SomeChristian churches,Christian groups, and ordinaryChristians expressantisemitism—as well asanti-Judaism—towardsJews andJudaism. These expressions of antisemitism can be considered examples ofantisemitism expressed by Christians or antisemitism expressed by Christian communities. However, the termChristian antisemitism has also been used in reference to anti-Jewish sentiments that arise out of Christian doctrinal ortheological stances (by thinkers such asJules Isaac, for example—especially in his bookJésus et Israël). The term is also used to suggest that to some degree, contempt for Jews and Judaism is inherent in Christianity as a religion, and as a result, the centralized institutions of Christian power (such as theCatholic Church or theChurch of England), as well as governments with strong Christian influences (such as theCatholic Monarchs of Spain), have generated societal structures that have survived and perpetuate antisemitism to the present. This usage particularly appears in discussions about Christian structures of power within society—structures that are referred to as Christian hegemony orChristian privilege; these discussions are part of larger discussions aboutstructural inequality andpower dynamics.
Antisemitic Christian rhetoric and the resulting antipathy towards Jews date back toearly Christianity, resembling pagan anti-Jewish attitudes that were reinforced by the belief thatJews are responsible for thecrucifixion of Jesus. Christians imposed ever-increasinganti-Jewish measures over the ensuing centuries, including acts ofostracism, humiliation,expropriation, violence, and murder—measures which culminated inthe Holocaust.[1]: 21 [2]: 169 [3]
Christian antisemitism has been attributed to numerous factors, including the fundamentaltheological differences that exist between the twoAbrahamic religions; the competition betweenchurch andsynagogue; theChristian missionary impulse; a misunderstanding ofJewish culture, beliefs, and practice; and the perception that Judaism was hostile towards Christianity.[4] For two millennia, these attitudes were reinforced in Christian preaching, art, and popular teachings, as well as inanti-Jewish laws designed to humiliate andstigmatise Jews.[5]
Modern antisemitism has primarily been described ashatred against Jews as a race (seeracial antisemitism), and the most recent expression of it is rooted in 18th-centuryscientific racism. Anti-Judaism is rooted in hostility towards the entire religion of Judaism; inWestern Christianity, anti-Judaism effectively merged with antisemitism during the12th century.[1]: 16 Scholars have disagreed about the role which Christian antisemitism played in the rise ofNazi Germany,World War II, and the Holocaust.[6] The Holocaust forced many Christians to reflect on the role(s)Christian theology and practice played—and still play in—anti-Judaism and antisemitism.[7]
The legal status of Christianity and Judaism differed within theRoman Empire: because the practice of Judaism was restricted to theJewish people and Jewishproselytes, adherents of it were generally exempt from adhering to the obligations that were imposed on adherents of other religions by theRoman imperial cult. Since the reign ofJulius Caesar, Judaism enjoyed the status of a "licit religion", but occasional persecutions still occurred, such asTiberius' conscription and expulsion of Jews in19 AD[8] followed byClaudius' expulsion of Jews from Rome.[9] Christianity however was not restricted to one people, and because Jewish Christians were excluded from thesynagogue (seeCouncil of Jamnia), they also lost the protected status that was granted to Judaism, even though that protection still had its limits (seeTitus Flavius Clemens (consul),Rabbi Akiva, andTen Martyrs).
From the reign ofNero onwards, who is said (byTacitus) to have blamed theGreat Fire of Rome on Christians, the practice of Christianity was criminalized and Christians were frequentlypersecuted, but thepersecution differed from region to region. Comparably, Judaism suffered setbacks due to theJewish–Roman wars, and these setbacks are remembered in the legacy of theTen Martyrs.Robin Lane Fox traces the origin of much of the later hostility to this early period of persecution, when the Roman authorities commonly tested the faith of suspected Christians by forcing them to pay homage to the deified emperor. Jews were exempt from this requirement as long as they paid theFiscus Judaicus, and Christians (many or mostly of Jewish origin) would say that they were Jewish but they refused to pay the tax. This claim had to be confirmed by the local Jewish authorities, who were likely to refuse to accept the Christians as fellow Jews, which often lead to their execution.[10] TheBirkat haMinim was often brought forward as support for this charge that the Jews were responsible for thepersecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.[citation needed] Systematic persecution of Christians lasted untilConstantine's conversion to Christianity.[11][12] In 390Theodosius I made Christianity thestate church of the Roman Empire. While pagan cults andManichaeism were suppressed, Judaism retained its legal status as a licit religion, but anti-Jewish violence still occurred. In the 5th century, some legal measures worsened the status of theJews in the Roman Empire.[13][14]
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InJudaism, Jesus is not recognized as theMessiah and is viewed as one of many failedJewish Messiah claimants and afalse prophet.[15][16][17][18][19] In Judaism, the belief is that the arrival of the prophesiedMessianic Age is contingent upon the coming of the Messiah. Consequently, the comprehensive rejection of Jesus as either the Messiah or a divine figure has not been a pivotal concern within Jewish theological discourse.
