Why Is There Antisemitism?
The Jews have been subject to hatred and suspicion throughout history, culminating in one nation’s serious effort to literally kill all of them during World War II. The Holocaust was the worst of it, but there had been a long history of anti-Semitism before that. Of course, racial and ethnic hostility in general is common in human history, but Jew-hatred seems particularly virulent and particularly widespread, being found in many different societies and on both the left and the right of the political spectrum. Nazis, Islamic extremists, and extreme Wokists have little in common, yet they manage to converge on anti-Semitism.
So, why do so many hate Jews?
AI Helps to Explain
I asked Bing’s AI, “Copilot”. It offered six explanations (abbreviated; my comments interspersed):
Historical Prejudices: Antisemitism dates back thousands of years, with Jews often being scapegoated for various societal problems. …
[ Comment: This doesn’t explain why there is anti-Semitism, only notes that there is. ]
Religious Differences: Throughout history, Jews have been persecuted for their religious beliefs and practices, which differ from those of dominant cultures. …
[ Comment: Any religious group has beliefs and practices that differ from other religious groups. So why would there be so much prejudice specifically toward the Jews? ]
Economic Myths: Jews have been stereotyped as being wealthy and controlling financial systems. …
[ Comment: This points toward one potential cause: Jews tend to be wealthier and more successful than other religious and ethnic groups, and many people resent success. However, if this were all there was to it, you should see similar hatred of Brits, Germans, Americans, or South Koreans in recent times, on the part of people from less successful countries. ]
Political Manipulation: Antisemitism has often been used by political leaders to unite people against a common enemy or to divert attention from other issues.
[ Comment: Yes, but why the Jews? Any group could be chosen as a scapegoat. ]
Cultural and Social Factors: Cultural differences and social isolation of Jewish communities have sometimes led to misunderstandings and prejudices.
[ Comment: Again, the “cultural differences” explanation would predict similar prejudice by any group toward any group with a different culture. As to social isolation, Jews don’t seem especially socially isolated compared to other groups. ]
Modern Conspiracy Theories: Today, antisemitism persists through various conspiracy theories that falsely accuse Jews of having undue influence over global events.
[ Comment: Again, this doesn’t explain why there is anti-Semitism; it just describes the anti-Semitism. ]
Ressentiment
Back to the ressentiment explanation (#3 above): Part of what’s going on is that Jews are perhaps the most successful minority group, despite being subject to lots of prejudice. This pissed the Nazis off, because they wanted to believe that Germans were the master race. Having another race outperform them in their own country interfered with their narrative. So they had to invent a story that the Jews were getting ahead by cheating, underhanded conspiracies, etc.
For the Woke left, the Jews are interfering with the narrative that minorities in the West can’t succeed due to all the prejudice and oppression of Western societies. The Jews are succeeding despite severe prejudice, and that just pisses off leftists.
I think the above is part of the story. But there still seems to be more, because anti-Semitism has been much more widespread than that.
Arab-Israeli Conflict
Some of the world’s anti-Semitism is fueled by the Arab-Israeli conflict. Some Arabs are angry that Israel exists at all, and perhaps also that the Jews have built such an advanced, happy society in the Middle East, where the Muslim-dominated societies are doing so much worse. Be that as it may, any time there is a war, it’s predictable that many civilians will be killed, which causes more anger and resentment among the groups whose civilians are being killed.
Again, I think there is more to explain, because anti-Semitism has been so much more widespread than just among Arabs and Muslims. Left-wingers might say that other people can see the evil deeds of Israel, and that turns them against the Jews. But really, the harms Israel has inflicted on civilians pale in comparison to those that many other nations have inflicted on civilians when at war, including those inflicted by the U.S. in all of our wars, and also including the civilian deaths inflicted by Arabs on other Arabs. These don’t seem to have provoked the kind of outrage that we see towards Israel.
Here is a clip about anti-Semitism from Borat. It’s a caricature, but it wouldn’t be funny if there weren’t a phenomenon to caricature: