Why have Jews always been a scapegoat?

[the debater]

I'm not sure how I want to structure this thread, but hopefully I'll get my main point across. It's no secret how Jews have always been blamed for so much throughout history. They're been accused of being greedy bankers and of being the causes of major economic crises in certain countries. Jews have also been a religious target as well. It might be true that a lot of Jews are in the banking and finance sectors, and thus, they may be overrepresented in white-collar crime statistics. Plus, religious Zionists don't make themselves look good with their religious viewpoints, and those views are probably the root of a lot of religious-based anger against Jews. However, I personally think that the issue is much more complicated than just "Jews=bad." I think anyone is capable of being greedy if they get into powerful enough positions, and of course anyone is capable of being a religious fanatic nut-job. Maybe I'm starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I wonder if the true bad guys, rich people in general, use the Jewish people as a scapegoat, to divert attention away from their crimes? Perhaps the rich people, or "globalists," as I like to call them, want antisemitism to rise up in places like Greece or Hungary. It diverts the attention away from them, and focuses it more on a historically-reliable scapegoat. I'm pretty sure I'm not the first person to bring this topic up, either on Revleft or on other internet forums, but what do you guys think? It would be nice if we could come up with effective modern-day arguments against racism and ethnic hatred in order to convince people that uber-rich people are the problem, and not Jews or any other scapegoat.

[adipocere]

A prickly subject to be sure. In my opinion there is a big marketing machine behind the concept of modern antisemitism - mainly to peddle right-wing Islamophobia and defend the legitimacy of Israel. The concept strikes me as fairly disingenuous.

I think this article on new antisemitism (http://www.thenation.com/article/myth-new-anti-semitism?page=0,1) is pretty good place to start...

[d3crypt]

I think its just because they have always been a minority and a convenient scapegoat. Some of my family members are Jewish and so is my best friens. Judiasm is the least harmful of the three main monotheistic relgions. The only bad thing they really have done is Israel. It makes no sense all the hatred towards them. :(

[Flying Purple People Eater]

The stigma of 'greedy jew bankers' actually comes from draconian Christian laws that existed during the 10th - 18th century, which restricted religious jews to ghettoes, and their jobs to things such as moneylending. As Christians unaware of these developments became to come into contact with these moneylenders, they began to associate usury with Judaism. And thus a Christian-enforced profession served as a caricature and subject of hate throughout the Christian world. There was also a particular ethnic group in Europe who's majority population was religiously Jewish, transferring the religious hatred into racial hatred.

In short, the stereotype of a minority has, as usual, found it's origin in the consequences of discrimination by a privileged group (in this case, the Catholic Church).

Anti-semitism was the love of all the Christian kingdoms of Europe. Whenever they went through political and economic turmoil, the governing body could just blame it on 'the jews' and 'bankers', rather than face criticism. This was done throughout all of Christian Europe - in fact, the Russian Empires' primary scapegoat against leftist politics was that they were a part of a jewish conspiracy to control the world, even going so far as to doctor false books and publish them under the name of secret Judaist societies (look up 'the forging of 'The chronicles of the elders of Zion', an empire-doctored book to justify pogroms and tarnish anti-capitalist politics with the stigma of 'jewish conspiracy').

[SonofRage]

It's my understanding that Christians (and perhaps Muslims as well) were forbidden to lend money for interest by religious doctrine (apparently that changed) so Jews filled that hole in market. So, it has a material basis that morphed into stereotypes and antisemitism.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4

[Zostrianos]

Something else was that in the Middle Ages Jews were the only non-Christian group that was (occasionally) tolerated in Christian lands, and so whenever there were problems in society it became convenient to simply blame the Jews as they were the only outsiders. Often Christians would simply make up wild rumours (eating Christian babies, desecrating the host etc.) about Jews, and that was enough to have entire Jewish villages massacred. Jews were generally blamed for the death of Jesus (even though it was the Romans who killed him, and modern historians generally concluded that the Jews had little to do with denouncing him)

Also early Christian anti-semitic literature had quite a bit to do with it as well. The church father "saint" John Chrysostom, who encouraged and financed attacks against Pagans and Jews, wrote several pieces of intolerant polemical literature, but his most notorious work which had tremendous influence in the middle ages was "Against the Jews", a scathing attack on Jews even encouraging violence against them:

http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/index.htm#Chrysostom_Against_the_Jews

Although such beasts are unfit for work, they are fit for killing. And this is what happened to the Jews: while they were making themselves unfit for work, they grew fit for slaughter. This is why Christ said: "But as for these my enemies, who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and slay them". You Jews should have fasted then, when drunkenness was doing those terrible things to you, when your gluttony was giving birth to your ungodliness-not now. Now your fasting is untimely and an abomination. Who said so? Isaiah himself when he called out in a loud voice: "I did not choose this fast, say the Lord". Why? "You quarrel and squabble when you fast and strike those subject to you with your fists". But if you fasting was an abomination when you were striking your fellow slaves, does it become acceptable now that you have slain your Master? How could that be right?