Jewish deicide is the belief thatJews to this day will always becollectively responsible forthe killing of Jesus,[20][21] also known as theblood curse. Even before the Gospels were finalized,Paul described the Jews as those "who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets" in hisFirst Epistle to the Thessalonians 2:14–15.[22] A justification of the deicide charge also appears in theGospel of Matthew 27:24–25, alleging a crowd of Jews toldPilate that they and their children would be responsible for Jesus's death.[23] TheActs of the Apostles, written by the same author as theGospel of Luke, repeatedly reproach the Jews for having "crucified and killed" Jesus.[22][24] TheGospel of John exhibits a hostile tone towards 'the Jews', particularly in verses like John 5:16, 6:52, 7:13, 8:44, 10:31, and others, which also implicate them in Jesus' death.[25]
The accusation that the Jews were Christ-killers fedChristian antisemitism[26] and spurred on acts of violence against Jews such aspogroms,massacres of Jews during the Crusades,expulsions of the Jews fromEngland,France,Spain,Portugal and other places, and torture during theSpanish andPortuguese Inquisitions.
Most members ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accept the notion of Jewish deicide,[27] while theCatholic Church repudiated it in 1965,[20] as have several otherChristian denominations.[28][29][30]
Many New Testament passages criticise thePharisees, a Jewish social movement and school of thought that flourished during theSecond Temple period (516 BCE–70 CE). It has been argued that these passages shaped the way in which Christians viewed and continue to view Jews. Like mostBible passages, however, they can be interpreted in a variety of ways.
Today, mainstreamRabbinical Judaism is directly descended from the Pharisaical tradition, which Jesus frequently criticized.[31][32] During Jesus's life and at the time of his execution, the Pharisees were only one of several Jewish groups, such as theSadducees,Zealots, andEssenes, that mostly died out not long after the period;[33] Jewish scholars such asHarvey Falk andHyam Maccoby have suggested that Jesus was himself a Pharisee. In theSermon on the Mount, for example, Jesus says, "The Pharisees sit inMoses' seat, therefore do what they say". Arguments by Jesus and his disciples against certain groups of Pharisees and what he saw as their hypocrisy were most likely examples of disputes among Jews and internal to Judaism that were common at the time (see, for example,Hillel and Shammai).
Professor Lillian C. Freudmann, author ofAntisemitism in the New Testament (University Press of America, 1994), has published a detailed study of the description of Jews in the New Testament and the historical effects that such passages have had in the Christian community throughout history. Similar studies of such verses have been made by both Christian and Jewish scholars, including Professors Clark Williamson (Christian Theological Seminary),Hyam Maccoby (The Leo Baeck Institute), Norman A. Beck (Texas Lutheran College), andMichael Berenbaum (Georgetown University). Most rabbis feel that these verses are antisemitic, and many Christian scholars in America and Europe have reached the same conclusion.
Another example isJohn Dominic Crossan's 1995 book, titledWho Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus. Crossan writes: "The passion-resurrection stories... have been the seedbed of Christian anti-Judaism. And without that Christian anti-Judaism, lethal and genocidal European antisemitism would have been impossible or at least not widely successful. What was at stake in those passion stories in the long-haul of history, was the Holocaust."[34]
Some biblical scholars have also been accused of holding antisemitic beliefs.Bruce J. Malina, a founding member ofThe Context Group, has come under criticism for going as far as to deny the Semitic ancestry of modern Israelis. He then ties it back to his work on first-century cultural anthropology.[35]
AfterPaul's death, Christianity emerged as a separate religion, andPauline Christianity emerged as the dominant form of Christianity, especially after Paul, James and the other apostles agreed on a compromise set of requirements.[36] Some Christians continued to adhere to aspects of Jewish law, but they were few and often consideredheretics by the Church. One example is theEbionites, who seemed to have denied thevirgin birth of Jesus, the physicalResurrection of Jesus, and most of the books that were latercanonized as theNew Testament. For example, theEthiopian Orthodox continueOld Testament practices such as theSabbath. As late as the 4th centuryChurch FatherJohn Chrysostomcomplained that some Christians were still attending Jewish synagogues.[37] TheChurch Fathers identified Jews and Judaism withheresy and declared the people of Israel to beextra Deum ('outside of God').
