It is very difficult to logically explain the reason why one people decides that it is better than another. The term "anti-Semitism" means intolerance and hostility towards the Jewish people. This hostility can manifest itself in everyday life, in culture, in religious fanaticism, in political views. Anti-Semitism takes a wide variety of forms: from insults, restrictions and prohibitions to attempts to completely exterminate (genocide). Why is this happening? Let’s try, if not to understand, then at least find out where the roots of this phenomenon grow from.
Persecution comes from paganism
Now it is safe to say that already in the pagan world the first shoots of hatred for Judaism were cultivated. And while there was no such term as anti-Semitism, Jews were oppressed no less because of this. The pagan world with a variety of gods was very hostile to monotheistic Judaism. There are literary sources dating from the third century BC that describe the confrontation between Judaism and paganism.
An example of this confrontation is the composition of the Egyptian priest Manetho. It describes the first conflicts and oppression of the Jewish people, in fact, the initial anti-Semitism. What is monotheistic religion? It is a belief in one (or one) God. As you understand, it was simply impossible to understand and accept such a religious view of the pagan world.
Evidence of persecution and violence comes to us from both Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Jews, with varying degrees of success, fought for their identity, respected their rites, and abandoned the views imposed on them. This often led to increased hostility, especially from the peoples who submitted to the power of Rome.
Christianity and Judaism
The emergence of Christianity in the Roman Empire greatly increased the persecution of the Jewish people. Now the Jews were experiencing the full power of religious intolerance. The causes of anti-Semitism could be found by reading the New Testament. Jews were directly accused of crucifying Jesus, and religious fanatics of all stripes began to consider it their right to oppress and destroy this people. Christian preachers and priests constantly added oil to the fire of hatred, cultivating the image of the enemy to rally their flock.
Under the influence of the Church, Jews were forbidden to perform public service, own land, buy slaves (Christians), build synagogues and marry Christians. Later they began to be forced to baptism, they began to exterminate those who did not agree with this.
Islam and Judaism
The followers of Islam also did not favor the Jews. Despite the fact that at the beginning of the 7th century AD there were clashes between the founder of Islam and the Jewish tribes, this conflict developed less aggressively during that period. The Muslim world did not display such open hostility towards the Jews as the Christian.
Anti-Semitism and Enlightenment
In the 18th century, the influence of religion on social life became weaker. Antisemitism could also be expected to weaken. What really happened? Has the Jewish people become easier to live? The change of priestly cassock to professorial frock coats led to the fact that scientific theories began to be brought under religious hatred. Scientists began to diligently prove to the world that European culture is based only on Christian morality, and Judaism is inferior to it in everything. Now, thinkers have tried to build a base under the claim that Jews are morally inferior, just like their religion. They began to attribute bloody ceremonies to them, accuse them of kneading matzo on Christian blood, and they also felt that Jews were striving for complete world domination.
Racism and anti-Semitism
In the 18-19th centuries, religious intolerance gave way to racial. In fact, the orientation has changed, but the essence has remained the same. Jews were now hated because they lived in closed communities. Despite the fact that a large number of famous scientists, influential bankers and successful traders came out of this environment, they continued to be considered morally inferior and flawed.
Nominally, Jews had equal rights in society, which allowed them to get a good education and develop their own business, but often insults flew into their backs only because minds poisoned by hatred were now openly jealous of commercial successes. The emancipation of the Jewish people, instead of the expected reconciliation, brought an unprecedented surge in aggression.
It became increasingly clear how dangerous anti-Semitism was. What could happen in society so that people lose their human face and allow themselves to take part in Jewish pogroms? How can a person in a normal state beat a woman and a child to death just because they are Jews? The brutal pogroms took place in Poland, Russia, Ukraine. But Germany went the farthest in this matter. Entire anti-Semitic parties began to appear here, then they adopted anti-Semitism at the legislative level.
Anti-Semitism in Germany
How did German ideologists manage to combine racism and anti-Semitism in their minds? What is racism in general? It was a political theory, the main idea of which is the division of people into various biological groups. Separation was carried out according to external signs, that is, by the color of hair, eyes and skin, by the shape of the nose and body structure. Each race was attributed various mental and physical characteristics, as well as certain stereotypes of behavior.
Racists believe that educating and culturally enriching members of other racial groups is futile; they are not capable of perceiving change for the better. Germans themselves as representatives of the Aryan race were elevated to the very top of development, and long-suffering Jews were ranked as lower races.
The worst combination in the history of mankind has become such a combination as fascism and anti-Semitism. Fascism itself is a stern authoritarian principle of government based on the ideas of racial superiority. Hitler generally put forward the theory that the Aryan is the actual prototype of man in general. All the rest are just waiting for the Aryan race to come and assert its rule over them.
Holocaust
Pseudoscientists-racists claimed that physically and mentally disabled people, as well as representatives of other races, have no value and are subject to extermination.
Based on this theory, Jews were subject to extermination, which means that construction of closed territories (ghettos) and concentration camps began. In total, during the Second World War, tens of thousands of such institutions were built. The "Jewish question" with the filing of Nazi Germany was resolved as follows:
- all Jews should have been concentrated in closed ghettos;
- they must be separated from other nationalities;
- Jews were deprived of any opportunity to participate in society;
- they could not have property that was confiscated or simply looted;
- the Jewish population was brought to complete exhaustion and exhaustion, so that slave labor was the only way to support life.
The German people supported their Fuhrer in an effort to destroy an entire nation. Massive manifestations of anti-Semitism made possible the Holocaust, during which more than 60% of the entire Jewish population of Europe was destroyed. Officially, 6 million Jews are considered Holocaust victims, a figure recognized at the Nuremberg trials. Of these, only 4 million were identified by name. This discrepancy in numbers is explained by the fact that Jews were destroyed by entire communities, leaving no opportunity to report the number of victims and their names.
Anti-Semitism in Russia
Unfortunately, Russia did not escape the manifestations of anti-Semitism. Opponents of the Jews claimed that it was a parasitic element engaged in the exploitation of the indigenous population. This opinion was shared by the Slavophiles, Ukrainian nationalists and populists. A certain period in the history of tsarist Russia is closely connected with the anti-Semitic movement. Jews were restricted in their rights and were not allowed to public service.
Many famous writers, for example, Dostoevsky, sinned with anti-Semitic statements. The revolutionary masses also had their opponents of Jewry, for example, Bakunin. Unfortunately, anti-Semitism in Russia was aggressive, because the easiest way to blame all their problems on the Jews.
