What kind of prejudice did eastern European Jews face?

Answer 1

Eastern European Jews were discriminated against against for three main reasons:

Religious Beliefs: Most Eastern Europeans were Christians. In Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, they were Catholics. Further east the Slavs were Eastern Orthodox. People were incredibly distrustful of anyone who believed in something different than what they believed. To many of those Christians, Jews rejected Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and were eternally responsible for his crucifixion. People were not interested in learning about others' religious practices and trying to create a multicultural society. The prevailing attitude was that people who are different than you are a problem.

Alleged Religious Practices and Material Hardships: There were many false rumors spread about what Jews were doing on account of their religion. There were numerous lies that Jews were murdering Christian boys to drink their blood, that Jews were poisoning the wells to kill Christians, that Jews were invoking the will of Satan to hurt "good Christians" and numerous other nonsensical allegations. The Eastern Europeans did not understand disease, weather, or general Jewish practice. It was much easier to blame the Jews for the crops failing than to realize that the lack of rain that year was due to a systemic drought. Jews could be killed, which made the problem "solvable" to them.

Poverty: The Jews were relatively poor in Eastern Europe and were seen as beggars and vagrants regardless of the fact that many were self-employed and nearly all of them were literate. Christians also thought that because Jews were poor, they were also filthy.