Peter of Antioch referred to Christians that refused to veneratereligious images as having "Jewish minds".[38]
In the early second century AD, the hereticMarcion of Sinope (c. 85 – c. 160 AD) declared that the Jewish God was a different God, inferior to the Christian one,[39] and rejected the Jewish scriptures as the product of a lesser deity.[39] Marcion's teachings, which were extremely popular, rejected Judaism not only as an incomplete revelation, but as a false one as well,[39] but, at the same time, allowed less blame to be placed on the Jews personally for having not recognized Jesus,[39] since, in Marcion's worldview, Jesus was not sent by the lesser Jewish God, but by the supreme Christian God, whom the Jews had no reason to recognize.[39]
In combating Marcion, orthodox apologists conceded that Judaism was an incomplete and inferior religion to Christianity,[39] while also defending the Jewish scriptures as canonical.[39]
The Church FatherTertullian (c. 155 – c. 240 AD) had a particularly intense personal dislike towards the Jews[39] and argued that the Gentiles had been chosen by God to replace the Jews because they were worthier and more honorable.[39]Origen of Alexandria (c. 184 – c. 253) was more knowledgeable about Judaism than any of the other Church Fathers,[40] having studiedHebrew, metRabbi Hillel the Younger, consulted and debated with Jewish scholars, and been influenced by the allegorical interpretations ofPhilo of Alexandria.[40] Origen defended the canonicity of the Hebrew Bible[40] and defended Jews of the past as having been chosen by God for their merits.[40] Nonetheless, he condemned contemporary Jews for not understanding their own Law, insisted that Christians were the "true Israel", and blamed the Jews for the death of Christ.[40] He did, however, maintain that Jews would eventually attain salvation in the finalapocatastasis.[40]Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170 – c. 235 AD) wrote that the Jews had "been darkened in the eyes of your soul with a darkness utter and everlasting."[41]
Patristic bishops of the patristic era such asAugustine of Hippo argued that the Jews should be left alive and suffering as a perpetual reminder of theirmurder of Christ. Like his anti-Jewish teacher,Ambrose of Milan, he defined Jews as a special subset of those damned tohell. As "Witness People", he sanctified collective punishment for theJewish deicide and enslavement of Jews to Catholics: "Not by bodily death, shall the ungodly race of carnal Jews perish [...] 'Scatter them abroad, take away their strength. And bring them down OLord'". Augustine claimed to "love" the Jews but as a means toconvert them to Christianity. Sometimes he identified all Jews with the evil ofJudas Iscariot and developed the doctrine (together withCyprian) that there was "no salvation outside the Church".[42]
John Chrysostom and other church fathers went further in their condemnation; the Catholic editor Paul Harkins wrote thatSt. John Chrysostom's anti-Jewish theology "is no longer tenable [...] For these objectively unchristian acts, he cannot be excused, even if he is the product of his times." John Chrysostom held, as most Church Fathers did, that the sins of all Jews were communal and endless; to Chrysostom, his Jewish neighbors were the collective representation of all alleged crimes of all preexisting Jews. All Church Fathers applied the passages of the New Testament concerning the alleged advocation of the crucifixion of Christ to all Jews of their day, holding that the Jews were the ultimate evil. However, Chrysostom went so far as to say that because Jews rejected theChristian God in human flesh, Christ, they therefore deserved to be killed:[disputed –discuss] "grew fit for slaughter." In citing the New Testament,[43] he claimed that Jesus was speaking about Jews when he said, "as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me."[42]
St. Jerome identified Jews withJudas Iscariot and the immoral use of money ("Judas is cursed, that in Judas the Jews may be accursed [...] their prayers turn into sins"). Jerome's homiletical assaults, which may have served as the basis for the anti-JewishGood Friday liturgy, contrasts Jews with the evil, and that "the ceremonies of the Jews are harmful and deadly to Christians", whoever keeps them was doomed to thedevil: "My enemies are the Jews; they have conspired in hatred against Me, crucified Me, heaped evils of all kinds upon Me, blasphemed Me."[42]
Ephraim the Syrian wrote polemics against Jews in the 4th century, including the repeated accusation that Satan dwells among them as a partner. The writings were directed at Christians who were being proselytized by Jews. Ephraim feared that they were slipping back into Judaism; thus, he portrayed the Jews as enemies of Christianity, like Satan, to emphasize the contrast between the two religions, namely, that Christianity was Godly and true and Judaism was Satanic and false. Like Chrysostom, his objective was to dissuade Christians from reverting to Judaism by emphasizing what he saw as the wickedness of the Jews and their religion.[44][45]
Following the conversion of Spain'sVisigoth royal family to Catholicism in 587,the situation for Jews deteriorated as the monarchy and church aligned to consolidate the realm under the new religion.[46] The Church'sCouncils of Toledo imposed restrictions, including prohibitions on intermarriage and holding office,[46] culminating inKing Sisebut's 613 decree demanding conversion or expulsion, which led many Jews to flee or convert.[47] Despite brief periods of tolerance, subsequent rulers and church councils intensified persecution, banning all Jewish rites,[46] ordering forced baptisms, seizing property, enslaving Jews (after accusations of conspiracy in 694), taking children away from Jewish parents,[46] and imposing severe economic hardships. This relentless oppression alienated the Jewish population, causing some to welcome the Muslim invasion in 711.[48]
In 7th century Spain, Visigoth Christian rulers and the Spanish Church's Councils of Toledo implemented policies offorced conversions and expulsions of Jews. Later in the 12th centuryBernard of Clairvaux said "For us the Jews are Scripture's living words, because they remind us of what Our Lord suffered. They are not to be persecuted, killed, or even put to flight."[49] According toAnna Sapir Abulafia, most scholars agree that Jews and Christians in LatinChristendom lived in relative peace with one another until the 13th century.[50][51]
Starting in the 11th century, theCrusades unleashed a wave of antisemitism, with attacks, massacres and forced conversions of Jews, which continued to occur throughout the Middle Ages.[52] While Muslims of the Holy Land were the primary targets, the Crusades soon expanded to other perceived enemies of Christianity inside Europe - pagans (Northern Crusades) and heretics (Albigensian Crusade). Jews become targets of the Crusaders, due to their being viewed as "enemies of God", responsible for Christ's crucifixion.[22]
The participants of the People's Crusade perpetrated theRhineland massacres of Jews in 1096, while the Second Crusade led to massacres in France. The gathering for the Third Crusade in 1189-1190 brought about massacres of Jews in London,[53] Northampton[54] andYork[55] Further massacres followed inFranconia (1298), and in France in 1320 as part of theShepherds' Crusade.[52] The1391 massacres of Jews in Spain, proved to be especially deadly, forcing many to convert. A prime mover of the violence in Spain was ArchdeaconFerrand Martinez, who called for thepersecution of the Jews in hishomilies and speeches,[56] claiming that he wasobeying God's commandment.[57] InAustria in 1420 all Jews were arrested and jailed, with 200 burned alive on the pyre.
