Why Antisemitism? Antisemitism Versus Xenophobia.

Antisemitism has been confined to religious geographic distribution and mostly limited to areas whose populations are Christian and Muslim. India, China and Southeast Asia, with some 3.6 billion people, have been incomparably less affected, at least until the very recent global spread of social media which is ripe with homophobic – including antisemitic – conspiracies.

But why antisemitism, indeed? Why has there existed two-millennia-long homophobic antisemitism but fortunately not anti-Germanism, anti-Latinism or, say, anti-Koreanism? It is because Jew-hating antisemitism was conceived by and within Christianity that itself had been born not in a German, nor Latin, or Korean world but in a Jewish world. It was a mortal weapon of Christianity in its fight for followers. It was a creed directed against those Jews who remained faithful to Judaism. In their struggle for followers the Jesus-worshipers from Nazareth and Judea fought against Jesus-denying Jews; the followers of Judaism. Early Christians in Judea were an ethnic mix of Jews and later increasingly non-Jews.

Most everyone would agree that Christianity harbors antisemitism. But it is hardly appreciated that the Christian sect of Nazarenes in the last third of the first century CE, the time of foundation of Christianity, were the sole root and source of antisemitism. Instead, a common misconception is that antisemitism has been with humanity ‘forever’, is ‘natural’ for humans. As a proof the misconception refers to anti-Jewish riots in 38 CE. “The first organized anti-Jewish uprising… we know of, took place in Alexandria in the year 38 CE. …Jews were accused of not honoring the Emperor,” (Wikipedia). Meanwhile, the first significant citing of Christians was about their persecution by Nero, 64 CE, after great fire of Rome – a quarter of a century later. But those riots of 38 CE were not antisemitism, it was instead a case of routine xenophobia and scapegoating.

Xenophobia is universal in human society; we are designed by evolution to harbor “us versus them” attitudes. In the ancient world, people other than Greeks and Romans were considered “them,” outsiders, foreigners or barbarians. They included Celts, Germans, Huns, Goths, Persians, Jews and Egyptians among others.  Xenophobic riots in the ancient world were frequent and often driven by ethnic tensions, economic competition, and cultural disdain between native populations and foreigners. Alexandria in Egypt was a hot spot for such conflicts, frequently experiencing bloody riots between its Greek, Egyptian, and Jewish populations. Romans were prejudiced against Eastern peoples, like Syrians and Asians, as well.

True, early anti-Jewish riots are remembered in history more than, say, anti-Celt or anti-Greek, but that’s because of the unique millennia-long pariah-status of Jews. Jews have always been in a negative limelight. Even at our times, art historians still discuss topics like Shakespeare’s antisemitism or Rembrandt’s philosemitism (meaning, of course, not Arabs but Amsterdam’s Jewish community of his time) though no ongoing research is on regarding their attitudes toward other minorities.

Why is it so important to disclose the historical sources and origin of antisemitism? It is vital as otherwise people tend to blame Jews for antisemitism. When people lacking knowledge of its roots wonder why just the Jews, a tiny minority, constituting 0,2% of global population, have historically attracted so much negative attention, their only ‘natural’ explanation inevitably tends to be “Jews must have deserved it somehow. They must have done something really wrong.” This libel answer adds enormous insult to boundless injury and pain. It ought to be fought against and prevented at all costs with full disclosure of real sources and origin of antisemitism.

Jewish communities survived, just barely, for nearly two thousand years without a state. Jews were exiled, persecuted, denigrated, forcibly converted, and critically important, made ‘handy’ scapegoats for anything that had gone wrong, like plague, other pandemics, droughts or famines, culminating in the Holocaust of the XX century. Antisemitism is as abhorrent as slavery or Nazism. It always starts with Jews but never ends with Jews.

For two millennia both – the Church and since the XX century also radical Islam – were teaching and preaching that Jews are irredeemably evil Jesus-killers. ‘Repeat a lie frequently enough and it becomes truth’, (Goebbels). In two millennia of slander people got used to it as something self-evident like daylight. Babies absorbed it ‘with mother’s milk’ before their age of reasoning. Negative attitudes toward Jews became a social norm, almost an instinct. In the XX century religious motivation for antisemitism was replaced with the pseudo-scientific ‘genetic’ one. According to the Nazis, Jews were an ‘inferior’ race, unfit for life. How could it all possibly happen?

Antisemitism is a genocidal, selectively directed against Jews, product of Christianity that is two-millennia-old. “Xenophobia is the fear or dislike of people who are perceived as being outsiders, foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-group and an out-group” (Wikipedia). Xenophobia does not trigger genocide that is physical extermination of the entire people; it is not unidirectional but reciprocal and it is as old as humanity itself. Bad as it is, xenophobia is less homophobic than antisemitism, as can be witnessed in the Holocaust.

In human history, ethnic/religious riots present uncountable records of xenophobia (Catholic/Protestant religious wars that in the XVI-XVII centuries decimated Europe; Shia vs. Sunni, reciprocal homicide going on since the 7^th century CE and claiming millions of innocent Muslim lives; bloody Hindu/Buddhist vs Muslim riots; also, anti-Albanians, Armenians, Bosniaks, Greeks, Turks, Kurds, Russian Tatars, non-Han Chinese, etc.. 

Genocides (like Holocaust in WWII or in Rwanda, 1994) were by far less common. Currently, however, global antisemitism has flared up again. Below are two random illustrations. When people today do not accept Ayatollahs’ or Putin’s actions (like, say, murdering women for loosely worn hijab or attacking Ukraine), people protest with slogans “Death to Ayatollahs! Death to Putin!” Not “Death to Iranians/ to Russians!” When they protest against actions of right-wing Israeli government, however, it is always “Death to Jews,” not “…to Netanyahu!”

See the anti-Jewish genocidal difference? The same in the second example: students may shout “Death to Ayatollahs!” but Iranian expatriates studying and living next to them in the West are not being attacked on the streets, are safe – which is only normal. However, an upset with Gaza war triggers vile attacks on their neighbors, Jewish children/elderly (who had never even been near Israel) on NY streets. Of course, it is rabid anti-Zionist propaganda on social media that triggers another wave of mortal antisemitism – at work.

And then there was scapegoating that early sealed their tragic destiny:

Jews were made whipping boys for any wrong, for every man-made or natural disaster. It was so superbly convenient to always have someone to divert any blame onto; it was God-sent! Jews were brutally scapegoated for two millennia. No other folks like Jews experienced summarily over hundred exiles/expulsions in their modern history. Persecutions, mass murders, forced conversions, pogroms, humiliation, endless restrictions, ‘Jewish quotas’, Pales of Settlement etc. – they all were a ‘norm’ in Europe in centuries… It also ‘helped’ that by exiling moneylenders the rulers could annul their debts and seize the assets that exiled Jews had created.

It is worth pointing out that the very idea of evil Jesus-killers had been manifestly absurd: in Christian theology, God sacrificed His only son to redeem peoples’ sins. Jesus was a victim not of evil Jews or evil Romans but of his own Father’s will. God could have chosen Romans, Turks or a gray wolf to inflict Jesus’ suffering. Any of them, including Jews, would have been only a tool in God’s grand plan. Whoever accuses a tool rather than a master operating the tool? Antisemitism absurdly does exactly this.

John Shelby Spong (1931-2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church, a devoted Christian, a prominent theologian, author and teacher at various religious seminaries, universities, and theological institutions worldwide. Bishop J. S. Spong said it best: he tirelessly claimed and stressed that Christianity was the sole source of antisemitism.

 Here it goes:

• “…I must seek to explain how it was that Christianity, born in a Jewish world, developed into the primary source of antisemitism that has plagued our world and that remains today as the darkest blemish on the Christian soul,”(1, p.4).
• “I see a biblical-based antisemitism that has resulted in the beating, robbing, relocating, ghettoizing, torturing and killing of Jews from the time of the church fathers in the second century to the Holocaust in the twentieth century. I weep at the evil and the pain that we Christians have done to Jewish people in the name of God ,”(1, p.7).
• “Biblical literalism is nothing less than a Gentile heresy… For centuries we have practiced our faith by building up ourselves as winners, survivors, the holders of ultimate truth, while we have denigrated the humanity of others. That is the source of evil. That is why Christianity has given birth to antisemitism,” (1, p.209).
• “Matthew [27:15-26] had the crowd respond [to Pilate] with the words: ‘His [Jesus’] blood be upon us and on our children’. Those words, quoted again and again in justification of antisemitic violence over the centuries, are probably the source of more suffering and death than any other words in the entire Bible. Christians have consistently used them to justify abusive behavior against Jewish people, saying that ‘the Jews asked for it’. I still shudder when this passage of Matthew’s gospel is read in church…” (1, p.313).
• “The Catholic Church’s Pope Pius XII, referred to by one author as ‘Hitler’s pope’, has been deeply implicated in [Nazis’ Holocaust] crimes,”(2, p.186).
•  “The governments of Great Britain, Canada and of the United States knew what was going on in Nazi Germany long before WWII began, yet none of them made efforts …to bring pressure on the German nation to halt this violence… They refused even to allow persecuted German and Polish Jews to enter their countries as political refugees. Antisemitism was strong enough in each of these nations that politicians were not willing to be perceived as pro-Jewish,” (2, p.187).
• “Jews were among the most prominent victims who faced the fires at the stake during the period of history we call the Inquisition… [Many] crusaders never actually made it to the Holy Land… They acted out their vehemence against the only ‘infidels’ they could find [in nearby villages]… those ‘infidels’ were not Muslims but Jews… The Jews were barred from owning land… To survive economically, Jews became bankers… This enabled the Christians to feed stereotypical prejudices that portrayed Jews as money-grubbers,” (2, p.189).

