Jewish History.

[dibble1]

Throughout history, as far as I can see, people seem to "Have it in for" the Jewish race. I hated history at school but as I rapidly face my fifties I have begun to find it fascinating. I have heard a few bizarre reasons for a disliking of this race, one being "They want all the money in the world", but I fail to find what causes utter hatred like this which continues to this day. (We still see examples in people like Mel Gibson)
Many thanks for your thoughts

[jno]

through much of history, Christians were forbidden to indulge in usury - basically, money-lending. Jews were not, and consequently made a lot of profit doing it. But money lenders are always unpopular (look at the current fury against Wonga). If they lent money to the king, and he didn't or couldn't repay it, he's expel them from the country. (They were banned from England for centuries.)

That's one reason. Another is religious: Jews were blamed for the crucifixion (people sometimes forget Jesus was Jewish).

And there are other reasons related to racism and xenophobia generally.

[jno]

oh, and just to expand on that: with no homeland of their own, they tended to stick together when they found themselves a minority in other countries. It Italy, the Jewish quarters were called ghettoes. Consequently they were often seen as being unpatriotic and only interested in their own welfare. It's easy for demagogues like Hitler to stigmatise such groups and blame them for everything that goes wrong.

These days, Romanians and Muslims are more common targets, but it's same old same old.

[Graham-W]

I was recently in Israel and talking to a young Jewish soldier.
He was convinced that if Moses had turned right, after crossing the Red Sea, instead of left, the Jews would have all the oil and there would be less trouble in the world.

[Snafu03]

'Jews would have all the oil and there would be less trouble in the world. ' Well they seem to get fairly aereated about small strips of land that they beleive they (literally) have a God given right to own.

[KARL]

All of the above responses make valid points. I would like to add that simple envy/jealousy also comes into the equation: Due to a long history of hardship Jews have acquired a culture (call it a habit if you will) of hard graft in every sphere, loyalty to their own, a very wry and sometimes biting sense of humour, plus they seem to include an unusually large number of people who are artistic (look at the Western entertainment industry). Those who are short on these attributes resent this. As for the fanatical element, they are their millstone as with every group of people who are characterised by their religion (Christians, Muslims, etc.).

[jake-the-peg]

Hmmm - not sure about the idea that anti-semites are basically jealous.

There are a few seperate strands here that need teasing out.

There is the Historical anti-semitism of the middle-ages which as well as financially bsed was also religous - they really (hilariously) did believe that Jews killed Jesus! This all got bundled in with the 'Blood libel' which probably had more to do with their expulsion from England than their financial dealings - Many Jewish money lenders were simply not repaid if the King didn't feel like it! - A number had their assets seized

In the last few centuries the money lending and 'Not one of us' became the bigger issue - Read Umberto Eco's brilliant novel Prague cemetry around some of this - we all know about Germany but France was as bad or worse - Dreyfus affair etc.

More recently you have anti-zionism - not so much anti-jewish as anti-Israeli. And when you look at some of the ways Israel has been behaving and how many billion dollars the US is giving them every year in military 'aid' it's easy to see how this can arise.

I'd rather not get drawn into a long list of Israel's crimes but they certainly don't seem to shy away from kidnap and muder abroad if its in unfriendly countries.

Then you have certain Jewish comentators who will describe any criticism of the Israel as anti-semitism just to muddy the waters.

In the same way the quenelle salute was describe as an inverted Nazi salute - which may have described it's form but gave a conveniently misleading impression that it was derived from Nazi-ism.

I think that this disingenuous sort of aggressive/ victim / 'get your retalliation in first' personality trait is something that is often associated with Jewish people and while not universal I think as with many national stereotypes there's a kernel of truth in it.

So I think it's important to seperate out these factors carefully and take particular care not to fall into the anti-israeli=anti-semite trap

[dibble1]

Thankyou all for your time. I'm so glad I asked now. Most interesting!

[brionon]

Is anti Semitism an accurate description of anti Jew ? I think that perhaps the Jews are not the only Semites .