Beyond massacres, Jews were repeatedly expelled from Europe. In 1290,King Edward I expelled all Jews from England; they were not permitted to return until 1656. Similar expulsions followed in France in 1306, Switzerland in 1348 and Germany in 1394,[58] In 1492 the Catholic King and Queen of Spain, gave Jews the choice of either baptism or expulsion, as a result more than 160,000 Jews were expelled.[59] Jews were only allowed officially back into Spain in 1868 with the establishment of a constitutional monarchy that allowed for the practice of faiths other than Catholicism, however, the ability to practice Judaism wasn't fully restored until 1968, when the edict of expulsion was formally repealed.[60] The most common reasons given for these banishments were the need for religious purity, protection of Christian citizens from Jewish money lending, or pressure from other citizens who hoped to profit from the Jews' absence.[58]
Jews were subjected to a wide range of legaldisabilities and restrictions in medieval Europe. Jews were excluded from many trades, the occupations varying with place and time, and determined by the influence of various non-Jewish competing interests. Often Jews were barred from all occupations but money-lending and peddling, with even these at times forbidden. Jews' association to money lending would carry on throughout history in the stereotype of Jews being greedy and perpetuating capitalism. Another stereotype that appeared in the 12th century wasthe blood libel, which alleged that the Jews killed Christian boys and used their blood to make unleavened bread.[61] Such accusations led to persecutions and killing of Jews.
In the later medieval period, the number of Jews who were permitted to reside in certain places was limited; they were concentrated inghettos, and they were also not allowed to own land; they were forced to pay discriminatory taxes whenever they entered cities or districts other than their own.[62] TheOath More Judaico, the form of oath required from Jewish witnesses, developed bizarre or humiliating forms in some places, e.g. in the Swabian law of the 13th century, the Jew would be required to stand on the hide of a sow or a bloody lamb.[63]
Sicut Judaeis (the "Constitution for the Jews") was the official position of the papacy regarding Jews throughout the Middle Ages and later.[64] The firstpapal bull was issued in about 1120 byCalixtus II, intended to protect Jews who suffered during theFirst Crusade, and was reaffirmed by many popes, even until the 15th century although they were not always strictly upheld.
The bull forbade, besides other things, Christians from coercing Jews to convert, or to harm them, or to take their property, or to disturb the celebration of their festivals, or to interfere with their cemeteries, on pain of excommunication:[65]
We decree that no Christian shall use violence to force them to be baptized, so long as they are unwilling and refuse. [...] Without the judgment of the political authority of the land, no Christian shall presume to wound them or kill them or rob them of their money or change the good customs that they have thus far enjoyed in the place where they live.[66]
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While some popes offered protection to Jews, others implemented restrictive policies and actions that contributed to their marginalization and persecution. A key role was played byPope Innocent III who justified his calls for lay and Church authorities to restrict Jewish "insolence" by claiming God made Jews slaves for rejecting and killing Christ. He proclaimed them to be the enemies of Christ, who must be kept in a position of social inferiority and prevented from exercising power over Christians.[67]
Devaluing testimony of Jews: TheThird Lateran Council, convened byPope Alexander III in 1179, declared the testimony of Christians should be always accepted over the testimony of Jews, that those who believe the testimony of Jews should beanathemized, and that Jews should be subject to Christians.[68] It forbade Christians serving Jews and Muslims in their homes, calling for the excommunication of those who do.
Prohibitions on holding public office. TheFourth Lateran Council, of 1215, convened byPope Innocent III, declared: "Since it is absurd that a blasphemer of Christ exercise authority over Christians, we ... renew in this general council what the Synod of Toledo (589) wisely enacted in this matter, prohibiting Jews from being given preference in the matter of public offices, since in such capacity they are most troublesome to the Christians"[68] These prohibitions remained in effect for centuries.[69][70][71]
Distinctive clothing and badges: TheFourth Lateran Council required Jews to wear distinctive clothing or badges to distinguish them from Christians. The reason given for this was to enforce prohibitions against sexual intercourse between Christians and Jews and Muslims.[68] This practice of requiring Jews to wear distinctive clothing and badges was reinforced by subsequent popes and became widespread across Europe.[71] Such markings led to threats, extortion and violence against Jews.[72] This requirement was only removed with theJewish Emancipation followingthe Enlightenment, but the Nazis revived it. The council also forbade Jews and Muslims from appearing in public during the last three days of Easter.
