What does anti-Semitism mean? What's happened. Antisemitism and education

04May

What is Antisemitism

Antisemitism is a form of hatred and discrimination against members of the Jewish faith or people of Jewish descent.

What is ANTI-SEMITISM - meaning, definition in simple words.

In simple words, Antisemitism is form ( hatred) in relation to Jews. To fully understand the term “anti-Semitism,” one must understand who the Semites are.

Who are the Semites?

Semites is a scientific term that serves to designate a group of Middle Eastern peoples united by similar cultural and linguistic traits. This term was introduced into circulation in the 18th century by German scientists I. G. Eichhorn and A. L. Schlözer. They, in turn, drew it from biblical scripture. The fact is that according to biblical texts, the peoples inhabiting the Middle East are considered descendants of Abraham. Abraham, in turn, descends from Shem ( Noah's eldest son). So it turns out that in some way, these peoples are the “sons of Shem” or, in the modern sense, Semites. The most prominent representatives of this group of peoples are Jews and Arabs.

It should be understood that there are simply no specific and objective reasons for such manifestations of hatred towards an entire group of peoples. For the most part, all hatred of Semites is built on prejudices, false judgments and envy of specific individuals or political groups.

An explanation for envious sentiments can be the fact that the Jewish people, despite their relative small numbers and territorial fragmentation, were able to preserve their cultural and religious identity.
Another reason for hatred is such a characteristic feature of the Jewish people as the ability to achieve results through brain activity. In simple words, this means that representatives of a given people used their brains to achieve high places in the social hierarchy. History knows a huge number of great scientists, politicians and businessmen who have Jewish roots.
Another part of anti-Semitic sentiment is a set of stereotypes about Jewish people. For example, one can cite a stereotype about the greed and cunning of representatives of a given nation. It should be understood that this definition cannot be objective and applies to the entire people in general. However, this rhetoric is very often used to humiliate Semites.

Antisemitism in history.

Historically, anti-Semitic behavior has manifested itself in a variety of ways. In some communities, Jewish people were isolated and forced to live in certain areas (

In the era of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, it was not anti-Semitism that flourished mainly, but Judeophobia - one of the forms of inter-religious hatred, directed in this case at representatives of the Jewish faith and ending with a change of faith.

Theological doctrines allowed the existence of Judaism in Christian lands (unlike all other faiths and heresies, which were subject to eradication). However, of course, equality was impossible here - on the contrary, the position of the eternally persecuted Jews symbolized their rejection of Jesus and the truth of Christianity.

In the late Middle Ages, professional hatred was added to religious hatred: in many European countries, Jews who were constantly expelled, who were also forbidden to engage in most types of arts and crafts, found themselves connected with financial transactions - from the smallest to the largest. Hostility towards moneylenders, coming both from the poor who suffered from debts and from the bourgeoisie who competed with the Jews, gave rise to another form of hatred.

However, already in the late Middle Ages, a special kind of xenophobia arose - racial anti-Semitism, “by blood,” in which no change of faith or profession could save a Jew or deliver him from the nature cursed by God.

It all began in Spain, a country that was once the most complex society in Europe, where Judaism, Islam and Christianity coexisted. The most important center of medieval Jewish culture became the place where the first racial laws in history were adopted, purifying the “true Spanish nobility” from the penetration of “non-purebred” elements into it.

Similar decrees came into force in 1449 after the uprising of “hereditary Christians” in Toledo: many craft corporations were then prohibited from accepting converted Jews and their descendants into their ranks, and other cities from settling on their territory.

Restrictions on former Jews received the force of a universal law in 1536, several decades after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.

Support for these regulations was so great that the Dominican Ignacio Baltanas, who wrote a book in defense of the converts and their descendants and pointed out the equality of all Christians, as well as the vital role played by many former Jews in Spanish history, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1563 . Only the founder of the Jesuit order, Ignatius Loyola, and his associates for several decades (until 1592) allowed themselves to defiantly ignore the racial laws of the Spanish monarchy.

By the middle of the 16th century, the descendants of baptized Jews made up 4–5% of the country's population; they were a wealthy and educated group, closely associated with the highest aristocracy, but due to their origin, all social elevators for such people were completely closed.

The practice of obtaining “certificates of blood purity” and, conversely, producing forged documents proving the presence of ancestors of a despised race in the family in order to discredit opponents has become widespread. Representatives of the special profession linajudo collected information about genealogies in order to then use it for various purposes.

This quote, illustrating the current situation, is given by one of the most prominent historians of anti-Semitism, Leon Polyakov:

Among the titles of anti-Semitic treatises of that time one can find such as “The burning poison of dragons and the mad bile of snakes” or “Jewish baths, where the practical tricks and meanness of the Jews are publicly demonstrated, how they drink Christian blood, as well as their bitter sweat...”.

The word “Jew” in the most unexpected figurative meanings has also become part of the German dialects.

Thus, in East Friesland, a meal without a meat dish began to be called a “Jew,” and in the Rhineland, a part of the spine of a pig.

The phraseological collection of German dialects of the modern era was replenished with expressions in the spirit of “this food tastes like a dead Jew.”

The Age of Enlightenment, although it contributed to the achievement of class and religious equality, did not at all eradicate anti-Semitism - even in secular and educated strata.

