Replies

Thanks for the ping, but I still dont get "it".

Theologically, Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was a "Jew".How would the Catholics justify hatred of Jews?

Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah,how could a Christian hate a Jew?

Hindu, Buddist,Pagan peoples have no particular vested ineterest in condoning hatred of Jews, specifically, over any othe monotheist theology.

Who hates the Jews, and why?

I am not trying to bait anyone,I am trying to understand a PC blank out in history.I see nothing in the history of Judaism that could be even moderately considered as justification for anti-semitic activism.What, if anything, am I missing?

I am not interested in neo-nazi explanations.I seek the root cause of this unexplained phenomina.

This is only part of an answer, but anti-semitism, at least in Europe, stems from a combination of a) fear of the "other" (people who look, sound, act, and in other ways are different than the majority), b) envy of the successful (jealousy of the hard won success that the native intelligence, scholarship, and dogged persistence of the Jewish people), and c) the fact that the tight knit community of the Jews throughout the diaspora tended to keep themselves separate and aloof from the larger non-Jewish peoples among whom they lived.

Of course, the medieval church's prohibition against Christians being money changers, or to charge interest on borrowed money (usury) meant that the Jews performed these needed functions and many became wealthy in the process. Also, their biblically prescribed habits of diet and hygiene tended to keep them alive while others around them were dying from rat bourne plagues. In superstitious times, this made them subject to suspicion of having some sort of diabolical protection.

All told, generation after generation of European Christians were taught to suspect and hate the Jews. The church overtly provided a justification for this for centuries with the epithet that "the Jews killed Christ". I've also found that puzzling since he was actually executed by Romans, in a Roman form of execution, and both he and all of his immediate followers were Jews!

The modern hatred of the Jews among Arabs stems from reasons that are not that much different from the three factors mentioned above. Frankly, as a (in comparison to any Arab country) prosperous, free, democratic, and modern country with all the same or worse problems of climate and resources as the Arabs, Israel is a huge embarrassment to them. The fact that they have handily kicked the a**es of every Arab army that has made the mistake of fighting them also hasn't won them any admirers on the losing side.

Countless books have been written about the roots and history of anti-semitism and I woldn't pretend to be an authority. A related topic that I don't think has been explored as well is the other side of the coin, that is the roots and history of the overwhelming love and support for Israel and the Jewish people among most modern Protestant Evangelicals. I think this mostly unrequited affection mystifies many Jews and makes them uncomfortable, as if they wonder, OK what's the catch? Personally I think exploring the reasons why we, as Americans in a predominantly Protestant Christian culture, so identify with Israel is at least as interesting as why so many others hate them.