By Rachel Avraham
For most Jews and the general population in Europe, the hatred of Jews, known as “antisemitism,” is largely associated with World War II and the Holocaust that preceded and unfolded during it. However, to the great sorrow of the Jewish people, and especially to their kin residing in Europe, antisemitism in Europe has a much older history than World War II, and it has persisted long after. It seems that in every era, the non-Jewish populations of Europe found one reason or another to hate those who were different from them, those considered a religious minority living in their midst. In each historical period, antisemitism appears slightly different, yet what fuels it has always been the same: hatred of ‘the other’ and intolerance. Sometimes, envy also played a part. What is particularly striking is that in every era, antisemitism takes on different guises and employs slightly different methods.
Even during the Roman Empire, before the Romans embraced Christianity, Jews faced discrimination. This discrimination, including their expulsion from Rome and being branded with derogatory terms like “haters of humanity,” stemmed from the Jews’ refusal to assimilate into Roman polytheism. Even after the Romans abandoned their pagan gods and adopted a belief in Jesus and Christianity, essentially embracing monotheism, their treatment of Jews did not improve. False narratives about Jews were spread throughout the Christian Roman Empire, such as the story that Jews crucified Jesus, which led to historical hatred and injustice for the Jewish people.
In the Middle Ages, antisemitism began to refine itself. During that period, to work in a particular craft trade (like carpentry, blacksmithing, tailoring, etc.), a citizen of any European kingdom had to be a member of the guild for their desired profession. A guild was essentially an organization of professionals that represented them before the authorities. If you weren’t accepted into a certain guild, you couldn’t work in the craft trades, which were considered respectable professions at the time. The balance of power in local European governments was a kind of equilateral triangle, with the monarchy at one apex, the clergy (or church officials) at the second, and the professional guilds at the third.
In the Middle Ages, Jews were forbidden from joining professional guilds, which alienated them from the general population, limited their freedom of action, and pushed them into professions that most people did not want to engage in. You won’t be surprised to learn that Jews were permitted to work as tax collectors, merchants, and moneylenders. Because Jews were not allowed to work in crafts, they were forced into professions that eventually led the general population to stereotype Jews as greedy, money-loving, and deceitful (from their perspective, buying goods from one person and selling them to another for more money was deceitful, as was the commission received by the moneylender). These stereotypes, which stuck to Jews in such an early period of history, accompany Jews to this very day.
Beyond that, during this period, false accusations against Jews began to proliferate, such as blood libels. An early European blood libel originated in Britain in 1144. Christians invented the story that every year during Passover, Jews would kill Christian children to use their blood to prepare the traditional unleavened bread for the holiday. Each time this fabricated story was told, it triggered pogroms against Jews, during which many Jews were brutally murdered for no fault of their own, simply because of a false rumor. Another common accusation against Jews was causing public illnesses.
During the Black Death in Europe, the false rumor was spread that Jews caused the plague by poisoning drinking wells. This widely-accepted lie also incited mobs across Europe to seek out, harm, and kill Jews. The Black Death, in reality, was caused by a wave of rats carrying the bacteria in Europe, and during Passover, Jews do not make matzah from blood, but just make a type of unleavened bread from flour and water, without the dough rising. In addition to false accusations and the pogroms that followed, Jews also suffered persecution from the authorities, as they did during the Spanish Inquisition. They were even driven from their lands, like their expulsion from Spain (Jews were also expelled multiple times from France and England).
The pinnacle of antisemitism, of course, occurred during the Holocaust. The Holocaust wasn’t just the years of World War II. It began before the war broke out, with the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany. While the Nazis started inciting against Jews in Germany, Nazi incitement didn’t magically transform Europe from loving Jews to hating them. The Nazis amplified the hatred of Jews and provided “logical” and “scientific” explanations for it, thereby “normalizing” antisemitism and the horrific acts they perpetrated against European Jewry.