Condemnations and burning of the Talmund: In 1239,Pope Gregory IX sent a letter to priest in France with accusations against theTalmund by aFranciscan. He ordered the confiscation of Jewish books while Jews were gathered in synagogue, and that all such books be "burned at the stake.” Similar instructions were conveyed to the kings of France, England, Spain, and Portugal. 24 wagons of Jewish books were burned in Paris. Additional condemnations of the Talmud were issued by PopesInnocent IV in his bull of 1244,Alexander IV,John XXII in 1320, andAlexander V in 1409.Pope Eugenius IV issued a bull prohibiting Jews from studying the Talmud following the Council of Basle, 1431–43.[73]
Spanish Inquisition: In 1478Pope Sixtus IV issued a bull which authorized the Spanish Inquisition.[59] This institutionalized the persecution of Jews who had converted to Christianity (conversos), due to mass violence against Jews by Catholics (e.g. theMassacre of 1391). The Inquisition employed torture and property confiscation, thousands were burned at the stake. In 1492 Jews were given the choice of either baptism or expulsion, as a result more than 160,000 Jews were expelled.[59]
Portuguese Inquisition: In 1536Pope Paul III established thePortuguese Inquisition with a papal bull. The major target of the Portuguese Inquisition were Jewish converts toCatholicism, who were suspected ofsecretly practicing Judaism. Many of these were originallySpanish Jews who had left Spain for Portugal, when Spain forced Jews to convert to Christianity or leave. The number of these victims (between 1540 and 1765) is estimated at 40,000.[74]
Ghettos: In 1555,Pope Paul IV issued the papal bullCum nimis absurdum, which forced Jews in thePapal States to live inghettos. It declared "absurd" that Jews, condemned by God to slavery for their faults, had "invaded" the Papal States and were living freely among Christians. It justified restrictions by asserting that Jews were "slaves" for their deeds, while Christians were "freed" by Jesus, and that Jews should see "the true light" and convert to Catholicism. This policy was later adopted in other parts of Europe. TheRoman Ghetto, established in 1555, was one of the best-known Jewish ghettos, existing until the Papal States were abolished in 1870, and Jews were no longer restricted[75]
Forced conversions and expulsions: Some popes supported or initiated forced conversions and expulsions of Jews. For example,Pope Pius V expelled Jews from the Papal States in 1569, with the exception of Rome and Ancona. In 1593Pope Clement VIII expelled the Jews from thePapal States with the bull,Caeca et Obdurata Hebraeorum perfidia (meaningThe blind and obdurate perfidy of the Hebrews[76])Pope Innocent III in 1201 authorized the forced baptism of Jews in southern France, declaring that those who had been forcibly baptized must remain Christian.[77]
Restrictions on Jewish economic activities: Various popes imposed restrictions on Jewish economic activities, limiting their professions and ability to own property. In 1555Pope Paul IV, in his bullCum nimis absurdum, prohibited Jews from engaging in most professions, restricting them primarily to moneylending and selling second-hand goods. This bull also forbade Jews from owning real estate and limited them to one synagogue per city. Previously the Fourth Lateran Council, sought"to protect the Christians against cruel oppression by the Jews", who extort Christians with "oppressive and immoderate" interest rates.[68]
Antisemitism in popular European Christian culture escalated beginning in the 13th century.Blood libels andhost desecration drew popular attention and led to many cases of persecution against Jews. Many believed Jews poisoned wells to cause plagues. In the case of blood libel, it was widely believed that the Jews would kill a child before Easter and needed Christian blood to bake matzo. Throughout history, if a Christian child was murdered accusations of blood libel would arise no matter how small the Jewish population. The Church often added to the fire by portraying the dead child as a martyr who had been tortured, and who had powers like Jesus was believed to. Sometimes the children were even made into saints.[78] Antisemitic imagery such asJudensau andEcclesia et Synagoga recurred in Christian art and architecture. Anti-Jewish Easter holiday customs such as theBurning of Judas continue to the present time.[79]
In Iceland, one of the hymns repeated in the days leading up to Easter includes the lines:[80]
The righteous Law of Moses
The Jews here misapplied,
Which their deceit exposes,
Their hatred and their pride.
The judgement is the Lord's.
When by falsification
The foe makes accusation,
It's His to make awards.