Antisemitism of the founding church fathers was another abominable page of Christian Jew-hatred. Spong names at least six: Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Jerome, Tertullian and John Chrysostom. There were many more.

• “It is fascinating to discover how deep and virulent the anti-Jewish rhetoric was in almost every one of these fathers… Jews were called ‘evil’, ‘vermin’ and ‘unclean’. They were said to be ‘unfit to live’. Christians were taught that it was a virtue to hate Jews actively ,” (2, p. 190).

And finally, a verdict – in plain English: “The face of antisemitism is now unmasked. It was and is a gift of the Christians to the world. … It is a part and parcel of the Christian story,” (2, p.198).

“John Chrysostom (c. 347–407): Known for his homilies Adversus Judaeos (Against the Jews), he described synagogues as ‘a den of thieves, a dwelling of demons’ and labeled Jews as ‘murderers of the Lord’. Chrysostom articulated several key tropes of antisemitic ideology, including the belief that Jewish people are ‘schemers’ and that they engage in human sacrifice. He also introduced dehumanizing language that foreshadowed the genocidal rhetoric of the Nazis, who cited Chrysostom as a historical source legitimizing their bigotry. Chrysostom is still cited by antisemitic extremists online and offline on a daily basis, even two millennia later.

“Augustine of Hippo (354–430): “How hateful to me are the enemies of your Scripture! How I wish that you would slay them [the Jews] with your two-edged sword, so that there should be none to oppose your word! Gladly would I have them die…

“Jerome (c. 347–420): Described the synagogue as a “brothel” and a “pit of iniquity.

“Origen injected a special brand of unforgiveness that targeted Jewish people as ‘Christ-killers’.”

In the XX century antisemitism unleashed the Holocaust. This was the logical culmination of millennia-inflated hatred. The Jew-hatred soared to its highest, final level: from based on ‘wrong’ religion the hatred in the XX century became based on ‘wrong’ ethnicity. If during all the previous centuries it was “convert or die as infidel”, now it became “die as genetically unfit” with not a remotest chance to survive at any cost, not even for as-yet-senseless babies, not for geniuses (like, say, Einstein). In other words, the hatred became genocidal, the last nail into the coffin of beliefs in Christian innocence.

However, the XX century brought also the first ray of hope. Major Christian denominations admitted to and apologized for centuries of persecution, antisemitism, and abject failure to protect Jews during the Holocaust. The Second Vatican Council publicly acknowledged its sinister role in mass persecuting Jewish people including in the Nostra Aetate, (1965), the document which denounced antisemitism and decried the very concept of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus.

But while sanity and justice seemed to finally awaken in the West, the Arab World in the XX century faced a new huge flareup of antisemitism. Western imperialism (and Arab Christians) spread Christian antisemitism in Islamic world. It turned out to be fertile soil for Nazi Jew-hatred and mushrooming anti-Jewish/anti-Zionist conspiracy theories backed with rising Arab nationalism. The French Vichy government at WWII was a major conduit for spreading modern antisemitism in the Arab North African/Middle Eastern countries. Antisemitism in the Islamic world spread like wildfire backed by colonial Christian prejudices and by Nazi rabid anti-Jew propaganda.

Why antisemitism? Because it was born and nurtured by Christian Church which in turn had originated in Semitic Jewish world. And Christianity conquered the world with both – its glory and its blemishes – spreading the new creed and newly minted hatred. Hence antisemitism was not provoked by and has nothing to do with genetic inferiority or guilt of Jews, adherents of Judaism. They were just innocent victims; making them indiscriminately scapegoats was extremely beneficial for every ruler, religious or lay, in every country at every age.

In the XX century, Christian antisemitism was fading but due to the Nazi propaganda during/after WWII it fiercely flared up in the Arab world. Innocent stateless Jews had not a single country, where to turn to for protection. The MS St. Louis was an ocean liner that carried 937, mostly Jewish, refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in May 1939. They were denied entry by Cuba, the U.S., and Canada: to look pro-Jewish was bad for politicians’ reputation. While moored in New York, the desperate refugees wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt begging to save only their children. She never responded. The ship was forced to return to Europe, to Nazi glee and persecutions.

There was no antisemitism in the ancient world but there was xenophobia with occasional riots against foreigners (among others, foreigners – against Jews). Xenophobia, unlike antisemitism, does not pursue a genocide (elimination of the entire people), is incomparably older than antisemitism and is reciprocal.