The Role Of Antisemitism In Early Modern Europe

Robert S. Wistrich defined antisemitism as hostility and/or prejudice against the Jewish people or their religion of Judaism. Many people in today’s world instinctively associate antisemitism with Nazi Germany because of the mass genocide that took place. Hostility towards the Jewish people dates back thousands of years ago when the Roman Empire forced them away from their homeland that is now known as Israel. With the Jewish population forced from their homes they began to spread out all over the world and so did the prejudice against them. The Judaism religion was looked down upon in many parts of the world and people felt like it was their duty to treat the Jewish people with inequality. Antisemitism took a different turn when statesmen begin to use it in their campaign to gain the citizens support.

Consistent with Rossel, Germany has had a past of anti-Semitism, starting in 1542 when the great German Protestant leader Martin Luther wrote a booklet called Against the Jews and Their Lies. Even earlier the Catholic Churches had taught that the Jewish people killed Crist and should therefore be hated (10). Early teachings of anti-Semitism lead to a hating of the Jewish community, but with the German’s calling themselves the “Aryan Race” and the Jewish people calling themselves the “chosen one’s” there was bound to be competition on who was superior.

Racial antisemitism was born in the Nineteenth Century when laws were passed in many European countries posing the Jewish people as second-class citizens, not receiving the same rights as others in society. While they had reached a level of religious emancipation in some countries, Judaism had become recognized as an ethnicity as well, and this ethnic difference from the Aryans therefore made them “inferior.” Pogroms began across Eastern Europe in the late 1800’s which resulted in

Anti-Semitism as a term to describe hatred of Jews was not used until the second half of the nineteenth century, but a bias against Jews had existed for thousands of years. This resentment of the Jews as a people can be traced back to theological roots as well as practical concerns in early Europe. The most significant and accepted origin of anti-Judaism is the death of Jesus. Jews were branded as the murderers of Christ and Jesus’ followers developed a deep hatred of them. This undertone to Christianity endured over time and became an inherent facet of the religion. Later, when Jews attempted to assimilate into European societies, they faced strong discrimination and resistance. Other citizens viewed them as economic competition. In addition, negative stereotypes evolved about the Jews in relation to their

German anti-Semitism played the main role in Holocaust and extermination of Jewish population in Europe during World War 2. There are different views on this subject among historians. Some support the fact that German society was anti-Semitic and ordinary

The intended audience for this article was towards readers who don’t recognize what is actually happening with the Jews and Anti-Semitism, and what could occur from it. This forms a teacher/student relationship between the author and her readers because she is teaching them from her own experience, and what she knows about the Holocaust and Jewish mistreatment. I will use this article to answer my GRQ because I believe it provides me with clear and concise evidence, and connects the treatment of Jews in modern day to the time of World War 2 efficiently. This article specifically relates to my GRQ by providing me with an evident answer for my question on how the treatment of Jews has evolved since World War 2. The author does this by saying “The horror of the Holocaust cleansed our society of anti-Semitism at the official level but the simmering resentment of a group that is different, that maintains its identity, that has been pilloried throughout history by religious and political leaders, remains” (Rebrik

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.

During the medieval ages, the Jews were treated extremely disrespectfully and unfairly. Anti-Semitism encouraged murder and the prosecution of many Jews. The art from this era shows the negative impressions and anti-Semitic policies against the Jews. These policies were harsh and humiliating. The Jews were forced to wear pointed hats and long cloaks with circular yellow badges sewed onto their clothing. In order to point out their Jewish identity and distinguish them from everyone else. The church blamed the Jews of offensive deeds such as killing Jesus and murdering children, which was all shown in the art. The art also clearly reflects the anti-Semitism by showing the cruelty and nastiness towards the Jewish nation.

What caused the arousal of anti-Semitism in the late nineteenth century was not due to a close examination of the Jewish customs or a vast plan to eliminate Jews from Germany. In fact the answer is so much simpler and it is an issue that the world still finds at the route of it’s problems today. A word as simple as jealousy is the source of a hatred so strong that it ended up killing millions. Anti-Semitism is a product of the strongest type of jealousy, a jealousy that was rooted deep in Germany’s past only to resurface at times of injustice, as the German’s saw it.

