What started Anti-Semitism?

Answer 1

Answer 1

In a foot note to his famous case study of Little Hans, Sigmund Freud theorized that the most deeply rooted psycho-dynamic cause of antisemitism was a reaction to the ritual of circumcision known as the Brit Milah.

Answer 2

Freud's conjecture is strange in view of the fact that hundreds of millions of Moslems, Africans and Westerners also circumcise.

There is no adequate rational explanation for anti-Semitism. A reason must be sought on a spiritual level.

Answer 3

Anti-Semitism began the same way that ethnic hatreds usually begin. People with territories that border one another become antagonistic towards each other. Anti-Semitism only became a unique violence targeted to Jewish individuals with no military or political standing in the Roman Empire when Christianity began to impose the blood libels on the Jews and found them guilty of killing Jesus Christ for eternity. Islam added to this by claiming that Jews were corrupt and perverted their teachings. Economic and social competition compounded the pre-existing religious grounds for Anti-Semitism and eventually became the dominant forms of Anti-Semitism.

Answer 2

Answer 1

Interesting question which I also wondered about a while ago.

It goes like this:

People believe that the Jews are the chosen people. The Jews, Christians and Muslims believe this, maybe even other groups also, cos it is written so in the ancient books.

So being of the chosen people means that they have a clear advantage as far as salvation at Judgement day is concerned. If you are not born Jewish you have a problem. And that's where antisemitism began.

Jews considered non-Jews inferior and that the sole purpose of Non-Jews is to serve the Jews for some hope of salvation.

This attitude towards non-Jews is the cause for all the problems the Jews has been faced with. Persecution, Holocaust, etc ...

Commentary on Answer 1

Without addressing the original question, it must be pointed out that although some people may agree with the above, it is based upon a misconception. Judaism, unlike some other beliefs, holds that non-members may merit the world to come (Maimonides, Laws of Repentance 3:13) just like deserving Jews. And no Jew automatically gains the world to come; he/she has to be found worthy.

Answer 2

There is no satisfactory answer to this question. But certainly, there are factors we can consider in trying to understand it. Here is a fab piece on this topic from http://www.simpletoremember.com

"Historians have classified six explanations as to why people hate the Jews:

1. Economic -- "We hate Jews because they possess too much wealth and power."
2. Chosen People -- "We hate Jews because they arrogantly claim that they are the chosen people."
3. Scapegoat -- "Jews are a convenient group to single out and blame for our troubles."
4. Deicide -- "We hate Jews because they killed Jesus."
5. Outsiders, -- "We hate Jews because they are different than us." (The dislike of the unlike.)
6. Racial Theory -- "We hate Jews because they are an inferior race."

As we examine the explanations, we must ask -- Are they the causes for anti-Semitism or excuses for Anti-Semitism? The difference? If one takes away the cause, then anti-Semitism should no longer exist. If one can show a contradiction to the explanation, it demonstrates that the "cause" is not a reason, it is just an excuse. Let's look at some contradictions:

1. Economic -- The Jews of 17th- 19th century Poland and Russia were dirt poor, had no influence and yet they were hated.
2. Chosen People -- a) In the late 19th century, the Jews of Germany denied "Choseness." And then they worked on assimilation. Yet, the holocaust started there. b) Christians and Moslems profess to being the "Chosen people," yet, the world and the anti-Semites tolerate them.
3. Scapegoat -- Any group must already be hated to be an effective scapegoat. The Scapegoat Theory does not then cause anti-Semitism. Rather, anti-Semitism is what makes the Jews a convenient scapegoat target. Hitler's ranting and ravings would not be taken seriously if he said, "It's the bicycle riders and the midgets who are destroying our society."
4. Deicide -- a) the Christian Bible says the Romans killed Jesus, though Jews are mentioned as accomplices (claims that Jews killed Jesus came several hundred years later). How come the accomplices are persecuted and there isn't an anti-Roman movement through history? b) Jesus himself said, "Forgive them [i.e., the Jews], for they know not what they do." The Second Vatican Council in 1963 officially exonerated the Jews as the killers of Jesus. Neither statement of Christian belief lessened anti-Semitism.
5. Outsiders -- With the Enlightenment in the late 18th century, many Jews rushed to assimilate. Anti-Semitism should have stopped. Instead, for example, with the Nazis came the cry, in essence: "We hate you, not because you're different, but because you're trying to become like us! We cannot allow you to infect the Aryan race with your inferior genes."
6. Racial Theory -- The overriding problem with this theory is that it is self-contradictory: Jews are not a race. Anyone can become a Jew - and members of every race, creed and color in the world have done so at one time or another.

