Jew-hatred has endured for over 20 centuries. This evening I want to explore the reasons that this has occurred. And most importantly I want to explain why the rise in antisemitism following Hamas’ onslaught against Israel on Oct 7 has evoked a new and possibly the most dangerous form of antisemitism in its long history.
Let me begin with the ancient world. The history of Jewhatred began in ancient Egypt where, according to the Hebrew Bible, Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians. You will remember the story in the Book of Exodus: Pharaoh orders the slaughter at birth of all male Hebrew children. One Hebrew child, however, is rescued by being placed in a basket on the Nile. He is found and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, who names him Moses. It is Moses who frees the Israelites from bondage after a series of plagues. The point to bear in mind is that Egyptian Jews had done nothing to provoke Pharaoh’s murderous onslaught. They were simply victims.
The same applies to contempt for Jews in the biblical story of a foiled plot to annihilate the Jews hatched more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Persia. In the Book of Esther, Haman, prime minister to the Persian King Ahasuerus, is insulted by the Jew Mordecai, who refused to bow to Haman. Haman convinces the king that all Jews are rebellious and must be destroyed. To set the date of the genocide, Haman uses lots, or purim.
Unbeknownst to Haman, Ahasuerus’s queen, Esther, is a Jew and Mordecai’s niece, Esther, appeals to Ahasuerus for her people’s lives. The king issues a new decree allowing the Jews to defend themselves. As a result, Haman and his family are executed, and the Jews kill 75,000 would-be attackers. As in the previous case, the Jewish community did nothing to provoke such murderous intentions. It was only the failure of one Jew, Mordecai, to bow down to the Persian Prime Minister that generated plans for a massive onslaught.
What I want to stress is that in these ancient cases of Jewhatred, the Jewish community were innocent victims. The same applies to anti-Jewish sentiment in the Hellenistic period. The initial indication of a negative attitude toward Jews took place at the beginning of the third century BCE in the writings of an Egyptian priest called Manetho. Manetho turns the story of the Exodus upside down. In the Bible it is an act of liberation of the Jewish people by God from Egyptian bondage. In Manetho’s anti-biblical history, it is an expulsion of the Jews from Egypt at the command of the Egyptian gods, because their country has to be purified of unclean people. Here again, Jews did nothing to evoke such hatred. They were simply outsiders, and as such viewed as undesirable.
I want to turn next to Christian antisemitism. Like earlier forms of Jew-hatred, Jews were hated because of who they were. They were different from Christians because they did not believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah and
were regarded as responsible for his death. The Early Church Fathers had a particularly intense personal dislike of Jews. Tertullian, for example, argued that the Gentiles had been chosen by God to replace the Jews, because they were worthier and more honourable. Origen condemned contemporary Jews for not understanding their own Law, insisting that Christians were the "true Israel", and blaming Jews for Jesus’ death. Augustine of Hippo argued that Jews should suffer as a perpetual reminder of their murder of Christ. Like his anti-Jewish teacher, Ambrose of Milan, he defined Jews as a special subset of those damned to hell.
John Chrysostom and other Church Fathers went further in their condemnation. According to Chrysostom, because Jews rejected Christ, they deserved to be killed. Citing the New Testament, he claimed that Jesus was speaking about Jews when he said, "as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me.’
In the Middle Ages, antisemitism escalated. Beginning in the 13th century. many Christians were convinced—despite the lack of evidence—that Jews poisoned wells to cause plagues. During this period it was also widely believed— again without proof— that Jews killed a child before Easter because they needed Christian blood to bake matzo (unleavened bread). Throughout Europe if a Christian child were killed, accusations of blood libel would arise no matter how small the Jewish population. And the Church often portrayed the dead child as a martyr; sometimes the
children were even made into Saints. Antisemitic imagery was also frequently used in Christian art and architecture. In all these cases, Jews were innocent victims of Christian contempt for those who refused to accept Jesus as their saviour.
What had Jews done to deserve such contempt? Nothing. They were simply victims of religious prejudice and hatred. Let me turn now to the Spanish Inquisition. By the end of the fourteenth century Jews in Spain had come to be regarded with suspicion and contempt. A large number (known as conversos or Marranos) embraced the Christian faith in order to escape attack. In the next century the Church embarked on a new form of persecution. The Inquisition was established under Ferdinand and Isabella to purge conversos who were suspected of living secretly as Jews..
Several years later the first tribunal was established in Seville. Once the Inquisition was formally instituted, the tribunal requested that heretics confess their crimes. This Edict of Grace lasted for 30 days - those who came forward were obliged to denounce all other Judaizers. In compensation, they were spared torture and imprisonment. They atoned by flagellation, wearing sackcloth and by confiscation of their possessions. In addition, they were barred from holding office, practising a profession, or wearing formal dress. During the Inquisition torture was often used to extract confessions. Those who were found guilty were put to death.