Some other quotes:

Therefore, flee the gatherings and holy places of the Jews. Let no man venerate the synagogue because of the holy books; let him hate and avoid it because the Jews outrage and maltreat the holy ones, because they refuse to believe their words, because they accuse them of the ultimate impiety.

On synagogues, and how Jews are demons: *For, tell me, is not the dwelling place of demons a place of impiety even if no god's statue stands there? Here the slayers of Christ gather together, here the cross is driven out, here God is blasphemed, here the Father is ignored, here the Son is outraged, here the grace of the Spirit is rejected. Does not greater harm come from this place since the Jews themselves are demons?

On Jewish wickedness:What else do you wish me to tell you? Shall I tell you of their plundering, their covetousness, their abandonment of the poor, their thefts, their cheating in trade? the whole day long will not be enough to give you an account of these things. But do their festivals have something solemn and great about them? They have shown that these, too, are impure. Listen to the prophets; rather, listen to God and with how strong a statement he turns his back on them: "I have found your festivals hateful, I have thrust them away from myself".

[Os Cangaceiros]

Anti-Semitism predates Christianity, as there was Roman anti-Semitism as well.

(Although "anti-Semitism" as a word as coined much, much later, around the same time that biological anti-Semitism started to appear on the scene.)

[Os Cangaceiros]

Also, Christian anti-Semitism was bad (obviously), but "secular anti-Semitism" turned out to be way, way worse. For one, the Jews, while they did "kill Jesus", it was only through their killing of Jesus that he could die for humanity's sins and could redeem mankind. The Jewish ghettos served as a living reminder of the damnation people would suffer as a result of rejecting Christ. And, although this concept was frequently violated, there was a perceived separation in medieval Christian thought between the spiritual, theological realm (where Jews were damned), and the physical, material realm.

Those are all theological points. There's also the obvious point that they needed the Jews to kick around and do their dirty work for them, as previously mentioned.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

Also, Christian anti-Semitism was bad (obviously), but "secular anti-Semitism" turned out to be way, way worse. For one, the Jews, while they did "kill Jesus", it was only through their killing of Jesus that he could die for humanity's sins and could redeem mankind. The Jewish ghettos served as a living reminder of the damnation people would suffer as a result of rejecting Christ. And, although this concept was frequently violated, there was a perceived separation in medieval Christian thought between the spiritual, theological realm (where Jews were damned), and the physical, material realm.

Those are all theological points. There's also the obvious point that they needed the Jews to kick around and do their dirty work for them, as previously mentioned.

The thing is, the secular anti-semitism you mention comes directly from Christian anti-semitism, hence the similarity in stereotypes. I highly doubt Roman anti-semitism consisted of calling people 'jewish moneylending world-controllers', something the Christian variant absolutely obsessed over.

[Os Cangaceiros]

^well yeah, there are a lot of similarities and cross-over, but the persecution of Jews in Christian Europe never really reached the level of wholesale extermination, like what happened in the 20th century. As far as Roman Jew hatred went, I can't remember the specifics but I do remember reading quotes from certain Roman writers that did run along the lines of being critical of the "selfish Jews", which is a common anti-Semitic theme.

Most of the stuff I've posted in this thread is what I remember from "Revolutionary Anti-Semitism From Kant to Wagner", by Paul Lawrence Rose. A pretty good book but I did read it quite some time ago.

[MarxSchmarx]

^well yeah, there are a lot of similarities and cross-over, but the persecution of Jews in Christian Europe never really reached the level of wholesale extermination, like what happened in the 20th century.

What about the Spanish inquisition? There were also concerted and by most records rather successful attempts to exterminate the Jews in London and England during the crusades.

In fact a big reason Poland and, for a while, Turkey, had such large Jewish populations was because they were about the only places Jewish refugees who were subject to massive deportation could settle. As I see it, the only meaninful difference is that the states of old did not have quite the equipment to kill so many jews, but this more an accident of the level of technological development (or, in the case of the Spanish inquisition, territorial reach) rather than any deeper secular anti-semitism.

In fact, with the significant exception of the nazis, vaguely anti-semetic secular regimes from the falangists to the USSR during certain times to the Arab nationalists have been quite a bit more "tolerant" than probably the bulk of Christian anti-semetic states.

[Os Cangaceiros]

What about the Spanish inquisition

Expelled or coerced into conversion but for the most part not killed/exterminated.

And I disagree that European states didn't have the resources to slaughter Jews on a massive scale prior to the 1940's, they definitely did.

[4MyNation]

Ask the assholes at StormFront!

[RedBen]

thank you all who replied, i have always pondered this. this is why i love this site.

[Sasha]

Don't forget the role of capital, like others already explained Jews where forced into roles of money lenders, which means that if you had an economic crisis all you had to do was organise a nice little pogrom and all your debts would disapear... so there was a strong financial incentive to fuel anti-Semitism.

[hatzel]

What about the Spanish inquisition?

