Antisemitism: history, manifestations, and contemporary issues

Anti-Semitism is often thought of as something that is entirely European in its history. Yet, it can be traced in nearly every nation of the world and was even particularly strong in the United States during many periods. The message of the 1930s and anti-Semitism in America which has been termed antisemetica by some can be seen in this 1930s flyer, which reads;

BUY Gentile. EMPLOY Gentile. VOTE Gentile. Christian Vigilantes Arise! Boycott the Movies! HOLLYWOOD is the Sodom and Gomorrah where INTERNATIONAL JEWRY controls VICE--DOPE -- GAMBLING Where YOUNG GENTILE GIRLS ARE RAPED by JEWISH PRODUCERS, DIRECTORS, CASTING DIRECTORS WHO GO UNPUNISHED the JEWISH HOLLYWOOD ANTI-NAZI LEAGUE CONTROLS COMMUNISM in the MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY STARS, WRITERS and ARTISTS ARE COMPELLED to PAY for COMMUNISTIC ACTIVITIES

The popular belief in the dominance of the Jewish population in the film industry as well as in many other industries that dominate popular culture is essential to understanding the immigrant story. The United States truly became a hotbed of anti-Semitism when the immigration to the United States began to expand from traditional western European sources to large influxes of eastern European immigrants in the 1920s and 1930s as well as later, during the Nazi overtake of Germany and then later many European nations during WWII.

Brustein 1) Many people of other nationalities, and especially those of western European decent felt infringed upon by the movement of Eastern Europeans into the states and the old standards of anti-Semitism became the standard of the anti-immigration movement, as well as many defaming popular campaigns that openly spoke of the need for control and hatred of the Jews as a people, but not necessarily as a faith. During the beginning of WWII Germany offered her Jews to the world, and the world responded, meeting to try to resolve the issue of a massive influx of Jewish refugees from Europe and the answers given by most nations reflect the idea that anti-Semitism was an international standard.

A most countries, including Australia, Great Britain, and the United States, offered excuses as to why they could not accept more refugees. The Australian delegate, explaining his country's refusal to increase its quota of refugee Jews, stated that the entry of more Jews would disturb his country's racial balance. Frederick Blair, representing Canada, proposed that the Evian delegates do nothing to alleviate the Jewish refugee crisis in order to force Nazi Germany to solve its Jewish Question internally. The official delegates from Hungary, Poland, and Romania used the opportunity to propose that they too be relieved of their Jews. Several Western delegates, seeking to justify their countries' reluctance to accept more Jews, emphasized the fear that a change in existing quotas would prompt some Eastern European governments to expel tens of thousands of their unwanted Jews. In the end, only the representatives of the Dominican Republic and later Costa Rica agreed to increase their quotas. That the world seemed to turn its back on the German and Austrian Jewish refugees, not surprisingly, provided the Nazi regime's anti-Semitic campaign a propaganda bonanza. 2

Brustein 2) www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107191668"

In a sense, after the initial influxes of Eastern Europeans fleeing the devastation and anti-Semitism of Europe they were met in America with continued hatred and bigotry that rivaled almost no other, sans the hatred of the Black ex-slave. There is a clear sense that anti-Semitism was not only espoused by some but was accepted by many as the standard. While many argue that the Jews who came to America became successful, in part because of the culture of anti-Semitics, claiming that the ability to fight the good fight was what made them succeed in every nation where they were publicly hated.

Raphael 334) There is also a clear sense that anti-Semitism was as much a scourge on the U.S. As it was on every other nation that scapegoated the Jews as the source of turmoil and problems. Some even argue that anti-Semitism, as well as many other cultural biases and obscurities are alive and well today, as can be seen by one scholars assassination on the counseling industry as a seat of anti-Semitic rulings and procedures.

Although anti-Semitism can be discussed in intellectual terms as a prejudice and discrimination against Jews, it clearly is much more than that. Anti-Semitism breeds hate and narrow-mindedness among the people who practice it. Anti-Semitism also creates fear and an understandable defensiveness among its victims. In short, anti-Semitism is a troubling and painful phenomenon experienced by human beings.

Kiselica 426)

The foundations of anti-Semitism are so long held, they can be thought of as a legacy of gentile multi-generational cultural memory. The history of anti-Semitism can be traced back to biblical times, when the Jews were persecuted by ruling national faiths, and individuals. Additionally, the biblical roots of the killing of Jesus, as a Jewish act is essentially accepted by many Christians, even today, though it is clearly not reflected in actual scripture, it is still taught as a standard to Christian and Jewish conflict.

