Self-hating Jew

A Self-hating Jew is a Jew who is anti-Semitic.

Etymology

The phrase “self-hating Jew” was created by Theodor Lessing in the 1930s. He was trying to figure out why Jewish intellectuals liked to criticize Judaism.

Biblical History

Some people think Saint Paul was a self-hating Jew because of everything he said about Jews in the New Testament. But some people don’t think he was a Self-hating Jew.

German History

In the 19th Century, Reform Jews said that Orthodox Jews hated Jews while Orthodox Jews said that Reform Jews hated Judaism and that they cared more about Protestantism and German nationalism.

In 1903, Otto Weininger, a Jew who converted to Christianity, wrote a book which complained that Judaism was too feminine and had a bad sense of ethics. He said Judaism was “the extreme of cowardliness” and that Judaism hurt family.

Adolf Hitler used some of Weininger’s ideas for his propaganda even though Weininger didn’t like racism.

Zionism

In the 1930s and 1940s (and also later than that) Zionists called Jews who opposed Zionism “self-hating Jews” Even though Theodor Herzl used the phrase “anti-Semite of Jewish origin”.

Daniel Burros

Daniel Burros was an American Jew who, in the 1950s, joined the American Nazi Party without telling anyone he was Jewish but left because he disagreed with George Lincoln Rockwell on some things. He then joined the Ku Klux Klan but then a journalist found out that Burros was Jewish and wrote it in The New York Times. Burros then killed himself.

Criticism of the Concept

Anti-Zionist Jews have criticized the concept of “self-hating Jews” and say it’s used to accuse people of Antisemitism.