The history of antisemitism

• Great Grandfather! • Evette, how nice you could come! • Oh, you’re wearing your mother's necklace; she got that from me. • I know! • But, maybe you should put it inside your shirt. • But.. it's beautiful! • There are people who don’t like what the star stands for. There are people who don’t like us Jews. • Why don't they like us? • Ah, nothing new. Prejudice and hatred of Jews is called anti-Semitism. The word itself is quite new, and was used for the first time in 1879.

It comes from the Greek anti, which means against, and semit, which in this particular case means Jewish. But that’s not strictly correct. Semit is a term for a group of languages - the Semitic languages - spoken by people in the Middle East and Africa: Jews, Arabs, and some East and North Africans. The Jewish people believe that a Jewish man or woman is a person born of a Jewish mother or who converted to Judaism. “The Jews” can refer both to an ethnic and to a religious group. For some, it is primarily a religious identity.

Others may not be religious at all. For them, Judaism is primarily a cultural identity. The first Jews lived in the area that today is called Israel and Palestine. Jews have lived in Europe for about 2,000 years. For almost all that time, Jews have been subjected to discrimination, persecution, and hatred.

No one knows exactly why, but one of the reasons is that a new religion arose about 2,000 years ago: Christianity, in the area that today is Israel and Palestine, but at that time was part of the Roman Empire. The first Christians were Jews themselves who saw Jesus as the Messiah ..and Son of God. But most other Jews did not believe this, and didn’t become Christians. The early Christians believed that Judaism should come to an end as a religion now that the Messiah had come. This created conflicts.

People began to persecute the Jews. The early Christian leaders wanted to turn the groups against each other. The leaders pointed out the Jews as the ones who killed, crucified, Jesus. During the 2nd century, Jews were forbidden to practice their religion in the Roman Empire. Anti-Semitism spread and became worse.

During the 7th century in Spain, it became so bad that Jews were driven out of their homes: they were expelled. It became even worse in the 12th and 13th centuries. Religious wars were raging in the Middle East between Christians and Muslims. Many Christian warriors - Crusaders - traveled to Jerusalem to take part in these wars. On their way through Europe, they murdered tens of thousands of Jews.

This was considered to be “following God's will”. For according to the Christian Church, the Jews were Jesus' oldest enemies. In 1215, during a meeting in Rome, Pope Innocent III decided that all Jews must wear a round yellow mark on their clothes so that everyone would know who was Jewish. Whenever a Christian community suffered misfortune or was attacked by enemies, the Jews were blamed. In the mid-14th century, the Plague hit Europe.

The disease killed about one third of the population. A rumor was spread that it was Jewish priests - rabbis - who poured poison into the wells. Jews were murdered and driven out of many cities and countries. In the 16th century, a German priest protested against the Catholic Church. His name was Martin Luther.

The result was that a new church was formed - the Protestant Church. Luther hated Judaism. He wrote that one should burn synagogues, demolish Jewish houses, and put Jews into forced labour. Luther's document: "On the Jews and Their Lies" has been published many times since 1543. In the 18th century, during the Enlightenment, Jewish hatred in Western Europe decreased.

After the French Revolution, Jews gained the same rights as all other citizens in France. Many other countries followed France, and the Jews had a better time than before. • Now I think we should go home and eat. • I want to know more. • First food. I’ll tell you more. But it gets worse. • Worse?