Answer 1

I think they call themselves the chosen people because God had come to Abraham and Moses to help save their people. But why would they be chose, was a common question back then. Since there were so many other people in slavery at the point. So someone came up with a resolution that that was the reason.

Answer 2

According to the Torah, the Jews are the Chosen People. See Deuteronomy 7:6 (NIV): 6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

It is worth noting that many non-Jews (as well as less-educated Jews) misunderstand the concept of "chosen-ness". It is not a statement of ethnic superiority in the vein of the übermensch or "White Pride". The Jewish understanding is that the Jewish people were charged with a distinct mission/task that the rest of the world was not assigned and this is to elevate the spiritual character of the world. This charge is very similar to that which monks and nuns take on in Catholicism and nobody chastises them for this act because we understand the hardship that comes out of that level of dedication. Jews are compelled to be so dedicated. That's it. Jews do not claim non-Jews to be inferior, unimportant, unworthy or lacking full rights in this life, or even unworthy of entering "the good place" after death. They, in fact, advocate exactly the opposite (that non-Jews are equal, critical, worthy of rights, have a reserved place in the "good place" after death provided they are good people).

(Another more pop-culturally modern version of this is the idea of the "Fellowship of the Ring" in the "Lord of the Rings". The members of the Fellowship are in no way superior or better than the rest of the inhabitants of Middle Earth, they just have a specific task to which they have been assigned and upon which the entire world depends. People outside the Fellowship are more than capable of helping this mission, and some of them (like King Theoden of Rohan and Faramir of Gondor) certainly do. It is just that the onus of responsibility lies on the Fellowship.)

There are a number of such reasons.

1) Anti-Semitism: There are six major reasons that people and countries harbor Anti-Semitic views and often these exist in contradictions (i.e. one group will hate them for one side of this reason and another group at a different place and time will hate them for the exact opposite reason): (1) Perceptions of Jewish Economic Power, (2) Perceptions of Jewish Ethnocentrism/Chosen-ness, (3) Religious motivations for Jew-hatred (both in Christianity and Islam), (4) Otherness, (5) Genetic/Racial Inferiority, and (6) Perceptions of Disloyalty. It is worth noting that the seventh most common reason, Ease of Scapegoating, only makes sense if at least one of the other six is in play, otherwise we could simply scapegoat the unicyclists for the world's ills.

1A) Jewish Economic Power: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews control the banks. Of course, this is not true as most banks are not chaired or owned or controlled by Jews; many banks operate independently or are controlled by Non-Jews. For example the Big Four US Banks are all run by Non-Jews: Jaime Dimon (JP Morgan Chase), Chad Holliday (Bank of America), Michael O'Neill (Citigroup), and John Stumpf (Wells Fargo). The reverse of this is that the Jews of 17th-19th century Poland and Russia were dirt poor, had no influence and yet they were hated, often explicitly because they were poor and therefore "contaminating" the country with their "poor-disease".

1B) Jewish Chosen-ness: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews believe themselves to be a superior ethnicity in the vein of the übermensch or "White Pride". This is contrary to the Jewish understanding is that the Jewish people were charged with a distinct mission/task that the rest of the world was not assigned and this is to elevate the spiritual character of the world. The Anti-Semites then argue that because Jews believe themselves superior to Non-Jews that Jews take advantage of Non-Jews and feel no remorse for it. The reverse of this is that in Western Europe in the late 19th Century, Jews, by and large, chose to assimilate and disregard their chosen-ness. The response is that Anti-Semites argued that the Jews were now going "undercover" and attempting to "infiltrate" European society. Additionally, when Christians or Muslims claim that they are the chosen elect-of-God, the chosen-ness issue does not seem to effect them.

1C) Religious Anti-Semitism: While Christianity and Islam are not inherently Anti-Semitism, their doctrines are easily to meld to an Anti-Semitic world vision and historically have been melded in such ways. Christianity's main thrust of Anti-Semitism comes from the crucifixion of Jesus, i.e. deicide. Christians also focused on the passages of the Old Testament which argue that Jews were in contravention to Divine Edicts and passages in the New Testament where Jesus condemns the actions of the Pharisees.

Islam has several Anti-Semitic thrusts. In addition to the Christ-killing (which is not deicide in Islam since Jesus is not God in Islamic theology and because Jesus eluded the attempt to crucify him), Muslims have made the argument that Jews are the killers of the Prophets plural, even though Jesus was the only one of the 35 prophets in the Qur'an who Jews attempted to kill (per Islamic teachings). Additionally, Muhammad and the early Muslims had negative political and military relationships with Arabian Jews which led to Anti-Semitism having a greater prominence in the early Islamic tradition.

1D) Otherness: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews are somehow different from other people and are, therefore, incapable of properly assimilating into the dominant culture. The argument went that their culture and beliefs were too odd for civil society and the Jews needed to be removed due to this customs incongruence. The reverse of this was that when Napoleon and other rulers emancipated the Jews (let them come out of the ghettos and interact as normal citizens). Anti-Semites responded that the Jews were now poisoning modern European society by direct interactions with it. In the Islamic World, since Jewish Emancipation came hand-in-hand with Imperialism, the Jews who assimilated were deemed to be imperialist infiltrators.

1E) Racial Inferiority: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews are somehow genetically inferior or lesser than other humans.. Composer Richard Wagner, a noted Anti-Semite argued that Jews have no souls and were incapable of producing or enjoying "true music". Hitler argued that they were deficient emotionally as well as mentally. In the European context, this racism was directed at Jews, arguing that as Semites (Middle Eastern people) they were not as well-developed as Whites. Interestingly, we see the reverse in Arab and African-American communities who practice this form of Anti-Semitism by arguing that Jews are a European offshoot of Khazaria and not as racially developed as Semites or Africans.

