What is Antisemitism
As it is known commonly and widely, the definition of anti semitism is “hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group” according to websters dictionary. To truly understand that definition it is important to understand the use of the others words used in the definition such as hostility, discrimination, religious, ethnic, racial group. Words matter a lot when accusing others of being either an anti-semite, or anti-semitic due to the seriousness those accusations hold and the consequences they bring. I believe context matters largely when trying to apply these meanings to one’s character. The method best used for this is a socratic method, where one makes assertions with questions, while critically thinking to best come up with an agreement on whatever the topic may be. This method normally has 2 or people involved but 2 people aren’t needed. The best way suited to understand what makes something or someone anti semantic would be to first arise a series of important questions. A couple of questions proposed would be what does discrimination against does jews look like, what does it mean to be Jewish, and what ethnic group do jews belong to.
Earliest forms of discrimination
- The definition of discrimination is “prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment” or “the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually”. By the definition of discrimination, jews hold the title for longest reign of being discriminated against. Going back to CE(common era) while Christianity was on the rise spreading, majority jews rejected the religion. One of the many consequences Jews faced was that by the 4th century many Christians began to refer to the Jews as “alien people” due to their rejection of Christ they were then forced to do what is known as “perpetually migrate”. Meaning they were always being moved country to country never settling. The Christian faith was strong during the roman empire, leading the roman empire to forcibly move Jews to the outskirts of European society.
Discrimination in medieval times
Looking into the medieval times, jews weren’t allowed citizenship, rights, a Jew could not hold any position in government nor military, nor partake in any profession. Jews simply weren’t allowed to do anything except what was known as money lending, farm and peddling. The only way Jews could make a living would be to do what they were allowed and that happened to be money lenders which is another word for a “middleman” or in some instances a banker. The reason they were allowed or how they were justified in holding such titles was due to the bible allowing it. Deuteronomy 23:20-12 says, “You may charge a foreigner(A)interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless(B)you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess”, in favor of the Jews they were perceived as foreigners in this context. In the context provided Jews were able to lend to Christians at interest rates. If they weren’t money lending, or peddling they were farmers just trying to survive. Around the 14th century is when the black plague had happened and when it came a lot of rumors were said that the Jews were poisoning the wells so that it could spread. Due to these rumors over hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed due to violence, many jews were burned alive, and tortured till they committed crimes in which they did not do…It is also known that throughout the centuries from 12-19th many believed Jews had powers given to them by the devil. Amongst many European countries Jews were believed to engage in what was known as “blood libels”, which would involve Jews kidnapping a child, torturing such child in front of other Jews, to which they then would execute and hang on a cross with a thorny crown. It was believed that Jews acted in this practice based on what they had done to Jesus Christ. They thought that the Jews for some reason would be out for more what they considered innocent blood. This reasoning or way of thinking was justified through means of interpretation of children’s death at the time. From the common era onwards, the Jews faced unfairly discrimination simply off their beliefs, not only in Europe but in when Islam was becoming popular many jews experienced discrimination, as well in many Arabic countries. As stated, earlier Jews were forced to perpetually migrate, most of them going east ended up in the middle east.
Terms and things to know
- The Jewish diaspora is a term that is used to refer to the dispersion of the Jews out of their ancestral homes and the subsequent settlement in different parts of the globe.
- Because they weren’t allowed many jobs such as carpenters, or shoe makers, it forced a lot of them to get good at the liberal arts. It is no coincidence they were able to be doctors, good bankers.
- They read the torah but in a manner of intensive studying, a lot of analyzing due to the belief that the torah is the word of god and you can’t misconstrue that. In result they were great reading and highly intellectual.
Discrimination in the middle east
Around the 17th century all the Jews living in Yemen were banished by the king at the time Imām al-Mahdi Ahmad, who sent them to a country named Mawza. They were sent to the most barren region of the country; they were sent there to die or endure what the king had considered their fate. This was known as the “Mawza Exile”. The king’s justification relied on the fact he thought that the Jews were supporting Ottoman Turks who at the time were uprising locally. That claim was a claim that was never questioned, and in return killed as well as displaced a lot of Jews.
- The exiles were eventually called back to Yemen due to the Arab people needing the goods and services that the jews provided.
- The jews were again banned from Yemen for not succumbing to the islamic faith.
Discrimination in Germany
To fast forward to a more modern form of discrimination, we can take a look at the Germans and Hitler’s discriminatory practices towards Jews. Unlike the other countries mentioned earlier Nazi Germany didn’t just dislike jews because of their religious practice, or because of what they heard about them. They hated Jews to a degree where they were subhuman, a disease meant to destroy the German people. Hitler’s belief was that the eradication of all Jewish people was needed to purify to save Germany. He used the rise of eugenics to support his claim that non-Aryans were inferior races and should not exist. The Jews up until Hitler’s reign were doing fine in Germany, Hitler saw how much the Jews owned and it raised a scare. The idea of Jews owning everything caused a huge concern for Hitler. Discriminatory/persecution practices began with the exclusionary polices, erasing Jews from specific jobs, denying them educational opportunities, and also heavily advising them to migrate. Around 1935 the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 was introduced, that law stripped away Jew’s citizenship. From 1933-1945 the Germans had established over 20,000 concentration camps to imprison “enemies of the state”. The mass murdering of the Jews began in 1941till 1945 and from that 4-year span over 6million jews were killed. Nazi Germany is the greatest form of discrimination amongst the Jews. Based off the examples given of discrimination done to jews the common practices were to take away any land that Jews were in, take away their citizenship, not allowing them to certain occupations, treating as subhuman, solely based off the category of them being Jewish.
Things to note
- Hitler got the idea of eugenics from America
- Eugenics is the practice or advocacy of improving the human species by selectively mating people with specific desirable hereditary traits. It aims to reduce human suffering by “breeding out” disease, disabilities and so-called undesirable characteristics from the human population.
What does it mean to be Jewish
The definition of a Jew or Jewish individual is “a person belonging to a continuation through descent or conversion of the ancient Jewish people”. Jewish people belong to a group known as an ethnoreligious group which means of or pertaining to ethnicity and religion. Describing what it means to be Jewish is a slippery slope simply because depending on where you’re born the meaning then changes. For example, commonly in the US those who are Jewish see it more as an ancestral attribute. Orthodox jews on the other hand see being Jewish is more of a religious practice. Recently the term “Jewish of no religion” has come about and those are individuals who identify as Jewish but have not seek any connection with the religion or culture itself. When addressing what it means to be Jewish it should be known that majority of answers are subjective. Given the broadness of the term Jewish there are many areas that can qualify you as such. There are those who may opinionate that being Jewish is a matter of religion, matter of culture and religion, ancestry etc. There are no real wrong answers to the question posed but it is possible to decipher between the meanings of the given definition of what a Jew is and come to a conclusion. If we take the notion that someone can be Jewish from an ancestral decent then we must determine where the cut off is to be made for such qualification. The cut off here is being used because due to the race mixings of every culture it is likely that at some point in time a Jewish ancestor may have been present but that doesn’t mean one can claim the identity of that said ancestor. Genetically speaking from just each grandparent alone it is known that only about 20-25% of their genes get passed down to their grandchildren. By going further back the percentage only goes down to a point where you no longer share any genetic similarity with your ancestors. So, if someone were to identify as Jewish not by faith but by ancestry the proper cut off would be around grandparents simply because they attest for 25% of shared DNA which is a reasonable amount to identify with. For great grandparents they only give 12.5%, great-great grandparents are responsible for 6.25%, and great-great-great grandparents only share 3.125%. None of those percentiles are enough for someone to identify with. The equivalent of someone claiming to be Jewish based on their great-great-great grandparents would be a white individual who came from two white parents, grandparents and great grandparents included but found out that one of their great-great-great- grandparents were black, they then feel correct in identifying as black. If your grandparents were Jewish, it’s safe to say you are Jewish as well. Another claim of Jewish identity could be simply from practicing the Judaism faith which is how the orthodox Jews identify themselves and other jews to who they claim not real Jews. To practice the faith of Judaism you simply have to live your life in accordance with the Torah. There is an entire conversion process one must take as well. That involves speaking with a rabbi, studying Jewish culture and history, as well as getting involved with a Jewish community. Something worth noting I’ve listed many ways a person can identify as Jewish, but I have to mention now that it is not easy to spot or identify whether or not someone is Jewish. In today’s America the majority of Jewish people live in the northeastern part of America. It’s very common for people in the south to never encounter a Jewish person and even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to tell you. In the 19th century most Americans were able to tell Jewish people by their last names but in the case in which a Jewish person changed their name it would become very difficult to tell if they were jew or not without stereotyping.
Jews in America
If we look in today’s world, we can see that a lot of Hollywood is run by and has been run by Jews. Everyone’s favorite white actor has a good chance of being jew, same goes for directors, and producers. To throw out some recognizable names here’s a few Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg. There are hundreds more, too many to name. Many of these Jewish people are white, there are other ethnic jews in Hollywood, but for the sake of context we’re talking about the majority. It may not be known but I’m here to list a couple of Jewish sports team owners, Dan Synder who owns the Washington football team, Mark Cuban owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and Tony Ressler owner of the Atlanta hawks. A good percentage of record label owners happen to be Jewish as well. The average income for a 2 parent Jewish household is over 130,000 which is well above the average of other Americans. Since coming to America, the Jewish people have thrived.
Things to know
- Pogroms definition : an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jewish people in Russia or eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
- Two groups of jews ashkenazi and sephardic
- Jews were not just money lenders. It’s important to understand how they read the Torah. It is an obsession they look for mistakes. Seriously they know it backwards and forwards, so they are great at reading and memorization, hence law, medicine, engineering, accounting, business,writers, and scripts/acting. Because of all their trials and tribulations they have a great sense of humor.
- They have proclaimed and believe that they are God’s chosen people. This has a way of pissing people off and acting like you are superior.
