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| Man thought to be burning mezuzahs in New York |
In most of the civilized world, Jews
recently commemorated the Holocaust in solemn ceremonies that remembered the
millions of Jews deliberately murdered during World War II. In New York, at the same time, a Hispanic man
went around burning Jewish religious markers that contain the prayer “You
should love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul and with
all your might.”
A
few months earlier, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi called on Egyptians to
“nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred for Jews …” Simultaneously, according to a separate
report, “Anti-Jewish graffiti increasingly has appeared in Paris and Berlin,
Madrid and Amsterdam, London and Rome, and synagogues have been vandalized or
set ablaze in France, Greece, and Sweden.”
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| Gibson |
In
addition, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland have banned kosher practices,
a vital component of Jewish food rituals. In Germany, officials there have identified more than 10,000 violent
neo-Nazis, a number that climbed about 5 percent from the previous survey two
years earlier.
Anti-Semitism is obviously alive and
well.
Whether actor Mel Gibson is ranting
about Jews in a drunken tirade or that young man filmed destroying mezuzahs in
New York, Jews continue to be targeted.
Worldwide, anti-Semitic attacks
jumped 30 percent in 2012 compared with the previous year. That included a murderous school shooting in
France and anti-Jewish political rhetoric in countries like Hungary and Greece.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University
said the increase can be linked to the surge in right-wing parties in Europe,
who also have attacked other minorities.
That’s true in this country, too,
where fanatics are happily assaulting gays verbally and physically because they
don’t fit into their circumscribed views of “normal.”
Such abuse has been part of Jewish
history for 2,000 years.
A Stanford University study in the
1960s demonstrated the concrete link between the rise of Christianity and
anti-Semitism. Once a Jewish sect,
Christianity broke away around the end of the first century C.E. Fearful of being spied upon, Jewish leaders
inserted a prayer that they knew was unacceptable to Jewish-Christians. That forced Christians to move away from the
synagogue and create their own houses of worship.
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| Modern view of Jesus |
It also guaranteed animosity.
As Christianity developed clout, its
leaders faced a problem: although their religion venerated a crucified Jew, members of
that faith had rejected the burgeoning belief in him.
The solution was either to convert Jews or to ostracize them. Both techniques have been tried with limited
success.
Hatred turned out to be the most-enduring
method. Anti-Semitism, unknown prior to
Christianity, became an integral part of the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings
into the 1960s.
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| Columbus |
It was a weapon of mass
destruction. In Spain, for example, Jews
were evicted in 1492 when the Spaniards finally captured the rest of the
country from Muslims. An estimated
one-third of all Spanish Jews died as a result of the expulsion order. When Christopher Columbus sailed off on his
voyage of discovery that same year, his three ships were manned by a largely
Jewish crew, men trying desperately to find a haven from Spanish hatred.
A study of Spanish history showed
how anti-Semitism became ingrained as a result of a fight between two brothers
for the crown. One had a Jewish adviser;
the other used that fact as a successful weapon to wrest the throne away.
Throughout Europe, Jews were limited
to money-lending and tax collecting, two of the most onerous occupations. Naturally, the population detested them. At the same time, Jews were repeatedly gouged
for money by kings and then forced from their homes when the debts grew too
high.
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| Einstein |
The hatred culminated in German
concentration camps where Nazis systematically killed people judged less than
human. Jews were erroneously blamed for the German
loss in World War I, for simultaneously creating communism, socialism and democracy.
Ironically, the 20th
century was dominated by Jewish thinking: Albert Einstein in science; Sigmund
Freund in psychology, and Karl Marx in politics.
People today again are looking for
someone to blame for their problems and wind up targeting Jews, who supposedly
have some control of world finances. The
fact that Jews have suffered through the same downturn doesn’t seem to
matter.
As one of the Tel Aviv researchers
noted, “… the
desire to harm Jews is deeply rooted among extremist Muslims and
right-wingers…”
They want to find a convenient
target to blame for their country’s problems and to boost their own
status. Through anti-Semitism, they
attack “outsiders,” people of different beliefs and culture.
That fire continues to burn unabated
by logic or facts.
Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history. He also speaks at various
religious organizations throughout Florida.
You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net. He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion. His books are available on Amazon.com,
Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.
He can also be followed on Twitter.
You
can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1