Every other hated group is hated for a relatively defined reason. Jews, however, are hated in paradoxes: Jews are hated for "dominating the economy and taking over the world". Jews are hated for 'stubbornly maintaining our separateness' - Yet when we do assimilate - Jews are hated for posing a threat to racial purity through intermarriages. We are seen as pacifists and as warmongers; as capitalist exploiters and as revolutionary communists; possessed of a Chosen-People mentality, as well as of an inferiority complex. It seems that the haters will hate no matter what.

Answer 3

Answer 1

Early European people and kings in as early as about the 1300s.

Answer 2

The above is incorrect. Anti-Semitism has existed for at least 2500 years and has no definitive founder. As more and more people were exposed to Jews, some became envious of them, scared of them, or confused by them. All three led to vicious lies about them.

Answer 3

Armies who attacked the Israelites in early times may or may not have been motivated by by religious hatred; since it might be that most of those were just military conflicts. Actual religious hatred is mentioned occasionally (such as in Genesis 27:41 and Psalms 83:2-5) but doesn't seem to have been a continual pattern.

The earliest creation of a tradition of hatred of the Jews was done by the Greeks, beginning about 2200 years ago. They created a whole literature of anti-Semitism; and others followed in their footsteps.

Answer 4

Answer 1: General Answer

Generally, in European areas, Jewish people were excluded from the general population. They lived outside of the walled cities. Since money lending was not allowed by general populace (Christian/state laws against usury), it was a good business for the Jews. As bankers, they became wealthy, people were beholden to them and there was resentment about that. Jewish populations would end up migrating to escape pogroms (An organized, often officially encouraged massacre or persecution of a minority group, especially one conducted against Jews.), which is probably the reason why so many Jewish people are disbursed throughout Europe and the world.

How did the Jewish people get to Europe? One way was that, in the years before the Roman coliseum was built, Jerusalem fell to the Romans. The conquered people were shipped to Rome as slaves, where they worked on the construction, which was finished in 80AD.

Answer 2: Biblically Speaking

One must grasp the full history of the conflict between Arab & Jew first. It began some 4000 years ago in the city called Ur which was near the Euphrates River in what is still called the 'Fertile Crescent' - land stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Egyptian Nile River which is where the 1st great civilization appeared.

It was in Ur that the Creator first appeared to a man named Abram (Genesis 12:1-3) who would soon become a central figure to the world's 3 major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. God told Abram that all the families of the Earth would be blessed via him.

The initial problem begins in Genesis 16 with the tragic story of man trying to bring about God's promise by themselves and not having full faith in Him. Abram's wife Sarai was barren so she gave her Egyptian servant to Abram as a surrogate mother. They had a child and named him Ishmael whom Abram loved very much and probably told him that he was the son of promise, the recipient of God's promise made to Abram. But God works in His ways which are not the ways of man.

When Abram was 99 years old as Genesis 17:1-2 explains, God expands upon His initial promise to Abram saying, 'I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.' In verse 5 God changes Abram's name to Abraham. God tells him that his wife, now called Sarah, will bear a son and he will call him Isaac. But Abraham, who loved Ishmael, asked God if he could be the son of promise. God answered in Genesis 17:19-20.

Natural human hurt and resentment developed between Sarah and Hagar, her Egyptian surrogate mother of Ishmael to the extent that Sarah called for her and her son to go into the wilderness. Abraham, deeply sorrowed to lose his child, obeyed God's instructions to allow them to leave as He had blessed Ishmael who would have 12 sons also - Prince and rulers of the Arab territories as Isaac would have Jacob who would father 12 sons - the House of Israel. And just like the competition between Ishmael and Isaac, the sons of Isaac, Esau (father of the Edomites or Idumeans) and Jacob would have competition.

After Sarah dies, Abraham marries again to a woman named Keturah and had other children which became smaller Arab tribes like the Midianites (Genesis 25:1-6). The stage is now set for a continual resentment/competition between the descendants of Abraham.

By 610 AD, the Arab peoples of the Middle East were divided into numerous tribes, all steeped in pagan moon practices common in that part of the world. But during the month of Ramadan, a new leader and general, Muhammad received what were proclaimed to be divine revelations which eventually became the basis of the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an or Koran. The Koran has alternative stories to many bible notables but the main thrust is that Islam was a return to the religion of Abraham while Judaism and Christianity were corruptions. Islam interprets God's plan with Ishmael in the role of the son of promise rather than Jacob/Israel.

Christians believe that Jesus is the only begotten son of God, the Messiah foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures who came to save humanity. There are some Jews who accept Jesus of Nazareth as a 'special rabbi,' and Muslims accept Him as a prophet. Christians ascribe to Jesus a divine status in a personal relationship with the Father. To devout Muslims though, this is polytheism and heresy. Hence the divide continues.

