how come people think that jews have horns?

Question

when I was in second grade a girl in my class asked me "if your jewish then why dont you have horns?" I cried and told my mom. she said if it ever happened again, to show them the scars ive got on my head under my hair and tell them that I had gotten them removed. I dont understand why people would think such a thing!

Answer 1

This is why some people think we have horns:
A 13th century sculptor whose name escapes me created a sculpture of Moses. In the Bible, it mentions that rays of light emanated from Moses. The word ray in Hebrew is KEREN, which means both a ray and a horn. Since the Bible has been mistranslated, the version this sculptor was familiar with used the word horn instead of ray.
Actually, since this all took place before the reformation, very few people but the priests read the Bible in those days. Parish priests incited people to commit heinous acts against Jews by saying Jews poisoned wells, had horns, slaughtered Christian babies, etc...
This is why this sculptor decided to give Moses two little horns; he believed what he heard in church... And some people still believe we have horns!

Answer 2

People are scared of what they dont know. Really people will sya stuff that will hurt but only because they dont know. If it was a little kid then tyhey probelly dont know better. Also society these days can alter peoples perspective on other cultures.

I personally hope you have not seen the movie "Borat" where they constantly make fun of jews. I find that it is very discraseful and shameful.

I think you should correct the people that assume this because if no one will tell them other wise they will keep asking. Your probelly not the only other person that has had this asked to them.

Hope that helped.

Answer 3

With ignorance comes fear.

When you don't know about something (say the Jews because they only make up .22% of the World's Religions) you tend to fear it. Also, over the past 4000 years the Jews have been persecuted. This is nothing new, simply utter ignorance and a closed mind toward other cultures.

Answer 4

Sounds like you are a jew, just a lonely Jew, on Christmas. lol Sorry I just had to quote South Park.

Ok, if kids think you got horns, or had them removed then they are frickin crazy and stupid. Kids only talk that way cause their parents talk that way. So it just means that their parents are too dumb to teach them any better. Your teacher should have stepped up for you and told the kids to shut theit mouths but the teacher was probably a closed minded freak as well.

Sometimes you just have to have thick skin and not let people hurt your feelings.

Answer 5

It's called ignorance and bigotry. I can remember when I was overseas in the 70's, I was seeing a woman who had never seen a black man before. I found that she kept looking at me for something, I finally asked her what.

She had been told that Black people had horns and a tail by the white sailors. The pacific islands were considered a "white mans" paradise for a long time, they did, said lots of things to keep it that way.

Answer 6

Horn and ray are very close in Hebrew and a very poor translation of a Hebrew text in the middle ages, caused this and christians are to stupid/ignorant to learn the truth.
I like your mom's solution the best though, that's what my mom told me too, and I'm proud of my scars, although I'm thinking of having the horns re-attached.

Answer 7

Michelangelo's famous stature of Moses looks as if it has horns. ( I must admit-I do forget what these were really suppose to be). Moses was Jew. This is where it comes from-----------------by very prejudiced people. Don't forget the time this was made. The Jews were the bankers (it was illegal for Christians to be bankers-church decree), doctors, scholars-the higher class that people were jealous of.

At any rate------it is sheer stupidity.

Answer 8

What does one expect when people around you read their Bible and nothing else? In religion ignorance is a virtue and blindness is praised as "faith". You will encounter many more stupid people like this...which was the point of the "Borat!" film. The best you can do is come up with a few snappy comebacks to put their idiocy front and center.

Answer 9

You poor thing. Jews are human beings too and as far as I can see God never made humans with horns on their heads. Everything God created is perfect. Don't believe silly things kids say.

Answer 10

It's actually from a mistranslation of Exodus 34, where ray is translated horn, and light is translated leather.