Previously, Jews were despised for not accepting Christ, but now, among other things, the Jews were to blame for the fact that they gave birth to Him (or rather, Christianity). One of the most ardent supporters of this point of view was the greatest thinker of the Enlightenment, Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire.

In numerous texts and letters, he not only reproduced well-worn templates about usury and the desire to get rich (in the conditions of constant bans on professions and expulsions, financial transactions were one of the few available forms of income for Jews), but also brought forward new “arguments” that formed the basis of anti-Semitic myths of the New Age.

He argued that Jews, being not Europeans but Asians, would never become equal to the “white people.”

“You are counting animals, try to be thinking” - with this “recommendation” Voltaire concludes the article “Jews” in his “Philosophical Dictionary”, where he mentions numerous human sacrifices performed by the Old Testament Jews.

And the French classic advises contemporary representatives of this people to become invisible, like the Parsee-Zoroastrians of the then India and Iran.

In other texts he denounces the Jews as "inveterate plagiarists", claiming that there is not a single page in their books that has not been stolen, for example, from Homer. Voltaire equates the intellectual activity of Jews with the work of a ragpicker (another profession permitted to European Jews), who sells ideas that have long been known and patched up as new.

Voltaire's anti-Jewish rhetoric formally boils down mainly to criticism of the Old Testament, but time after time it takes on a clearly racist character and has a much deeper meaning than the standard prejudices of the era.

Of course, the French Enlightenment has many faces, and if Voltaire was the main anti-Semite of the movement, then Denis Diderot and - in particular - Jean-Jacques Rousseau spoke rather on the side of the small oppressed minority that made up the European Jews of those times.

Rousseau, in particular, argued that it was necessary to listen to Jewish arguments against Christianity, and it was impossible to fully become familiar with them until Jews received equal social status with Christians and felt safe in defending their religion.

The German educator Gotthold Lessing, author of the plays “The Jews” (1749) and “Nathan the Wise” (1779), was the first major figure in Europe to take a philo-Semitic position. The Berlin Jewish philosopher and friend of Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, who became the prototype of Nathan, was one of the most popular German-speaking thinkers of his time.

The German classical thinker and founder of local philosophical nationalism, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, experienced a radical hostility towards Jewry.

“To protect myself from them, I see only one way: to conquer their promised land for them and send them all there,” - he wrote in one from his first major works, published in 1793.

Fichte states that granting Jews civil rights (while he recognized their human rights and the right to practice Judaism) could cause enormous harm, since they, in his words, would form a “state within a state”, destroying the unity of the nation. Moreover, the philosopher argued that “it is possible to provide them with civil rights only on one condition: in one night, cut off all of their heads and attach another one, in which there will not be a single Jewish idea.”

We find radical criticism of Judaism and a consistent refusal to sympathize with discriminated Jews in many of his other works. This belief system, combined with romantic nationalism and the belief that only his fellow countrymen were the bearers and collectors of true Christianity, subsequently made Fichte one of the most important characters in the Nazi pantheon of “great Germans.”

Despite this, in 1812, Fichte resigned as rector and professor of philosophy at the Humboldt University of Berlin in protest against the indifference of his colleagues who refused to protect a Jewish student from humiliation. And Johann Fichte considered his senior contemporary, the German-Jewish philosopher Solomon Maimon, to be one of the most important predecessor thinkers.

The emancipation and assimilation of Jews, which became more and more noticeable in the cultural, economic and social life of Western Europe, also gave rise to new forms of hatred.

Figures of the French left movement of the first half of the 19th century: the socialist Charles Fourier, the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - hated the “Jews,” identifying Jewry with the spirit of capitalism.

At the same time, Proudhon in his texts even went so far as to repeat Nazi calls for the expulsion or complete destruction of the people. Fighting the “foreign occupation of France,” he convinced his compatriots to return to their original, natural state.

The first major representative of collectivist anarchism, Mikhail Bakunin, was also close in his views to Proudhon and Fourier. Only the subsequent widespread participation of Jews in the leftist movement (associated, among other things, with the mass emigration of the dispossessed Jewish proletariat from Eastern Europe) made it possible to overcome the initial anti-Semitic bias characteristic of this political movement.

One of the right-wingers whose hatred of Jews became textbook was the German composer and ideologist of romantic nationalism Richard Wagner. In his article “Jewishness in Music,” published in 1850 and republished in 1869, he wrote:

“...the entire European civilization and its art remained alien to the Jews: they did not take any part in their education and development, but deprived of their fatherland, they only looked at them from afar. In our language and in our art, a Jew can only repeat, imitate, but he is not able to create elegant works, to create.

How alien the Jews are to us can be judged from the fact that the very language of the Jews is disgusting to us. The peculiarities of Semitic speech, the special stubbornness of its nature, were not erased even under the influence of two thousand years of cultural communication between Jews and European peoples.

The very expression of sound, alien to us, sharply strikes our ears; The unfamiliar construction of phrases also has an unpleasant effect on us, thanks to which Jewish speech takes on the character of inexpressibly confused chatter...<…>

Do not hesitate, we will tell the Jews, to take the right path, since self-destruction will save you!

Then we will agree and, in a certain sense, be indistinguishable! But remember that only this alone can be your salvation from the curse that lies on you, since the salvation of Agasfer is in his destruction.”