1F) Disloyalty: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews harbor more loyalty to each other (or, since 1948 to Israel) than to their fellow countrymen. Military defeats have been framed on Jews, such as the Trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. The evidence, however, is to the contrary. In nearly every case where Jews have been permitted to join the militaries of their host countries, they have enlisted in excess of their percentage. Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews were more loyal to the sovereign, especially since the sovereign would protect the Jews from rabid Anti-Semitic hordes of peasants.

2) Facelessness: Most people around the world, and especially in the Islamic World, have never met a Jew and only see Jews through the media portrayals of Israeli military actions or Jewish politicians in Western countries. As a result, "the Jews" are a people upon whom any claim of impropriety can be laid without a counterfactual relationship to see a Jew's humanity.

3) Israel's International Legal Violations: Israel has engaged in a number of policies in violation of international law, such as the unification of Jerusalem, the settlements in the West Bank, the annexation of the Golan Heights, etc.. Israel is not reticent for performing such acts and claims that it violates those laws because they are prejudicial to its rights and interests. If other countries did the same, (Iran is a great example), they are sternly reprimanded by the international community and forced to toe the line. The argument is often that because the Jews have control of international politics, that they are able to commit these violations with impunity while other countries cannot.

4) Anti-Colonialism: While Arab Nationalism was an anti-colonial movement, the general principles of the anti-colonialism led to a rejection of States based on European values in non-European locations with a large number of non-European (ethnically speaking) inhabitants. This sentiment was felt most strongly towards (South) Rhodesia, South Africa, and what would become Israel. Anti-colonialists believe that Asians and Africans had the right to Self-Determination pursuant to their cultures. However, Rhodesian and South African institutions could and did eventually convert to being African nations (in the true sense of the term) because their racist infrastructure could be reformed. Zionism is by default a government by the Jews and would cease to be Zionist if the Jews were taken out of the leadership position. Thus Zionism catches the ire of anti-colonialists.

5) Palestinian Indigenous Rights: The indigenous Palestinians and their descendants are aggrieved that people from abroad would come to the land that their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents had lived on and worked for as long as they could remember and buy that land from the Ottomans without consulting them. Moreover, these people had a particular agenda to establish a state on the land they called their own. Understandably, the Palestinians, and those who support them, are opposed to the Zionist project and the Jews who realized it for these emotional and political considerations. Additionally, the Israeli Military Occupation of the West Bank Territories and the Blockade of Gaza represents a true legal and humanitarian crisis for Supporters of an Independent Palestine and the Palestinian People. To many in the world community, the Palestinians must have the right to go back to their homes (although it is doubtful that the Arabs would have permitted that right to the Jews should the Arabs have been victorious in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9).

6) Arab Nationalism: Arab Nationalism as a movement crystallized in the 1930s and came to the political fore in the 1960s. Arab Nationalism is a movement that seeks to create an Arab State or multiple Arab States based on common cultural and historical markers. This movement began to make a tether between Arab cultural identity and Islamic religious identity. This was especially keen in places with large non-Muslim communities because those communities typically worked closely with the European colonizers seen to be repressing the Arab identity. Zionism, which is a movement based on a European cultural identity and a Jewish religious identity was antithetical to the Arab Nationalist movement ideologically and claims territory that Arab Nationalists also claim putting them at odds politically.

7) Islamism: Islamism, the political philosophy that Shari'a or Islamic Religious Law should be the grounds upon which a state is ruled (as opposed to Islam, which is the religion), want to create a government that falls within their stringent and puritanical view of Islamic moral standards. In the Islamist conception, only Muslims should be in power in the State and any non-Muslim minorities should have a secondary role if they should have one at all, whereas Jews are too "uppity" in having created a state where they are in the dominant position. Second, Israel is situated in territory which used to be governed by Muslims for nearly 1300 years (with a century-long break under the Crusader States). As a result, Israel is considered a usurpation of historical Islamic authority whereas European countries (for example) never had Islamic authority before. Islamists have talked about reintroducing the jizya tax, a symbol of humiliation for Non-Muslims in both the Gaza Strip and in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). At present, since no Jews live in either area, the primarily target of these laws would be Christians, but they do intend to subject the Jews to at least the jizya, if not outright execution and genocide, if they had the chance.

8) Anti-Nationalism: In today's world, as things like globalization, cultural diffusion, and mixed ethnicities in major districts become more prominent, the Jewish support for the Zionist model of a Nation-State dedicated to one race or religion seems anachronistic. Germany, founded on the same model, now has the issue of integrating Turks (and their children) into the German state, but since Germans always lived in Germany and constituted a majority there, as opposed to being a reorganized Diaspora, nobody suggests that Germans should "return" to a more cosmopolitan type of existence. This is, however, oftentimes suggested by Anti-Nationalists and Post-Nationalists concerning the Jews and their State.

Conversely, Nationalists, especially in Europe, accuse the Jews of undermining their aims by helping with the integration of foreign and immigrant populations in their native countries. In the case of Europe, they usually trumpet out one or two Leftist ministers who happen to also be Jews as "proof" of the claim that Jews are undermining their countries.

9) Non-Jewish Holy Sites: Since the Holy Land does not only have Jewish Holy Sites, but also has Christian and Muslim Holy Sites, there is opposition in these communities to Jews having a physical monopoly and control of these holy sites. Particularly, many Muslims cannot visit Israel to see the Dome of the Rock or al-Aqsa Mosque since their countries of citizenship do not recognize Israel. Rather than blaming their own governments, it is far easier to blame the "insurrectionist Jews" who "stole the land" from Muslims and now "prevent" their coming to see it.

Answer 1

This is an important question. Why is there so much antisemitism (hatred or prejudice against Jewish people) in the world now, and why has there been in the past?

1. We don't know.

2. They have set themselves apart. Jews have been remarkably good at maintaining communities within communities. They have maintained their ethnic and religious identity over many generations instead of becoming part of the cultures in which they live. Groups that set themselves apart always attract prejudice. For example, Italian and Irish immigrants were hated for various reasons by many native-born Americans in the 19th century. As they assimilated into the mainstream American culture they did not face the same prejudice (if for no other reason, just because they can't easily be identified as different). Minority groups that do not or cannot assimilate tend to attract prejudice.

