Anti Semitism In The Sun Also Rises

Things took a turn for the worst for the Jews in Germany and surrounding countries on January 30, 1933. Anti-Semitism began to grow during the Middle Ages, slowly increasing the amount of hatred towards the Jewish population in Europe by the 20th century. On September 30, 1928, Elie Wiesel, writer of Night was born into the Jewish race. Around twelve years later, the Nazi population removed Elie and his family from their home and began to move them into concentration camps where he would experience nightmares and situations that no person should have to go through. The Nazi’s leader, Hitler, uses antisemitism to his advantage, along with his speaking skills, to downgrade the Jews as a way to gain power in Germany. Another piece of literature,

Jews are a standout amongst the most stereotyped religious social orders ever, with the media every now and again utilizing negative pictures at whatever point they write about Judaism and the Jewish race. History demonstrates that Jews were constrained from their country and turned into an itinerant individuals, spreading all through Europe. Regarded as untouchables in Europe, local people were suspicious of the Jews and made numerous myths and pessimistic generalizations about them which are propagated today. Numerous limitations on callings were put on the Jewish individuals in the medieval times. The Catholic Church and numerous Christians accepted that loaning cash for premium was a wrongdoing and was prohibited. This pushed Jews into cash giving and rent gathering sort occupations which the congregation saw as second rate. This prompted the generalization that Jews are ravenous, shabby, mean and even degenerate.

Jake is consciously aware that there is a problem, which is more than can be said about his friends. Perhaps the people that surround Jake are the issue, though. His close friends and the people whom he travels with include Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Bill, and Mike. Brett, the target of Jake’s unrequited affections, is likely someone whom he should stop spending time with; however, it seems that he just can’t get away from her. She is a very strong and independent woman who isn’t known to behave in a traditionally feminine way. Jakes does remark that although she is very independent, “She can’t go anywhere alone.” Robert Cohn is a Jewish, wealthy expatriate; but unlike many of his friends, did not spend any time in the war. Cohn also falls head over heels in love with Brett, who soon rejects his affections as well. As a wealthy, Jewish, non war veteran Cohn stands out in the group and his fumbling attempts to court Brett are the source of much mockery and leads to many fights. Bill is also an American veteran who seems to be always drinking. He tends to use humor to try and deal with the emotional scars of war; however, is not immune to the immaturity and cruelty sometimes characterized by Jake and his friends. Finally, Mike is a very heavy drinking Scottish war veteran who is completely bankrupt. He is seen to have a terrible temper, which most often displays while he is drunk. Mike is also not comfortable with the

“The experience of the Jewish families in the United States over the last century has been one of acculturation and accommodation to the norms and the values of the American society.” (“Jewish American Family” 2). At the same time, Anti-Semitism in America reached its peak during the interwar period between the 1940s and 1960s. The self-hating Jew appeared as a phenomenon of the Depression and the 1940s. At that time, almost all of the Jewish American writers simply presented realistic portrayals of their fellow immigrants or their parents’ generation. Later, some other Americans, partial to Anti-Semitism, found confirmation of negative stereotypes in the new Jewish American Literature. Indeed, some parent-hating or self-hating Jewish American writers of the second or the third generation consciously reinforced negative stereotypes with satire and a selective realism. Philip Roth, whose portrayal of the tensions between these figures borders on self-hatred and an almost Anti-Semitic view of the Jewish family in America, is a great example of this phenomenon. In his book, Portnoy’s Complaint, Roth touched on the assimilation experiences of American Jews, their relationship to Israeli Jews, and his experience as inherent in being the son of a Jewish family which led him to be self-hating Jew to escape from the harsh reality.

Anti-Semitism is the discrimination against Jewish people as individuals and as a group. (A Brief History of Anti-Semitism) People may think that anti-Semitism began with Adolf Hitler but they are mistaken. There is so much evidence of anti-Semitism as far back as the ancient world. (History.com, n.d.) There are three examples of anti-Semitism in Europe prior to World War One that I will discuss.

Throughout the history of political parties and factions, none has been so infamous as that of the Nazi party. They were the world’s enemies for a decade in the early twentieth century, and still continue to stir up controversy throughout the world. Understanding what the Nazis believed in, how anti semitism contributed to Nazi beliefs, and if Nazis still exist today helps to conclude why they did certain actions.

The Holocaust invokes a great many emotions based on the scale of the atrocities committed and the degree of hatred that both allowed them to occur and that remained embedded in world culture thereafter. This is why the trial of Adolph Eichmann, which laid out the extent of crimes committed by the Nazis and which levied them against the alleged architect of the Final Solution, would promote so much debate. In spite of the obviation that the Jewish people had a right to seek justice for the roughly six million that perished in European concentration camps, the use of Eichmann as an avatar and the nature of the trials themselves would invoke criticism. The most noted of this criticism is that offered by Hannah Arendt's 1963 examination, Eichmann in Jerusalem: The Banality of Evil.