Let me turn now to the early modern period. At the end of the eighteenth century Jewish life underwent a major transformation as a result of social, economic and political changes. The Enlightenment heralded a new vision of the equality of all human beings, regardless of religion or race. The revolutions in America and France paved the way for Jewish assimilation on an unprecedented scale.
Yet this alteration in Jewish existence did not generate universal tolerance. Despite the plea of a number of progressive non-Jewish advocates of Jewish emancipation, the Christian community was not yet ready to grant Jewry full civic and social equality. Paradoxically, the emancipation that should have brought about a transformation in Jewish life served only to compound the centuries-old hostility towards Jews.
According to a number of critics, Jews were not viewed as reprehensible because of their religious past as in previous centuries. It was not the crime of decide that sealed their fate. Rather, their destiny was determined by racial inheritance. Such doctrines, which emerged during the age of the Enlightenment, sowed the seeds of the destructive policies which eventually led to the concentration camps and the gas chambers. Here again, as in previous centuries, Jews were innocent victims.
Let me turn now to the modern period. Although Jewish life underwent considerable improvement in the nineteenth
century, medieval stereotypes of the Jew continued to animate non-Jewish sentiment. Continually the disparagement of the Jew remained an important literary theme, particularly in connection with the legend of the Wandering Jew. According to Christian myth, the Jewish people were deprived of their ancient homeland for having rejected Christ. The Jew, like Cain, is a fugitive, destined to wander from country to country. In their own eyes, Jews were blameless for this condition. Yet, for Christians, they are guilty of the crime of viewing Christ as a criminal and refusing to help him on his way to Calvary.
In German society, obsession with racist doctrine resulted in the most pernicious form of Judeaeophbia. In the view of various writers, Germanness must be protected from contamination. In this milieu a number of German metaphysicians castigated Judaism and the Jewish nation in terms all too reminiscent of previous centuries. The groundswell of German animosity towards Jews reached its climax in the writings of the composer Richard Wagner. In Das Judentu in der Musik, he stated that the quest to emancipate Jews is based on idealism rather than personal familiarity with Jewry. According to Wagner, the Jew is a degenerate element in the social fabric. Here again, as in previous examples, the Jewish people were innocent victims of gentile hatred.
Let me turn finally to the rise of Nazism in the last century. Following the defeat in the First World War, the German nation experienced humiliation, economic disruption and
cultural disorder. Longing for a return to past glories, Conservatives sought to reconstruct society along traditional lines. In these circumstances the German Workers' Party advanced extreme nationalist policies as well as antisemitic attitudes.
As early as August 1920, Hitler compared the Jews to germs. He stated that diseases cannot be controlled unless you destroy their causes. The influence of the Jews, he argued, would never disappear without removing its cause, the Jew, from our midst. These radical ideas paved the way for the mass murder of the Jews in the 1940s. Here again, as in previous centuries, Jews were targeted because they were perceived as different from others. The 6 million who died at the hands of the Nazis were victims of a murderous racial ideology.
For over two thousand years then, Jews have been hated because in numerous ways they were different from the general population. The founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, believed that Jew-hatred was inevitable. In the preface to The Jewish State, he argued that his campaign to find a Jewish homeland was not simply a utopian theory. Rather, this enterprise is a realistic proposal arising out of the terrible conditions of Jewish oppression and persecution. In his view the Jewish question can be solved only if Jewry reconstitutes itself as a single people.
'We have sincerely tried everywhere to merge with the national communities in which we live,' he wrote, 'seeking
only to preserve the faith of our fathers. It is not permitted us. In vain are we loyal patriots, sometimes super loyal. In vain do we make the same sacrifices of life and property as our fellow citizens. In vain do we strive to enhance the fame of our native lands in the arts and sciences, or her wealth by commerce. In our native lands were we have lived for centuries we are still cried as aliens...The majority decide who the 'alien' is. This, and all else in the relations between peoples, is a matter of power.' According to Herzl, assimilation will not provide a cure for the ills that beset the Jewish population. There is only one remedy for the sickness of antisemitism: the creation of a Jewish commonwealth. It might surprise you to learn that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the vast majority of Jews were opposed to such an idea. Liberal Jews believed that Jewry should merge into the societies in which they lived rather than isolate themselves in a Jewish state. Orthodox Jews were bitterly opposed to the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland without the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah. Zionists disagreed, but their numbers were small by comparison.
After the Holocaust during which 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, Jewish consciousness underwent a major change. Across the religious spectrum the vast majority of Jews viewed the creation of a Jewish state as fundamentally important. 'Never again' became the watchword of the Jewish community. Never again would
they allow their enemies to slaughter the innocent. Instead, they would protect themselves from hatred and aggression by establishing a refuge in their native homeland.