3. They have been very successful. Their cultural values encourage education and material success, and so many of them become wealthy and powerful. This naturally attracts the envy of people who are less successful. Instead of respecting other people for their success, many of us find it easier to think that they had some unfair advantage, or there is a conspiracy, etc. (However, at various times and in various places, such as Eastern Europe in the period c.1800-1945 they were despised because of their poverty!)

4. Not everyone hates Jews, although they certainly have their problems with others in this world. I have Jewish friends and have worked for several Jewish bosses, and they were absolutely wonderful to me. You don't have to believe in another's religion (I'm Protestant) but I always love to see some of the ceremonies of different religions if I am invited and consider it an honor.

5. For a long time the Jews were excluded.

It says above, "They have set themselves apart". This needs comment. In Europe, where antisemitism started, the Jews were for several centuries excluded from ordinary society, shunned and in many countries they were forced to live in small, designated areas of towns called ghettos. They were also banned from most occupations. Of particular significance until a little after 1800 was the fact that they were banned from agriculture, which was by far the most important sector of the economy before the rise of industry. Moreover, they weren't just excluded from mainstream society, they were demonized. All kinds of absurd conspiracy theories were invented about the Jews. They were set apart.

6. Conflict in the Middle East

More recently, conflict between Israel and other countries in the Middle East has led to the rise of anti-Jewish feeling in that region and further afield.

7. Misunderstanding, prejudice and jealousy

The same reasons why some people hate other nationalities, other sex orientations, other religions, etc, etc.

8. Antisemitism is self-perpetuating

It has become a kind of tradition. In particular, conspiracy theories about Jews are often seen as interesting and spicy (even if they are not believed), while conspiracy theories about most other groups are just seen as downright boring and get very little attention.

Answer 2

Joy Hakim, the author of the History of US, suggests some possible beginnings of anti-Semitism, which are:

1. Jews held onto their culture and refused to convert to Christianity
2. Some Christians that believed that anyone that was not Christian (infidels) should be converted or die
3. Many Jews had a high economic status, and many people became jealous of their success
4. The Theory of Evolution was used against Jews (by Hitler and the Nazis) to attempt to prove that Jews were inferior to the Aryan race.

Comment

Answer 2 merrily mixes possible reasons from a wide range of periods. As for 'high economic status', often in many places Jews were despised for their poverty - for example, in Tsarist Russia.

Answer 1
That long history of antisemitism is part of a wider problem; antisemitism is deeply embedded in European (and related) cultures.
In the period from about 1918 onwards, the Jews were widely regarded as subversives and Communists. This was undoubtedly a key factor for many.

Answer 2
The reason that Anti-Semitism has existed for so long is because Jews have existed for so long in direct contact with other civilizations which disagreed with their religious beliefs. As a result since Jews have existed so long, many different reasons have come to the fore to justify the hatred manifested towards Jews.

Reasons for Anti-Semitism
There are six major reasons that people harbor Anti-Semitic views and often these exist in contradictions (i.e. one group will hate them for one side of this reason and another group at a different place and time will hate them for the exact opposite reason): (1) Perceptions of Jewish Economic Power, (2) Perceptions of Jewish Ethnocentrism/Chosen-ness, (3) Religious motivations for Jew-hatred (both in Christianity and Islam), (4) Otherness, (5) Genetic/Racial Inferiority, and (6) Perceptions of Disloyalty. It is worth noting that the seventh most common reason, Ease of Scapegoating, only makes sense if at least one of the other six is in play, otherwise we could simply scapegoat the unicyclists for the world's ills.

6A) Jewish Economic Power: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews control the banks. Of course, this is not true as most banks are not chaired or owned or controlled by Jews; many banks operate independently or are controlled by Non-Jews. For example the Big Four US Banks are all run by Non-Jews: Jaime Dimon (JP Morgan Chase), Chad Holliday (Bank of America), Michael O'Neill (Citigroup), and John Stumpf (Wells Fargo). The reverse of this is that the Jews of 17th-19th century Poland and Russia were dirt poor, had no influence and yet they were hated, often explicitly because they were poor and therefore "contaminating" the country with their "poor-disease".

6B) Jewish Chosen-ness: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews believe themselves to be a superior ethnicity in the vein of the übermensch or "White Pride". This is contrary to the Jewish understanding is that the Jewish people were charged with a distinct mission/task that the rest of the world was not assigned and this is to elevate the spiritual character of the world. The Anti-Semites then argue that because Jews believe themselves superior to Non-Jews that Jews take advantage of Non-Jews and feel no remorse for it. The reverse of this is that in Western Europe in the late 19th Century, Jews, by and large, chose to assimilate and disregard their chosen-ness. The response is that Anti-Semites argued that the Jews were now going "undercover" and attempting to "infiltrate" European society. Additionally, when Christians or Muslims claim that they are the chosen elect-of-God, the chosen-ness issue does not seem to effect them.

6C) Religious Anti-Semitism: While Christianity and Islam are not inherently Anti-Semitism, their doctrines are easily to meld to an Anti-Semitic world vision and historically have been melded in such ways. Christianity's main thrust of Anti-Semitism comes from the crucifixion of Jesus, i.e. deicide. Christians also focused on the passages of the Old Testament which argue that Jews were in contravention to Divine Edicts and passages in the New Testament where Jesus condemns the actions of the Pharisees.

Islam has several Anti-Semitic thrusts. In addition to the Christ-killing (which is not deicide in Islam since Jesus is not God in Islamic theology and because Jesus eluded the attempt to crucify him), Muslims have made the argument that Jews are the killers of the Prophets plural, even though Jesus was the only one of the 35 prophets in the Qur'an who Jews attempted to kill (per Islamic teachings). Additionally, Muhammad and the early Muslims had negative political and military relationships with Arabian Jews which led to Anti-Semitism having a greater prominence in the early Islamic tradition.

