Jump to content

Anti-Judaism and antisemitism

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Since ancient times, antisemites claiming to be critics of Judaism have spread antisemitism[1] by promoting false claims about Judaism based on distortions of passages from the Talmud and Midrash.[2][3]

Overview

[change | change source]

Some antisemites judge the distorted passages by their own standards, and ignore the fact that the passages were written two thousand years ago by those in different cultures.[2][3] Some antisemites also do so when they dislike something related to Judaism.[2][3]

In particular, racist scholars have a history of spreading antisemitism[1][4] by demonizing Judaism under the pretence of academic study to defend themselves against accusations of antisemitism,[3] similar to Holocaust deniers[5][6] and some other scholars.[7] A common talk point of self-declared critics of Judaism is that "Jews hate or conspire against Christianity".[2][4]

Christianity

[change | change source]
Further information: Jewish deicide

Christianity originated as a persecuted sect of Judaism in Roman Judea.[8] Early Christians were mostly Jewish before non-Jewish converts became the majority and split with Judaism over theological differences.[9] Christianity became the Roman state religion in 380 AD.[8]

Theological disputes between Judaism and Christianity

[change | change source]

While antisemitism already existed in Ancient Egypt, far longer than Christianity,[10] Jews have been blamed for the death of Jesus since the 1st century.[11][12] The blame reportedly started with descriptions about the Crucifixion in the New Testament.[13][14] Another conflict between Jews and Christians was whether the Torah[15] was still valid.[16]

The conflict extended to circumcision,[17] when Paul used "Judaizers" to call Jews who demanded non-Jewish converts to circumcise.[17][18] Paul believed that faith in Christ alone was enough for someone to be saved by God.[9][18] Paul asked Christians not to follow the Old Covenant while accusing Jews of "turning from the [Holy] Spirit to the flesh" to look good to God.[9]

Particularly, John Chrysostom's homily series Adversus Judaeos[a][19] is seen by many historians as having inspired antisemites to justify pogroms, expulsions and discrimination against Jews in the following 1,600 years.[20][21] Such antisemites include Nazi Germany's ruler Adolf Hitler,[21][22] who reprinted and circulated Chrysostom's text among Germans within Nazi territories to justify the Holocaust.[21][22]

Ignatius of Antioch

[change | change source]

In the early decades of Christianity, Church Father Ignatius of Antioch (c. 50–117) claimed that those who followed Jewish custom were "partakers with those who killed Jesus".[23]

Justin Martyr

[change | change source]

Church Father Justin Martyr (100–165) claimed that God's covenant (also known as the Old Covenant or Mosaic Covenant) with the Jews[b] was no longer valid and that Christians had replaced them because the Jews "[had] slain the Just One [Jesus]",[23] who would deserve exile and persecution in the centuries to come.[23]

John Chrysostom

[change | change source]

Church Father John Chrysostom (c. 347–407), who served as the archbishop of Constantinople, wrote in his homily series Adversus Judaeos (Ancient Greek: Κατὰ Ἰουδαίων Kata Ioudaiōn, "against the Jews"):[24]

[The synagogue is worse than] a brothel and a drinking shop [...] a den of scoundrels, the repair of wild beasts, a temple of demons, the refuge of brigands and debauchees, and the cavern of devils, a criminal assembly of the assassins of Christ [. ...] demons dwell in the synagogue and also in the souls of the Jews.

As there were only two other ordained individuals in Antioch legally recognized as Christian preachers, Chrysostom managed to promote his ideas to most local Christians.[25]

Martin Luther

[change | change source]
Main article: Martin Luther

On the Jews and Their Lies (1543),[26][27] a 65,000-word thesis written by Martin Luther (1483–1546),[26][27] a 16th-century Christian reformer,[26][27] is noted for its mix of anti-Judaism and antisemitism.[26][27] The claims in Luther's book are still being promoted by some influencers.[2]

In his book, he classified Jews as the biggest threat to Christianity and called for these actions against them:[26][28]

First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools [...] This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians [...]

Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.

[...]

Sixth, I advise that [...] all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them [...]

But if we are afraid that they might harm us [...] then let us emulate the common sense of other nations such as France, Spain, Bohemia [...] eject them forever from the country.

In his sermon Warning against the Jews on February 18, 1546, Martin Luther said,[29]

They are our public enemies. They do not stop blaspheming our Lord Christ, calling the Virgin Mary a whore [. ...] If they could kill us all, they would gladly do it. They do it often, especially those who pose as physicians [...] administer poison to someone from which he could die in an hour, a month, a year, ten or twenty years.

Meanwhile, Martin Luther was a folk hero in Nazi Germany,[30] whose teachings were widely circulated among the public.[30] Luther's statues were also built across Nazi Germany,[30] along with regular celebrations of "German Luther Day",[30] a national holiday designated by Hitler in 1933.[30]

A Nazi German postcard of Martin Luther.
An antisemitic mural featuring a quote from On the Jews and Their Lies published as a postcard for propaganda purposes.
German Christians celebrating German Luther Day in Berlin in 1933, speech by Bishop Hossenfelder.[31]
Statue of Martin Luther in the ruins of Dresden after WWII.