I think it's problematic to place the Spanish Inquisition outside the category of 'secular antisemitism' when it was arguably its very birth, and in fact one of the earliest major openings of the secular in Medieval Europe; the limpieza de sangre concept that emerged out of the back of it clearly belongs to an entirely secular (and entirely racist) sphere, and to the extent that the Inquisition - as directed against Jews and conversos - took on an exterminatory character, it necessarily entailed the recognition that the Catholic sacraments - that is to say 'the religious' - are not powerful enough to overcome the effects of the body - namely 'the secular,' - in the process rejecting Galatians 3:28 and the temporal power of the Church itself. It's difficult to understand just how monumental a shift that is, arguably the first Christian repudiation of Christianity itself, and it marks the transition from a religious antisemitism based on the Jew's practice of Judaism to a secular antisemitism based on the Jew's very being, irrespective of whether s/he practises Judaism or Christianity...

[cyu]

A bit Euro-centric I think... if you think about what happened in Rwanda, the scapegoats were entirely different. Similarly, Naxalites in India are hardly being scapegoated because they are Jews.

That being said, if you look at center-right political parties around the world, they generally share two things: pro-racism and pro-capitalism. So yes, you're right - at least, in seeing part of the picture. I would say the reason the ruling class adopts pro-racist policies is because they find divide-and-conquer a useful strategy.

While on the surface, the following may seem like a stretch, in reality, it isn't...

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5350/7390069728_167d31af94_z.jpg

[Comrade Jacob]

They are small, friendless and were a lot of rich Jews in Europe. Easy pickings for fascists.

[the debater]

A bit Euro-centric I think... if you think about what happened in Rwanda, the scapegoats were entirely different. Similarly, Naxalites in India are hardly being scapegoated because they are Jews.


True, and I don't think Jews are the only scapegoat in the world today. They seem to be a more popular scapegoat in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, whereas different scapegoats are "utilized" in places like China, the U.S., and sub-Saharan Africa.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

True, and I don't think Jews are the only scapegoat in the world today. They seem to be a more popular scapegoat in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, whereas different scapegoats are "utilized" in places like China, the U.S., and sub-Saharan Africa.

A bit off topic, but in S. Korea they have all these private-sponsored 'documentaries' about immigrants that are the most right-wing racist shitstain programs you will ever have the misfortune of beholding. These disgusting 'documentaries' categorize immigrants by massive racist caricatures straight out of America (an Afro-American person is abusive and stupid, person of India 'smells' and is degenerate, and Austronesian people i.e. the Philippines or Indonesia are portrayed as even subhuman).

They even set up theoretical scenarios where abusive immigrants come and rape peoples' families, along with other things such as 'destroying the culture (who hasn't heard that excuse before :rolleyes:)', 'being impolite (Korea is a land of Confucian madness where you must kiss the ass of someone a year older than you because they are a year older than you)', 'wrecking the economy (not new), and 'endangering Korean people with their batty foreign-ness (in Korea the racism scale is about twice that America's if you leave out the economic side of things, i.e. if you are not white and you are in a relationship with a Korean partner, many people will attack you and aforementioned partner for "tainting the Korean bloodline" like the little fascists they are)'.

They are absolutely disgusting and look as if they were taken from a 1960s coil of Mississippi KKK advertisement film. I'll try to find one and make a thread about it.

[Hexen]

The reason why Jews are still being scapegoated is because it shows as a another example that we still live in a deeply predominated christian society which is the biggest problem of all. Of course though Modern day conspiracy theories from the west are really just theosophical versions of Christianity whether be blaming the "Jews"/"Bankers" or Doomsday fearmongering (WWIII, etc) which they're traded over to secular language that sounds "believable" to modern ears but still interchangeable and the same thing in the end which also shows that nothing has really changed since the Middle Ages.

[nizan]

Like most any modern scapegoat, it's an arbitrary selection process. There is history to it, but the history is hardly relevant to any modern manifestation of anti-semitism. Quite frankly, I would say that the history of anti-semitism has often enough seen itself turned into an inverted defense of imperialism. Surely we've all come across the 'Israel is justified in this or that bombing, because, well, the holocaust'.

It exists in certain right wing circles today, no doubt, but it has long since lost the scapegoat role in and of itself, in most serious regards.

[cyu]

The reason why Jews are still being scapegoated is because it shows as a another example that we still live in a deeply predominated christian society which is the biggest problem of all.


I wouldn't say it's anything special about the beliefs of either religion, but more a matter of statistical numbers.

When the ruling class is trying to get majority support, they're obviously going to focus on topics where they can win majority support. If self-described Christians outnumber other religions, then it is merely strategic for the ruling class to pretend to side with majority Christians against imagined enemies (in order to distract attention away from what they themselves are doing to the majority).

When you're a sociopath trying to maintain your dominance of society, whether you agree with Christianity or Judaism doesn't matter at all. What matters is how you can use them as tools to ensure your continued domination.

[In Israel, the situation is reversed. There the center-right supports capitalism and discrimination against non-Jews. Of course, it is only "reversed" when viewing it as a Jewish issue. It's not reversed at all if you say the center-right supports capitalism and discrimination against minorities - then Israel works pretty much like every other country. Then again, capitalists don't just pick on any minorities - they only pick on minorities that have relatively little political power. After all, capitalists themselves are a minority - except they have a great deal of political power.]