LIVE WITHOUT HARM: LET US SAY NO TO ANTISEMITISM

Let us avoid Christian and Muslim anti-Judaism as well as far-right nationalist and far-left antisemitism, which have caused so much suffering to innocent Jews.

CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM ANTI-JUDAISM

Anti-Judaism is a rejection of Jewish people for having a different religion, and is therefore a form of religious intolerance.

The first manifestations of this type of prejudice are found in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. They were often viewed with suspicion due to their strict monotheism and unique religious practices. In Rome, despite certain periods of tolerance, they suffered persecution, especially during the reign of Emperor Caligula.

During the Middle Ages, anti-Judaism intensified significantly, primarily in Christian Europe, essentially because it was a different religion competing with Catholicism. It was, therefore, an intolerance similar to that shown toward Muslims (who were expelled), Cathars (who were massacred), other types of believers (tortured by the Inquisition and burned at the stake), and Protestants (persecuted and attacked in the wars of religion that devastated Central Europe).

Two typical justifications for the rejection, discrimination, and massacre of Jews have been Deicide (the claim that they killed Jesus Christ) and the betrayal of Judas. These were absurd excuses, like various narratives used to justify evil, since the Jews of the Middle Ages did not commit those acts, and furthermore, Jesus himself was Jewish.

Read LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us avoid narratives that justify cruelty

They were also used as scapegoats, often being unjustly blamed for tragic events such as the Black Death, which decimated the European population in the 14th century. They were absurdly accused of poisoning wells and performing macabre rituals, such as the blood libel—an unfounded belief that Jews used Christian blood in religious rituals. This usually ended in massacres and expulsions.

Read HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARM? LET US LOOK AT the damage caused by religions

Read FOR A WORLD WITHOUT HARM: LET US REFORM the harmful parts of religions

The rejection of difference was institutionalized through discriminatory laws and decrees that restricted the activities of Jews: they were forbidden from owning land or practicing certain professions, and were often confined to ghettos. The Crusades also resulted in massacres of Jewish communities throughout Europe.

The modern era brought no relief to the suffering of the Jews. In the 15th century, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain expelled hundreds of thousands of them. The Protestant Reformation did not improve the situation either. Martin Luther, although initially favorable toward Jews, later wrote vehemently against them in works such as “On the Jews and Their Lies.” These works fueled hatred and violence against Jews in various regions of Europe.

In Muslim countries, the situation has been better, but also unjust. The Quran allows Jews and Christians (the People of the Book) to maintain their religion in exchange for taxes that followers of Allah do not have to pay. On this basis, the treatment of these communities has fluctuated between a discriminatory tolerance—which considered the Jewish community inferior and subject to laws granting them fewer rights—and outright oppression.

FAR-RIGHT NATIONALIST ANTISEMITISM

The liberal revolutions of the 19th century brought protection and equal rights to the Jewish community, which experienced a great economic and multifaceted flourishing. However, the Enlightenment ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity, justice, and reason were soon eclipsed by another phenomenon: nationalism linked to Romanticism.

As nationalists became obsessed with the ethnic group, this led to the rejection of Jews, as they were considered a very different ethnicity or race. Therefore, the new hatred remained group-based, but it was no longer religious in nature; it was nationalist and racist. Although in some cases both could overlap, as seen in the pogroms that took place in the Russian Empire.

Read THE ART OF LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us avoid harmful herd mentality

Read THE REVOLUTION OF LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us be aware of the damage caused by racism, ethnicism, and nationalism

Read LIVE WITHOUT HARM! Let us not be racist, ethnicist, xenophobic, or ultranationalist

To this was added, in the second half of the 19th century, pseudoscientific racism that considered the Semitic race inferior to the Indo-European one. This ethnicist/racist cocktail would eventually lead to the Nazi Holocaust.

FAR-LEFT ANTISEMITISM

Like religious fundamentalists and far-right extremists, many on the far left tend to be group-oriented, with a strong herd-like need to adhere to a doctrinal community and follow their pack’s narratives to the letter. They also seek external enemies, internal enemies, or both at once, to hate and target, discharging the poison they carry within, even if those targets are innocent.

Soviet and Polish communists, in addition to class enemies like the bourgeoisie, also found a scapegoat in the Jews.

Read LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us learn about the suffering caused by communism and the like

Read HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARM? Let’s remember the atrocities committed by Soviet communism so they are never repeated

Read FOR A WORLD WITHOUT HARM: Let us see the evil behind communism

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the failure of almost all communist regimes, many far-left extremists have continued to use them as a target for their hatred and envy.

Read THE ART OF LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us warn of the harmfulness of the contemporary far left

Read THE REVOLUTION OF LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us not ignore the far-left threat

In part, this is because they represent the hardworking, accumulating, and proactive “ants” compared to the low-effort “grasshoppers”—or even outright parasitic “ticks”—of the far left. There is a component of envy from losers toward successful Israelis and Jews.

If the Israeli-Palestinian conflict arouses so much passion, unlike others in the rest of the world that are sometimes much bloodier, it is due to the identification effect. On one hand, middle-class and especially upper-middle and upper-class Western whites with center and right-wing political leanings tend to see Israelis as an extension of themselves. The reason is that they are also of European descent and share the same generative, proactive, entrepreneurial, and innovative values.

The opposite occurs with the far-left lower classes, who identify with Arabs because they are often poor and share a similar mindset and life attitudes. Many of them are corroded by the same envy (sometimes perhaps unconscious) toward the successful Jew as they are toward the Western bourgeoisie.

Let us avoid all types of unjust antisemitism and anti-Judaism and, furthermore, let us combat it. How? Read more at…

LIVE WITHOUT HARM! Let’s combat unjust aggressions against Jews

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