During the Holocaust, most European Jews were forced to flee the Nazis, who initially marked Jews with a yellow star of David that they were forced to wear on their outer clothing (to differentiate them from the general public). The Nazis concentrated the Jews in ghettos (to isolate them from society), and then sent them to concentration camps, labor camps, and eventually extermination camps. Their ultimate goal was to kill all Jews in the world and eradicate this “inferior race.” Antisemitism was felt throughout Europe, in Eastern Europe in countries like Poland and Romania, in Western Europe in countries such as France and, of course, Germany, in Hungary and Bulgaria, and in the Netherlands. No European country was untouched by the Holocaust. In Greece, too, Jews suffered terribly during the Holocaust. In Greece alone, 90% of Greek Jews did not survive. Entire communities were wiped out. It was a historical catastrophe.
While some in Europe saw the light after the Holocaust and realized there was no reason to hate Jews, and that the Nazis had lied through their teeth, this wasn’t the case for everyone. Some were ashamed to admit their hatred of Jews (countries that denied aiding the Nazis and individual citizens as well), partly because the Nazis lost the war and could not protect them, and partly because they truly understood the horrors Jews endured during the Holocaust. But some Jews who returned home at the end of World War II found that their neighbors still hated them simply because they were Jewish. In Poland, a pogrom against Jews even occurred in 1946, a year after the war ended, in which dozens of Jews were killed.
Later, in Western Europe, antisemitism became less popular, but in the Soviet Union, different names and reasons for antisemitism were found, such as “anti-Zionism,” which included restrictions on Jews and campaigns against Jewish intellectuals.
In recent years, Europeans have begun to shed the guilt they felt after World War II, and a new generation is fostering a new form of antisemitism. Since religious hatred still doesn’t sit well with most Europeans, antisemitism is rationalized as hatred of Israel as “anti-Zionism.” If you oppose the existence of the State of Israel and support the Palestinian narrative, then it’s okay to hate Jews, because Jews support the State of Israel. Thus, antisemitism also comes disguised as “anti-colonialism,” which is truly amusing.
Descendants of the greatest conquerors in France, Britain, Germany, and other post-colonial European countries spread hatred against Israel and the Jewish people due to colonialism, while Israel itself broke free from European colonialism! One could say that this type of antisemitism is mainly fueled by Muslim immigrants in Europe, who drive the Palestinian narrative and disseminate it among the local population. Indeed, Muslims account for a significant portion of hate crimes against Jews in Europe in recent years.
In 2012, Jewish children were murdered at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, and in 2015, an attack occurred at a Jewish supermarket in Paris. The same is true for Belgium and Germany—most of the casualties in hate crimes against Jews were perpetrated by Muslim immigrants. It could be argued that this type of “anti-Zionist” antisemitism originates from the extreme left in Europe, while the extreme right in Europe is bringing back the antisemitic symbols of the Holocaust era and Nazi ideology, driven by hatred of immigrants and hatred of “the other”. This is what we call a European “classic.”
Antisemitism also permeates social media, where conspiracy theories about Jews, antisemitic caricatures, and Holocaust denial are spread without fear. Essentially, through social media, antisemitic discourse is reverting to the days of the Nazi Party, and no one is consistently enforcing against it. Vandalism has also returned to Europe, and we are forced to witness the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and synagogues, and unfortunately, even physical assaults on Jewish passersby.
Absurdly, following the Hamas attack on October 7th, manifestations of antisemitism in Europe only surged. The day after the horrific massacre, crowds took to the streets to demonstrate in favor of Hamas and the residents of Gaza, even though it was Hamas that launched the brutal attack against unarmed and unprotected civilians. Essentially, Israel was blamed for actions perpetrated by Hamas, and the Jews living in Europe are paying the price. This massive wave of antisemitism emboldens people to openly express anti-Jewish sentiments and even publicly call for attacks. European Jews testify that they are afraid to wear clothes with Jewish symbols in public for fear for their lives.
Currently, Jewish organizations are working to monitor antisemitic incidents and call for enforcement and punishment that will deter perpetrators. However, Europe has a history of waking up too late. This was the case during the Holocaust and also with the Muslim refugee crisis. We must not only hope that this time they will wake up in time and act before Jewish blood is shed once again on European soil, but also actively work to prevent it.