With the rise of anti-Semitism and the pogroms targeting European Jews in the late 1800s, there were many Jewish theorists and practitioners arose to find the ultimate solution for “the Jewish question”. In addition, the derived tension between the personal life of a Jew and the public life amongst secular society was the main challenge facing European Jewry. As a result of the long-term process through which Jews attempted to resolve the tension between their personal and public lives in a secular society wrought with anti-Semitism, the Zionist Movement emerged on the world scene lead by many intellectual and respected key figures. Among them, Theodore Herzl and Ahad Ha’Am were the two most prominent Zionist leaders. They both shared the same idea of nationalism where it was time for all European Jews to unite and be recognized as a nation. Although having a sense of national consciousness to unite the displaced Jews, their visions were completely opposite. The Zionist Idea, a text by Arthur Hertzberg, described their different visions in term of mass evacuation, statehood, religion, and culture.

Anti-Semitism has been one of the longest held prejudices in Europe, existing for some sixteen hundred years prior to the Anti-Semitic explosion of Nazism. The proliferation of Nazism in Germany, however, was not the commencement of what scholars deem “modern Anti-Semitism,” but rather its pinnacle. Modern Anti-Semitism, characterized by the declaration of “a program of action in regards to the Jews and not simply the harsh words or thoughts in their regard, ” which was typical of “traditional” Anti-Semitism, developed gradually over the course of the nineteenth century. In that century as the Industrial Revolution spread capitalism and liberalism to Central Europe, and as those two forces dominated the region following the revolutions of

At the start of the 19th century, anti-Semitism was an idea that was fading into history. During the 1800s, which was a period of political modernisation, social reforms and industrial growth across Europe, it delivered many legal reforms that for a short period of time improved the rights of Jews. For example, in 1830 the French government recognised Judaism as an official religion. However, despite these reforms anti-Semitism survived and during the mid 1800s it began to increase once again. The revival of this anti-Semitism can be said to be fueled by two significant political movements; German unification and Zionism.

Antisemitism has been around for decades, the term first appearing in 1879 by a German agitator named Wilhelm Marr. Corresponding to all the other words containing “-ism” that became apparent in the early nineteenth century, they expressed hostility focused on a difference between politics and science (Hayes 4). Back in Ancient Rome, the Romans did not favor understanding the reason as to why Jews followed such customs and were monotheistic, refusing to worship the Roman gods and resting on the Sabbath. The Romans didn’t particularly view the Jews as dangerous or of any threat until they refused the empire’s authority. This lead to an almost complete dispersal of Jews from ancient Judea after 136 CE. The immense hostility towards Jews became more distinct during the rise of Christianity. The two religions had both similar and conflicting beliefs which stirred competition. Essentially, Christianity deviated from some of the central tenants of Judaism. They too are monotheistic and proclaim Jesus as the Son of God with the Holy Trinity (Hayes 7). The Jews viewed Christians as a new religion stemming from their theology with different variations. What is understood is that the Jews were the

Before the nineteenth century antisemitism was largely religious, based on the belief that the Jews were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion. It was expressed later in the Middle Ages by persecutions and expulsions, economic and personal restrictions. After Jewish emancipation during the enlightenment, religious antisemitism was slowly replaced in the nineteenth century by racial prejudice, stemming from the idea of Jews as a distinct race. In Germany theories of Aryan racial superiority and charges of Jewish domination in the economy and politics in addition with other anti-Jewish propaganda led to the rise of antisemitism. This growth in antisemitic belief led to Adolf Hitler's rise to power and eventual extermination of nearly six million Jews in the holocaust of World War II. (holocaust encyclopedia)

There has always been a persistent turmoil across Europe for all of history- from the time of the early Church up until and through World War II. It was prevalent in Spain when a dispute arose of who would succeed the royal throne following the death of Charles II. Turmoil was prevalent in The Thirty-Years-War when a great unrest was caused by a rebellion in France. And the fight between the Austro-hungarians and the Serbs left Europe in a state of crisis after the first World War. Therefore, countries rise against countries, and people rise against people. Yet, this can be seen in a different aspect of history with multiple events that are counterintuitive to the proper norms of fighting. From the time of the Romans in 70 A.D up until and through the Middle Ages, the only safe haven for the Jewish People was in Lithuania( ). The Jews were expelled from all the major European countries like France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. This hatred is formally known as Anti-Semitism and has been primarily seen in Europe in the course of history. It is a certain hostility that can be portrayed in violence towards the Jewish people, that is, because they are simply Jewish. However, this hatred originated as part of an accusation that the Jews led and commended Jesus to His death with their persistence in the Roman curia. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller portrays a similar aspect of human nature