Anatomy of Hatred

The Origins of Antisemitism

I once read that hatred is like drinking poison hoping other(s) will die.

If this is so, and the evidence of it seems to be everywhere, it explains why death, decay and destruction have plagued our world since time immemorial.

Of all the carefully sown, nursed and propagated hatred, the oldest and the most persistent one is undoubtedly that against the Jews.

Let us try to understand why that is.

It is January 1939, and the world is only months away from the Second World War. Tensions are on the rise as Nazi Germany is looking to expand and Hitler set his eyes on Poland. In his address to the Parliament (Reichstag), in a speech written by his propaganda Minister (Paul Joseph Goebbels), Hitler said:

“If the international finance-Jewry inside and outside of Europe should succeed in plunging the people of the world once again into a world war, the result will not be the Bolshevization of the world, and thus a Jewish victory, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.”

Hitler warned of annihilating European Jews and he very nearly did that.

The Nazis killed six million Jews in the Holocaust, yet Hitler did not start this hatred.

Hatred for Jews is often called the most ancient hatred, the oldest form of discrimination.

Today we call it antisemitism, but in each period of history, it took a different form.

Hitler’s hatred was such that he converted it into genocide, which makes you wonder how it all started. Why have Jews been historically targeted and why does it persist even today?

A quick, (and simplified), look into historical facts can help us understand:

Before Christianity, Roman subjects were pagans and believed in a number of gods and forces, however, Jews did not.

Like today, Jews were monotheistic and believed in just one God, which made Romans suspicious.

Everything about the Jews seemed a red flag to Romans; Jews would not inter-merry, they observed the Sabbath and they circumcised their young.

In the first century BC, those differences were villainized and it was what happened to Jews — examples are found in many Roman writings, for instance:

- The Roman poet Horace in his Satire 1.9 makes a reference to Jews being given to drink and prone to quarrels.

- The Roman statesman, orator and philosopher Cicero depicted Jews as a group that is not interested in integrating into Roman society and talked about the constant and unbroken harmony among Jews, implying that they stick together as a group.

Today, we would call those the classic antisemitic tropes.

Things became worse after the death of Jesus Christ. The fact that it was the Romans who crucified Jesus was hidden for a very long time.

Jesus was crucified in the year 33 AD, but years later in 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem — a watershed moment.

Christians and Jews saw it as divine punishment, and the New Testament reflected that — instead of the Romans, it now blamed the Jews.

Jews were depicted as killers of Jesus — an absolute falsehood that people believed for a long time and some still do.

Such sentiments led to religious rivalry between Christians and Jews and the church played a key role in it, by, for example, teaching that Jews have no role any more as their sole reason for existence was to prepare for Jesus’s arrival and since that was done — their existence was seen as an anomaly and many of them were forced to flee.

But for Jews, not even fleeing ensured freedom.

Antisemitism followed them, as, in the year 312 AD Rome moved closer to Christianity, Emperor Constantine converted and soon the Roman Empire became Christian.

As a result, the church had more power and could influence the Emperor.

New laws were created and Jews were shunned to the margins of society, denied basic rights and freedoms and, in some places, made to wear markers like a yellow badge or special hat, so that they could be easily identified.

All of it was because they refused to accept Christianity and propaganda did the rest. For example;

In 1144, a 12-year-old boy called William was found murdered in Norwich. There was neither evidence nor leads as to who killed the boy. However, four years later a monk turned up in Norwich and said that the Jews had killed William. Pretty soon everyone pointed at the Jews accusing them of blood libel, of killing Christian boys and using their blood for rituals.

In the 14th century, Christians believed the plague was the work of the devil, but the devil had an assistant; the Jews were accused of poisoning the wells in Europe.

While none of it was backed by a shred of evidence — as soon as enough people said it often enough— it became a fact. A practice not unfamiliar to us today.

One of the more persistent tropes is that of evil and cunning Jewish moneylenders, accumulating more and more wealth.

Even the writers and artists of the time helped the propaganda thrive — Shylock in The Merchant of Venice lends money to the Christian protagonist on one condition — if the money is not repaid Shylock will take a pound of his flesh. Shylock of course ends up converting to Christianity.