Johannes Wallman (1930–2021), a professor of church history at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, wrote in 1987:[26]

The assertion that Luther's expressions of anti-Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation and that there exists a continuity between Protestant anti-Judaism and modern racially oriented anti-Semitism, is at present wide-spread in the literature; since the Second World War it has understandably become the prevailing opinion.

Richard Steigmann-Gall, a history professor at Kent State University, wrote in his 2003 book The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945:[30]

The leadership of the Protestant League espoused a similar view. Fahrenhorst, who was on the planning committee of the Luthertag, called Luther "the first German spiritual Führer" [. ...] Fahrenhorst invited Hitler to become the official patron of the Luthertag [. ...] Fahrenhorst repeatedly voiced the notion that reverence for Luther could somehow cross confessional boundaries: "Luther is truly not only the founder of a Christian confession [...] his ideas had a fruitful impact on all Christianity [sic] in Germany.

Radical traditionalist Catholics

[change | change source]

A minority of conservative Catholics, commonly called the radical traditionalist Catholics,[32] despite theologically opposed to Martin Luther, share similar views to him regarding Jews. As per American civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), radical traditionalist Catholics tend to hold these views:[32]

  • Catholics cannot trust Jews
  • Jews are the "perpetual enemy" of Christ
  • Jews have "infiltrated" the Catholic Church to make changes for themselves
  • Jews are responsible for Jesus' death, and this broke their covenant with God

Radical traditionalist Catholics do not get along with the Vatican as they oppose the Vatican II reforms rolled out in 1965,[32] which included Pope Paul VI's rejection of the 1,600-year official position that "Jews are responsible for Jesus' death":[33]

What happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.

France

[change | change source]
Main article: Antisemitism in France

Jews have been living in France since the Roman times as one of the oldest diasporas in Europe.[34] Antisemitism has existed in France for as long as Jews have been there,[34] worsening in the 1,600 years following the Christianization of France.[34]

Middle Ages

[change | change source]
Massacre of Jews in Metz (Holy Roman Empire) in the First Crusade.
A miniature from the Grandes Chroniques de France depicting the expulsion of Jews from France in 1182. This is a photograph of an exhibit at the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv.

Under the Germanic Frankish Merovingian dynasty between the 5th and 8th century, Jews were banned from working as public servants.[34] A succession of ecumenical councils also banned Jews from socializing with Christians or observing the shabbat over the unfounded fear that Judaism (the Jewish ethnoreligion) would influence Christians.[34]

11th century

[change | change source]

Under the Capetian dynasty, King Robert the Pious tried to kill all Jews who rejected Christianity.[34][35] Jews across the France were assaulted, tortured or burned at stakes.[34][35] The persecutions coincided with the destruction of the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah in 1009, which was exploited by French Benedictine monk Rodulfus Glaber to spread rumors about Jewish "involvement" in the destruction.[36]

First Crusade

[change | change source]

When the First Crusade happened in 1096, Jews were massacred by the crusaders across the Kingdom of France.[35][36] The events were seen by some historians as a series of genocidal massacres.[37] The massacres all happened with Roman Catholic Church's tacit approval.[36][37]

Between the 1182 and 1394, at least 13 expulsions of Jews were ordered by the French monarchy,[38] during which dozens of Black Death-associated massacres of Jews happened.[39]

Renaissance

[change | change source]

Between the 15th century and 18th century, antisemitism in France fluctuated.[40] Voltaire (1694–1778), a famous French philosopher, held bias against Jews that contributed to the normalization of antisemitism in Western academia.[41][42] One of the instances of Voltaire's antisemitism was his insertion of an insult into his Dictionnaire philosophique for Jewish readers:[41]

You are calculating animals; try to be thinking animals.

Despite this, he was regarded as the champion of Enlightenment by Western leftists.[42]

Modern period

[change | change source]
Front page of Edouard Drumont's La Libre Parole (1893) with a caricature of a Jew grabbing the globe, implying their alleged desire to control the world. Caption: "Their Homeland".
"The Aryan breaks the chains of the Jew and the Freemason that held him captive", an 1897 satire by French journalist Augustin-Joseph Jacquet, later used by the Nazi puppet state Vichy France (1940–44) in its propaganda.
"I accuse...!" (J'accuse...!), open letter published on 13 January 1898 in the newspaper L'Aurore by French writer Émile Zola, accusing the French president Félix Faure of anti-Semitism and unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus, pointing out judicial errors and lack of serious evidence.

19th century

[change | change source]

Antisemitism was widespread in 19th century France.[34] It was present across the political spectrum, with ancient stereotypes being phrased differently and perpetuated by their respective audience.[43] Jews were targeted for their otherness, observance of Judaism and alleged lack of loyalty or assimilation.[43]

Among the French far left, Jews were accused of being regressive agents of capitalism exploiting the French proletariat.[43] Among the French far right, Jews were accused of being subversive agents of communism undermining the traditional Catholic culture.[43] Meanwhile, both the far left and far right saw Jews as undesirable under French nationalism, which prioritized national unity over minority existence.[43][44]

20th century

[change | change source]
A display at a March 1942 Vichy French exhibition alleging Jewish control of the USSR, SFIO and Western Allies.
French Jews forced to wear yellow stars in public, Paris, June 1942.