6D) Otherness: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews are somehow different from other people and are, therefore, incapable of properly assimilating into the dominant culture. The argument went that their culture and beliefs were too odd for civil society and the Jews needed to be removed due to this customs incongruence. The reverse of this was that when Napoleon and other rulers emancipated the Jews (let them come out of the ghettos and interact as normal citizens). Anti-Semites responded that the Jews were now poisoning modern European society by direct interactions with it. In the Islamic World, since Jewish Emancipation came hand-in-hand with Imperialism, the Jews who assimilated were deemed to be imperialist infiltrators.

6E) Racial Inferiority: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews are somehow genetically inferior or lesser than other humans.. Composer Richard Wagner, a noted Anti-Semite argued that Jews have no souls and were incapable of producing or enjoying "true music". Hitler argued that they were deficient emotionally as well as mentally. In the European context, this racism was directed at Jews, arguing that as Semites (Middle Eastern people) they were not as well-developed as Whites. Interestingly, we see the reverse in Arab and African-American communities who practice this form of Anti-Semitism by arguing that Jews are a European offshoot of Khazaria and not as racially developed as Semites or Africans.

6F) Disloyalty: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews harbor more loyalty to each other (or, since 1948 to Israel) than to their fellow countrymen. Military defeats have been framed on Jews, such as the Trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. The evidence, however, is to the contrary. In nearly every case where Jews have been permitted to join the militaries of their host countries, they have enlisted in excess of their percentage. Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews were more loyal to the sovereign, especially since the sovereign would protect the Jews from rabid Anti-Semitic hordes of peasants.

Additional Background Information

Anti-Semitism is the hatred of Jews. The term was first used in 1879 by William Marr, who started the "League for Anti-Semitism." Marr proclaimed the view that Jews are both physically and morally inferior, while the "Aryans" which included the Teutonic and Nordic peoples, were the "Master Race."

Although the term "anti-Semitism" is modern, documented prejudice, isolation, persecution and violence against the Jews goes back more than 2300 years.

In Biblical times, the Hebrews (the early Jewish people) experienced intermittent persecution because they did not adopt the religion of the locale or ruler and accept the idolatry of the kingdoms of the Middle East, as was the custom at the time. This refusal to worship idols was seen as stubborn and was resented.

In what is seen as the first historical reference to an anti-Semitic act, the Biblical account of the Purim story (the Book of Esther) tells how the Jews narrowly escaped genocide in Persia in the 5th century B.C.E. All the Jews of the vast kingdom were targeted for death because one Jewish official refused to bow to the top minister of the king. Only after the intervention of the queen, a Jewess, who pleaded for the lives of her people, were the Jews saved from mass murder.

Classical anti-Semitism in the pre-Christian era followed the same lines as the events of Purim. For much of recorded history, the Jews were the subjects of conquerors, such as the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Babylonians, and Romans. Most Jews refused to convert to the religion of their conquerors and instead kept their own religion, rituals and customs, often at great personal sacrifice. Judaism forbids Jews to bow down to any person or god other than the Creator. This conflict between keeping the Jewish religion and accepting local customs was the background for much of the anti-Semitism that the Jewish people underwent.

Examples are the following: Jews observe strict food-laws. Thus they could not, according to their laws, share cooked food in their neighbors' homes. Jews also couldn't, according to their laws, work on the seventh day. Christians observed Sunday as their Sabbath, while Moslems had Friday as their Sabbath. As a result, Jews were seen as being "out of step."

Other peoples who observed minority religions often were quite willing to make offerings to the gods of their host countries, even as they continued to worship their own gods. With only a few exceptions, Jews refused to do so.

Also according to their law, Jews were not allowed to marry outside their faith; and most did not. Interfaith marriages often served as a bond in ancient times to promote inter-group harmony. The Jewish refusal in this matter also slowed any assimilation which might ostensibly have narrowed the differences between the Jews and the non-Jews.

Conversely, enlightened ancient political leaders sometimes granted privileges and exemptions to Jews because of knowledge about their religious requirements. Those Gentiles who were not granted such privileges and exemptions often resented this special treatment.

Jews maintained their traditional dress and continued to wear beards and ear-locks even as styles changed among their hosts. The result was that Jews became more a more easily identified, ridiculed and stereotyped culture, which had ramifications beyond religious differences.

Evidence of anti-Semitism has been found in the writings of those who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, as far back as the 4th century BCE. In the first century C.E., Apion, a writer from Alexandria, wrote his "History of Egypt" which was the source for many of the false accusations about Jewish religious rituals which have plagued Jews throughout later history.

Various incidents of persecution against the Jews were recorded in the first century. As many as 4,000 Jews were exiled to the island of Sardinia during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. The earliest known pogrom took place during the time of Emperor Caligula in 38 C.E.

Classical Roman writers including Cicero and Ovid wrote about the contrast between Jewish laws and those of the Romans in hateful terms.

Christian Anti-Semitism:

Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew. Upon reaching the age of 30, he began to preach about the kingdom of God. Some people began to follow him. His close disciples, who after his death became the leaders of the early church, were also Jews. For a while, the early believers in Jesus as the Messiah were culturally and ethnically similar to, and sometimes praying alongside, their mainstream-Jewish counterparts. But a number of religious and national events during the second half of the first century and the early part of the second century started to drive a wedge between church and synagogue.

An account of one of these conflicts is recorded in a book of the New Testament called The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15. A question had come up in the church as to whether Gentile believers in Jesus as the Messiah would be required to follow Jewish laws before being treated as Christians. The church leaders ruled that they would not need to keep the entire Jewish law, only certain practices.