Some Jewish theologians interpreted this quest in religious terms. insisting that in the death camps the Voice of God was heard. In the words of the Jewish writer Emil Fackenheim, out of the ashes of the crematoria God issued a further command. The 614th commandment was directed to a post-Holocaust Jewish community. In the words of Fackenheim:
Jews are forbidden to hand Hitler posthumous victories. They are commanded to survive as Jews, lest their memory perish. They are forbidden to despair of man and his world, and to escape into either cynicism or other-worldliness, lest they co-operate in delivering the world over to the forces of Auschwitz. Finally, they are forbidden to despair of the God of Israel, lest Judaism perish...A Jew may not respond to Hitler's attempt to destroy Judaism by himself co-operating in its destruction. In ancient times, the unthinkable Jewish sin was idolatry. Today it is to respond by dong his work.
In the post-Holocaust world Jews were universally united in their conviction that only by establishing a Jewish state in their ancient homeland could they ensure the continuation
of the Jewish people and the Jewish faith. It is with such a conviction that Jews world-wide have argued for a redefinition of antisemitism which would include criticism of the Jewish state. On 23-26 May 2016 the International Holocaust Remembrance Association met in Bucharest to formulate a comprehensive definition of antisemitism. Subsequently this new definition has been adopted by numerous organisations and governments.
Alongside a range of standard charges against Jewry such as making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing stereotypical allegations about Jews, the IHRA definition includes such actions as the following:
*Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
*Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
*Denying the Jewish people their right to selfdetermination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.
*Applying double standards by requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
*Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis.
*Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
*Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
Yet paradoxically the conviction about the centrality of Israel in Jewish life has led to the latest and arguably ly the most pernicious form of Jew-hatred. Initially Arab critics were bitterly resentful of the Jewish quest to create a homeland in Palestine. The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 was to have been accompanied by the creation of an independent Arab Palestinian state. Instead, a war broke out, and at the end of the war, between 600,000 and 711,000 Arab Palestinians had left their homes and were refugees. The defeat of the Arab Palestinians and the creation of the refugee problem is called the "disaster" (Nakba) by proPalestinians—it is blamed on what is believed to be a Zionist conspiracy to "ethnically cleanse" Palestine by bringing about a forced expulsion of the Arabs from their homes.
For nearly a century, the Palestine-Israel conflict has given rise to a new form of Jewish-hatred. Arab antisemitism has exploded around the globe. As a consequence, during the last fifty years a vast quantity of antisemitic literature has
been published in Muslim countries utilising religious as well as racial motifs. Some of this literature, such as Hitler's Mein Kampf, Henry Ford's International Jew and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has been translated into Arabic and is widely available. Other writings have exploited stereotypical images of the Jew inherited from the past. In all cases, these negative depictions of Jewry have been reinterpreted 1o express Arab antipathy towards Jews: repeatedly the Jew is portrayed as an evil force determined to corrupt and exploit the society in which he lives.
In addition, Jews are presented as forming a global conspiracy intent on dominating world affairs.Typical of such diatribes against the Jewish community is the tract Holy War and Victory written by Abd al-Halim Mahmoud, the former Rector of Cairo's al-Azhar University. In his view, the struggle for Islam is depicted as a struggle against Satan: Among Satan's friends - indeed his best friends in our ageare the Jews. In his view, Jews have laid down a plan for undermining humanity, religiously and ethically. They have begun their work to implement this plan with their money and their propaganda. They have falsified knowledge, exploited the pens of writers and bought minds in their quest for the ruination of humanity.
Such denunciations of Jewry parallel medieval polemics, as does the repeated allegation that Jews carry out acts of ritual murder. Thus in December 1984 the President of the World Muslim Congress, Dr Ma'ruf al-Dawalibi claimed to quote the Talmud at the UN Centre for Human Rights' Seminar
alleging that it is necessary for Jews to drink the blood of non-Jews. If a Jew does not drink every year the blood of a non-Jewish man,' he stated, ‘then he will be damned for all eternity.' In his view, the Talmud asserts that the whole world is the property of Israel including the wealth, blood and souls of gentiles. Another Muslim authority, Damil Safan in his Jews: History and Doctrine argued that there have been numerous cases of blood libel which have gone unnoted in history. As a result of such perceptions, many fundamentalist Muslims are intent on carrying out a jhad against the Jewish community.
In recent months, the war in Gaza has enflamed critics of Israel, both Arab and non-Arab. Unlike previous forms of antisemitism, Jews are not hated because they are outsiders. Jewry is loathed because of its merciless onslaught of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Around the world Jews are targeted for the war against Gaza. Here are a few examples of such antisemitic actions:
In
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
A Jewish woman was accosted at her home and called a “child murderer” over her daughter’s IDF service.