On June 22, 1940, France surrendered to Nazi Germany upon military defeat and was divided into the German-occupied zone, Italian-occupied zone and Vichy France – a rump state in southern France managed by pro-Nazi French collaborators.[45] Under Vichy France's leaders Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval, the Statut des Juifs ("Jewish Statute") – modelled after the Nazi German Nuremberg Laws – was passed between October 1940 and June 1941 to ban Jews from all jobs.[45]

Just as in Nazi Germany, such persecution escalated to the deportation of Jews to extermination camps.[45] One of the worst deportations was the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup on 16–17 July 1942 voluntarily conducted by the Vichy French police.[45] In total, 77,000 (33%) Jews living in France were killed in extermination camps.[45]

Antisemitism in post-war France mainly took the form of Holocaust denial and radical anti-Zionism. Pierre Guillaume, an ultra-left anarcho-Marxist activist, published books denying the Holocaust as a "distraction from class struggle" that "played into the hands of Zionism and Stalinism".[46]

Despite being left-wing, Guillaume's views were adopted by the French far right.[46] They have trivialized the Holocaust by comparing the Holocaust to the Judean massacres of the Canaanites[46] or the Native American genocide,[47] and accused Jews of exploiting the Holocaust to extort compensations from European countries.[48]

A number of influential French Holocaust deniers appeared, such as Claude Autant-Lara,[47] Maurice Bardèche,[48] Louis-Ferdinand Céline,[49] Paul Rassinier,[50] François Duprat,[51] Serge Thion,[52] Robert Faurisson,[53] and Dieudonné M'bala M'bala.[54]

Spain

[change | change source]
Main articles: Spanish Inquisition and Antisemitism in Europe § Spain
Further information: Lisbon massacre

Middle Ages

[change | change source]

Under the rule of Henry III of Castile and León (1390–1406), Jews were forced to either convert to Christianity or face death.[55] It came at a time when the Spanish had just taken back a lot of land from the Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula.[55]

Modern period

[change | change source]
A 1930 Spanish reprint of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an influential hoax text alleging a Jewish conspiracy to control the world.

From 1478 to 1834, the Spanish Empire systematically persecuted Jews, historically known as the Spanish Inquisition,[56][57] due to its belief that Jews who converted to Catholicism (conversos) were mostly faking as Christians,[56][57] including those forcibly converted following the Alhambra Decree, or the Edict of Expulsion.[56][55] As many as 300,000 Jews were killed over the false charge of "crypto-Judaism",[56][57] a charge slapped on Jews who were forcibly converted.[56][57] Some historians saw the Spanish Inquisition as racially motivated,[56][57] which was a turning point in the transition of religious anti-Judaism to racial antisemitism that lasts until today.[56][57]

Nazi Germany

[change | change source]
Main articles: Nazism and Nazi Germany

In Nazi Germany (1933‒45), "criticism" of Judaism was a major theme in state propaganda.[3] Top Nazi racial theorist Alfred Rosenberg justified intellectual attacks on Judaism:[3]

[w]e are not doing so out of disregard of freedom of thought [...] but to attack a legal viewpoint which completely contradicts that of all countries.

Rosenberg and other Nazis saw the Jewish emphasis on following the commandments for small details in life as a sign of "lack of moral understanding",[3] while accusing Jews of "double moral standards" in dealing with gentiles.[3] Some Nazis were experts on Judaism themselves,[3] who were able to attack Judaism in a way more convincing to the public.[3]

Islam

[change | change source]

Jews started living in the Arabian Peninsula in the 6th century BC, when Babylonian Empire's conquest of the Kingdom of Judah forced Jews out of Judea. Multiple immigration waves of Jewish exiles made them the leading ethnoreligious group in the Arabian Peninsula, where Judaism was different from the multi-god religion of ancient Arabs,[58] many of whom arrived later than the Jews due to their nomadic nature.[58]

Jews thrived in the Arabian Peninsula until Muslims conquered the area, when they, along with other indigenous peoples, were required to pay jizya for their existence to be allowed.[58][59] The payment of jizya granted Jews the status of dhimmi under which they were prohibited – under the threat of execution – from criticizing any aspects of Islam, sharing Jewish ideas to Muslims or touching a Muslim woman.[60] Jews were also not allowed to:[60]

Nation of Islam

[change | change source]
Main articles: Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan
During the early 1960s, Malcolm X (left) and Muhammad Ali (right) helped raise the profile of the Nation.

Nation of Islam (NOI) is a Black nationalist religious movement founded in 1930,[61] which played a notable role in the Civil Rights Movement (1954‒68) in the United States (US).[61] Since its founding, it has been a subject of controversy due to its promotion of ideas commonly seen as antisemitic.[62][63]

1997 photo of Farrakhan, the leader of the NoI. He is staring to the right, away from the camera, and wearing a suit.
Farrakhan, pictured 1997.
News Conference of Louis Farrakhan the Leader of the Muslim American Movement in the conference hall of Press TV channel, 8 November 2018.