As a result of the Christian decision on this issue, and the wide missionary undertaking of the Apostle Paul to the Gentiles, the ethnic make-up of the first century church began to soon change from a Jewish majority to a Gentile majority. To the mainstream Jews, this was seen as a willingness on the part of the Christian church to be a non-Jewish entity. They also were apprehensive that this would allow pagan influences into the Jewish-Christian circles.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, hope in a Messiah to save the people from the cruelties of Rome began to increase. In 132 C.E., Shimon Bar Kochba ("Son of the Star"), previously known as Shimon Ben Coziba, was approved of by the leading Jewish sage of the time, Rabbi Akiva, to be the promised Messiah. Many Rabbis were skeptical, but some followed Akiva's example and hailed him as the Messiah. Bar Kochba led a three-year revolt against Rome in 135 C.E.

One part of the population, however, refused to help in the revolt and wage battles under the leadership of Bar Kochba: the Jewish sect which believed that Jesus was the Messiah. The growing Mediterranean church now began to feel enmity against the Jewish people. The Jewish believers in Jesus, who felt both a loyalty to Judaism as well as to the church, were being distanced by both groups -- by the church because they were Jewish, and by the Jewish community because of their open lack of support for Bar Kochba.

Because of this, two Messianic sects branched off, the Ebionites and the Nazarenes, seeking to set up congregations which were more culturally Jewish. Chagrined by the growing strong anti-Semitism of the Western church, these groups disassociated themselves from mainstream Christianity in the second century.

By 450 C.E., these groups had disappeared, and Christianity had already become less and less tolerant of anything connected with its Jewish origin. Anything Jewish was suspect. The concept of a "Jewish Christian" became more and more impossible.

In the second century, theologians and church leaders had become more concerned with breaking away from anything Jewish, and started to take a rigid stance of theological and political opposition.

Wide policies against Judaism began to enter New Testament preaching. Some examples are: the covenant of blessing to the Israelites in the Jewish Bible were now seen as the exclusive domain of the Church; God has now "cursed and rejected Israel", and now the Church was taught to be the "true" Israel; and all Jews everywhere are forever culpable for Jesus' death.

In the writings of the church fathers, there arose three types which became harmful to Jewish-Christian relations, not only when they were written (and preached publicly to Christian churches) but also in the following millenia, as they were used as a reason for anti-Jewish sentiment and, in the example of John Chrysostom's stridently anti-Jewish sermons, even anti-Jewish legislation.

Dialogue: This method was used to evangelize, spreading Christian teachings. One of the first (mid-second century) sources of this method is the Dialogue of Justin Martyr with a Jew named Trypho. In the Christian account, Trypho is depicted as being nearly convinced by Justin Martyr's arguments.

Testimony: These were lists of Hebrew Bible verses, the purpose of which was to attempt to prove Christian ideas concerning Christ and the call of the Gentiles. Served as a "handy compendium of arguments for possible controversies" with Jews. An example is that of the third century church father, Cyprian, in his Testimonies Against the Jews.

Sermons and homilies: This was a group of writings which was "especially directed against the Jews." It served to warn Christians of the dangers of having contact with Jews. These writings developed into an absolute condemnation of the Jewish people, religion, and practices. Example: Church Father John Chrysostom in his Adversus Judaeos, eight sermons preached at Antioch in 386-388.

By the second century C.E., both Judaism and Christianity were trying to be seen as separate entities in the eyes of Rome, as each had its own political concerns. Judaism by that time had been given legal status in the Roman empire as a recognized religion and did not want Christianity, which had its loyalty to a King other than Caesar, to be associated with it. The church, by this time mostly Gentile, also wanted to gain legal status in the eyes of Rome so that it would not be connected with the Jews, who had rebelled against Rome under Bar Kochba. Once it became clear to Rome that Christianity was not a part of Judaism, Christianity was viewed as an illegal sect and no longer stayed under the protective legal status of Judaism. However, with the establishment of Christianity later as the religion of the Roman Empire by Constantine in the fourth century, Christianity attained a position of legal superiority to Judaism.

The new Christian Rome enacted such changes as: The rescinding of former religious and governing privileges for Jews The curtailment of Rabbinical power A prohibition against any Jewish missionary work Jews were no longer permitted to hold office or have army careers (e.g. the legislation in 537 C.E. which prohibited Jews from serving on municipal bodies).

Anti-Jewish theological attitudes began to be promulgated, such as the teaching that Jews had lost their right to exist; Jews remain only as a testimony to the truth of Jesus; Jews deserve to suffer at the hands of Gentiles because God is angry with them, etc.

Various church councils created anti-Jewish legislation such as: banning Christian contact with Jews the prohibition against reading of the Torah exclusively in Hebrew (553 C.E.) confiscation of Jewish property the prohibition of the sale of Christian property to Jews (545 C.E.).

Later writings by church leaders throughout church history went further, condemning Jews and accusing them of being torturers, idolaters, blasphemers, gluttons, spiritually deaf, adulterers, cannibals, Christ-killers, and incapable of God's forgiveness. Church Father John Chrysostom in particular preached the idea of Jewish gluttony, stubbornness, sensuality, and rejection by God.

With the rise of the Church-State, certain political views such as Jesus ruling through the Roman Christian government began in the Church. This view of superiority, assisted by the increasing integration of the Church into Roman government, carried on into the medieval period and was used as justification for restrictions on Jews, as shown by these examples.

The Justinian Code The Justinian Code was a decree of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527-564). One part of the code took away civil rights from Jews. Once the code became law, Jews in the Empire could not build synagogues, read the Bible in Hebrew, gather in public, celebrate Passover before Easter, or give testimony in a court case in which a Christian was accused.

Enactments by the Catholic Church (a partial list) The synod of Elvira (306) banned intermarriage and intercourse between Christians and Jews, and forbade them from eating together. The councils of Orleans (533-541) banned marriages between Christians and Jews and forbade the conversion to Judaism by Christians. The Trulanic Synod (692) banned Christians from being seen by Jewish doctors. The Synod of Narbonne (1050) forbade Christians from living in Jewish homes. The synod of Gerona (1078) required Jews to pay a tax to support the Church. The Third Lateran Council (1179) banned certain types of medical care to be provided by Christians to Jews. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) decreed that Jews wear special clothing to mark them as distinct from Christians. The Council of Basel (1431-1443) prohibited Jews from attending universities, from acting as facilitators in the creation of contracts between Christians, and decreed that they attend church sermons.

