Why is there antisemitism?

Question

Why is there antisemitism?

Answer 1

Because hate is one of the Devil's playing cards.  Not all men, or women, can deny the Devil when he whispers in their ear.

Answer 2

Every other hated group is hated for a relatively defined reason. We Jews, however, are hated in paradoxes: Jews are hated for being a lazy and inferior race - but also for dominating the economy and taking over the world. We are hated for stubbornly maintaining our separateness - and, when we do assimilate - for posing a threat to racial purity through intermarriages. We are seen as pacifists and as warmongers; as capitalist exploiters and as revolutionary communists; possessed of a Chosen-People mentality, as well as of an inferiority complex. It seems that we just can't win.

QUOTES:

“Of all the extreme fanaticism which plays havoc in man’s nature, there is not one as irrational as anti-Semitism. … If the Jews are rich [these fanatics] are victims of theft. If they are poor, they are victims of ridicule. If they take sides in a war, it is because they wish to take advantage from the spilling of non-Jewish blood. If they espouse peace, it is because they are scared by their natures or traitors. If the Jew dwells in a foreign land he is persecuted and expelled. If he wishes to return to his own land, he is prevented from doing so.” - Lloyd George stated in 1923

"The uniqueness of anti-Semitism lies in the fact that no other people in the world have ever been charged simultaneously with alienation from society and with cosmopolitanism, with being capitalistic exploiters and also revolutionary communist advocators. The Jews were accused of having an imperious mentality, at the same time they're a people of the book. They're accused of being militant aggressors, at the same time as being cowardly pacifists. With being a Chosen people, and also having an inferior human nature. With both arrogance and timidity. With both extreme individualism and community adherence. With being guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus and at the same time held to account for the invention of christianity." - A speech about the irrationality of anti-Semitism by professor Michael Curtis, of Rutgers University, 1987

Answer 3

The topic is incredibly complicated, extending over several thousand years, and has as number of "sides."

For example, a case can be made that the early Hebrews ("Habiru" in ancient Egypt) did things to make others dislike them, reject them, attack them, etc. Early on, the Hebew people distinguished themselves (made themselves different from other peoples) by their dietary laws, commandments and other laws, etc.

This (and that they took over other peoples' lands and enslaved them!) led to non-Jews rejecting Hebrews and their ways. This led Hebrews to believe this "anti-semitism" was actually Yahweh's way of setting them apart from, and above, other peoples. They believed "we are God's chosen people and he shows this by the hardships we must endure."

This idea is found in chapters 40-55 of Isaiah, called "second Isaiah; in the Book of Lamentations about the Hebrew people in Babylonian exile; and in the book of Job, where one man "stands for" the Hebrew nation. He remains faithful to God even though he loses everything. Thus Hebrew people (as nation and individuals) shold believe in God's promises even if they lose everything.

This notion of "suffering servanthood" (found in Isaiah) is the basis for Jesus: his life, faithfulness, sacrifice and death all as ultimate proof that God chooses whom he chooses, and deals iwth them as he wishes.

It also becomes the basis for modern thinking about the Warsaw ghetto and the n**i holocost. "We are chosen by God, and the evidence is that the world treats us terribly."

AntisemitismIt is a paradoxical or self-contradictory thing. On the one hand, Jews don't like being hated and worse for being Jews...yet on the other hand, their specialiness in the world and their evidence thast they are God's chosen people is the very anti-semitism they don't like!

Answer 4

Dr Bob clearly knows nothing about the factors underlying what we can call 'classical' anti semitism. Instead, he argues that Jews essentially 'bring it on themselves'!

Well, if his 'logic' was correct, then JWs and the Amish would ALSO be hated - after all, they too are 'different'!

The ultimate proof that Dr Bob is WRONG, is the fact that in pre n**i Germany, the Jews were TOTALLY integrated. They married non Jews and were the most assimilated they had EVER been.

Did that prevent them from being slaughtered by an anti semitic lunatic called Hitler and his n***s? No.

I want to add more but my phone is ringing! I will come back.