In 1984, its leader Louis Farrakhan called Judaism a "gutter religion [...] structured on injustice, thievery, lying and deceit" that "abused God's name for self-defense" after meeting Mummar Gaddafi in Libya.[64] In 1985, at an NOI meeting, Farrakhan said that the Jews deserved the Holocaust by screaming that "And don't you forget, when it's God who puts you in the ovens, it's forever!"[65]

Over the past decades, Farrakhan made several speeches demonizing Jews and Judaism.[62][63] In 2020, Louis Farrakhan was classified by the American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as "the most popular antisemite in America".[66]

New religious movements

[change | change source]

Black Hebrew Israelites

[change | change source]
Main article: Black Hebrew Israelites

A similar, and equally influential, movement is the Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI).[67] The BHI is founded on the pseudoscientific belief that African Americans are the "real descendants" of ancient Israelites.[67] Some factions of the movement also see Native and Latino Americans as the descendants of ancient Israelites.[67]

From the 1970s onward, followers of the BHI have a history of committing terrorist attacks on American Jews, including but not limited to the 2019 Jersey City shooting (7 dead and 3 injured) and the Monsey Hanukkah stabbing (1 dead and 4 injured).[68] While differing in theology, the BHI and NOI are both antisemitic.[63] Particularly, they both believe that "Jews ran the Atlantic slave trade" and "European Jews descended from the Khazars".[63]

Black Hebrew Israelites, who refuse to believe that Jesus was Jewish, protested in San Diego, California against the long-standing depiction of Jesus as a "White man" rather than a Black man.
A propaganda poster made by the Black Hebrew Israelites implying that Black and Native Americans are the "real" descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The Black Hebrew Israelites allege that the said peoples have been "wrongfully" classified by White imperialists into different ethnic groups across the Western hemisphere.

BHI and NOI: common beliefs about Jews

[change | change source]

In an article, historian Eunice G. Pollack outlined the beliefs about Jews held by both the BHI and NOI:

BHI and NOI: differences in beliefs about Jews

[change | change source]
Name Beliefs
Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI)
Nation of Islam (NOI)

Academic views

[change | change source]

Dara Horn

[change | change source]

Dara Horn, an American novelist, essayist and professor of literature, wrote in The Atlantic that:[71]

This is the permission structure for anti-Semitism [sic]: claim whatever has happened to the Jews as one's own experience, announce a "universal" ideal that all good people must accept, and then redefine Jewish collective identity as lying beyond it. Hating Jews thus becomes a demonstration of righteousness. The key is to define, and redefine, and redefine again, the shiny new moral reasoning for why the Jews have failed the universal test of humanity.

In the same article, Horn doubted Holocaust education's effectiveness based on persistent antisemitism in society,[71] while pointing out that antisemitism functions by appropriating what has happened to Jews and reframing their experience as part of a "universal" fight that redefines Jewish identity as going against certain ideals.[71] She said that attacks on Jews under the guise of anti-Zionism follow the same ancient pattern of marginalization and vilification.[71] Some critics expressed similar concerns about the matter.[72]

David Nirenberg

[change | change source]

American historian David Nirenberg (b. 1964) held a special view about the issue.[18] Nirenberg saw anti-Judaism as a basic element of Western culture,[18] which had existed for far longer than Christianity.[18]

In their works, ancient Western intellectuals ‒ especially Greek philosophers ‒ presented Judaism as a symbol of anything they disliked and made it a part of their people's subconcious.[18]

Hecataeus of Abdera, a Greek historian, wrote in 320 BC that Jews did not escape from Egypt but were expelled as undesirables.[18] Hecataeus also accused Jews of living an an "unsocial and intolerant mode of life".[18] Hecataeus' bias was shared by a later Egyptian priest called Manetho, who called Jews "lepers and other unclean people".[18]

Over the following centuries, the idea that Judaism equals something bad became a stereotype passed on from generation to generation.[18] It was constantly weaponized by Christians in theological disputes,[18] including Martin Luther who labelled Catholic Church's "legalistic understanding of God's justice" as "Jewish".[18] The Puritans did the same in the English Civil War when they fought the Anglicans.[18] In modern context, Nirenberg also implied that anti-Zionism was a product of anti-Judaism,[18] when the State of Israel is seen by antisemites as the source of real-world problems.[4][18]

Gavin Langmuir

[change | change source]

Canadian historian Gavin Langmuir (1924‒2005) said that anti-Judaism was about exaggerated accusations against Jews, while antisemitism was rooted in falsehood.[73] Langmuir saw the accusation of "Jews killing Jesus" as an example of anti-Judaism,[73] while accusations of well poisoning is an example of antisemitism.[73] Langmuir believed that anti-Judaism and antisemitism had existed together since the 12th century and reinforced each other over the centuries.[73]

Joanna Tokarska-Bakir

[change | change source]

Polish anthropologist Joanna Tokarska-Bakir commented on the issue:[74]

When secularism became fashionable, Jews were loathed as ‘dark reactionaries’. Under capitalism, they were persecuted as communists, and under communism, as capitalist [...] whereas ebbing nationalism allows Jews to be stigmatised as crazed chauvinists.