On the eve of the Holocaust, apathy toward their rapidly deteriorating plight was not the only injustice experienced by millions of Europe's Jews. The introduction of official anti-Semitic policies and bans and the incidence of violence against Jewish persons and property climbed to levels unprecedented in the modern age. Violence against Jews took place not only in the German Third Reich and Eastern Europe. Marrus and Paxton 4 have observed that demonstrations against Jews, including physical attacks, occurred in September 1938 in Paris, Dijon, Saint Etienne, Nancy, and in several locations in Alsace and Lorraine. These anti-Semitic manifestations in France led the grand rabbi of Paris to caution his co-religionists during the High Holy Days of the autumn of 1938 to refrain from gathering in large numbers outside of synagogues. 5 by 1938, Germany and Austria did not stand alone in Europe in terms of the enactment of anti-Semitic laws. Anti-Semitic laws found a home in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Finzi 6 notes that in Poland, which contained one of Europe's largest Jewish communities, the 1930s ushered in a systematic economic boycott of many Jewish producers and a series of prohibitions excluding Polish Jews

Brustein 3)

Brustein, correctly points out that the WWII hatred of Jews, that spread all over the world, was just a culmination of anti-Semitism with a history so long it is difficult to trace, though is pervasively evident in religious, racial, economic and political rhetoric over centuries of recorded history.

Brustein 337) Anti-Semitism in fact drove countless acts of violence against Jews and more subtle repression of their successes and even simple living situations. There is not an era or a nation in recorded history that has not been guilty of subverting and often even outright violence against Jews in the world.

To demonstrate this fact one can look to popular phraseology, that are terms of hatred toward Jews and denote eternal assumptions about Jews, in an economic sense some are so pervasive they can be found in standards of literary canon;

Over the centuries, Jews have been variously characterized as miserly, manipulators of money, ultra-materialist, and possessors of extraordinary wealth. The pervasiveness of the link between Jews and unsavory economic practices can be seen in the not-too-distant past in the usage of such unflattering verbs as "to Jew" (to cheat or to overreach) and "to Jew down" (to drive down the price unfairly by bickering) and in one of the definitions of the word "Jew" (i.e., "applied to a grasping or extortionate usurer") found in the authoritative Oxford Universal Dictionary, at least until 1955.

Brustein 177)

Such popular sentiments about the nature of the Jew, as seen by the anti-Semite as well as popular opinion, are culminations of years of subtle and overt hatred toward the necessary places that many Jews have had to find success, such as in the old school position of the money lender in cultures where such behavior was not aloud in the dominant faith and therefore laws even though it was essential to the growth of the economy. In a sense it was the profession left to them by the fact that their fellow countrymen were barred from practicing it by their religious laws.

The history of the economic root of anti-Semitism, while not quite as long as that of the religious root, dates back to the Christian medieval period in Europe. Warnings against middleman practices are found in the writings of early Christian fathers such as John Chrysostom and Augustine. It wasn't until the twelfth century, however, that the Catholic Church at the Lateran Council of 1139 assigned a negative significance to usury. Usury had originally referred to the cost to be paid for the use of borrowed money.

Brustein 177)

Economics was not the only area of official hatred, as the wave of science also adopted many anti-semetic ideals.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, Jews were increasingly depicted as members of a unique race rather than as members of a separate religious group. Spurred on by European colonialism, nationalistic fervor, and fear of immigration, the new science of race dug deep roots into European mass culture. "Scientific racism," or "race science," referred to the ideology that differences in human behavior derive from inherent group characteristics, and that human differences can be demonstrated through anthropological, biological, and statistical proofs.

Brustein 95)

There is a clear sense that anti-Semitism was a standard part of almost every aspect of human development, that culminated frequently in violent and subtle acts against Jews over and over again, throughout history.

At various times throughout the modern period, the myth of a "Jewish world conspiracy" has attracted adherents. Jews have been accused of plotting to take over the world by undermining the existing social and political order. The myth of the "Jewish world conspiracy" springs from diverse sources. As one source of the myth, Yehuda Bauer has pointed to the medieval anti-Jewish Christian accusation that, as the people of the devil, Jews, like the devil, aim to control the world.