History of Antisemitism in Europe

History of Antisemitism in Europe
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History of Antisemitism in Europe
Introduction
Antisemitism is the hatred, discrimination, and prejudice against the Jews. Jews have suffered from this discrimination for millennia across Europe and it is mainly anchored in extremist Christian views. One of the main reasons for antisemitism in Europe is the religious intolerance of the majority Christian community in the continent especially up to the end of the classical period. The second main reason for antisemitism was racial discrimination by the majority ‘white race’ in Europe as it pursued eugenic objectives.
The former was largely responsible for many massacres and dislocation of the Jewish community in the continent in medieval Europe up to the classical period. The latter was largely responsible for the Pogroms in Russia and the Holocaust in the 20th century under Adolf Hitler when he orchestrated the forced dislocation of the majority of Jews across Europe and the death of millions of them. Antisemitism did not end with Hitler and up to date, there are still anti-Semitic people across Europe who continue to discriminate the Jews as it is evidenced in the media coverage. The civil rights of the Semites in Europe are still widely debated topics in the political landscape of the continent though the democratic governments have remained steadfast in ensuring that the rights of the Jews are protected. Religious and racial prejudice still remains to be the main reasons for antisemitism. This essay attempts to establish the origins of the hatred and prejudice of the Jewish ethnoreligious group in Europe and how and why it has persisted for centuries.
Before the 19th century
Medieval antisemitism was generally spread throughout Europe. The anti-Semitic wave was largely attributed to the Christian belief that Jews were collectively responsible for the death of Jesus (Bilewicz, Winiewski, Kofta, & Wójcik, 2013). It was a baseless accusation owing to the fact that according to the gospels Jesus had to die to save the world. Persecution of Jews was reported in the early 11th century in crusades when some communities such as Rhine and Danube were massacred (History World, 2019). The majority of Christian Europe population tended to blame most of its problems on the Jews. One classic example of the baseless accusation is the murder of William of Norwich in 1144 which the local community accused the Jewish community of carrying out the ritual murder of William. It led to the torture and murder of several local Jews in the area (Greilsammer, 2017). The Black Death was also blamed on the Jews with many communities in Europe accusing Jews of poisoning the wells (Cohn Jr, 2007). One of the famous Jewish massacres was carried out in 1349 in Strasbourg when the city council decided to kill about 2000 Jewish before the plague reached the city (O’Leary, 2014). Around the same time, more communities of Jews were dislocated and or even massacred.
Additionally, medieval antisemitism imposed many restrictions on Jews. They were barred from some jobs fearing that they would bring competition to the local population on the same jobs. They could not own land under the feudal system. In some places, they were offered limited area in cities known as ghettos and often forced to wear distinctive clothing under the fourth Lateran council of 1215 (Drury, 2008). The distinctive clothing was a circular badge which was humiliating. Additionally, Christians were forbidden to work in the homes of Muslims, or trade with them, or eat with them or take care of their children. The penalty was excommunication and confiscation of the victim’s property (Drury, 2008). Across mainland Europe, Jews continued to be driven out in various places or forced to convert to Christianity. In extreme cases, they were forced to pay to remain in the country i.e. archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa ordered banishment of the Jews from Bohemia and any Jew who remained had to pay to remain in the county (Green, 2012). It is important to note that all this antisemitism wave that endured for centuries was under the watchful eye of the Catholic Church under the stewardship of the pope which was a strong entity in the community (Drury, 2008). The clergy was very powerful and was often the people who instigated discrimination and violence of the Jewish community in various places. The protestant reformation did not offer a better environment for the Jewish, rather it escalated anti-Semitism. The renaissance, enlightenment and imperialist eras which saw a lot of political transformation were marred with xenophobia against the Jews and the Jewish community continued to be on the receiving end of European antisemitism even from non-religious communities. The political nature of most of Europe at the time organized as monarchies limited the growth of Jews in the continent.
19th and early 20th century
Towards the end of the 19th century, a new form of antisemitism which was not pegged on religious views was born. The new form of antisemitism was racial and was founded on ‘superiority’ of the white race over other races. The Jews were viewed as an inferior race to the white race and it prompted several eugenic exercises in parts of Europe. Laws and myths were established to ostracize the Jewish community based on their race. The Jews stood up to demand their rights from their governments and equal recognition before the law. The ‘white’ Europe pushed back as evidenced by the Hep-Hep riots of 1819 in Bavaria when Jews were attacked for claiming their civic rights (Voigtländer & Voth, 2012). The Dreyfus affair which was a scandal that sparked antisemitism in France despite the fact that Dreyfus was cleared of treason charges (Datta, 1995). It seemed the Europeans continued to witch-hunt the Jews and used baseless accusations to instigate violence or deny the Jewish community its civic rights. There were several Pogroms in the Russian empire in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Pogrom is the persecution and massacre of an ethnic community particularly the Jews for their ethnic background and religious views (Merriam-Webster Online dictionary, 2019). The origin of the term was used to describe the attack of Jews in the Russian empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some famous Pogroms were Odessa Pogroms, Warsaw Pogrom (1881), Kishinev Pogrom (1903), Kiev Pogrom (1905), and Bialystok Pogrom (1906), the Lwów Pogrom (1918) and Kiev Pogroms (1919).
The Holocaust
The Holocaust is a period in the history of Europe that will forever remain fresh in the minds of the Jews. It represents the epit...