During theMiddle Ages inEuropepersecutions and formalexpulsions of Jews were liable to occur at intervals, and this was also the case for other minority communities, regardless of whether they were religious or ethnic. There were particular outbursts of riotous persecution during theRhineland massacres of 1096 in Germany, these massacres coincided with the lead-up to theFirst Crusade, many of the killings were committed by the crusaders as they traveled to the East. There were many local expulsions from cities by local rulers and city councils. In Germany, theHoly Roman Emperor generally tried to restrain the persecution, if only for economic reasons, but it was frequently unable to exert much influence. In theEdict of Expulsion,King Edward I expelled all of the Jews from England in 1290 (after he collected ransom from 3,000 of the wealthiest Jews), based on the accusation that they were practicingusury and undermining loyalty to the dynasty. In 1306, there was a wave of persecution in France, and there were also widespreadBlack Death Jewish persecutions because many Christians accused the Jews of either causing or spreading the plague.[81][82] As late as 1519, the Imperial city ofRegensburg took advantage of the recent death ofEmperor Maximilian I to expel its 500 Jews.[83]
"Officially, the medieval Catholic church never advocated the expulsion of all of the Jews from Christendom nor did it repudiate Augustine's doctrine of Jewish witness... Still, late medieval Christendom frequently ignored its mandates".[84]
The largest expulsion of Jews followed theReconquista or the reunification of Spain, and it preceded theexpulsion of the Muslims who would not convert, despite the protection of their religious rights promised by theTreaty of Granada (1491). On 31 March 1492Ferdinand II of Aragon andIsabella I of Castile, the rulers ofSpain who financedChristopher Columbus' voyage to the New World just a few months later in 1492, declared that all Jews in their territories should either convert to Christianity or leave the country.[85][86]
While some converted, many others left forPortugal,France,Italy (including thePapal States),Netherlands,Poland, theOttoman Empire, andNorth Africa. Many of those who had fled to Portugal were later expelled byKing Manuel in 1497 or left to avoid forced conversion andpersecution.[87][88]
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On 14 July 1555,Pope Paul IV issued thepapal bullCum nimis absurdum which revoked all the rights of the Jewish community and placed religious and economic restrictions onJews in thePapal States, renewed anti-Jewish legislation and subjected Jews to various degradations and restrictions on their freedom.[89]
The bull established theRoman Ghetto and required Jews of Rome, which had existed as a community since before Christian times and which numbered about 2,000 at the time, to live in it. The Ghetto was a walled quarter with three gates that were locked at night. Jews were also restricted to onesynagogue per city.
Paul IV's successor,Pope Pius IV, enforced the creation of other ghettos in most Italian towns, and his successor,Pope Pius V, recommended them to other bordering states.
Martin Luther at first made overtures towards the Jews, believing that the "evils" ofCatholicism had prevented their conversion to Christianity. When his call to convert to his version of Christianity was unsuccessful, he became hostile to them.[90][91][92]
In his bookOn the Jews and Their Lies, Luther excoriates them as "venomous beasts, vipers, disgusting scum, canders,[clarification needed] devils incarnate." He provided detailed recommendations for apogrom against them, calling for their permanentoppression and expulsion, writing "Their private houses must be destroyed and devastated, they could be lodged in stables. Let the magistrates burn their synagogues and let whatever escapes be covered with sand and mud. Let them be forced to work, and if this avails nothing, we will be compelled to expel them like dogs in order not to expose ourselves to incurring divine wrath and eternal damnation from the Jews and their lies." At one point he wrote: "...we are at fault in not slaying them..." a passage that "may be termed the first work of modern anti-Semitism, and a giant step forward on the road tothe Holocaust."[93]
Luther's harsh comments about the Jews are seen by many as a continuation of medieval Christian antisemitism. In his final sermon shortly before his death, however, Luther preached: "We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord," but also in the same sermon stated that Jews were "our public enemy" and if they refused conversion were "malicious," guilty of blasphemy and would work to kill gentile believers in Christ.[94]
In accordance with the anti-Jewish precepts of theRussian Orthodox Church,[95]: 14 Russia's discriminatory policies towards Jews intensified when thepartition of Poland in the 18th century resulted, for the first time in Russian history, in the possession of land with a large Jewish population.[95]: 28 This land was designated as thePale of Settlement from which Jews were forbidden to migrate into the interior of Russia.[95]: 28 In 1772Catherine II, the empress of Russia, forced the Jews living in the Pale of Settlement to stay in theirshtetls and forbade them from returning to the towns that they occupied before the partition of Poland.[96]
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Throughout the 19th century and into the 20th, the Roman Catholic Church still incorporated strong antisemitic elements, despite increasing attempts to separate anti-Judaism (opposition to the Jewish religion on religious grounds) and racial antisemitism. Brown University historianDavid Kertzer, working from the Vatican archive, has argued in his bookThe Popes Against the Jews that in the 19th and early 20th centuries the Roman Catholic Church adhered to a distinction between "good antisemitism" and "bad antisemitism". The "bad" kind promoted hatred of Jews because of their descent. This was considered un-Christian because the Christian message was intended for all of humanity regardless of ethnicity; anyone could become a Christian. The "good" kind criticized allegedJewish conspiracies to control newspapers, banks, and other institutions, to care only about the accumulation of wealth, etc. Many Catholic bishops wrote articles criticizing Jews on such grounds, and, when they were accused of promoting hatred of Jews, they would remind people that they condemned the "bad" kind of antisemitism. Kertzer's work is not without critics. Jewish-Christian relations scholarRabbi David G. Dalin, for example, criticized Kertzer in theWeekly Standard for using evidence selectively.[citation needed]