Today, Jews believe the Holy Land was promised to them through God's Covenant with Abraham and Isaac while Muslims believe that Allah promised it to them through Abraham and Ishmael. Christians on the other hand believe the Holy Land belongs to them because of God's fulfillment of His promise to Abraham in the person of Jesus. Will this ever be reconciled? Emphatically, Yes.

Answer 3: Concerning Europe

Concerning the European World, first consider this question: Who writes the history that is past on? Answer: The conquering power. In Europe's case it was the Roman Empire. They always had problems with the Jews and who lost their Temple in 70 AD after years of war with Rome. However, things got much worse with the revolt and expulsion from the land in 135 AD. As the 'new' religion was beginning to flower in Roman territories, Christians who adhered to Jewish traditions (mostly God's Law of Sabbath), they were ostracized and later tortured/expelled/murdered by the Roman authorities and the people as well in time. Anything 'Jewish' was an anathema and the new Church quickly changed some doctrines to differentiate from these Jews. And it hasn't stopped to this day though it is much less violent on the whole. It will surely get even worse than in the early AD era as prophecies in Daniel & Revelations predicts and other prophetic writings like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Zechariah all strongly indicate. Pray you and yours survive and remain strong should it occur in our lifetimes.

Another answer

Antisemitism began with the Greeks, whose classical writers (Apion, Tacitus and others) espoused hateful or fanciful theories concerning Jewish origins and beliefs.

A:Anti-Semitism as we know it began with Emperor Constantine (306-337 CE). Not only did he begin the persecution of the pagan temples, but he also began to persecute Jews.

Answer 5

Answer 1Antisemitismmight strictly be used to refer to hatred of or hostility towards any member of the racial group "Semites," but in practice it is only used to refer to hatred of or hostility towards Jews and Judaism. The term was first seen in 1879 in Germany as part of a description of anti-Jewish political campaigns in central Europe. Many attribute the origin of the word to Wilhlem Marr, but it is not clear that he used the word in print before 1880. Although Anti-Semitism has received a lot of attention in recent decades due to the results it helped produce in the Holocaust, it is not actually a new phenomenon. Evidence of Anti-Semitism can be found in many places in the ancient world and it is unclear where the first hateful views of Jews arose. However, prior to the Spanish Inquisition, most of the hatred was religiously-based, i.e. the hatred of the Jews stemmed from them observing the religion of Judaism and by converting to another religion, the person was acceptable. From the Spanish Inqusition onwards, there was also a racially-based hatred, i.e. the hatred of the Jews derived from their ethnicity as Jews, which meant that the person was intrinsically hated and could do nothing to avoid long-term hatred. Answer 2

• Antisemitism started by the pre-Christian anti-Judaism in ancient Greece and Rome which was primarily ethnic in nature
• In practice, it is difficult to differentiate antisemitism from the general ill-treatment of nations by other nations before the Roman period, but since the adoption of Christianity in Europe, antisemitism has undoubtedly been present.
• The coming of the scientific and industrial revolution in 19th-century Europe bred a new manifestation of antisemitism, based as much upon race as upon religion, culminating in the horrors of the Nazi extermination camps of World War II.
• The formation of the state of Israel in 1948 has created new antisemitic tensions in the Middle East as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict not yet solved.
• It is to be pointed out that Arabs are also Semites.

Answer 6

Antisemitism might strictly be used to refer to hatred of or hostility towards any member of the racial group "Semites," but in practice it is only used to refer to hatred of or hostility towards Jews and Judaism. The term was first seen in 1879 in Germany as part of a description of anti-Jewish political campaigns in central Europe. Many attribute the origin of the word to Wilhlem Marr, but it is not clear that he used the word in print before 1880. Although antisemitism has received a lot of attention in recent decades due to the results it helped produce in the Holocaust, it is not actually a new phenomenon. Evidence of antisemitism can be found in many places in the ancient world.

Answer 7

Armies who attacked the Israelites in early times may or may not have been motivated by by religious hatred; since it might be that most of those were just military conflicts. Actual religious hatred is mentioned occasionally (such as in Genesis 27:41 and Psalms 83:2-5) but doesn't seem to have been a continual pattern.
The earliest creation of a tradition of hatred of the Jews was done by the Greeks, beginning about 2200 years ago. They created a whole literature of anti-Semitism; and others followed in their footsteps.

Answer 8

The earliest creation of a tradition of hatred of the Jews was done by the Greeks, beginning about 2200 years ago. They created a whole literature of anti-Semitism; and others (including many Christians and Muslims) followed in their footsteps. See this link, for a partialtimeline of anti-Semitism.

Answer 9

Well the holocaust and the Anne frank period brought it to life, but it really became emphasized after and during the Leo frank case of 1913.