Why do so many cultures hate the Jews?

Question

The bible said Jews were the choosen ones.. Thus meaning the other race is less important to his eyes ?

Yet throughout history, many races have sort to destroy this race. If they are so holy, why do so many people hate them?

Answer 1

Misinterpretation of the phrase "Chosen People" has been one of the reasons so many cultures have been jealous of and hostile to the Jews.

What does being "chosen" mean? For what were the Jews chosen? To have benefits bestowed upon them that are withheld from others? To live in luxury all the days of their lives? No. From the Jewish perspective, the Jews were chosen to be examples of a righteous people, given the burden of living according to a difficult and complex set of laws in order to show how humans should live. Christians and Muslims came along, and they developed their own ideas about righteousness. For refusing to compromise and accept the ways others have tried to force upon them, the Jews have been despised and persecuted by many over the centuries.

Answer 2

because they are thought to infiltrate countries and steal their wealth - hence the term "He's being Jewish" - rounding up as much loot as they can without giving back.

Muslims don't like the Jews because the land they are currently in was taken over by Muslims along time ago - the Temple Mount is built upon the site of the 1st and 2nd Jewish temple (where the ark and ten commandments used to be). Then after WW2 - the british controlled that area and they gave it back to the Jews after the land was promised to the palestinians,

- I personally don't have anything against Jews - just giving you some info on what I've heard and/or read.

Answer 3

I think this is mostly limited to only to Christianity and Islam. I have never heard any Buddhists or Hindus singling out Judaism as specifically 'bad'.

Perhaps it is a matter of the common 'root'. Christians feel that Jews SHOULD accept Jesus because, in Christian eyes, he meets the requirements for the messiah. The same is true for Muslims and Mohamed. The two 'younger' religions are like teenage children arguing with the parent because the parent doesn't recognize the teenager's angst.

Answer 4

I even have puzzled that myself and executed some examining on my own. An orthodox Jewish guy residing in Israel did deliver me some guides in this too. The hostility against the Jewish human beings existed long in the previous Hitler wrapped all of it up into one terrible equipment and used it to benefit skill initially. i don't experience that I also have a finished answer for you, if there is one, yet Egypt enslaved many distinctive peoples, as many as they could discover, to do the brutal artwork of their u . s .. basically interior the flicks are the Jews singled out , and that's not real historic previous. Now, what stereotypes are you asking approximately ?

Answer 5

It all started with Christianity. When Christianity became a big religion in the Roman Empire, people blamed the Jews for killing Jesus. Also, Jews occupy what the Muslims view as their holy land.

Answer 6

Much of who I am that I am proud of has been the result of learning by the example of Jews. For example:

* Managing money carefully.

* Studying hard.

* Working hard.

* Helping people who need a hand.

* Making the community better.

It is a bitter irony that people who have given so much to their fellow man has been shown so much ingratitude. And yet they continue. This is profoundly admirable.

Answer 7

The bible says the jews will always be hated and well it is sorta true, can't really explain why.

Answer 8

Probably because Judaism is the oldest organized monotheistic religion in history and they've simply had more time than any other religion to attract enemies.

Answer 9

well you have a strange group of people who follow a strange lifestyle with odd practices, who your holy books tell you killed your god/prophet, and who always seem to succeed where ever they go. when a problem strikes, its human nature to try and blame it on somebody else. jews are just the perfect scapegoat.

Answer 10

I am still shuddering from the shootings at the Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles. Why would anyone do such a thing? It seems so unfair to single out Jews for this violence. How can this be prevented in the future? What should be the response of American Jewry? And what can I do to help?

Please! Help me understand this tragedy.

THE AISH RABBI REPLIES:

Make no mistake: This was an attack specifically against Jews. After Furrow was arrested, he said the shooting was "a wake-up call to America to kill Jews." Police also discovered a map with circles around Los Angeles Jewish landmarks like the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the University of Judaism and the Skirball Cultural Center.

So we have to ask ourselves: Why were the Jews targeted? And why have Jews been targeted for anti-Semitism in the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Pogroms, the Holocaust – and ever since the days of Abraham when King Nimrod threw him into a fiery furnace?

The Torah teaches that anti-Semitism will exist. The Talmud (Shabbos 69) declares:

"Why was the Torah given on a mountain called Sinai? Because the great 'sinah,' the great hatred of the Jews, emanates from Sinai." (Sinah, the Hebrew word for hatred, is pronounced almost identically to Sinai.)