But how did Jews become moneylenders in the first place?

The answer is rather ordinary. As ordinary as it is pragmatic — because Christians refused to do it. In early Christianity, lending for interest was forbidden. But someone had to do it and that someone was Jews.

So, no spectacular plan to conquer the world — just economics.

Nevertheless, European leaders refused to understand and/or accept that and continued to fear and persecute Jews, banishing them from their kingdoms;

- In the year 1290 Jews were expelled from Britain,

- In the year 1306 from France,

- In the year 1348 from Switzerland and in

- In the year 1394 from Germany.

Each time the entire group of people were expelled.

In many ways antisemitism was a convenient, ready-made explanation for any misfortune befalling Christian Europe; from missing children, falling fortunes to plagues.

Things improved slightly in the 1700s, the age of Enlightenment, French Revolution, freedom, science and catchphrases.

The Jews became citizens for the first time. However, the antisemitism persisted. Citizenship did not guarantee equal rights for Jews and in many places, they were second-class citizens.

While, until 1859, antisemitism was rooted in religion, (Christianity versus Judaism), the publication of Charles Darwin’s On Evolution, changed that.

Darwin introduced the survival of the fittest theory by which some organisms beat their surroundings and reproduce while others perished.

However, some thinkers applied Darwin’s theory to race and concluded that some races, like Jews, are not fit to survive.

It was around that time that the word antisemitism first emerged, until then Jewish hatred had no single term.

It was first used by a German journalist Friedrich Wilhelm Adolph Marr.

He introduced a new kind of Jewish hatred — it was no longer only about killing Christ or kidnapping Christian children or accumulating wealth.

Wilhelm’s hatred was rooted in race.

He believed the Jews could change the racial structure of Germany and Hitler used this theory later on.

Such beliefs led to violence across Europe.

Following the Russian revolution between 30 and 70,000 Jews were killed in Ukraine alone. Same in Poland and Belarus.

Nazi Germany was the culmination of the century of antisemitism. Hitler blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in the First World War. He wanted a pure Aryan Germany.

At first, his policies focused on marginalizing Jews, later on, Jews were dismissed from Government services, and their businesses shut down.

But after 1939, the policy changed from marginalization to extermination — what Hitler called the final solution to the Jewish problem. It was one of the darkest chapters of human history.

Have things improved since then?

The church has tried to make amends; it exonerated Jews for the murder of Jesus Christ, and Pope Paul John Paul II played a key role in this outreach.

He visited a synagogue in 1986, established the Vatican’s relationship with Israel and later visited Israel’s Holocaust Museum. He said; “Antisemitism is Antichristian.”

Yet, it thrives.

In 2017 neo-Nazis marched through the US town of Charlottesville. They carried Nazi flags and chanted; “Jews will not replace us.”

In the last five weeks, antisemitic chants have been heard in cities across the world. As if in defiance of humanity and any lesson(s) it might have learned from its history, they remain just as venomous as ever, from “Gas the Jews,” to “Death to Jews,” and similar.

Antisemitism has become a rallying call that escalates whenever Israel is at war.

To be clear — criticizing Israel is not automatically antisemitic. But if that criticism is based on race or religion — it can be.

Thanks to technology — every scrap of information, regardless of its origins, value or intent spreads in seconds. Propagandists, content makers, commentators, analysts, etc. of all stripes had never had it better.

This is why it is critically important to remember how propaganda works — by repetition. The less factually based evidence there is — the more aggressive propaganda has to be to achieve the desired results.

It is also important to remember that whenever any of the content creators or influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views release antisemitic content that generates countless views, likes, comments, and re-posts within minutes — perhaps those content creators’ are more entrepreneurial than antisemitic. Perhaps they are simply feeding the demand … demand for what? For spreading hatred? Millions across the globe. Think of that.

And just one last thing while you are thinking — whenever and wherever support/advocacy for one group of people vilifies/denies/tears down the other group — neither is genuinely supported. Think of that too.

Thank you for reading (and thinking) -:)!