Wagner's petty and restless Jew was the exact opposite of the epic German hero. He is a representative of a “degenerate” cosmopolitan urban civilization, where the spirit of the nation, embodied for the author of “The Ring of the Nibelung” in romanticized images of the Middle Ages, is being erased. He calls the poet Heinrich Heine and the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy “mediocre Jewish opponents.”

The greatest anti-Semite of Russian classical literature, Fyodor Dostoevsky, also wrote at the same time as Wagner.

Most of his predecessors considered the Jewish theme to be marginal, but Gogol’s “Taras Bulba” reflected the historical realities of interreligious hostility in Ukrainian society of the 17th century.

Dostoevsky made anti-Semitism one of the most important elements of his religious-conservative ideology. He argued that discrimination against “Jews” is only a way to protect Russian peasants from the “dominance of the Jews.” Dostoevsky describes the participation of the latter in the revolutionary movement as follows:

A decade and a half later, in 1894, the intellectual circles of France were agitated by the “Dreyfus case” - a Jewish officer accused of high treason and sentenced to life in hard labor on the basis of forged documents.

Until the complete rehabilitation of Alfred Dreyfus and his return to military service in 1906, the most important element of French public life was the confrontation between pro- and anti-Dreyfus intellectuals and public figures - Dreyfussards and anti-Dreyfussards. The latter often associated the alleged “betrayal” of the convicted person with his Jewish origin and used this situation for mass propaganda of anti-Semitism.

Dreyfussards were Emile Zola, Anatole France, Marcel Proust, Claude Monet. In the camp of their opponents were Jules Verne, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne...

In Russia, which was rocked by Jewish pogroms throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Anton Chekhov was a passionate Dreyfussard.

Leo Tolstoy, on the other hand, considered this matter of little importance and, first of all, criticized Judaism for its nationalistic character, and secondly, he condemned the violence of the pogromists.

The “iconic” anti-Semitic intellectuals of the mid-20th century were the philosopher Martin Heidegger, the writer Louis-Ferdinand Celine, and the poet Ezra Pound, who closely and not very closely collaborated with the German Nazis and Italian fascists.

One of the most influential thinkers of the last century, Martin Heidegger, considered “world Jewry” to be a force that dehumanizes and alienates humans from natural life in favor of technological civilization. For a brief period in 1933–1934, he was rector of the University of Freiburg, “coming to power” in the wake of Nazi policies in the country. He also claimed to be the “philosopher of the party,” however, being too deep and abstract an intellectual, he lost the fight to the racial theorist Alfred Rosenberg. In all likelihood, this led to his resignation from the post of rector.

Over the next decade, Heidegger avoided direct support or criticism of the regime in his public appearances and remained a member of the NSDAP until 1945. Having lived until 1976, the philosopher never discussed or condemned either Nazism or the Holocaust, declaring only once that the decision to take the rector’s post was the greatest stupidity of his life.

The debate about Heidegger's attitude towards Jews continued for decades: some intellectuals justified the thinker, others considered anti-Semitism and connections with Nazism to be a natural consequence of his philosophy.

It broke out in 2014 - then the Black Notebooks were published - the diaries that Heidegger kept in the 1930s and 1940s. It turned out that anti-Semitic sentiments possessed him throughout the 1930s (as, indeed, before that, when he complained in private correspondence about “Jewish dominance”). Moreover, they put forward the thesis that the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis was an act of self-destruction of the Jews: the technology that, according to the philosopher, they personified, destroyed them.

The French writer Louis-Ferdinand Celine, whose radically anti-Semitic books of the 1930s still cannot be published in France (but were recently published in Russia - they were published by the Devastator project), is one of the key figures in the history of the world avant-garde: his works influenced Samuel Beckett, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Jean Genet...

It is still unclear what was the reason for Selina’s anti-Semitism. There are a lot of hypotheses on this score, including very extravagant ones: perhaps it was a “proto-punk” joke, a way to oppose oneself to liberalism; according to another version, the reason is the desire to avoid a new world war; There is also an opinion that the writer dreamed of the unification of Europe under German rule and the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne.

Celine's characteristic speech style is perhaps best characterized by a joke he made in February 1944 at a reception at the German embassy in Paris.

The defeat of Germany in World War II seemed inevitable, so the writer suggested that Hitler had been replaced by a Jewish puppet double, consciously leading the Aryan race to destruction.

The great American modernist poet Ezra Pound, who lived in Italy, never tired of blaming the usurious spirit of Jewry both in pro-fascist radio broadcasts during World War II and on the pages of his main work - the large-scale poem Cantos, covering many eras, spaces, times and containing inserts in different languages of the world - from Latin to Chinese.

After Italy's defeat in World War II, Pound was accused of treason, but he was declared insane and spent many years in a mental hospital (where he wrote much of the poem). Only in 1958 was he able to return to the Apennines. His first gesture on Italian soil was his hand raised in the “Roman salute.”

After the Holocaust and the defeat of Nazism in World War II in Western Europe and the United States, anti-Semitism became one of the undisputed symbols of evil, an unconditionally “socially condemned” phenomenon.

The situation in the USSR turned out to be different: the extermination of Jewish writers and the virtual ban on national culture in 1948–1949, the anti-Semitic campaign around the “Doctors' Plot” in 1953 and the radical anti-Israel policy of the Soviet government after 1967 made anti-Semitism, if not legal, then legitimate - both in the dissident environment and in the (semi-)official one.