Thecounter-revolutionary Catholic royalistLouis de Bonald stands out among the earliest figures to explicitly call for the reversal of Jewish emancipation in the wake of theFrench Revolution.[97][98] Bonald's attacks on the Jews are likely to have influencedNapoleon's decision to limit the civil rights of Alsatian Jews.[99][100][101][102] Bonald's articleSur les juifs (1806) was one of the most venomous screeds of its era and furnished a paradigm which combined anti-liberalism, a defense of a rural society, traditional Christian antisemitism, and the identification of Jews with bankers and finance capital, which would in turn influence many subsequent right-wing reactionaries such asRoger Gougenot des Mousseaux,Charles Maurras, andÉdouard Drumont, nationalists such asMaurice Barrès andPaolo Orano, and antisemitic socialists such asAlphonse Toussenel.[97][103][104] Bonald furthermore declared that the Jews were an "alien" people, a "state within a state", and should be forced to wear a distinctive mark to more easily identify and discriminate against them.[97][105]
In the 1840s, the popular counter-revolutionary Catholic journalistLouis Veuillot propagated Bonald's arguments against the Jewish "financial aristocracy" along with vicious attacks against the Talmud and the Jews as a "deicidal people" driven by hatred to "enslave" Christians.[106][105] Gougenot des Mousseaux'sLe Juif, le judaïsme et la judaïsation des peuples chrétiens (1869) has been called a "Bible of modern anti-Semitism" and was translated into German by Nazi ideologueAlfred Rosenberg.[105] Between 1882 and 1886 alone, French priests published twenty antisemitic books blaming France's ills on the Jews and urging the government to consign them back to the ghettos, expel them, or hang them from the gallows.[105]
In Italy, the Jesuit priestAntonio Bresciani's highly popular novel 1850 novelL'Ebreo di Verona (The Jew of Verona) shaped religious antisemitism for decades, as did his work forLa Civiltà Cattolica, which he helped launch.[107][108]
Pope Pius VII (1800–1823) had the walls of the Jewishghetto in Rome rebuilt after the Jews wereemancipated byNapoleon, and Jews were restricted to the ghetto through the end of thePapal States in 1870. Official Catholic organizations, such as theJesuits, banned candidates "who are descended from the Jewish race unless it is clear that their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have belonged to the Catholic Church" until 1946.
In Russia, under the Tsarist regime, antisemitism intensified in the early years of the 20th century and was given official favor when the secret police forged theProtocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated document purported to be a transcription of a plan by Jewish elders to achieveglobal domination.[109] Violence against the Jews in theKishinev pogrom in 1903 was continued after the 1905 revolution by the activities of theBlack Hundreds.[110] TheBeilis Trial of 1913 showed that it was possible to revive the blood libel accusation in Russia.
Catholic writers such asErnest Jouin, who published theProtocols in French, seamlessly blended racial and religious antisemitism, as in his statement that "from the triple viewpoint of race, of nationality, and of religion, the Jew has become the enemy of humanity."[111]Pope Pius XI praised Jouin for "combating our mortal [Jewish] enemy" and appointed him to high papal office as aprotonotary apostolic.[112][111]
In 1916, in the midst of theFirst World War,American Jews petitioned Pope Benedict XV on behalf of thePolish Jews.
During a meeting with Roman Catholic BishopWilhelm Berning of Osnabrück On April 26, 1933, Hitler declared:
I have been attacked because of my handling of the Jewish question. The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc., because it recognized the Jews for what they were. In the epoch of liberalism, the danger was no longer recognized. I am moving back toward the time in which a fifteen-hundred-year-long tradition was implemented. I do not set race over religion, but I recognize the representatives of this race as pestilent for the state and for the Church, and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions.
The transcript of the discussion does not contain any response by Bishop Berning.Martin Rhonheimer does not consider this unusual because in his opinion, for a Catholic Bishop in 1933, there was nothing particularly objectionable "in this historically correct reminder".[113]
The Nazis usedMartin Luther's book,On the Jews and Their Lies (1543), tojustify their claim that their ideology was morally righteous. Luther seems to advocate the murder of Jews who refused to convert to Christianity by writing that "we are at fault in not slaying them."[114]
ArchbishopRobert Runcie asserted that: "Without centuries of Christian anti-Semitism, Hitler's passionate hatred would never have been so fervently echoed... because for centuries Christians have held Jews collectively responsible for the death ofJesus. On Good Friday in times past, Jews have cowered behind locked doors with fear of a Christian mob seeking 'revenge' for deicide. Without the poisoning of Christian minds through the centuries, the Holocaust is unthinkable."[1]: 21 The dissident Catholic priestHans Küng has written that "Nazi anti-Judaism was the work of godless, anti-Christian criminals. But it would not have been possible without the almost two thousand years' pre-history of 'Christian' anti-Judaism..."[2]: 169 The consensus among historians is thatNazism as a whole was either unrelated or actively opposed toChristianity,[6] andHitler was strongly critical of it,[115] although Germany remained mostly Christian during the Nazi era.
