' death, the New Testament portrays the Jewish religious authorities in Jerusalem as hostile to Jesus' followers, and as occasionally using force against them. But in comparison with the Roman occupiers of the region, one might question why they were not blamed in a similar way. Slide8

But anti-Semitism existed even in the good times

Because of humanity’s need to blame “others”, even when life was reasonably good in Europe Jews were persecuted. They were a smaller group of people with a different way of life than the majority. Poorly understood, they were simply the majority’s scapegoat.

In the 800s, despite good times in Europe the Christian church decided to make it impossible for Jews to own land forcing Jews to make a living in new and innovative ways (farming was how the majority of people earned a living). Many Jews became Merchants or experts of a certain skill (tailors, carpenters, barbers, craftsmen, scholars, physicians etc...) and thus became essential members of many European communities.Slide9

Essential but Hated

Regardless of the important positions many Jews held in various communities through out Europe they were still treated cruelly. The success they created for themselves and their communities generated a great deal of envy, hatred and suspicion.

Most cities required their Jewish population to live in an area of town separated from the general population. This was referred to as the pale and was a form of walled ghetto that all Jews were required to return to in the evening until the following morning when they could return to their place of occupation.

Even back then Jews were forced by many societies to identify themselves by wearing pointed hats.Slide10

Execution and Expulsion

In the 11th century the first crusade began to take back the holy city of Jerusalem from the Muslims. Jerusalem was/is one of the most sacred cities to three religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) and due to the Christian fervour created by this war, thousands of Jews were randomly slaughtered on the way to war.

In the following centuries Jews were driven from various nations and forced to seek refuge in countries that would accept them. England drove out all their Jews in 1290 as did France in 1394. Poland accepted these outcasts and as a result prospered economically from this immigration. Germany during this period attempted to both massacre and expel their Jews.Slide11

Conversion

In 1492 over one hundred and fifty thousand Jews whose families had been living in Spain for over a 1000 years were told by the monarchy to either convert to Christianity , leave the country immediately or be executed. Slide12

So, what is the point?

As you can see, Europe was/is ripe with anti-Semitic feelings deeply rooted in a turbulent past. Germany post WWI, in the middle of economic collapse was easily persuaded to simply blame the group they had always blamed. Jews were the “other” and easy to hate. Easy to hate because European society had traditionally allowed it.