Antisemitism

What is Antisemitism

Anti-Semitism is aversion to Jews. Many believe that it is based on the religious distinctions that were established between Jews and Christians throughout history.

The Jews were already persecuted by the authorities of the Roman Empire, as they refused to incorporate some elements of Roman culture into their beliefs.

In the transition from the Ancient Age to the Middle Ages, Christians recognized Jesus Christ as the savior of all humanity and the son of God, and the Jews believed in the pact sealed with the nation of Israel, where a savior was to come. Thus, Jews recognize Jesus only as one of several prophets and Christians as a Savior. These differences made the conflicts between them more intense.

During the medieval period, these divergences ended up generating a series of myths that ridiculed the Jews who lived in Europe. Among other criticisms was that the practitioners of Judaism had a dubious nature, as they themselves were directly responsible for the death of Jesus.

Based on this accusation, many conflicts were generated, culminating in criminal practices or large-scale misfortunes being attributed to the Jews.

At the end of the Middle Ages, a period in which Europe was experiencing a resurgence in commercial activities, many Jews became rich through the trade of goods and loans.

In this last practice, they were once again criticized by the religious authorities of the time and for the leaders of the Christian Church, usury was a sacrilege, as the profit obtained in such an activity would be the result of the exploitation of time, an instance of divine order.

The struggle of the Jews goes through the Crusades, the Black Death epidemic, the formation of the Iberian kingdoms and the persecution or forced conversion of the Jews into “New Christians”. In this way, the feeling of intolerance towards these people spanned centuries.

In the 19th century, because they did not belong to their own State, Jews were seen as “profiteers” who roamed countries interested in appropriating national wealth.

Nazism and Anti-Semitism

The peak of this way of thinking was ratified with the development of Nazism, mainly in Germany. In the midst of the 1929 crisis, Adolf Hitler and his followers undertook to disseminate theses that linked the German crisis to the economic role played by the Jews. With World War II, anti-Semitism solidified through atrocities, abuses and violence in concentration camps built by the Nazis.

With the end of this conflict, anti-Semitism gained new insights with the creation of the State of Israel, in the Palestine region.

The occupation of Jews in this territory ended up inciting rivalry against Palestinian Arabs who were there before the formation of the Jewish State.

In this way, hatred against Jews prevails in arguments that criticize the reluctance of some political groups to recognize the formation of a Palestinian State and the recurrent conflicts in this region.