Jules Isaac

[change | change source]

French historian Jules Isaac (1877–1963), author of the 1948 book Jésus et Israël,[75] proposed the Eighteen Points for Christian-Jewish reconciliation,[76] which was considered by the Seelisberg Conference of Christians and Jews in 1947:[77]

Eighteen Points in Jésus et Israël
  • 1. Give all Christians a basic knowledge of the Old Testament and its Jewish origins.
  • 2. Explain that much of Christian liturgy drew its foundations from the Old Testament.
  • 3. Do not omit that God had first revealed himself through the Old Testament to the Jews and later to the Christians.
  • 4. Judaism is not a degenerative faith. Christianity was born of it.
  • 5. The myth of Jewish historical dispersion, because of death of Jesus, is wrong. The Jews had been largely dispersed from Israel for almost 500 years before Jesus.
  • 6. The Gospels text use of the word Jews is too broad in its context. The Jews of Jesus' experience were limited to the Temple Jews and a small crowd before Pilate. The misreading of the Gospels blankets all Jews, everywhere, equally and erroneously.
  • 7. Jesus was a Jew.
  • 8. Jesus lived as a Jew.
  • 9. Jesus recruited his Apostles from the Jews.
  • 10. Jesus, throughout his ministry, only sought to gather adherents from the Jews.
  • 11. Do not teach that Jesus was rejected by the Jews, before and during his trial and crucifixion, because the vast majority of the Jews had no knowledge of Jesus.
  • 12. Jesus was not universally rejected by the Jewish leadership. The Gospels recognize he was rejected by a section of the Priests who were not unanimous against Jesus.
  • 13. There is nothing in the Gospels of a universal condemnation of the Jews.
  • 14. Be aware of the false charge of Deicide.
  • 15. The Gospels make clear that the High Priest and his supporters acted without the knowledge of the people.
  • 16. The trial of Jesus was a Roman trial, not a Jewish trial. The Jewish people, as a whole, did not even know of the trial or its brutalities.
  • 17. The procurator of the Roman trial was Pontius Pilate, with full control over life and death, not the Jews. The fourth Gospel acknowledges that the accusation and the trial involved the High Priest and his supporters alone.
  • 18. The accusation, "His blood be on us and our children," cannot balance against Jesus' words of forgiveness on the Cross: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."[78]

In his 1956 book Génése de l’Anti-Sémitisme ("Has Anti-Semitism Roots in Christianity?"), Isaac agreed that pagan antisemitism existed before Christ but made it clear:[77]

[Pagan antisemitism was] directed at a people considered separatist and unassimilable [. ... while] Christianity added theology to historical xenophobia and condemned Jews as a people of deicides to be cursed, punished, driven into exile.

Steven Katz

[change | change source]

American philosopher Steven Katz (b. 1944), the founding director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University in Massachusetts, wrote:[21]

The decisive turn in the history of Christian anti-Judaism, a turn whose ultimate disfiguring consequence was enacted in the political antisemitism of Adolf Hitler.

Walter Laqueur

[change | change source]

Walter Laqueur (1921–2018), a German-American Jewish historian, said that the conditions for the 4th-century Christian church were "brutal and aggressive" as it was "fighting for survival and recognition", leading to the lack of demand for mercy and forgiveness,[20] particularly due to the anti-Christian Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate (reigned 361–363).[8] The three centuries of persecution of Christians did not end until the late 4th century,[8] when the Christian church became the state religion of the Roman Empire under Theodosius I (reigned 379–395),[8] who closed pagan temples in the process.[8]

William Nichols

[change | change source]

William Nichols, a religious professor at University of British Columbia (UBC) and former Anglican Church minister, said:[79]

[f]rom the Enlightenment onward, it is no longer possible to draw clear lines of distinction between religious and racial forms of hostility towards Jews [. ...] secular thinking makes its appearance without leaving behind the old Christian hostility towards Jews, the new term antisemitism becomes almost unavoidable, even before explicitly racist doctrines appear.

Public views

[change | change source]

Anti-Defamation League

[change | change source]

Regarding the matter, American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) noted:[2]

This is not to say that Jews have historically borne no animus towards Jesus and the Apostles, or towards Christianity as a whole. In the two-thousand year relationship between Judaism and Christianity, many of them marred by anti-Jewish polemic and Christian persecution of Jews, some rabbis have fulminated against the church [...] But contemporary anti-Semitic polemicists are not interested in learning or reporting about the historical development of Jewish-Christian relations. Their goal is to incite hatred against Judaism and Jews by portraying them as bigoted and hateful.

Rabbi Rowe

[change | change source]

Rabbi Rowe, the former executive of Aish UK, said that the Talmud was "the most natural target of antisemitism",[3] which has been "going on for centuries".[3] The Talmud has been targeted because the Torah is the Old Testament of Christianity,[3] and the secret nature of the Talmud makes it harder for laymen to have enough knowledge to refute false claims made by antisemites about it.[3] Rabbi Rowe noted that antisemitism was always about demonization ‒ making Jews look hateful and demonic ‒ to justify emotional hatred of Jews.[3]

In addition, Rabbi Rowe cautioned that what used to be only Neo-Nazi propaganda was going mainstream due to social media influencers like Armenian-American businessman Dan Bilzerian,[3] who has millions of followers ‒ across the political spectrum ‒ on Twitter and been exploiting the recent war in Gaza to link Israel with their twisted view of Judaism in order to sway the ignorant away from sympathizing with the Jews.[3]

Yossi Klein Halevi

[change | change source]

Author Yossi Klein Halevi believed that the comparison demonized Jews:[80]

The deepest source of anti-Israel animus is the symbolization of the Jew as embodiment of evil. The satanic Jew has been replaced by the satanic Jewish state [...] The end of the post-Holocaust era is expressed most starkly in the inversion of the Holocaust.