In Konstanz, Germany
Two Nazi slogans and a pro-Palestinian slogan were spraypainted on a wall at the University of Konstanz.
In Bruges, Belgium
Swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti were painted on the door of a Jewish student at the College of Europe.
In Santiago, Chile
Protesters in front of two Jewish institutions in Santiago chanted antisemitic slurs, including "genociders out of our neighborhood," and harassed people entering the buildings.
In Munich, Germany
A man stood in front of the main synagogue, shhouted antisemitic insults and gave Hitler salutes.
In Radlett, UK
Three masked and hooded men entered Jewish delis in the area and demanded to know if they support the IDF.
In The Hague, The Netherlands
A burning object was thrown at the Israeli embassy.
In Paris, France
A student at the prestigious Science Po university was blocked from entering a classroom by people shouting “She's a Zionist.”
In Toronto, Canada
A man smashed a menorah. In a separate incident, protestors called for intifada outside a Toronto synagogue.
In Vallahn, Germany
Antisemitic symbols were drawn outside of a school in Vellahn.
In Montevideo, Uruguay
A doll depicting a Jewish women with a Star of David and a spear piercing her forehead was displayed during a march for International Women's Day
In Templin, Germany
A memorial plaque to Jewish history was vandalised.
In London, UK
A visibly Jewish passenger was traveling on a London Underground train when he was confronted by a man who accused him of killing Muslims.
Paris, France
A man wearing a kippah was attacked as he left a synagogue.
Zurich, Switzerland
A 15 year-old, claiming allegiance to ISIS, stabbed a Jewish man in Zurich
Toronto, Canada
Death threats, antisemitic messages targeting Jewish Toronto University student seen on school walls.
Mannheim, Germany
The synagogue was vandalized with graffiti.
Munich, Germany
A man was attacked and subject to anti-Semitic insults in front of a synagogue.
Dresden, Germany
A group of men was attacked on Dresden's main street, with the masked perpetrators shouting antisemitic slogans.
Berlin, Germany
A Jewish man wearing a Star of David necklace was harassed on the street with antisemitic insults.
Vienna, Austria
Holocaust memorial stones were splattered with paint.
Alongside such incidents, over the last six months hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinians have marched through streets in countries around the world protesting against Israel’s onslaught in Gaza. In addition a case was
brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 29 December 2023 by South Africa regarding Israel's conduct in the Gaza Strip as part of the Israel–Hamas war. South Africa alleged that Israel had committed and was committing genocide against Palestinians, contravening the Genocide Convention, including what South Africa described as Israel's 75-year apartheid, 56-year occupation, and 16-year blockade of the Strip.
And most recently there have been outbreaks of antisemitic outbursts on American college campuses. Anti-Zionist student groups on more than 50 U.S. college and university campuses have established “encampments” to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza and their academic institutions’ alleged “complicity” in those actions. College campuses have been the site of many tense anti-Israel protests and antisemitic incidents since the start of the ongoing IsraelHamas war that began with Hamas’ Oct 7 terrorist attack. These recent encampments and related protests have brought those tensions to a boiling point as protesters ramp up their activity to push universities to divest from Israel.
In the past Jews were hated because they were different from the majority population. As we have seen, these differences varied considerably from century to century. By contrast, the explosion of Jew-hatred today is based on deeply-held moral objections to Israeli policy. Critics from around the world are shocked and horrified by the ways in which the Israeli military is carrying out its campaign.
The explosion of this new kind of antisemitism will, I believe, have devastating consequences. No longer will the Jewish community be regarded as innocent victims. Instead Jewry will be viewed as perpetrators of crimes against humanity. The Arab world will not forgive Israel for its policy of genocide. And these Arab antisemites will be joined by millions of protestors around the globe who will regard the Jewish community as inhumane. The current crimes against humanity will not be forgotten, and the memory of this war will continue to haunt Jewry forever..
But there is an even more serious consequence of the war against Hamas. Israel believes it is secure against the forces of evil. It has a powerful army. It has incredible military strength. It is armed with nuclear missiles. It believes it can defend itself from all enemies. Yet the Jew-hatred that this Gaza war has engendered will inevitably give rise to a longing for revenge.
And I would predict that out of this turmoil there will arise a powerful Arab leader who will wish to eradicate Israel from the face of the earth. There will be war. And at some point there will be a nuclear exchange. And as a result, the small strip of land where currently 7 million Jews live will be devastated in a nuclear holocaust. This is the ultimate nightmare of what we are witnessing in the Middle East. A second Holocaust of the Jewish people. And this time, we will have brought it upon ourselves.