Posted on 09/23/2011 7:22:16 AM PDT by Kaslin
As many of the nations of the world align themselves against Israel, this is a good time to be reminded of the unique nature of anti-Semitism, hatred of the Jews because they are Jews. And while few people would claim that the modern state of Israel is flawless in its conduct or that the Jewish people are above moral reproach, it is clear that there is something irrational, even diabolical, about Jew hatred. Consider the evidence in its totality.
1) Anti-Semitism is the longest hatred of all time. Catholic scholar Edward Flannery wrote: “Antisemitism is the longest and deepest hatred of human history. . . . What other hatred has endured some twenty-three centuries and survived a genocide of 6,000,000 of its victims in its twenty-third century of existence only to find itself still intact and rich in potential for many years of life?” Today, Anti-Semitism is at its highest levels since immediately before the Holocaust, equaling, in fact, those pre-Holocaust levels. How can this be?
These accusations against found in the biblical book of Esther, roughly 2,500 years old, still ring true in the hearts of many anti-Semites today: “There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples . . . whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey [international] laws; it is not in [our] best interest to tolerate them” (Esther 3:8, with slight modifications made to make this more contemporary). Why has this hatred of the Jews persisted for so long?
2) Anti-Semitism is the most widespread hatred of all time. It can be traced from the Greco-Roman world to Christianity (yes, Christianity, including vicious comments from some of the Church’s greatest leaders); from Islam to Fascism to Communism (intense anti-Semitism links Muslim terrorists, Adolph Hitler, and Joseph Stalin); from White Supremacists to Black Supremacists; from university campuses to the world press; from the philosopher Voltaire to the historian Arnold Toynbee; from the composer Richard Wagner to the car designer Henry Ford; from Japan to Russia to Iran. Why the Jews?
A few years ago, a very bizarre group made a big media splash when they claimed to have produced the world’s first human clone. The group, called the Raelians, is a UFO religion, led by its founder Rael, who claims to have been enlightened by aliens. After hearing the cloning report, I went to the Raelian website, purely out of curiosity. To my utter amazement, the featured message from Rael was laced with anti-Jewish sentiments, including the charge that “Israel is engaged in State terrorism” and the claim that “a small handful of the millions of American Jews are holding the rest of the 250 million Americans hostage.” Even the Raelians were polluted by an anti-Semitic stream! Why this widespread hatred of the Jews?
3) Anti-Semitism is the most vicious hatred of all time. Both the incredible violence and the depth of animosity against the Jews defy rational explanation. The enormity and depravity of the Holocaust alone testifies to the viciousness of this hatred, and yet the Holocaust is simply the worst of countless acts of Jew hatred over the centuries. So depraved were the Nazis (and other Jew killers) that Jewish infants were sometimes thrown into burning pits alive in order to save a bullet, leading to the oft-quoted dictum of Rabbi Irving Greenberg: “Moreover, summon up the principle that no statement should be made [about the Holocaust] that could not be made in the presence of the burning children.” Nothing more needs to be said.
4) Anti-Semitism is the most irrational hatred of all time. The absurdity of the anti-Semitic libels defies rational explanation. When the Black Plague decimated Europe, Jews were accused of starting the plague by poisoning the wells with a mixture made of spiders, lizards and the hearts of Christians mixed together with the sacred elements of the Lord’s supper. Outraged mobs slaughtered thousands of Jews as a result of this pernicious rumor. When the Catholic Church declared in 1215 that the elements of communion literally became the body and blood of Jesus, Jews were accused of stealing and torturing communion wafers, leading to Jewish communities being burned at the stake. In the Muslim world today, it is still believed that every year, Jews kidnap and torture a priest (or other victim), using his blood to make Passover matzah (unleavened bread). The Muslim world also takes seriously the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious forged document from the nineteenth century that claims to report the secret plans of a hidden group of Jewish leaders who are poised to take over the entire world—ultimately bringing it into subjection to the Hindu god Vishnu! Jews have even been accused of controlling the Catholic Church.
Article Seventeen of the Hamas Charter refers to “Zionist organizations under various names and shapes, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, espionage groups and others which are all nothing more than cells of subversion and saboteurs.” Even the Masons are controlled by the Jews!
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if some of the standard anti-Semitic libels appear in the comments that will be posted. And so the story continues. (Adapted with permission from 60 Questions Christians Ask About Jewish Beliefs and Practices.)
Going back to Carter, Bill and Hitlery Clinton, and this Kenyon-born asshat, the democratic party could not be any more anti-Semitic than they are. Why the hell the American Jews have any use for these morons and keep voting for them is beyond me.
To all of this, I say: Well, of course! Satan urges people to act in the most vile and cruel of ways. God loves the Jewish people, whom He has chosen to preserve His Word and to give us His Son. As Scripture tells us, they are to be a blessing to the whole world. So naturally Satan attacks them, and corrupts Gentiles in the process.
Well said, and how true!
I should disclose that I am part jewish(ethnically, not religiously) My great grandfather spoke yiddish and lived among the jews but was not accepted as a jew by the jews because his mother was lutheran.
There is something about jews that really does irritate some people. They are cliqish and do not like to integrate with non jews. THey are usually noticeably smarter than average although I have known some really dumb jews. They have no respect for the trades or physical activity, in general. There is a subtle difference(or not so subtle depending on your point of view) in the way a jewish mother interacts with her children(especially her sons) compared to non jewish mothers and this difference is off-putting to some people.