Intellectuals associated with Orthodoxy and pochvenism, from the imperial author of historical novels Valentin Pikul to the philosopher A.F. Losev and the dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, critically assessed the role of the “Jews” they generalized in Russian history and did not hesitate to openly express their attitude towards them.

Solzhenitsyn's two-volume bestseller, published in the early 2000s » is devoted mainly to proving the historical guilt of the Jews before the Russian people.

Despite the formal differences in xenophobic ideas, from which, as it turns out, no one is free, including the most profound intellectuals, they all have common features at their core.

In relation to anti-Semitism, this work was carried out by the German philosopher Theodor Adorno and identified in his Dialectic of Enlightenment "seven of its main characteristics (set out here in the interpretation of Christian Fuchs).

Jews are considered a race.

Jews are presented as greedy people whose main goals are power and money; they turn out to be representatives of financial capital.

Jews are blamed in a fetishistic manner for all the general problems of capitalism.

Hatred towards Judaism is manifested.

Natural characteristics attributed to Jews are imitated, which psychologically express human dominance over nature or the imitation of magic.

Personal characteristics such as "power over society" are attributed to Jews as a race. Thus, they are “endowed” with special power.

Anti-Semitism is based on irrational stereotypes, meaningless generalizations and judgments. It asserts that individuals, as members of a certain group, must disappear, and is based on hatred of the Other.

Perhaps this short list will help the reader identify anti-Semitic ideas, one of the many forms of cognitive distortions caused by emotional hostility towards others.

There is, perhaps, no other term that would have so many different connotations (depending on the circumstances of its application) and would be shrouded in such a negative “aura” as “anti-Semitism.” Moreover, “so that no one knows any exact explanation of this term.”

At first glance, such a statement seems paradoxical, because there seems to be an unambiguous interpretation of this word. For example, Wikipedia says:

“Anti-Semitism is a form of national intolerance, expressed in hostility towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group, often based on prejudice. Anti-Semitism is a type of xenophobia.”

And here is what a certain specialist from the Department of Justice writes about the same issue:

“Anti-Semitism is an ideology of hostility towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group, manifested in persecution, humiliation, infliction of shame, violence, incitement of hostility and hostility, discrimination and damage to an individual, social group or part of the population, on the basis of belonging to Jewish people, or because of Jewish ethnic origin, or religious affiliation with Judaism."

But such an interpretation of this initially false word, which is often used as a label, or even a “black mark” for political opponents and other undesirable people, is superficial, intended for the ears of laymen and does not withstand any serious criticism.

There is still no agreement among researchers of the “Jewish question,” on both sides, regarding the permanent meaning of this word. Judging by the “History of Anti-Semitism” by L. Polyakov, anti-Semites are literally everyone who says anything about Jews.

“Most recently, in his book “Jews, Dissidents, Eurocommunists,” Sergei Kara-Murza rightly noted: “If they are hiding from us what anti-Semitism is, then at least tell us what is not considered anti-Semitism.”

And the luminary of “anti-Semitism” himself, academician Igor Shafarevich, in one of his recent interviews said: “I discussed there the question of whether such a position is anti-Semitism or not. And he expressed the point of view that I absolutely don’t understand what “anti-Semitism” is: is it a dislike of certain national traits of Jewish character, or appearance, or a desire to somehow limit the opportunities of Jews in life? Or, like Hitler, a desire, or at least an expression of desire, to physically destroy them? And anyway, what is it? I emphasized that when this term is used, it is never explained. And this is a way to influence mass consciousness. An amorphous term is created, which is outside the sphere of logical reasoning, already by its amorphous nature. It is logically not discussed, and therefore it is impossible to object to it. It only creates an atmosphere of something monstrous.” (Sergei Balandin “What is scientific anti-Semitism?”)

So, this “amorphous term” is used to manipulate the consciousness of the masses, as a trick to avoid resolving specific controversial and conflicting issues; as the last “counter-argument”. In addition, it is used as a kind of “stamp” that makes its bearer “unarmed,” “marginal,” and even an enemy of all “progressive humanity.” Any nationalist is automatically classified as an “anti-Semite,” this is especially true for Russians.

By the way, on July 27, 1918 (9 days after the execution of the Royal Family), a terrible decree on the fight against anti-Semitism, written by the hand of Yakov Sverdlov and signed by Lenin, was published.

It is believed that anti-Semitism is an invariable companion of Semism, is beneficial, first of all, to this movement, and is fueled by it. Let us present several non-trivial interpretations of the term under discussion, which are not just original, but bring us closer to understanding the essence of this word, coined by a socialist-anarchist, picked up by German national conservatives, and subsequently by international Jewry and the Nazis.

German Social Democrat August Bebel believed that “Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools.” V.I. Lenin liked to quote this phrase from Babel.

Ulrike Meinhof argued that "Anti-Semitism is hatred of capitalism."

Belief in the "evil conspiracy" theory is also called anti-Semitism.

In his “dictionary of terms” Sergei Balandin defines it as follows:

“Anti-Semitism is the attitude towards Jewry as a criminal organization, or as a criminal ideology...”

