Logen Cuthbertson

Dr. Jack Giddens

World Religion 1300

10/20/2022

Throughout history, the Jewish people have been the victims of unparalleled abuse. Most

people think of Anti-Semitism and think of the Holocaust. What so many people do not know is

Anti-Semitism is the most ancient hatred of any religion, dating all the way back to around 100

AD. The term “Anti-Semitism” comes from Wilhelm Marr in 1873. He thought that Jewish

people were trying to overthrow the state and that they needed to be excluded from citizenship.

Anti-Semitic people think of Jewish people as unworthy, unclean, and greedy people.

Many roman historians and poets shared their disgust for Jewish customs and beliefs.

Artwork at this time even showed Jews with horns and doing blood libel rituals. Many people

did not take Jewish people seriously and thought of them as drunks and rowdy. Between 400-600

C.E. anyone that was Jewish was not allowed to marry anyone who was Christian, they were not

allowed to hold any position in government as well. At this point is when we really see Jewish

people being ostracized on a larger scale.

In 1095, Jewish people were branded as “Christ killers” and devils. This was the very

beginning of the Crusades and was the cause for the killing of thousands of Jews. Jews were

denied citizenships and were not allowed to work most jobs. When the Bubonic Plague had

spread, people needed to have someone to blame. Unfortunately, this fell upon the Jews because

of things that people already believed about them. Around 100,000 Jewish people were burned

for just this accusation in Germany and Austria.

 Jewish people were no longer allowed to own their own property at this time. They also

were not allowed to work most jobs, and yet the churches were not allowed to loan them money

either. This caused Jewish people to get involved in the trade of usury, which is the practice of

lending money and then charging high interest. This is where the stereotype of Jewish people

being greedy and money hungry.

Jewish people were often very useful to whoever their ruler was, they were tolerated as

long as they were being useful in some way. The problem with this though, is they were only

being useful by either serving as a scapegoat for something or through finance. If the ruler no

longer thought they were useful, they would be expelled from that country. England in 1290,

France in 1394, and Spain in 1492.

In 1290, the Jews were expelled from England as a “ethnic cleansing”. This is known as

the 1290 Edict of Expulsion. Before this happened, under Henry II’s rule, Jewish people were

protected by the crown because they were servants of the king. After his death, came the many

allegations against Jews stating they were kidnapping and killing Christian children and the

Church in England started shifting from tolerance of Jews to hostility. There were attacks on

Jewish communities and the massacre of the York Jewish community.

When Edward I became king, he decided that Jews would no longer be allowed to loan

money for a living and would have to become laborers, merchants or farmers as well as having to

wear badges to identify them (much like in Nazi Germany). By the time it was 1290, Edward I

was trying to negotiate a financial settlement. The only thing he could wager was the remaining

Jewish Population. Parliament awarded Edward a tax of $116,000(euro) and the Jewish

population was expelled from England.

 Following the 1290 Edict of Expulsion, a lot of that Jewish population moved to France.

Upon their arrival they were not allowed to live, work, or trade with Christians. They were only

allowed to trade with pawn brokers. They also had to wear some type of badge or clothing that

identified them easily. Jewish people were useful to King Phillip by being tax collectors, but this

got taken over by someone else so now they were dispensable to the king. In the year 1306 King

Phillip expelled the Jews in order to take their property to sell it. 100,000 Jews were arrested, and

they had to leave all their belongings and were only allowed the clothes on their back. They were

all also allowed to have 12 sous each.

In 1492 around 200,000 Jewish people were expelled from Spain. This expulsion was the

“pet project” of the Spanish Inquisition. Tomas de Torquemada believed if the Jewish people

were in Spain that they would influence the Jewish people who just converted to Christianity to

continue to practice Judaism. The King and Queen rejected this until they defeated Muslim

forces and Spain was renewed to a Christian rule. They wanted to unify the country and they

decided the Jews were dispensable. Once again, the Jewish people were forced to leave their

homes and belongings but this time they were able to sell, but only for a very low price.

