Do some people still think that Jews have horns?

Question

I work for a jewish college and my boss tells me that some people still think that jews have horns .That cant be true right?

Answer 1

I've never met anyone myself, but my mother says she came across the idea during WW2. There is a statute of Moses by Michelangelo which appears to show horns. There are 2 possible reasons for this :

either simple antisemitism or

a mistranslation of a passage in the bible which actually refers to rays of light coming from Moses when he came down the mountain with the tablets of the Ten Commandments. The Latin translation of the Bible just got that bit wrong and that was the version most of Europe used throughout the Middle Ages.

Moses was therefore portrayed as having horns and it sort of spread to all Jews, got mixed up with general antisemitism and stuck.


Search for Moses, horns and rays of light - I bet you'll find plenty

Answer 2

In the movie, Norma Rae (starring Sally Field), Norma tells the Jewish union organizer, "I always heard you people had horns." That movie was set in the 1960s, in South Carolina, I think.

That movie was fiction, but based on a true story. So maybe in places where anti-Semitism is the norm and there aren't many Jews around to contradict ridiculous ideas like this, myths like this continue to circulate.

Answer 3

i understand that there is a fashionable portray by technique of Michelangelo wherein the Jewish guy has horns. in protecting with the position he lived or maybe as, there's an effective probability that Michelangelo under no circumstances met a Jew. i don't understand if the unfairness all started before him and for this reason he painted a Jew that way or if he all started the unfairness.

Answer 4

Yes, Jewish people have horns. They are rams' horns and they were blown to make the walls of Jericho fall down.

Answer 5

I never even knew that people were really ignorant enough to actually think this so I would be very interested in the correct answer also!

Answer 6

Sure, people will believe anything you say about Jews. The more nuts, the more people will believe it. (Especially true nowadays in the Arab and Muslim world).

Answer 7

Some people are so blinded by bigotry and hate that they will believe anything, even when it makes no sense at all.

Answer 8

People are either ignorant or just plain hateful. Sad but true.

Answer 9

Only the ones in klezmer bands.

Answer 10

i thought only the devil had horns.