The term "anti-Semitism" is deliberately ambiguous. The “Providence” website clearly explains the meaning of its use: “Anti-Semitism” is a term used to terrorize humanity. This is a purely ideological maneuver, behind which lies the desire to establish on earth the ideals of the earthly kingdom for the elect.”

The word “anti-Semitism” (as, indeed, the word “anti-Semite”) has no right to exist and be used, not because it is incorrect, but because it is meaningless, and this is shown by a simple semantic analysis.

The concept of “Semitism” in all dictionaries is interpreted only this way: “Semitism, Semitism, many. no, husband (ling.). A figure of speech, an expression in some language. Modeled after some Semitic language or borrowed from it.”

The most commonly used meaning of the particle “anti” is against. Then it turns out: Anti-Semitism is against phrases from Semitic languages, borrowings. That is, in the context under consideration - complete nonsense. Therefore, the compilers of Wikipedia are forced to get out of their way in order to give the interpretation of “anti-Semitism” a scientific quality:

“The term denotes hostility towards Jews or Jews, and not towards all peoples of the Semitic linguistic group. The word “anti-Semitism” was first used by the German publicist Wilhelm Marr in the 19th century. in his pamphlet “The Victory of Germanism over Jewry.” The term is explained by racist ideas about the biological incompatibility of Europeans, who appeared among the first ideologists of racial anti-Semitism as the “Germanic” or “Aryan” race, and Jews as representatives of the “Semitic race.” Since then, it has specifically designated hostility toward Jews, despite attempts, based on etymology, to extend the term to Arabs, due to the fact that they also speak the language of the Semitic group. (Edward Said and others)."

All these rhetorical tricks are wonderfully broken down on the anti-Semitism forum:

Jews deliberately distort the meaning of the terms “Semite” and “anti-Semitism”. The term “anti-Semite” in the sense in which Jews use it (a hostile attitude specifically and only towards Jews) is complete nonsense. You cannot be “anti” of something that does not exist. In the scientific understanding, there are only Semitic languages, but there are no Semitic peoples or ethnic groups. You can, of course, become an “anti-Semite,” but to do this you will have to very much dislike the entire Semitic group of languages.”

The modern use of the concept of "Semites" was coined by the historian August Ludwig Schlözer (1735 - 1809). Schlözer put a biblical, mythical meaning into this concept.

In addition to, by the way, a very small number of Jews, Semites are called Semites, representatives of many other numerous peoples - these are: Akkadu, Amorites, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Arameans, Chaldeans, Mainians, Adramauts, Sabaeans, Katabans, Lihyanites, Thamud, Arabs, Maltese, Mahri, Shahri, Socotra, Amhara, Tigre, Israelis, New Syrians, Ethiopians, speaking languages belonging to the family of Semitic languages.

After reviewing this study, any sane person will naturally ask the question: “Is the existence of anti-Semitism possible in principle?”

And now about the history of the appearance of this term: “At the end of the seventies of the nineteenth century, Marr settled in Berlin. And here he was rewarded for all the failures of his journalistic and publicistic activities of past years. In 1879, Marr’s now famous brochure “The Victory of Jewry over Germany” was published. From a non-denominational point of view." The success of the book was undoubted: already in the same year, twelve reprints were published. It was in this work that the word “anti-Semitism”, which has become so notorious, appeared.

It was important for Marr to find a fresh equivalent for the expression “Jew-hatred” (“Judenhass”), as he sought to emphasize the new content of this concept: racial incompatibility was to take the place of traditional religious anti-Judaism.

The author did not find a better replacement for the word “Jewishness”, “Judaism” than “Semitism”. Marr most likely knew that the Arabs, against whom he had nothing, were also Semites. But the only “European Semites” were the Jews. The word “Jew” itself in most languages of the world is almost indistinguishable from the word “Jew.” To emphasize the special, “racial” meaning of this word, instead of the combination “racial Jew,” he uses the concept “(European) Semite.” No amount of assimilation and no amount of baptism will turn a “Semite” into a normal European.

In addition, the term “anti-Semitism” created the illusion of “scientificness” and placed Judeophobia, not very revered in enlightened circles, on a par with such venerable concepts as “liberalism”, “capitalism”, “communism”.

Starting with this small book of less than fifty pages, a new form of prejudice, as old as the world, begins its history - “political anti-Semitism” was born. It existed in embryonic form throughout the “century of emancipation,” but it took final shape, acquired the features of a political movement and became the program of political parties only after 1879” (Berkovich).

Replacing the word “Jewishness,” not to mention “Judaism,” with the far-fetched “Semitism” is not so much not entirely successful as an initially false enterprise. Not only because neither The Jewish nation, much less the race, does not exist in nature, but also because the majority of “Jews” in Europe are “Ashkenazim,” that is, a mixture of Turkic, Slavic and other peoples (with a scanty admixture of Semites) who once converted to Judaism and speak Yiddish. Thus, the vast majority of them have nothing to do with the Semites either by language or blood.

Having reduced the conflict between the “Jews” and the Germans to a racial conflict, the resolution of which can only be achieved by the destruction of the “inferior race,” Wilhelm Marr became the creator of a great, tenacious lie, and the predecessor of Hitler.

