The Rise of Anti Semitism During the 19th and 20th Century Europe Research Paper

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Introduction

Even though the term anti-Semitism was first popularized in 1879 through the works of Wilhelm Marr a German journalist, its very existence is traceable much further in history. Wilhelm Marr describes anti-Semitism simply as “hostility or hatred towards Jews” (Young p. 36). Throughout the Middle Ages, and in the wider Europe, the majority of the Jewish people was forced to live in confined neighborhoods (ghettos) and was denied citizenship. This was consequent of the Jews upholding their beliefs in religion (Judaism) as opposed to what was their captors’ expectation. In an effort to get more Jews to drop their religion, more accusations were levied upon the Jews. They ranged from the “murder of children, child abduction, and the use of their victims’ blood for libation” (Young p. 86). With the rise of Christianity in much of Europe, anti-Semitism continued to spread with vilification of Judaism in an effort to increase the number of converts. The religion was simply made to seem tainted and its followers were treated as lesser humans.

Definition of Anti-Semitism

According to the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia, anti-Semitism is “a perception expressed as hatred of Jews. Physical and rhetorical demonstrations of anti-Semitism addressed towards a race or Jewish individuals, towards the Jewish community, their religion or religious institutions and facilities and/or to their property” (Young p. 32). The modern use of the term “anti-Semitism” refers to the sum total of discriminatory statements, resentments, actions, trends and attitudes, irrespective of the social or racist motivation acting as the driving force. With respect to the German’s dictatorship ideology, anti-Semitism is seen as a social phenomenon serving as an epitome for creating prejudices and an instrument for constructing political enemy stereotype (Cheyette p. 115). The above definitions comprehensively broaden the spectrum on the earlier limited references made to anti-Semitism only as expressed hostility and hatred. The two definitions encompass a host of characteristics, attitudes and qualities of prejudice.

The Rise of Anti-Semitism in Europe

The existence of religion and the practice of Christianity in the Roman Empire are seen to date back to the 3rd and 4th centuries. The very existence of different religions and various beliefs is expected to give rise to different understanding. The different beliefs among the Jews and the Christians created a rift where hatred for the Jews started to brew. A misunderstanding of the religious beliefs practiced by the Jews created the need for a clear distinction and separation between the Christians and the Jews. The Jews who were the minority and sparsely distributed were forced to play an outsider role – both socially and economically – way back in the medieval communities. The Jews were omitted from goods exchange; they did not have a significant influence in production and economic activities.

In the ancient Babylonia empires of Rome and Greece, Jews originating from the ancient Judea kingdom were persecuted and criticized for upholding their social customs and religious beliefs contrary to adopting those of their conquerors. The persecution pushed the Jews away from major activities on the society relegating them to the economic activities that Christians would not undertake. Such activities include; economic activities entailing dealing with money and pawnbroker business. In the early Christian teaching doctrine, dealing with money was prohibited to Christians since interest charging activities – an activity of dealing money was considered to be as “usury practice” (Aschheim and Steven E. p 47).

However, in order for the Jews to undertake these activities, they sought protection from the ruling elite – the kings and princess – by paying heavy levies. With the Jews playing an outsider role in the social and economic arena in the medieval ages, they were ever so recognized as subjects to the state. In the middle ages, the need to afford the Jews a legal status gave rise to the definition of the Jews as servants of the state. This meant that the Jews are obligated to pay taxes in return enjoying minimal protection from persecution. The cash-rich Jews considered the hefty payments and bought protection from territorial lords as well as permission to settle permanently.

19th and 20th Century Anti-Semitism in Europe

In the 19th century, during the French revolution, the implicit emancipation of the Jews began and spread to the rest of European countries. In early onset of Jewish emancipation, there was a general belief among the European countries that owing to their small numbers the Jews would dissolve and assimilate within the Christian society.

