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From the beginning, their claim to be a chosen people, their refusal to worship other gods, and their insistence on special religious laws placed Jews in a vulnerable position. In the ancient Roman Empire, very few Jews were admitted to Roman citizenship. Early Christians held the Jews responsible for the crucifixion of Christ, an allegation that became the justification of anti-Semitism for many centuries, spreading with the domination of Christianity in the West.
The Middle Ages were characterized by repeated efforts to identify CHURCH AND STATE. In such a view of society, only Christians had a real place. Periodic persecutions of Jews occurred. A large-scale persecution opened in Spain during the 13th century when Alfonso X of Castile (r. 1252-64) issued Las Siete Partidas (Seven Sets), a code of law echoing the official church attitude toward Jews and excluding them from public office. In 1278, a bill of Pope Nicholas III decreed that missionary efforts be directed to all European Jews. By the end of the 15th century, the INQUISITION put to trial Jews and other nonconformists in Spain, culminating in the expulsion of Jews from the country. A number of Jews, however, became Christians in order to remain in Spain, but they continued to practice JUDAISM secretly. They were referred to as Marranos by other Spaniards, a pejorative title meaning "pig." At about the same time, similar oppressive measures were enforced in England, France, and Germany.
Jews were also forced to live in walled ghettos (see GHETTO). Their segregation seems to have been motivated by fear of their influence on Christians and by the desire of merchants and the craft guilds to restrict their economic activity. Outside the gates, they were obliged to wear an identifying badge. This forced segregation was abolished only in the 19th century.
The settlement of Jews in eastern Europe began during the CRUSADES from (1096 on); another wave of settlement occurred after the outbreak of the BLACK DEATH (1348) when it was rumored that Jews had poisoned wells. They were given internal autonomy at first, but in 1648 persecutions began during a power struggle between the Polish Roman Catholics and the Ukrainian Orthodox. With the partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795), masses of Jews were added to Russia. The tsarist government established the "Pale of Settlement," a large territory in the western provinces, and decreed military service for children. The progroms (see POGROM), or attacks on Jews, beginning in 1881 caused a mass emigration to the United States and the establishment of colonies in Palestine (see ZIONISM). In western Europe, the era of ENLIGHTENMENT in the 18th century and the FRENCH REVOLUTION created sentiment for the separation of church and state that led to the emancipation of Jews, giving them equal legal status and religious freedom.
During the 19th century, anti-Semitism again gained strength by appeals to (1) nationalistic motives, especially where a Jewish minority was strong, as in eastern Europe; and (2) racial motives, supported by pseudoscientific investigations and allegations. The theory of the French ethnologist J. A. GOBINEAU on the superiority of the Aryan race and the ideas of the Anglo-German political philosopher H. S. CHAMBERLAIN on racial purity, exercised a great influence on subsequent racist policies. In Germany, anti-Semitism became an organized movement during the late 19th century. Later, NAZISM turned anti-Semitism into an official government policy that within a decade led to the systematic extermination of nearly 6 million Jews (see HOLOCAUST).
In the United States and Western Europe, anti-Semitism waned after the defeat of Hitler and the creation of the national Jewish state of ISRAEL. At its meeting in New Delhi in 1961, the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES condemned anti-Semitism as incompatible with the teachings of Christ. In 1965 the Second VATICAN COUNCIL formally repudiated the charge that all Jews are responsible for the death of Christ and condemned racism as un-Christian. Although anti-Semitism was officially disavowed in Communist countries, it remained a political factor in the former USSR, which sought to remove Jews from government and scientific positions and to keep them from emigrating to Israel.
Erich Rosenthal
Bibliography: Almog, Shmuel, Antisemitism through the Ages (1988); Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951; repr. 1983); Curtis, Michael, ed., Anti-Semitism in the Contemporary World (1985); Dinnerstein, Leonard, Uneasy at Home (1987); Gager, J. G., The Origins of Anti-Semitism (1983); Gerber, D. A., ed., Anti-Semitism in American History (1986); Katz, Jacob, From Prejudice to Destruction (1980); Poliakov, Leon, The History of Anti-Semitism, 4 vols., trans. by R. Howard (1974-81); Wistrich, Robert S., Anti-Semitism: The Longest Hatred (1992)
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