If Marr had written his work twenty years later, he would not have needed to “invent” the term, since “Zionism”, which appeared in 1897, was perfectly suited for this. It is not for nothing that anti-Semitism is often identified with anti-Zionism (at the same time, Zionism should be considered not “political” - according to Herzl, but “cultural” - according to Ahad Ham).

The “Jewish question” played an important role in the rise and fall of Russian communism. Many authors think so. In his book The Kabbalah of Power, Israel Shamir wrote the following on this subject: “The Western left had very strong Jewish ties. Some of these leftists were infected with Jewish nationalism. They turned their pens and their efforts against communism when they realized that Russian communism had, after all, become predominantly Russian. To justify their betrayal, they began to spread black lies about “Russian anti-Semitism.”

Professor of the University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Vasily Drozhzhin in his textbook on the history of the Russian state and law quite rightly notes: “I. V. Stalin, like no one else, understood that Trotskyism was only part of the iceberg, whose name is Zionism, and knew the ultimate goals of the latter, what threat it posed to the Soviet Union, giving its adherents the common name of “enemies of the people.” “The defeat of German fascism did not mean that the Soviet Union had no enemies. The older brother of fascism, Zionism, remained and began to gain strength. For Zionists, ordinary Jews are just a means to achieve goals, cannon fodder. Shortly before his death, Stalin ordered the publication of a statement in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper “... that the struggle against Zionism has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Zionism is the enemy of the working people of the whole world, Jews no less than non-Jews.”

Alexander Ogorodnikov

Hostility towards Jews (anti-Semitism) has deep and ancient roots. Hatred of the Jews existed in a variety of societies: pagan, Christian, enlightened European, etc. It was caused by two key reasons: national and religious. Differences in nationality and religion made Jews outcasts in many countries and for many centuries. Anti-Semitism became one of the driving forces behind the worst tragedy in human history - World War II.

Emergence

The phenomenon of anti-Semitism arose in the era of Antiquity among the pagans of the Middle East. Jews were especially disliked in Egypt. The rulers of the thoughts of this country (sages, rulers, priests) accused their neighbors of various intrigues. The origins of anti-Semitism must be sought in religious, political and economic reasons.

One of the first ideologists of anti-Semitism, whose name has been preserved by history, was the Egyptian priest Manetho. He lived in the 3rd century BC. e., under King Ptolemy II. Manetho, popular with the crowd, called the Jews unclean and accused them of plundering temples. His followers spread the legend that the Palestinian people worship a donkey's head made of gold.

It was then, in ancient times, that the first prejudices about Jews appeared. People needed an enemy whom they could blame for all their troubles. It turned out to be even more convenient to blaspheme an entire people. Since it is impossible to get rid of the entire nation, the image of the invisible enemy will not go away. At its early stage, the history of anti-Semitism already saw the first pogroms against Jews. They took place in large Egyptian cities (for example, Alexandria).

Antiquity

When Palestine was annexed by the Roman Empire, the Jews had to get used to new living conditions. An important event for the evolution of anti-Semitism was the emergence of Christianity. In the first centuries of our era, the Romans generally had difficulty distinguishing the Jews from the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. For the empire, the religious views of both these groups were considered equally heretical.

Gradually, Christianity gained more and more popularity, and followers of this teaching appeared in all provinces of the Roman state. Against this background, the imperial policy of anti-Semitism began to weaken. The main threat to the old Roman order was transformed into Christianity. The Jews were left alone.

As for the early Christians themselves, their relations with the Jews also became hostile. The followers of the new religion considered the Jews to be guilty of the executions of some of the first martyrs, the imprisonment of the apostles John and Peter, etc. Both groups did not hesitate to denounce each other to the Romans. At the same time, Christians have always considered the Jewish Old Testament a sacred book for themselves and included it in their own Bible. Some of Jesus' disciples believed that the Jews were to blame for the execution of the central figure of their religion.

The gap between the two faiths became even wider after the Jewish War in 66-70, during which the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. On the eve of the siege, Christians left the holy city. The Jews considered this demarche a betrayal. In the ancient world, the causes of anti-Semitism were religious prejudices. For example, Christians believed that the Roman sack of Jerusalem was a symbol of the fact that their teaching was correct, while the Jews brought the holy city to direct destruction. The anti-Semitic agenda was also supported by church leaders of that time. Criticism of the Jews is contained in almost all early theological works (the Epistle of Barnabas, the Lay on Easter, the works of Ambrose of Milan and John Chrysostom).

Jews and Christians

In the 4th century, under Emperor Constantine the Great, the Roman Empire officially recognized Christianity as its official religion. In the state, which completely surrounded the Mediterranean Sea with its possessions, the destruction of pagan idols and temples began. Other monotheistic religions, including Judaism, also suffered. Jewish anti-Semitism was emphasized by Constantine himself. In 325, during the First Council of Nicaea, which was most important for his contemporaries, the emperor directly called the Jewish people “hateful.” In his speech, Constantine formulated the principle that Christians subsequently used for many centuries. It consisted in the fact that the faithful accepted the true path from Christ, while the Jews were faithful to false and erroneous traditions.

This is how anti-Semitism developed. What is religion for a person of Antiquity and the Middle Ages: it is the most important part of life, and any dispute on this sensitive topic could easily turn into centuries-old hostility. The Jews were accused of rejecting Christ as a teacher. Following this, more worldly claims appeared. Jews began to be considered poisoners of wells, ritual killers of children, etc.