False claims about Judaism

[change | change source]

Some false claims made by antisemites about Judaism are summarized as follows.[2][3]

Aspect Summary
Gentile humanhood Myth 1: "Non-Jews are subhumans."[2]
Fact: Mainstream Judaism has never seen non-Jews as subhumans.[2][81] It believes that everyone is equal as everyone is created by God in His image.[2][81]
Treatment of gentiles Myth 2: "Jewish law allows Jews to kill non-Jews."[2]
Fact: Antisemites cite a line allegedly from Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai (2nd century).[2] However, the line refers only to the situation of war.[2] Simeon lived at a time when Jews were forced to fight non-Jews,[2] especially in the Bar Kochba revolt,[2] due to persecution by Roman Emperor Hadrian.[2]
Child sex abuse Myth 3: "Judaism allows sex abuse of young girls."[2]
Fact: This claim was made by Russian Catholic Reverend I.B. Pranaitis.[2] He was found to have distorted Talmud writings to demonize Jews.[2] The Talmud actually treats child sex abuse as rape.[2][82] The distorted writings came from a chapter in the Ketubot discussing victims of child sex abuse,[2] which actually stated that a girl sexually abused before three should be seen as a virgin and deserving of higher status.[2]
Study of Torah Myth 4: "Non-Jews studying the Torah are worthy of death."[2][83]
Fact: This claim was made by David Duke,[2] the former KKK leader and a Holocaust denier.[84] He was found to have cherrypicked a line from a whole passage.[2] Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yohanan said that the misquoted passage did not refer to Jews but the generic "Man",[2] who is supposed to be studying the Torah as a believer rather than making it a subject of study without spiritual commitment,[2] which would be a form of blasphemy.[2] Non-Jews studying the Torah are respected if they are studying it as a matter of faith.[2]
Honesty Myth 5: "As per Libbre David 37, a Jew must give non-Jews a false explanation about the Talmud, or the Jew will be put to death."[3]
Fact: Libbre David 37 does not exist.[3] It was made up by Neo-Nazis who run several disinformation websites.[3]
Gentile acts towards Jews Myth 6: "If a Goy hits a Jew, he must be killed."[3]
Fact: This claim is based on the distortion of Sanhedrib 58b,[3][85] which actually discusses options for dealing with non-Jewish attacks on Jews.[3] It does not incite Jews to kill non-Jews.[3]
Socialization Myth 7: "Tosfot Yevamot 84b[86] says that a Jew eating with a Goy is the same as eating with a dog."[3]
Fact: It is a falsification.[3]
Lost items Myth 8: "Bava Matzia 24a[87] says that a Jew does not need to return an item lost by a Goy."[3]
Fact: This claim is based on the distortion of Bava Matzia 24a,[3] which actually discusses options for dealing with items found lost after a flood or a wild animal encounter.[3]
[change | change source]

Notelist

[change | change source]
  1. ↑ Ancient Greek: Κατὰ Ἰουδαίων Kata Ioudaiōn, "against the Jews")
  2. ↑ Referred to as Israel in his writings.