There is always an entity in the air, a presence that encroaches beneath the ground, or even an engrossing feeling that is within the human psyche. This invisible social force that influences everyday life is called prejudice, to which the excruciating backlash Jews have received for their cultural identity and traditions even has a term for it: anti-semitism. There are a large variety of anti-semitic myths that been associated by inaccurate stereotypes to which ignorance continues to breed. In order to properly understand how to debunk these pigeonhole categories, three particular myths will be explored to further comprehend how anti-semitism was in the past and how it currently relates to contemporary times. Jews known for contributing to well poisoning during the Black Death alongside how this group has been linked to being known as “Christ killers” and “ritual murders” provide an ugly, erroneous portrayal that harms the Jewish community and should be ended immediately.

Jewish Americans were subjected of anti-Semitic stereotypes and they are stereotyped as: as money-grubbing, social climbers, devious, and intelligent. The media in America often depicted Jewish people have a large nose, dressed all in black or garishly and often speaking in odd English. During immigrant waves during 19th and 20th century Jew anti-Semitic have been circulated. During 1880’s, plenty of Jewish Americans were excluded from Anglo-Protestant institutions (currently known as WASPs). There are one incident in 1877, a Jewish banker was denied by the Major New Yorker Hotel to provide a banker a simple accommodation. At same year, another Jewish American was barred from New York City Bar Association also New York’s City College completely

In the 1930s and 1940s Anti Semitism was wide spread in Germany under the Nazi Government. The treatment of Jews in Germany during this time was extremely brutal and harrowing. The human rights abuses against Jewish people in Nazi Germany during the world war two periods are extremely well documented. Anti Semitism ranged from the outlawing of marriage between Jews and gentiles, the Nazi regime sanctioned destruction of Jewish homes and synagogue and of course the holocaust. The holocaust is one of the darkest moments in modern history where approximately six million Jews were killed in extermination camps in Poland which was occupied by Nazi Germany at the time. Anti-Semitism was deeply engrained in the policies, ideology and dogma of the Nazi party in Germany during world war two. Anti-Semitism was no new phenomena in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. Anti-Semitism in both a religious and racial sense has existed and developed for over 2000 years across

The Jewish people are amongst one of the most hated group of people in history. Anti Semitism has existed much longer before the horrors of the Holocaust. The Jews have been hated amongst many religions like Christianity and Islam for reasons that are still debated on til this day. Anti-Semitism did not become so popular until the killing of Jesus. People center the idea of antisemitism with the Holocaust and Hitler's influence to make it happen but hatred towards the Jewish people has existed since the middle ages.

The rise of anti-semitic views under the nazis made survival challenging for the jews of Europe. Life is Beautiful directed by Roberto Benigni and Maus by Art Spiegelman present the Holocaust in different ways. Life is Beautiful uses comedy to show Guido’s effort to keep his son alive. While Maus uses Vladek’s application of industrial skills to keep his family alive. Both stories show the peoples effort to survive at all costs using the skill set that they have.

African Americans are not the only ethnic group that were discriminated; Jews were also a big challenge for the American society to accept in the 1920’s despite the success that they might had achieved. The 20’s and 30’s were the time when there was a huge migration of Jews to America, which caused an Anti-Semitism movement to emerge. The foreigners differed greatly from white people, which caused a lot of antipathy. Mr. Wolfsheim is a character who represents Jews in the novel: “A small flat-nosed Jew raised his large head and regarded me with two fine growths of hair which luxuriated in either nostril. After a moment I discovered his tiny eyes in the half-darkness” (Fitzgerald 69).

There was no one morning where the people of Germany woke up and decided to hate the Jews. Anti-semitism in Europe dates back to centuries ago, to the time period of Jesus Christ. This was the start of a chain reaction that leads to viewing Jews as the “other,” and the pent up intolerance that would eventually fuse over into mass genocide. This resentment boomed in Germany when Hitler accused the Jews of being backstabbers that caused their defeat in WWI. A powerful combination of the incredibly long lasting anti-semitism, scapegoating of the Jews, and the establishment of the Nazi Party alongside Hitler’s rise to power resulted in a rapid transformation from an emerging democracy into a genocidal, fascist dictatorship.

Although officially forbidden as a form of ethnic and racial chauvinism, antisemitism came to be commonly used as an instrument for personal conflicts in the Soviet Union, starting with the conflict between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky (who was Jewish), and continued through numerous conspiracy theories spread by official Stalinist propaganda. Antisemitism in the Soviet Union reached new heights after 1948 during the campaign against the “cosmopolitans”, in which numerous Yiddish-writing poets, writers, painters and sculptors were killed or arrested. This culminated in the so-called The Doctors' plot. Shortly before he died on March 5, 1953, Josef Stalin accused nine doctors, six of them Jews, of plotting to poison and kill the Soviet leadership.