I have enough experience interacting with jewish people that the differences are not so striking for me.
My opinion is the near universal dislike for jews is due to a combination of 3 things...the jewish propensity to distance themselves from non-jews, jealousy because jews tend to be more successful than non jews, and most importantly, the subtle oddities of jewish mannerisms and non-verbal communication seem to be off-putting to non-jews on a subconscious level.
The answer seems rather obvious to me...although I could be wrong.
They are terrified of government sanctioned anti-semitism and a unified population loyal to that government. Therefore they will support any party that will divide the people and keep them bickering. The day that the left and socialism achieves dominance and unity and the right becomes fractured and powerless, the jews will switch loyalty to the right.
NEVER AGAIN! (until next time)
Amerian and European liberals are tired of watching the world’s 12 million Jews pushing 1.5 billion muslims around.
/s
Dennis Prager co-authored (with Telushkin) a book on this subject, called “Why the Jews.” Brown’s article repeats some of the same observations.
There is available somewhere online a talk by Dennis Prager at Columbia University discussing his book ”Why the jews?” It is a most interesting (and even entertaining presentation, considering how grim the subject). Highly recommended! Even if you do not agree entirely with Prager’s thesis, you will learn from his talk.
One implication of anti-Semitism is that it does not just harm Jews, but really all of us, in a very fundamental way.
Prager points out the unique position of the Jews, whether we like it or not — and he shows how many Jews themselves rebel against their historical role, but it is inescapable.
One difference: Prager would say that anti-Semitism is not just craziness — and it is NOT always irrational, which Brown asserts. Prager explains that there is a reason for it, so it is rational — but it is EVIL.
Too often we just think that evil is caused by some sort of mental disturbance. I would suggest that EVIL often masquerades as insanity, but at the root it is evil, not just a bit of craziness.
It’s demonic-inspired hatred. Not particulalry mysterious.
The Devil either:
1. thinks he can thwart God’s plans by eliminating the Jews.
2. Knows God loves the Jews and just inspires the hatred just to be a prick.
For example, but for the terrible punishing sanctions of the Versailles Treaty on Germany after WWI, and the political uproar from a collapsed economy that resulted...it's not at all clear that an insane dictator would of arose to focus all blame on the Jews, bringing about the Holocaust.
People always have an evil bent (original sin is a Christian concept) but it takes evil circumstances and evil leaders to exploit that inner tendency... Hearts and attitudes of anti-Semitism may not be changed by public policy, but, public policy can and does protect lives, and that should be our focus...politically.
Just labeling anti-Semitism irrational seems to give-in to the idea that nothing can be done about it. That is an idea I firmly reject.
When I decided to convert to Judaism, my children were right with me.
The we started to attend our local shul. That left a bad taste in my kids’ mouths. My daughter was able to separate the Jews from Judaism, but my son wasn’t and refused to convert. (I didn’t push him) He considers himself a Noahide.
The thing that struck us was the attitude. It was remarkably different between the converts (gentle, loving, enthusiastic), the Israeli’s (calm, accepting) and the born-Jews who were not Israelis (vicious, critical, defensive, snobbish).
The way one Israeli woman explained it was that the born-Jews had a victim mentality. The Israelis were conquers who had nothing to prove.
I think you have a point—about the cliquishness and irritation, but, I think it tends to be inevitable.
I heard a story that illustrates the problem:
An Hasidic group purchased a meat plant in Iowa to produce Kosher meats up to the standards of their Rabbi. They moved a few families from their synagogue out to Iowa to supervise the plant—along with a Rabbi.
Naturally they wore the traditional clothes of the Hasidim, black coats, hats, curly hair from their temples, etc—something the curious, but, naturally-friendly native Iowans had never seen. The Jews though, followed a puzzling practice in NEVER talking to the native Iowans except when absolutely necessary for business.
The Hasidim would literally cross the road to avoid talking to the gentile Iowans. Of course the friendly mid-westerners were a bit put-off by this, and one approached one of the Jewish leaders and asked him directly, why were they being so unfriendly?
The response was logical, but not very comforting, “If we are friendly to you and we got acquainted, we would probably become friends. If we became friends, our families would also become friends. If our families became friends, our children would want to marry each other, and when that happens....we Jews become extinct. That is why, we are not friendly to you—please don’t take it personally.”
I’ve heard that more than 50% of American Jews intermarry with gentiles (the vast majority of these are NOT Orthodox Jews). Intermarriage is a huge problem, for the survival of Judaism at all. The Tanak (Christian Old Testament) is full of commands against intermarriage—something the Orthodox take very seriously—and have, for a very long time, for understandable reasons. From the little story above, one can see both sides—and why, historically, the irritating cliquishness remains—and why, there doesn’t seem to be a logical solution—except full tolerance.
Read Mark Twain,,’Concerning the Jews’. Best explanation I’ve ever read.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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“1) Anti-Semitism is the longest hatred of all time. “
DESPITE the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Romans, Antiochus, Medieval Maniacs and assorted modern modern dictators, the Jews have survived and grown.
Its a testament to the power of the God of Israel who has always kept his promise to Abraham. (Genesis 22:17).
I ask that of my Jewish relatives every time I’m forced to go to a family function.
Most of them think Franklin Dictator Roosevelt is still alive and still fighting Hitler.
What have we done to deserve this hatred?
You made a wonderful choice! I,too,converted to Judaism.I did so in 2003. Did you convert into Orthodox Judaism, or another branch?
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