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Increased antagonism between the majority and the minority Jews is however still evident. The growing enlightenment in the region gave rise to emancipation fueled by the coexistence notion for tolerance (Laqueur p. 77).

The emancipation called for the liberation of the Jews from legal and social constraints. This did not come to be as the Jews maintained their identity and rejected the conditions of emancipation. The very existence of a vibrant and thriving Jewish community baffles a majority and stir up even more negative reactions. Even with though negative stereotyping of the Jews is traceable few centuries back, the Jewish community strongly maintains their hold on tradition and religion (Weissbrod p. 236).

The notion “old wine in new bottles” appropriately describes the emersion of a new type of bias towards Jews in the 19th century (Katz and Steven. T. p. 216). Different to the more previous Christian anti-Judentum, that associated Jews with the fiendish, the new anatomy of Jew-hatred replaced worldly categories for religious stereotypes. Drawing on Darwinism crude interpretation of the Jews; Jews are now defined as a “racial group bent on world domination” (Young p. 22). Instead of the groups’ earlier definition Jews as followers of Satan, they were now accused of colluding to rule over the world. First published in 1903, the Czarist forgery is known as the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, (Bessel and Richard p. 11). It purported to depict an assembling of rabbis plotting a scheme that sought to engulf the civilized world by the dispute. With the conflict ensuing, the Jews would come out jubilant by taking part on each side of the expected struggle. With these accusations brought to light against the Jews as found in the Protocols, it is no wonder that later Nazi canard, that Jews were fundamentally controlling both international finance and the Bolshevik Revolution. Despite the fact that the two are somewhat contradictory, there is some sense

Across Europe, there rose more profound hatred and fear for the Jews that earned the contextual classification of the racial science. The racial science deliberation and assessments prevailed much of European throughout the late 19th century (Bessel and Richard p. 16). A member of the German Reichstag, - Wilhelm Marr in 1879 – is quoted saying that Gentile Europe should fear the Jewish race and not the Jewish religion. Marr used the term anti-Semitism to differentiate between the medieval anti-Jewish hatred, that was religion based religion, and the new form of prejudice vented on the race. The publication of Houston Stewart Chamberlain's work, The Foundations of the 19th Century (1899) further strengthened Marr's anti-Semitism. The publication humankind’s history is a struggle between the Aryan race and the Semites. The Jewish Semites, Chamberlain charged, were the enemies of the Aryan race and periled Aryan superiority.

Christianity was viewed by many of these racial thinkers, especially in Germany, as a form of Judaism for the Gentiles, and they were determined to breach the arrest of both Jews and Judaism on the Aryan race (Cheyette P. 115). German composer Richard Wagner is one of the European anti-Semites who would synthesize these Aryan racist themes in their entirety. Amongst many of operas presentation, he is seen to arouse a pre-Christian German religion, where the Jews, concealed as blemished characters, are impersonated as the enemy.

Account Anti-Semitism in other European Nations

In Austria, anti-Semitism egressed as a political movement in the 1880s from similar economic and social circumstances, initially from the petit-bourgeoisie and the social outer boundary. Anti-Semites constituted their first organizational basis in artisan cooperatives and clubs. At the same time, Georg Ritter von Schönerer pushed aggressively against Jews in the Imperial Assembly.

The deputy Karl Lueger was the charismatic consolidative figure of the Christian Social Party, that, alike to Stoecker in Berlin, tapped animosity towards Jews by merging it with an anti-liberal and anti-socialist politics. Unlike Stoecker and cohorts in the German Reich, the demagogy won after his supporters had gained the majority in the Vienna local council in 1895, Lueger was appointed mayor in 1897 (Kritzman and Kritzman p. 33).

The merits of his local politics have only served to marginalize the fact that they would not have been possible in the first place without the cohesive anti-Semitism galvanizing the Christian-Social base by appealing to the emotions.

In France, that in 1791 had granted the small Jewish minority (80,000 people, or 0.02 percent of the population) civil rights in….....

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