Here’s something else I am now beginning to put into the Urban Myth category: the assertion of many Jewish people that they were commonly accused of being “Christ killers” in school.
I of over 60 and I know that kids are brutal to each other. As an immigrant and attended my first school in the US in Chicago. I was called a D.P. At first I did not know what this meant, but in the early 1950s WWII was still a vivid memory and refugees were still arriving. A “D.P.” was short for “displaced person” but for grade school boys in Chicago it meant (in those more innocent days) “dinkless person.” With the kind of language kids are using today, that is so mild, so “white bread,” that I wonder that it bothered me at the time.
I mention this because while I have heard many racially and ethnically disparaging remarks, from the “N” word to a whole dictionary of ethnic slurs, I can honestly say that I never heard anyone called a “Christ killer.”
Here is a question: who has heard actually the term used (as opposed to having read about it) by people who really meant to disparage Jews?
You don't have to go too far: on this forum, Presidio9 in thread after thread claims that Jews are responsible for the death of Christ. Yes, he says "the Jews." When I engaged him in discussion he more than confirmed what he meant. He also said he was disappointed to see that Gibson's film did not implicate the Jews enough: the Bible (according to him) says that THEY killed Christ.
A few days ago, I posted, in bold letters a note "to all Christian friends..." pointing to Presidio9's posts and saying that this may be an example of why Jews are apprehensive. Not a single response criticising the bigot --- to the point that he followed up mocking me: "I am still waiting... everyone agrees with me."
Well, I did receive one response. It said that Presidio9 is corect, the Jews are all responsible. And I should either shut up or be at war with all of the Christian world --- no middle ground, such as mutual respect, you see.
You make a mistake of many good-hearted people: just because this type of prejudice is so foreign to you, it is so absurd, you cannot imagine it being widespread. This particular libel is very deeply rooted --- it started really long ago, in the first couple of centuries of the first millenium. Want to hear its most ironic form: people in communist Russia, those who had never put a foot in a church and did not even know where one was located, accused their Jewish fellow citizens of deicide. In Russia, where for generations they were proudly anti-Christian! Believe it or not. But this is more durable than you think.