Jewish people were invited back to central and eastern Europe during the Enlightenment

period with some new “protections”. They were now allowed to work in a managerial or

commercial job. The problem with this was none of them had the skills to do this. Some other

new things they were allowed to do was work in manufacturing, finance, and the arts. Still, the

majority of Jewish population was still poor and struggling to make ends meet. Things they still

were not allowed to serve in the military or own their own property, unless they converted to

Christianity. As a result of these “protections” new stereotypes were created.

 During the Enlightenment is where we get the stereotypes of Jews avoiding military

service, that they would rather work in entertainment opposed to doing hard work. This is when

the stereotype of Jews being lazy and not hard working became so popular. They were also

scrutinized if they converted to Christianity. They were thought of as not loyal because they

converted to just have material benefits. Many people thought they still did not believe in

Christianity. No matter what decisions they made, they were still looked down upon.

In the 1800’s, Jewish people were finally emancipated, and they were allowed to live

near as well as work with non-Jewish people. They then faced a new kind of political

antisemitism. They were now allowed citizenship and allowed to serve in the military and some

people felt that this was taking jobs away from Christians. Jewish people were getting better

jobs, and becoming more like members of society, people now changed the stereotype from “not

being hard workers” to “they are taking our jobs”. Even when they tried, yet again, they were

looked down upon.

Once it entered the 1900’s is when antisemitism in Europe reached its highest.

Adolf Hitler had ideas that Jews wanted to take control of the world and would turn on the

Germans. He also believed that the Aryan race was superior to Jewish people. He saw Jews as

non-human and not worthy of life. When he came to power in Germany in 1933, he stripped

Jewish people of their property and jobs. Any type of Jewish business was shut down or

boycotted. By 1935, Jew’s citizenship was taken from them. Once again, they became the

scapegoats for any bad thing that happened.

In November of 1938, at minimum, 267 synagogues were destroyed during the

riot known at Kristallnacht. 91 people died and 30,000 people were sent to concentration camps.

By 1942, hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were forced into concentration camps. All the
people who were deemed unable to work were the first to be sent to the gas chambers. This

included the old, extremely young children, and anyone too weak. Within just one year almost

anyone who was sent to a camp was killed immediately. They were also forced to participate in

marches that later became known as the death marches. This is the first time we in history that

we see Jews being killed on such a massive scale.

When Germany lost the war, the remaining Jews were freed from the concentration and

death camps. This is the first time the rest of the world finally understood the severity of what

was happening to the Jewish population. While some people did escape and go to the media, no

one really grasped how bad it was. This was because at that time people still saw Jews as

untrustworthy, and while it was obvious bad things were happening, for some reason it was

easier for people to kind of look the other way.

In present day, social media has made things worse in a different way. There are still

people in 2022 that suggest that the Jews are controlling our world and that they could even be

responsible for the coronavirus pandemic. The conspiracy, Holocaust denial states that the

Holocaust never actually happened. The invention of social media has made in 100x easier for

people to spread these rumors and allegations. New Anti-Semitism targets Israel rather than

Jewish people themselves. This is an attempt to demonize Jewish people simply by association.

Jewish people have lost all possessions, been expelled from numerous countries, had their

places of worship destroyed, and even been killed. They have been seen as the easiest targets.

They were chosen as the scapegoats over a thousand years ago and are still treated as such today.

The lies that were told and the stereotypes given to them cost millions of Jewish people their

lives for over a thousand years.

Works Cited:
 https://www.jhcwc.org/antisemitism-today/

https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/::ognode-637356::/files/download-resource-printable-pdf-5

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism-in-history-the-early-

modern-era-1300-1800

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism-in-history-the-era-of-

nationalism-1800-1918

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-spanish-expulsion-1492

https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/history/expulsionfromfrance.shtml

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/holocaust

https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/education-outreach/Brief-

History-on-Anti-Semitism-A.pdf