Before the Torah was given, people built their lives on a subjective concept of right and wrong. At Sinai the Jewish people were told that there is one God who makes moral demands on human beings. You can't just live as you please; there is a higher authority you are accountable to.

The Jewish people were commanded to be a "Light Unto the Nations," to communicate the message of morality to the world. So despite the fact that Jews were never more than a tiny fraction of the world's population, Jewish ideas became the basis for the civilized world. And with that, the Jews became a lightening rod for those opposed to the moral message.

Hitler stated:

"Providence has ordained that I should be the greatest liberator of humanity. I am freeing man from the restraints of an intelligence that has taken charge, from the dirty and degrading self-mortifications of a false vision called conscience and morality, and from the demands of a freedom and personal independence which only a very few can bear." (from "Hitler Speaks" by Herman Rauschning)

Anti-Semitism cuts to the core of what it means to be a Jew. But tragically, some Jewish leaders have tried to skirt the issue by viewing the Los Angeles attack in a universalistic mode, "as an American issue, not a Jewish issue." By doing so, they reduce the incident to dumb luck. There is nothing to learn from this event, they say. Furrow could've picked any target; the Jews were simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time.



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I disagree.

If we don't understand the root of anti-Semitism, then we have gained nothing from the experience, and we have created no barrier against its being repeated.

I recently heard an incredible story. A Russian who had immigrated to Israel brought his son to enroll in yeshiva, a school of Talmudic study. The dean of the yeshiva was a bit surprised, seeing that this man and his son were clearly not observant. "I'll gladly to enroll your son," said the dean, "but please tell me - why did you choose a yeshiva, rather than some secular school?"

"I'll explain," said the man. "When I was a little boy in the Ukraine, the Nazis came and ordered every male out into the town square. There, everyone was ordered to drop their pants. Whoever had a circumcision was shot on the spot.

"So I figured, if an anti-Semite like this should ever come again, at least my son should understand what it's for."

Can such a thing happen in America today? We can only pray that would-be imitators sleep soundly through Furrow's hellish alarm. But the recent rash of anti-Semitic incidents rattles the nerves. And new statistics released by law enforcement agencies showed a total of 1,750 hate crimes in 1998, an average of nearly five per day. In California alone.



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It seems to me that with all the options for assimilation in America today, every Jew has two choices: Either opt into the Jewish future, or opt out.

If monsters like Furrow try to kill us because of our Jewish heritage and values, shouldn't we know what that heritage and those values are? If, G-d forbid, one should ever die because he or she is Jewish, what an even greater tragedy that the person died without knowing what it meant to be Jewish.

In the concentration camps, the Nazi guards wanted to humiliate the Jews and make them suffer emotionally. One time they took an Ark cover out of a synagogue, and hung it above the entrance to the gas chamber. "Let's see your God save you, now!" they mocked.

Then something extraordinary happened. Certain Jews, standing in line for the gas chamber, began dancing and singing in small circles. The Nazi guards were shocked - their fun was spoiled. What the guards did not realize was the meaning of the Hebrew words written on the Ark cover: "This is the gate of God, the righteous shall enter therein." (Psalms 118:20)

You see, the solution to anti-Semitism is the flip-side of the cause. Jewish values are the cause of anti-Semitism, and Jewish values are the solution. Only by studying Torah – and teaching it to others – can Jews ever hope to bring the world to a point where evil is eradicated.

When human beings embrace the moral doctrine that Judaism brought to the world from Sinai – that there is a God who demands ethical behavior from every human being – then there will be no holocausts.

And that is the exquisite irony of Jewish history.



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In practical terms, Furrow's murderous rage and cynical smirk might serve as a wake-up call to us Jews.

There is a special custom during this Jewish month of Elul to blow the Shofar every morning in the synagogue. The Shofar sound, according to Maimonides, is literally an alarm clock designed to arouse us from our spiritual slumber: "Awaken to examine your actions, return and remember your Creator."

There are many good Jewish programs which provide an excellent framework and overview of Jewish history, philosophy, and literature – and can jump-start a renewed Torah connection. One popular program is called the Discovery seminar (http://www.discoveryseminar.org).

Of course, it is encouraging that time and again, we see many Jews – even those completely non-affiliated with the Jewish community – demonstrating an inexplicable but powerful urge to stand firm in their Jewish identity.

But isn't it worthwhile to know what for?