References

[change | change source]
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Working Definition Of Antisemitism". World Jewish Congress (WJC). Retrieved October 22, 2024.
    IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism :
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics (PDF). Anti-Defamation League (ADL). 2003. p. 11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.26 3.27 3.28 3.29
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ "Working Definition of Holocaust Denial and Distortion". International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Retrieved October 17, 2024. Distortion of the Holocaust refers, inter alia, to:
    • Intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany
    • Gross minimization of the number of the victims of the Holocaust in contradiction to reliable sources
    • Attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide
    • Statements that cast the Holocaust as a positive historical event. Those statements are not Holocaust denial but are closely connected to it as a radical form of antisemitism. They may suggest that the Holocaust did not go far enough in accomplishing its goal of "the Final Solution of the Jewish Question"
    • Attempts to blur the responsibility for the establishment of concentration and death camps devised and operated by Nazi Germany by putting blame on other nations or ethnic groups
  7. ↑ "The Lost Cause: Anti-Zionism, Oct. 7, and How Revisionist Movements Can Distort History". The Algemeiner. February 28, 2025. Retrieved March 24, 2025. Similar to the Lost Cause phenomenon, anti-Zionism is a popular revisionist movement that reframes the founding of Israel as a colonial enterprise [. ...] reality is most Jews were forcibly expelled from what is modern day Israel into the diaspora by the Babylonians and the Romans [. ...] Arab anti-immigrant activists [...] pressured the British to restrict Jewish refugees [...] enabling millions of Jewish deaths in the Holocaust including 80 members of my family [. ...] Jewish Agency supported the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan [. ...] Arab countries refused to compromise [...] attacked Israel in 1948 [. ...] still determined to eliminate Israel [... .]
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Spencer, Sidney; Crow, Paul A. (February 28, 2025). "The alliance between church and empire". Britannica. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2
  10. ↑ "A BRIEF HISTORY OF ANTISEMITISM" (PDF). Anti-Defamation League (ADL). 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  11. ↑ Greenspoon, Leonard; Hamm, Dennis; Le Beau, Bryan F. (1 November 2000). The Historical Jesus Through Catholic and Jewish Eyes. A&C Black. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-56338-322-9.
  12. ↑ Kiewe, Amos (20 November 2018). "Antisemitism and Communication". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.633. ISBN 978-0-19-022861-3. The Church correctly identified the charge of eternal guilt of the Jew as the root cause of antisemitism and stated its rejection of the faulty reasoning associated with the charge of eternal deicide.
  13. ↑
  14. ↑
  15. ↑ The first five books of the Old Testament, also known as the Five Books of Moses.
  16. ↑ Taylor, Miriam S. (1995). Anti-Judaism and Early Christian Identity: A Critique of the Scholarly Consensus. Leiden, New York, Köln: Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 9004021353.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Elshtain, Jean Bethke (2004-05-18). "Anti-Semitism or anti-Judaism?". Christian Century. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
  18. ↑ 18.00 18.01 18.02 18.03 18.04 18.05 18.06 18.07 18.08 18.09 18.10 18.11 18.12 18.13 18.14 Kirsch, Adam (February 13, 2013). "How Anti-Judaism Is at the Heart of Western Culture". Tablet. Retrieved March 26, 2025.
  19. ↑
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Walter Laqueur, The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times To The Present Day (Oxford University Press: 2006) ISBN 0-19-530429-2, pp. 47–48
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Katz, Steven (1999), "Ideology, State Power, and Mass Murder/Genocide", Lessons and Legacies: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World, Northwestern University Press, ISBN 9780810109568
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Dr. David R. Reagan. "The Evil of Replacement Theology: The Historical Abuse of the Jews by the Church". Lamb & Lion Ministries. Retrieved March 1, 2025.
  24. ↑
  25. ↑ Christine C. Shepardson, Controlling Contested Places: Late Antique Antioch and the Spatial Politics of Religious Controversy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 93)
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.4 26.5
    • Halpérin, Jean, and Arne Sovik, eds. Luther, Lutheranism and the Jews: A Record of the Second Consultation between Representatives of The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation and the Lutheran World Federation Held in Stockholm, Sweden, 11–13 July 1983. Geneva: LWF, 1984.
    • Oberman, Heiko A. The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation. James I. Porter, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984. ISBN 0-8006-0709-0.
    • Tjernagel, Neelak S. Martin Luther and the Jewish People. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1985. ISBN 0-8100-0213-2.
    • Wallmann, Johannes. "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century." Lutheran Quarterly 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72–97.
    • Wallmann, Johannes (Spring 1987). "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century". Lutheran Quarterly (1): 1:72–97. The assertion that Luther's expressions of anti-Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation and that there exists a continuity between Protestant anti-Judaism and modern racially oriented anti-Semitism, is at present wide-spread in the literature; since the Second World War it has understandably become the prevailing opinion.
    • Gritsch, Eric W. Martin Luther's Anti-Semitism: Against His Better Judgement. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8028-6676-9.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 Hillerbrand, Hans J. (2007). "Martin Luther". Encyclopædia Britannica. [H]is strident pronouncements against the Jews, especially toward the end of his life, have raised the question of whether Luther significantly encouraged the development of German antisemitism. Although many scholars have taken this view, this perspective puts far too much emphasis on Luther and not enough on the larger peculiarities of German history.
  28. ↑ "Luther, Martin", JewishEncyclopedia.com; cf. Luther's Works, American Edition, 55 vols., (St. Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia Publishing House and Fortress Press, 1955–86) 47:267.