Christians had a bad attitude towards any other religion, especially if it was pagan. However, it is Judaism that has survived the test of time and has remained unchanged from those ancient times to the present day. All this time, synagogue visitors coexisted with church parishioners. Any conflict between them overlapped with previous claims. A whole lump of hatred grew, which with each generation was considered an increasingly normal order of things.

Middle Ages

Since the 4th century, anti-Semitism has become commonplace in the Christian world. The church itself contributes to this. Religious leaders discriminated against Jews and even sometimes blessed their pogroms. For example, John Chrysostom even wrote special sermons against the Jews, in which he scourged them for cruelty and bloodthirstiness and compared them to predatory animals.

In the Middle Ages, the holy city of Christians and Jews, Jerusalem, was captured by adherents of a new religion - Islam. In 1096, the Pope organized the First Crusade, the purpose of which was to liberate Palestine from the infidels. It is traditionally believed that for European knights the war began in the Middle East. However, in fact, the crusaders had drawn their swords even before that. While in Europe, they organized several large Jewish pogroms, the cause of which was the same old anti-Semitism. What is “infidel” for a medieval resident of France or Germany? These are not only Muslims or pagans, but also all the same Jews.

In the 13th century, according to the decision of the IV Lateran Council, the Catholic Church demanded that Jews wear clothes with special identification marks so that everyone around them would know that there were Jews next to them. A similar practice then existed in the Islamic world. In the Middle Ages, some countries resorted to the complete expulsion of all Jews. Such actions were held in England, France, and Spain.

Outcasts

In the 16th century, ghettos appeared in many European countries - areas where Jews were forced to settle. Such city blocks were isolated from the rest and became an exclusion zone. The High Middle Ages was a period when anti-Semitism in Europe reached its peak. It was mainly of a religious nature. Catholic priests promoted genuine hatred of Jews. Members of monastic orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, etc.) were especially active in these calls.

At the same time, a layer of Jews (Marranos) forcibly converted to Christianity appeared. Of course, among the church’s flock there were people who understood how vicious anti-Semitism was. What was it that compelled these brave souls to speak out against hatred of the Jews? Critics of anti-Semitism in the church appealed to the Bible and the commandments of Christ. This, for example, was the founder of the Jesuit order, Ignatius of Loyola. However, the protection of the Jews was too weak. She could not resist the alliance that the secular and religious authorities formed in anti-Semitic politics. Therefore, Jews were disadvantaged not only from a religious point of view, but also in everyday life. They were prohibited from joining trade guilds. The Jews were subject to high fees and taxes.

Medieval anti-Semitism existed in Russia just as it did in the rest of Europe. Frequent pogroms against Jews occurred in the 12th century. To suppress one of them, the famous Vladimir Monomakh came to power. And his distant descendant Ivan the Terrible, on the contrary, expelled the Jews from his possessions and in correspondence called them Jews.

New time

Even when religion ceased to play such an important role in society as it did in the Middle Ages, Christians did not get rid of anti-Semitic stereotypes. The same thing happened in Muslim countries. Even progressive thinkers of the Enlightenment, such as Voltaire or Diderot, were disliked towards Jews.

In the 19th century, the nationalist movement became very popular in Europe. These changes were associated with the construction of new states, for example, an integral Germany and Italy. Nationalism, like religion before, has adopted anti-Semitism. Jews at this time were hated for their belonging to the Jewish people proper, and not for their faith.

It was then that the first shoots of racism appeared in the Old World. Nationalist theories began to be explained even through scientific hypotheses. The forerunner of this phenomenon was social Darwinism. And although in most advanced countries there were no anti-Semitic laws, at an unspoken level, discrimination against Jews continued to exist. It was extremely difficult to overcome this vice, since it already had deep historical roots. As a result, in the 1870s. The first European anti-Semitic parties appeared, which sought to harm the Jews at the legislative and state levels. They used populist and propaganda techniques.

By the way, it was in the 19th century that the very concept of “anti-Semitism” appeared. According to one version, it was introduced into use by the German publicist Wilhelm Marr. In German society at the time, many public figures were known for their dislike of Jews. One of them was the outstanding composer Richard Wagner. In France, anti-Semitism led to the famous Dreyfus Affair, when a Jewish military man was accused of spying for Germany.

In the United States, one of the most famous haters of Jews of modern times was the creator of the automobile company Henry Ford. He published anti-Semitic books and published exactly the same articles. The anti-Semitism of a successful industrialist could not help but cause heated debate in society. Dozens of famous people spoke out against Ford's position. He was accused of anti-Semitism by many cultural figures and leading politicians in the country. It got to the point that the American public began to boycott Ford cars, which were the best in the world at that time. Ultimately, for the sake of his business interests, the entrepreneur stopped anti-Semitic speeches in the public field.

Anti-Semitism and Russia

In Tsarist Russia, anti-Semitism had another stable name - Judeophobia. The problem of relations with Jews worsened at the end of the 18th century, when three partitions of Poland took place under Catherine II. Many Jews traditionally lived in this country. A significant part of them turned out to be subjects of the Russian Empire. To regulate this flow, Catherine established the Pale of Settlement in 1791. Jews were allowed to settle only in the Kingdom of Poland, Belarus, Bessarabia, Lithuania, and partly on the territory of Ukraine. This order continued until the 1917 revolution.