The Crusades The Catholic Church launched a series of nine religious wars from 1096 to 1272. The goal of these wars was to march to the Holy Land and free it from Moslem "infidels." During their march, the crusaders wiped out all "infidels" in their path who refused to convert to Christianity. Many thousands of Jews were massacred in Germany and France.

Blood Libel and the Black Death In the Middle Ages, Jews were accused of many kinds of crimes and were made into scapegoats for the problems of the day. Blood Libel: In 1144, a myth began in England that Jews ritually kill Christian children. This myth lived on to become an accusation which continued for centuries, saying that Jews use the blood of Christian children in the baking of their Passover matzohs. This blood libel was ironic in that the ingesting of any blood is strictly forbidden by Jewish law.

Black Death The bubonic plague, which caused the Black Death that killed a quarter of the population of Europe in the mid-14th century, was blamed by some on the Jews. Many Jews were burned alive or lynched by angry mobs.

During this period, Jews were allowed to be moneylenders and financiers, only because this activity, while helpful for a strong economy, was viewed by the Church as sinful. Because Jews were given a monopoly over something seen as sinful, a Jewish stereotype was perpetuated.

The Inquisition The Inquisition was a tribunal-court created in the Middle Ages (1300s) by the Catholic Church in Rome in order to wipe out heresy. In 1233, Pope Gregory IX set up the papal Inquisition and sent Dominican friars to France and Italy to conduct inquests. The Dominicans had as one of their goals the conversion of Jews to Christianity. This, fortified with the power of the Inquisition, started a wave of persecution. Torture was not officially a method of wringing confessions of guilt from heretics, but it was used nonetheless and was later approved, by Pope Innocent IV. Also imposed were punishments of penance, fines and imprisonment. Penalties were often carried out by the local authorities, especially the death penalty. Because the fines levied and the belongings of the accused were handed over to the local government which often gave a tithe to the Church, graft, bribery and blackmail became common. The church rulers might be satisfied with assurances of goodwill, but the secular rulers used the persecution of heresy as a means to further their own designs.

The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, with the Roman Church appointing the inquisitor general, the first of which was Tomas de Torquemada. The goal of the Spanish Inquisition was to ferret out and punish converted Jews (and later Muslims) who were insincere in their Christianity. The death penalty was used relatively often, and the rules condemning people for heresy were very strict.

For centuries, the Jews in Spain had prospered and grown in numbers and influence, though anti-Semitism had occasionally cropped up and pressure to convert was put on the Jews. Ostensible converts from Judaism were called Marranos (Jews who had been baptized under force, but were thought to be still secretly practicing Judaism). After the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella (1469), the Marranos were slandered as a danger to Christian Spain. Suspected Marranos were tortured until they confessed to practicing Judaism, and burned to death en masse at an auto-da-fe. After years of torture and death by burning, in 1492, by royal decree, the Spanish Jews were given the choice of exile or baptism. Almost all Jews chose to leave.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) founded a new Christian faith, Protestantism, in the 1500s. He had been an ordained priest, but spoke against Church policy concerning its policy of the sale of indulgences (a partial withdrawing of the punishment for sins). A former supporter of the Jews, Martin Luther was angered by their refusal to accept his own religion. Martin Luther became one of the most virulent anti-Semites in history. He described Jews as the anti-Christ, worse than devils. Jews were poisoners, ritual murderers, and parasites, he said, and they must be expelled from Germany. His view was that the synagogues should all be burned, and Jewish books should be confiscated.

Partial List of Anti-Semitic Events (primarily in Europe)

224 C.E., Italy- Forced conversion

325 C.E., Jerusalem- expulsion

351 C.E., Persia- book burning

357 C.E., Italy- Property confiscation

379 C.E., Milan- Synagogue burning

415 C.E., Alexandria- Expulsion

418 C.E., Minorca- Forced Conversion

469 C.E., Ipahan - massacre

489 C.E., Antioch- Synagogue Burning

506 C.E., Daphne- Synagogue Burning

519 C.E., Ravenna- Synagogue Burning

554 C.E., Diocese of Clement (France)- Expulsion

561 C.E., Diocese of Uzes (France)- Expulsion

582 C.E, Merovingia- Forced Conversion

612 C.E., Visigoth Spain- Expulsion

628 C.E., Byzantium- Forced Conversion

629 C.E., Merovingia- Forced Conversion

633 C.E., Toledo- Forced Conversion

638 C.E., Toledo- Stake Burnings

642 C.E., Visigothic Empire- Expulsion

653 C.E., Toledo- Expulsion

681 C.E., Spain- Forced Conversion

693 C.E., Toledo- Jews Enslaved

722 C.E., Byzantium- Judaism Outlawed

855 C.E., Italy- Expulsion

876 C.E., Sens- Expulsion

897 C.E., Narbonne- Land Confiscation

945 C.E., Venice- Ban on Sea Travel

1009 C.E., Orleans- Massacre

1012 C.E., Rouen, Limoges & Rome- Massacre

1012 C.E., Mayence- Expulsion

1021 C.E., Rome- Jews Burned Alive

1063 C.E., Spain- Massacre

1095 C.E., Lorraine- Massacre

1096 C.E., Northern France & Germany- one third of Jewish population massacred

1096 C.E., Hungary- Massacre

1096 C.E., Ratisbon- Massacre

1099 C.E., Jerusalem- Jews Burned Alive

1100 C.E., Kiev- Pogrom

1140 C.E., Germany- Massacres

1146 C.E., Rhine Valley- Massacre

1147 C.E., Wurzburg- Massacre

1147 C.E., Belitz (Germany)- Jews Burned Alive

1147 C.E., Carenton, Ramenu & Sully (France)- Massacres

1171 C.E., Blois- Stake Burnings

1181 C.E., France- Expulsion

1181 C.E., England- Property Confiscation

1188 C.E., London & York- Mob Attacks

1190 C.E., Norfolk- Jews Burned Alive

1191 C.E., Bray (France)- Jews Burned Alive

1195 C.E., France- Property Confiscation

1209 C.E., Beziers- Massacre

1212 C.E., Spain- Rioting and killings against the Jews of Toledo.

1215 C.E., Rome- Lateran Council of Rome decrees that Jews must wear the "badge of shame" in all Christian countries. Jews are denied all public employment, and are levied with extra taxes.

