Given Europe´s historically strong antisemitic bias, would jesus be popular now if not portrayed as caucasian?

Question

The term Ghetto is derived for the "campo gheto," an area that iron foundries in Venice in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries used for cooling slag where Jews were forced to locate.
Agatharchides of Cnidus wrote about the "ridiculous practices" of the Jews and of the "absurdity of their Law,"
There was continuity in the hostile attitude to Judaism from the ancient Roman Empire into the medieval period.
In the later Middle Ages in Europe there was full-scale persecution in many places, with blood libels, expulsions, forced conversions and massacres.
In 1750 Frederick 2 issued Revidiertes General Privilegium und Reglement vor die Judenschaft: the "protected" Jews had an alternative to either abstain from marriage or leave Berlin.
French Jews were described by the author George L. Mosse as a "nation within a nation" in 1890. in October 1894, Dreyfus (a Jew) was arrested and convicted of treason by a military tribunal in December 1894. The Dreyfus Affair was a typical antisemitic act.

As many as 4,000 Jews were deported to the island of Sardinia during the reign of the Roman Emperor
Tiberius. The first recorded pogrom took place during the reign of the Roman Emperor Caligula
in 38 CE.
During Bar Kokhba's revolt in the second century CE the Romans committed genocide against the Jews.
Moreover, Jews were attacked mainly in the cities for issues relating to Jewish financial and
intellectual success.
In 1840, the Jews of Damascus were falsely accused of having murdered a Christian monk
and his Muslim servant and of having used their blood to bake Passover bread. A Jewish barber
was tortured until he "confessed"; two other Jews who were arrested died under torture,
while a third converted to Islam to save his life. Throughout the 1860s, the Jews of Libya
were subjected to what Gilbert calls punitive taxation. In 1864, around 500 Jews were killed
in Marrakech and Fez in Morroco.

Throughout the 1860s, the Jews of Libya
were subjected to what Gilbert calls punitive taxation. In 1864, around 500 Jews were killed
in Marrakech and Fez in Morroco. In 1869, 18 Jews were killed in Tunis, and an Arab mob looted
Jewish homes and stores, and burned synagogues, on Jerba Island. In 1875, 20 Jews were killed
by a mob in Demnat, Morocco; elsewhere in Morocco, Jews were attacked and killed in the streets
in broad daylight. In 1891, the leading Muslims in Jerusalem asked the Ottoman authorities
in Constantinople to prohibit the entry of Jews arriving from Russia. In 1897, synagogues
were ransacked and Jews were murdered in Tripolitania.

The first accusation that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus came in a sermon in
167 CE attributed to Melito of Sardis.This text blames the Jews for allowing King Herod
and Caiaphas to execute Jesus, despite their calling as God's people.

The author does not
attribute particular blame to Pontius Pilate, but only mentions that Pilate washed his hands of guilt.
At a time when Christians were widely persecuted, Melito's speech was an appeal to Rome to spare Christians.

So now, do you think that Jesus would have been a superstar if he had been portrayed as what he really was: a Jew.
Or would Europe have dismissed the event as a Jewish internal policy problem?
Wasn´t the image of christ stolen from the jews, transformed into a caucasian to fuel the fire against a community
that was not liked to begin with, transforming them into scapegoats and boosting bonding with the people in one single stroke?

Answer 1

I've got your back. You're 100 % right. If Jesus had been portrayed as Jewish christianity may have taken a different turn in history.

Answer 2

If Jesus returned to earth now, he would head straight for the nearest synagogue - that's the place that would be the most familiar to him, as a Jewish man. Bet I get several thumbs-down for putting this!

Early Christianity spread mainly through the women; I'm not sure that back then Jesus was portrayed as blonde haired, because everyone in that region of the Middle East would have been very dark. It's only much, much later that we get this idea of Christ as being blue-eyed and pale skinned.

Jesus lived as a Jew and died as a Jew; though he is often portrayed as fair haired and blue-eyed, he would in fact have had more Middle Eastern colouring, and would have had swarthy dark skin, and dark hair also.

If Jesus did return, you can be sure he would be appalled at the way the Jewish people have been treated over the years.

Answer 3

I'm not disputing your accounts of persecution against Jews, but we need a clarification of terms here. Words signify different things to different people.

How do you define "caucasian?" Having forebears from the Caucasus mountains? Having certain, conveniently and dubiously defined physical characteristics?

Many Jews have what has come to be oddly described as a "caucasian" appearance---blond/red hair, light eyes---which in fact distinguishes them from the majority population surrounding them, depending upon where that is.
Many don't.

so: "Jew"---religious practice or ethnicity, and as defined by which Jews or non-Jews?

"Semitic"--a linguistic/and or ethnic category (which includes "Arab" peoples?

Finally, religious art often reflects the aesthetics and symbolic language of the artist and the audience, as well as less lofty or literal considerations.

So, it's complicated!

Answer 4

lol why do you have so many examples to prove europe has an anti-semetic past? they killed 9 million of them, I think thats enough evidence. (and I know it was the Nazis, but even the french packed them off on trains knowing full well what was going on)

As far as I am aware Jews for the most part look kind of caucasian, but Jesus theoretical would look arabic...

Jesus as a coloured person though? I don't think that would work as well, when he is portrayed he looks drained of blood and fragile, thats the point I think.