Anti-Semitism in Russia was also manifested in additional taxes imposed on Jews. This was especially true for those of them who joined the merchant class. With all this, there was a certain procedure for obtaining permission to settle not only in the western provinces, but also in the largest Russian cities. For example, merchants had to join a certain guild, etc. Russian anti-Semitism of that time had one peculiar feature. He was exclusively religious, not national. Thus, Jews who were baptized were freed from restrictions and could live where they pleased.

The humiliating Pale of Settlement pushed Jewish youth to join the revolutionary movement, which grew throughout the second half of the 19th century. For example, many Jews held key positions in the Bolshevik Party. As a result, after Russia experienced three revolutions, the monarchists became even more entrenched in their anti-Semitism. The Jews were blamed for the collapse of Russia. There were many haters of Jews in the White movement, which largely discredited the whole idea of the fight against Soviet power.

However, anti-Semitism also existed in the USSR. At the state level, it was not constant, but arose according to political necessity. A special surge of anti-Semitism occurred in the last years of Stalin's reign, when the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was destroyed.

German experience

The history of anti-Semitism took its most terrible form in the 20th century, when the Nazis came to power in Germany. During World War II, they began to exterminate Jews en masse. The killing of millions of Jews was called the Holocaust, which translates as “catastrophe.”

What circumstances led to the emergence of the misanthropic Nazi ideology? It was already noted above that anti-Semitism existed in Germany both in the Middle Ages and in modern times. In the 19th century, it was divided into three main movements: racist, national-state and social-Christian. They were all somewhat different from each other, but had the same roots.

For example, conservative politicians supported national-state anti-Semitism. What is the Jewish problem in their understanding? For example, the historian Heinrich von Treitschke wanted to achieve the construction of a German national state, which meant the “conversion” of Jews into Germans. Outsiders had to adopt a German identity, renounce their religion and other customs, or leave the country. Such views at the end of the 19th century were not the lot of the marginalized. This agenda was welcomed even by educated sections of German society.

Proponents of social Christian theory called for the exclusion of Jews from business, journalism, education (primarily schools), and other areas of work in which Jews had traditionally influenced society. The third force was the racists. Firstly, they were opponents of socialists and liberals. Secondly, their program was based on the idea of a centuries-long struggle between the German and Jewish races. Thus, for the first time, they tried to defend anti-Semitism from a biological point of view.

In part, the racists referred to Darwin's theses. Since in nature all species are not equal, then the same principle applies to human nations, they believed. Today, racism, fascism and anti-Semitism are criticized in all developed countries. However, at the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, even before the horrors of World War II, such ideas could be covered with a screen of fashionable modern theories.

Holocaust

German anti-Semites for the most part were pan-Germanists (they dreamed of creating one German state that would unite all their compatriots). This did not happen in the 19th century. The German nation was divided into the Second Reich (Germany itself) and Habsburg Austria. Anti-Jewish sentiment was naturally strong in both countries.

Real anti-Semitic hysteria began after the First World War. Germany was defeated. Its economy was destroyed. Those who managed to survive the deadly battles were left without work in the plundered country. People began to look for those responsible for their troubles. Against this background, radicals gained popularity. Hitler was one of them, although far from the only one. But it was he who developed the “stab in the back” theory. The idea of the betrayal of the Jews and their guilt in the defeat of Germany became very popular. The poor sections of the population, workers and, in general, all those who found themselves left out of life in peacetime were especially susceptible to it.

Hitler was not stopped even by the fact that he was accused of anti-Semitism by all his ideological opponents: from liberals to communists. When the Nazis came to power, blaming Jews for all ills became a sign of good form. Pogroms began (for example, Kristallnacht). Many of them were sanctioned by the authorities themselves.

However, the real extermination of the Jews followed during World War II. The Jewish population again put on special identification stripes with the Star of David. Jews began to be forced into labor camps, which were quickly converted into concentration camps. Hundreds of thousands of Jews died in “death factories.” They were burned in ovens, gassed, and deprived of their lives in unbearable work. The Nazis paid great attention to education and propaganda. Young and even small Germans were taught from early childhood to hate Jews and see them as their natural enemies.

Modernity

After World War II, all developed Western countries came out against anti-Semitism. The experience of the Third Reich showed that even populist and theoretical rhetoric can lead to a huge number of victims. The fight against anti-Semitism was led by the authorities of the newly formed Israel, a state in the Middle East that emerged in 1948 on the territory of the British Mandate in this region. After centuries of exile, the Jews finally found their historical homeland. Soon millions of Jews moved to Palestine.

Although World War II demonstrated what anti-Semitism was, the definition of it as evil did not prevail everywhere. Modern anti-Jewish rhetoric has moved from the West to the same Middle East, where Israel is surrounded by several Arab states. Today, the conflict between Jews and Muslims is the sore nerve of the planet. The Middle East is rightly considered the place of greatest tension throughout the world. Anti-Semitic sentiments are especially strong among the Palestinian Arab population.

In the collective West, dislike for Jews has taken new forms. Right-wing radicals have popular theories about a global conspiracy behind which are the Jews, their shadow government governing the leading powers of the world. Many modern anti-Semites refuse to acknowledge the fact of the Holocaust in the 20th century, calling it a hoax and a lie.

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