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 so...