1215 C.E., Toulouse (France)- Mass Arrests

1218 C.E., England- Jews Forced to Wear Badges

1231 C.E., Rome- Inquisition Established

1236 C.E., France- Forced Conversion/Massacre

1239 C.E., London- Massacre & Property Confiscation

1240 C.E., Austria- Property confiscation. Jews either imprisoned, converted, expelled, or burned.

1240 C.E., France- Talmud Burning

1240 C.E., England- Book Burning

1240 C.E., Spain- Forced Conversion

1242 C.E., Paris- Talmud Burned

1244 C.E., Oxford- Mob Attacks

1255 C.E., England- Blood libel in Lincoln results in the burning and torture of many Jews, and public hangings.

1261 C.E., Canterbury- Mob Attacks

1262 C.E., London- Mob Attacks

1264 C.E., London- Mob Attacks

1264 C.E., Germany- Council of Vienna declares that all Jews must wear a "pointed dunce cap." Thousands murdered.

1267 C.E., Vienna- Jews forced to wear horned hats

1270 C.E., Weissenberg, Magdeburg, Arnstadt, Coblenz, Singzig, and Erfurt- Jews Burned Alive

1270 C.E., England- The libel of the "counterfeit coins" - all Jewish men, women and children in England imprisoned. Hundreds are hung.

1276 C.E., Bavaria- Expulsion

1278 C.E., Genoa- Mob Attacks

1279 C.E., Hungary & Poland- The Council of Offon denies Jews the right to all civic positions. The Jews of Hungary and Poland are forced to wear the "red badge of shame."

1283 C.E., Mayence and Bacharach- Mob Attacks

1285 C.E., Munich- Jews Burned Alive

1290 C.E., England- King Edward I issues an edict banishing all Jews from England. Many drowned.

1291 C.E., France- The Jewish refugees from England are promptly expelled from France.

1292 C.E., Italy- Forced conversions & expulsion of the Italian Jewish community.

1298 C.E., Germany- The libel of the "Desecrated Host" is perpetrated against the Jews of Germany. Approximately 150 Jewish communities undergo forced conversion.

1298 C.E., Franconia, Bavaria & Austria- Reindfel's Decree is propagated against the Jews of Franconia and Bavaria. Riots against the Jewish communities, and those in Austria, result in the massacre of 100,000 Jews over a six-month period.