Zionist vs Jewish
Another talking point that should be addressed is rather or not a Zionist and jew are the same. The word Zionist mean “a person who believes in the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel”. Zionism believe that the Jews deserve to have their own homeland. To this way of thinking the orthodox Jews would say that only god can bring about the sovereignty of the Jews, not man or government. There exists Jews who are anti-Zionist simply because they don’t hold the point of view as Zionist. Many Zionists look at Jewish people in America as Ashkenazim which they look at as “white Europeans” or known as foreigners the land of Israel. Those who are Zionist aren’t exactly jews but are those in a mindset to make Israel the homeland for the Jew. While jews in America haven’t really adapted that ideology.
What ethnic group do Jewish people belong to?
It is well documented that Jewish people’s roots trace back to the middle east and north Africa. The bible also makes reference that Abraham is from Mesopotamia. Due to the diaspora of Jews a lot of them ended up all over Europe and the middle east. Due to an influx of integrating a lot of different ethnics Jews came about. With there being a lot, I will only name a couple to put in perspective the ethnic diversity Jewish people have. Starting with Yekkes(German Jews), Litvaks (Lithuanian Jews), Moroccan Jews. Jewish people have ethnicities from all of Europe to Central Asia. The ethnic group that is more present in America is European jews, that’s not to say other ethnic jews don’t live in America but it means European jews are the majority. The Jews who remained in Israel and parts of north Africa are called Mizrahi. They are also regarded by many as the “original Hebrews”.
Technicalities behind anti semitism
In the beginning I stated the definition of anti semitism is “hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group”. I’ve brought up the many ways Jews were discriminated against and there were many similarities on how they were discriminated against. Such as forcing them to move, not allowing them citizenship, taking away their jobs, and treating them as inferior beings solely off the premise of them being Jewish. I’ve gone over what it means to be Jewish, that can involve your faith or your ancestry. To what ethnic group do Jewish people belong to, that is shown that they belong to many ethnic subgroups under the Jewish title, again an example being “European Jew”. Every form of discrimination listed all were actions, that is the one commonality between every example given. That does not mean that offensive language was never used, we know that Nazi propaganda was a strong reason for the discrimination amongst Jews. Even in that case, propaganda is an action taken to misinform others through means of more than just language. The biggest question needing to be asked is our judgment based off the actions of others or what they say. An individual cannot be labeled a murder if they do not commit murder, a rapist isn’t a rapist unless they commit the action of rape. To the person that says they’ll never steal and then proceed to do so, we call them thieves. Accusations are given not based off what others say but from what they do. In the case of the Jews, we can see just about the entire world be anti-semitic towards them, not because of what they said about Jews but because of what they did to them and why they did. It can be difficult at times to figure out what the intent behind one’s action is, discrimination has to be pointing out something specific about what is discriminating. In the case of the Roman Empire, they were fixated on the fact the Jewish people would not believe in Christianity, Hitler believed that Jews were meant to be erased solely off the premise that they were Jewish. Any action committed towards a Jew doesn’t make it antisemitic unless the motive and reasoning of that action was based solely off the fact that the person was Jewish. Statements made in regard to Jews that may be offensive do not equate to them being antisemitic statements. It’s more to being antisemitic than just words, actions contradict words. A thief isn’t a thief unless someone has stolen something. The antisemitic would have to show in their behavior and actions, statements made may in most cases show a person’s feelings, but casting judgment based off someone’s words isn’t as reliable as casting judgment based off someone’s actions. An example of this today with Kanye West being labeled antisemitic and having not done anything. West made an antisemitic remark in tweeting “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up, I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” He later tweets “The funny thing is I actually can’t be anti-Semitic because black people are actually Jews also.” West is not wrong in saying black people are actually jews, to go back on ethnic groups amongst Jews its seen there are many. Ethiopian jews are an African ethnic group, but West was implying all black people are jews, this extreme assertion is made due to the majority of Jews in America being European or white, that it’s often forgotten that black Jewish people exist as well. The statement is also wrong in the sense that not all blacks are Jewish, even though he never used the word all, but he said black people which is a broad term. Kanye’s logic of him not being antisemitic due to him Jewish comes from the idea that the same race cannot be racist toward each other. There is truth in that logic but just because Kanye claims to be Jewish does not make him jew. Under the circumstance of him being diagnosed as bi-polar it isn’t too outlandish for him to say or write out extreme comments. He is to still be condemned, his words are still hurtful and unethical. He still doesn’t match the definition of antisemitic, Kanye envies the Jewish community and wishes the African American community would pick up on their good traits. At face value it is easy to look at what he says and to write him off as one thing but when you listen and attempt to analyze two things don’t add up. You can’t hate the group you strive to be; you can hate how good jews are at what they do but the hate isn’t towards them per se, it’s towards the notion or idea that your own people can’t replicate that same success. Kanye thinks he can’t be antisemitic because he thinks he’s Jewish, despite him not being Jewish he thinks that he is, it looks more of trying to belong or fit in than a matter of hating Jewish people simply for their culture, or beliefs. Labels like Antisemitic should not be thrown around very loosely. Time should be taken to make such accusation about whoever, we should judge a person on what they do or have done rather than what they proclaim or say.