  29. ↑ Martin Brecht, Martin Luther, 3 vols. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 3:371.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 Richard Steigmann-Gall, The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945, (Cambridge University Press, 2003), p.138.
  31. ↑ German Federal Archive, image description via cooperation with Wikimedia Commons.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2
  33. ↑
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 34.5 34.6 34.7
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 MacCalloch, Diarmaid (September 2, 2010). A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (1 ed.). Penguin Books. ISBN 9780141021898. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 Bokenkotter, Thomas (1979). Concise History of the Catholic Church. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. ISBN 9780385130158. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1
  38. ↑ Lindemann, Albert S.; Levy, Richard S. (October 28, 2010). Antisemitism: A History. Oxford University Press. p. 75. ISBN 9780199235032. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  39. ↑ Marshall, John (2006). John Locke, Toleration and Early Enlightenment Culture. The Johns Hopkins University. ISBN 9780521651141. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  40. ↑ Hyman, Paula E. (1998). The Jews of Modern France. Vol. 1 (1 ed.). University of California Press. doi:10.2307/jj.2711646. JSTOR jj.2711646. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 43.2 43.3 43.4 Beller, Steven (October 22, 2015). Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/actrade/9780198724834.001.0001. ISBN 9780191792335. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  44. ↑
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 45.3 45.4
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 "Dans le mensuel "Globe" les propos antisémites de M. Claude Autant-Lara député européen". Le Monde. September 8, 1989. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 Levy, Richard S.; Donahue, William Collins; Madigan, Kevin; Morse, Jonathan; Shevitz, Amy Hill; Stillman, Norman A.; Bell, Dean Phillip (2005). "Bardèche, Maurice (1909–1998)". Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851094394. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  49. ↑ "Manuscripts of pro-Nazi French author rediscovered after 78 years missing". Euronews. May 4, 2022. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  50. ↑ Reid, Donald (March 29, 2022). "Holocaust denial, Le Vicaire, and the absent presence of Nadine Fresco and Paul Rassinier in Jorge Semprún's La Montagne blanche". French Cultural Studies. 33 (3). doi:10.1177/09571558221078450. Retrieved December 26, 2024. Open access
  51. ↑ Igounet, Valérie (May 8, 1998). "Holocaust denial is part of a strategy". Le Monde diplomatique. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  52. ↑ Berman, Paul (April 26, 2018). "The Grand Theorist of Holocaust Denial, Robert Faurisson". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  53. ↑
  54. ↑ "Comic Dieudonne given jail sentence for anti-Semitism". BBC News. November 25, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  55. ↑ 55.0 55.1 55.2 "Five Things to Know About Antisemitism in Spain". American Jewish Committee (AJC). May 4, 2023. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 56.2 56.3 56.4 56.5 56.6
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 57.2 57.3 57.4 57.5
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 58.2 Gil, Moshe (1997). The origin of the Jews of Yathrib. Brill. pp. 4–5. ISBN 9789004138827.
  59. ↑
  60. ↑ 60.0 60.1
  61. ↑ 61.0 61.1
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1
  63. ↑ 63.00 63.01 63.02 63.03 63.04 63.05 63.06 63.07 63.08 63.09 63.10 63.11 63.12 63.13
  64. ↑ Shipp, E. R. (June 29, 1984). "Tape Contradicts Disavowal of 'Gutter Religion' Attack". The New York Times. pp. A12. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  65. ↑ Hitchens, Christopher (2007). God Is Not Great. London: Atlantic Books. p. 219. ISBN 9781843545743.
  66. ↑ "Farrakhan Remains Most Popular Antisemite in America". Anti-Defamation League (ADL). July 15, 2020. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  67. ↑ 67.0 67.1 67.2
  68. ↑
  69. ↑ 69.00 69.01 69.02 69.03 69.04 69.05 69.06 69.07 69.08 69.09 69.10 69.11 69.12 69.13 Pollack, Eunice G. (December 9, 2022). "Kyrie Irving and Louis Farrakhan are 2 variants of Black antisemitism. What's the difference?". Jewish News Syndicate (JNS). Retrieved February 25, 2025. A "documentary" that demonizes Jews and delegitimizes Judaism and the Jewish state helped Kyrie Irving "know who" he is.
  70. ↑ Descendants of Cain.
  71. ↑ 71.0 71.1 71.2 71.3 Horn, Dara (7 October 2024). "October 7 Created a Permission Structure for Anti-Semitism". The Atlantic. ISSN 2151-9463. Archived from the original on 10 October 2024. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
  72. ↑
  73. ↑ 73.0 73.1 73.2 73.3 Abulafia (1998, part II, 77), referring to Langmuir (1971).
  74. ↑ Tokarska-Bakir, Joanna (2024). "Part of the Western Left is now a clear and present danger to Jews and the West". Fathom Journal. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  75. ↑
  76. ↑ Carolyn Wesnousky, "Under the Very Windows of the Pope”: Confronting Anti-Semitism in Catholic Theology after the Holocaust" (2012), 63. and Judith Rice, “Jules Isaac & Pope Benedict XVI.”
  77. ↑ 77.0 77.1 Review of Jesus and Israel. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  78. ↑ Judith Rice, “Jules Isaac & Pope Benedict XVI.”
  79. ↑ Nichols, William (1993). Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate. Jason Aronson. p. 314. ISBN 0876683987.
  80. ↑ Yossi Klein Halevi (October 10, 2024). "The End of the Post-Holocaust Era". Jewish Journal. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  81. ↑ 81.0 81.1 Mishnah (Avoth 3:14) and Talmud (Avoth 9b):
    [רבי עקיבא] היה אומר: חביב אדם שנברא בצלם. חיבה יתרה נודעת לו שנברא בצלם,
    שנאמר (בראשית ט:ו), "כי בצלם אלקים עשה את האדם."
    [Rabbi Akiva] used to say, “Beloved is man, for he was created in God’s image; and the fact that God made it known that man was created in His image is indicative of an even greater love. As the verse states (Genesis 9:6), ‘In the image of God, man was created.’)”
  82. ↑ "פיתוי קטנה אונס נינהו."
    One who seduces an underage girl is considered as if he had raped her [i.e., the laws applicable to rapists would apply to the molester].
  83. ↑ J. David Bleich, Contemporary Halakhic Problems vol. 2 (New York: Ktav, 1983), pp. 311-340.
  84. ↑ "Iran's Press TV: Broadcasting Anti-Semitism To English Speaking World" (PDF). Anti-Defamation League (ADL). April 1, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
  85. ↑ "Sanhedrin: 58b". Chabad. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  86. ↑ "Yevamot: 84b". Chabad. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
  87. ↑ "Bava Metzia 24a". Sefaria. Retrieved March 25, 2025.
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anti-Judaism_and_antisemitism&oldid=10209242"