1306 C.E., France- Expulsion

1308 C.E., Strasbourg- Jews Burned Alive

1320 C.E., Toulouse & Perpignon- 120 Communities Massacred & Talmud Burned

1321 C.E., Teruel- Public Executions

1328 C.E., Estella- 5,000 Jews Slaughtered

1348 C.E., France & Spain- Jews Burned Alive

1348 C.E., Switzerland- Expulsion

1349 C.E., Worms, Strasbourg, Oppenheim, Mayence, Erfurt, Bavaria & Swabia- Jews Burned Alive

1349 C.E., Heilbronn (Germany)- Expulsion

1349 C.E., Hungary- Expulsion

1354 C.E., Castile (Spain)- 12,000 Jews Slaughtered

1368 C.E., Toledo- 8,000 Jews Slaughtered

1370 C.E., Majorca, Penignon & Barcelona- Mob Attack

1377 C.E., Huesca (Spain)- Jews Burned Alive

1380 C.E., Paris- Mob Attack

1384 C.E., Nordlingen- Mass Murder

1388 C.E., Strasbourg- Expulsion

1389 C.E., Prague- Mass Slaughter & Book Burning

1391 C.E., Castille, Toledo, Madrid, Seville, Cordova, Cuenca & Barcelona- Forced Conversions & Mass Murder

1394 C.E., Germany- Expulsion

1394 C.E., France, Expulsion

1399 C.E., Posen (Poland)- Jews Burned Alive

1400 C.E. Prague- Stake Burnings

1407 C.E. Cracow- Mob Attack

1415 C.E. Rome- Talmud Confiscated

1422 C.E. Austria- Jews Burned Alive

1422 C.E. Austria- Expulsion

1424 C.E. Fribourg & Zurich- Expulsion

1426 C.E. Cologne- Expulsion

1431 C.E. Southern Germany- Jews Burned Alive

1432 C.E. Savory- Expulsion

1438 C.E. Mainz - Expulsion

1439 C.E. Augsburg- Expulsion

1449 C.E. Toledo- Public Torture &. Burnings

1456 C.E. Bavaria- Expulsion

1453 C.E. Franconia- Expulsion

1453 C.E. Breslau- Expulsion

1454 C.E. Wurzburg- Expulsion

1463 C.E. Cracow- Mob Attack

1473 C.E. Andalusia- Mob Attack

1480 C.E. Venice- Jews Burned Alive

1481 C.E. Seville- Stake Burnings

1484 C.E. Cuidad Real, Guadalupe, Saragossa & Teruel- Jews Burned Alive

1485 C.E. Vincenza (Italy)- Expulsion

1486 C.E. Toledo- Jews Burned Alive

1488 C.E. Toledo- Stake Burnings

1490 C.E. Toledo- Public Executions

1491 C.E. Astorga- Public Torture & Execution

1492 C.E. Spain- Expulsion

1495 C.E. Lithuania- Expulsion

1497 C.E. Portugal- Expulsion

1499 C.E. Germany- Expulsion

1506 C.E. Lisbon- Mob Attack

1510 C.E. Berlin- Public Torture & Execution

1514 C.E. Strasbourg- Expulsion

1519 C.E. Regensburg- Expulsion

1539 C.E. Cracow & Portugal- Stake Burnings

1540 C.E. Naples- Expulsion

1542 C.E. Bohemia- Expulsion

1550 C.E. Genoa- Expulsion

1551 C.E. Bavaria- Expulsion

1555 C.E. Pesaro- Expulsion

1556 C.E. Sokhachev (Poland)- Public Torture & Execution

1559 C.E. Austria- Expulsion

1561 C.E. Prague- Expulsion

1567 C.E. Wurzburg- Expulsion

1569 C.E. Papal States- Expulsion

1571 C.E. Brandenburg- Expulsion

1582 C.E. Netherlands- Expulsion

1593 C.E. Brunswick- Expulsion

1597 C.E. Cremona, Pavia & Lodi- Expulsion

1614 C.E. Frankfurt- Expulsion

1615 C.E. Worms- Expulsion

1619 C.E. Kiev- Expulsion

1635 C.E. Vilna- Mob Attack

1637 C.E. Cracow- Public Torture & Execution

1647 C.E. Lisbon- Jews Burned Alive

1648 C.E. Poland- 1/3 of Jewry Slaughtered

1649 C.E. Ukraine- Expulsion

1649 C.E. Hamburg- Expulsion

1652 C.E. Lisbon- Stake Burnings

1654 C.E. Little Russia- Expulsion

1656 C.E. Lithuania- Expulsion

1660 C.E. Seville- Jews Burned Alive

1663 C.E Cracow- Public Torture &. Execution

1664 C.E. Lemberg- Mob Attack

1669 C.E. Oran (North Africa)- Expulsion

1670 C.E. Vienna- Expulsion

1671 C.E. Minsk- Mob Attacks

1681 C.E. Vilna- Mob Attacks

1682 C.E. Cracow- Mob Attacks

1687 C.E. Posen- Mob Attacks

1712 C.E. Sandomir- Expulsion

1727 C.E. Russia- Expulsion

1738 C.E. Wurtemburg- Expulsion

1740 C.E. Liule (Russia)- Expulsion

1744 C.E. Bohemia- Expulsion

1744 C.E. Livonia- Expulsion

1745 C.E. Moravia- Expulsion

1753 C.E. Kovad (Lithuania)- Expulsion

1757 C.E. Kamenetz- Talmud Burning

1761 C.E. Bordeaux- Expulsion

1768 C.E. Kiev- 3,000 Jews Slaughtered

1772 C.E. Russia- Expulsion

1775 C.E. Warsaw- Expulsion

1789 C.E. Alsace- Expulsion

1801 C.E. Bucharest- Mob Attack

1804 C.E. Russian Villages- Expulsion

1808 C.E. Russian Countryside- Expulsion

1815 C.E. Lubeck & Bremen- Expulsion

1820 C.E. Bremes- Expulsion

1843 C.E. Austria & Prussia- Expulsion

1850 C.E. New York City- 500 people, led by police, attacked & wrecked Jewish Synagogue

1862 C.E. Area under General Grant's Jurisdiction in the United States- Expulsion

1866 C.E Galatz (Romania)- Expulsion

1871 C.E. Odena- Mob Attack

1887 C.E. Slovakia- Mob Attacks

1897 C.E. Kantakuzenka (Russia)- Mob Attacks

1898 C.E. Rennes (France)- Mob Attack

1899 C.E. Nicholayev- Mob Attack

1900 C.E. Konitz (Prussia)- Mob Attack

1902 C.E. Poland- Widespread Pogroms

1904 C.E. Manchuria, Kiev & Volhynia- Widespread Pogroms

1905 C.E. Zhitomir (Yolhynia)- Mob Attacks

1919 C.E Bavaria- Expulsion

1915 C.E. Georgia (U.S.A.)- Leo Frank Lynched

1919 C.E. Prague- Widespread Pogroms

1920 C.E. Munich & Breslau- Mob Attacks

1922 C.E. Boston, MA- Lawrence Lowell, President of Harvard, calls for Quota Restrictions on Jewish Admission

1926 C.E. Uzbekistan- Pogrom

1928 C.E. Hungary- Widespread Anti-Semitic Riots on University Campuses

1929 C.E. Lemberg (Poland)- Mob Attacks

1930 C.E. Berlin- Mob Attack

1933 C.E. Bucharest- Mob Attacks

1938-45 C.E. Europe- Holocaust

In view of all the above, it should become clear that the Answer below this one is itself a perfect example of anti-Semitism.

Answer 3

Truth is antisemitism started in the Torah. It was preordained that a a Christ would come. Old Testament states that Jews were made of all Races. They persecuted Jesus for BEING the Son of God but he was Jewish; this was one of the original acts of antisemitism.Before his death he tells the coming of the dark prince, who would punish the world not just in the name of evil but in good as well. This includes the Holy war of the Templars, the way slavery was used to establish countries, & the Fatima prophecy in which the virgin Mary tells of Antichrists coming to invade society as a whole on a global scale, with Hitler being 1 of the known antichrist coming to punish the Jews. This is part of the curse the Jews received as punishment for killing Jesus passed down through their ancestry. In simple terms, Jews were anti semitic to the father of Christianity, to their own race. They denied it was anti semitic to kill Jesus, but Christians do not get mad for that denial. Jesus forgives, so why should Jews be mad at people denying the Holocaust. It is something that devils use to disrupt the main tranquility of a society, bringing hatred to people who are truly unaware of Judaism, as well as making some Jews ready to fight & kill for a statement, causing a Repetitive Kinship Order to the world since the beginning of time. I should have left that out.