The documentDabru Emet was issued by over 220rabbis andintellectuals from all branches ofJudaism in 2000 as a statement aboutJewish-Christian relations. This document states,
Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon. Without the long history of Christian anti-Judaism and Christian violence against Jews, Nazi ideology could not have taken hold nor could it have been carried out. Too many Christians participated in, or were sympathetic to, Nazi atrocities against Jews. Other Christians did not protest sufficiently against these atrocities. But Nazism itself was not an inevitable outcome of Christianity.
According to AmericanhistorianLucy Dawidowicz, antisemitism has a long history within Christianity. The line of "anti-Semitic descent" from Luther, the author ofOn the Jews and Their Lies, to Hitler is "easy to draw." In herThe War Against the Jews, 1933–1945, she contends that Luther and Hitler were obsessed by the "demonologized universe" inhabited by Jews. Dawidowicz writes that the similarities between Luther's anti-Jewish writings and modern antisemitism are no coincidence because they derived from a common history ofJudenhass, which can be traced toHaman's advice toAhasuerus. Although modern German antisemitism also has its roots in Germannationalism and theliberal revolution of 1848,Christian antisemitism she writes is a foundation that was laid by theRoman Catholic Church and "upon which Luther built."[3]
TheConfessing Church was, in 1934, the first Christian opposition group. The Catholic Church officially condemned the Nazi theory of racism in Germany in 1937 with theencyclical "Mit brennender Sorge", signed byPope Pius XI, and CardinalMichael von Faulhaber led the Catholic opposition, preaching against racism.
Many individual Christian clergy and laypeople of all denominations had to pay for their opposition with their lives, including:
By the 1940s, few Christians were willing to publicly oppose Nazi policy, but many Christians secretly helped save the lives of Jews. There are many sections of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Museum,Yad Vashem, which are dedicated to honoring these "Righteous Among the Nations".
Before he became Pope, Cardinal Pacelli addressed theInternational Eucharistic Congress inBudapest on 25–30 May 1938 during which he referred to the Jews "whose lips curse [Christ] and whose hearts reject him even today"; at this time antisemitic laws were in the process of being formulated in Hungary.[116]
The 1937 encyclicalMit brennender Sorge was issued byPope Pius XI,[117] but it was drafted by the futurePope Pius XII[118] and it was also read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches, it condemnedNazi ideology and scholars have characterized it as the "first great official public document to dare to confront and criticizeNazism" and "one of the greatest such condemnations ever issued by the Vatican."[119]
In the summer of 1942, in the presence of his college of Cardinals, Pius explained the reasons for the great gulf that existed between Jews and Christians at the theological level: "Jerusalem has responded to His call and to His grace with the same rigid blindness and stubborn ingratitude that has led it along the path of guilt to the murder of God." Historian Guido Knopp describes these comments of Pius as being "incomprehensible" at a time when "Jerusalem was being murdered by the million".[120] This traditional adversarial relationship with Judaism would be reversed inNostra aetate, which was issued during theSecond Vatican Council starting from 1962, during the papacy ofJohn XXIII.[121]
Prominent members of the Jewish community have contradicted the criticisms of Pius and they have also spoken highly about his efforts to protect Jews.[122] The Israeli historianPinchas Lapide interviewed war survivors and concluded that Pius XII "was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands". Some historians dispute this estimate.[123]
TheChristian Identity movement, theKu Klux Klan, and otherWhite supremacist groups have expressed antisemitic views. They claim that their antisemitism is based on purported Jewish control of the media, control of international banks, involvement inradicalleft-wing politics, and the Jews' promotion ofmulticulturalism,anti-Christian groups,liberalism and perverse organizations. They rebuke charges ofracism by claiming that Jews who share their views maintain membership in their organizations. A racial belief that is common among these groups, but not universal among them, is analternative history doctrine concerning the descendants of theLost Tribes of Israel. In some of its forms, this doctrine absolutely denies the view that modern Jews have anyethnic connection to theIsrael of the Bible. Instead, according to extreme forms of this doctrine, the trueIsraelites and the true humans are the members of the Adamic (white) race. These groups are often rejected and not considered Christian groups by mainstreamChristian denominations and the majority ofChristians around the world.[124][125]
Antisemitism remains a substantial problem in Europe and to a greater or lesser degree,it also exists in many other nations, includingEastern Europe and theformer Soviet Union, and tensions between someMuslim immigrants and Jews have increased across Europe.[126][127] TheUS State Department reports that antisemitism has increased dramatically in Europe and Eurasia since 2000.[128]
Whileit has been on the decline since the 1940s, a measurable amount ofantisemitism still exists in the United States, although acts of violence are rare. For example, the influentialEvangelical preacherBilly Graham and the then-presidentRichard Nixon were caught on tape in the early 1970s while they were discussing matters like how to address theJews' control of theAmerican media.[129][130] This belief in Jewish conspiracies and domination of the media was similar to those of Graham's former mentors:William Bell Riley chose Graham to succeed him as the second president of Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School and evangelistMordecai Ham led the meetings where Graham first believed in Christ. Both held strongly antisemitic views.[131] The 2001 survey by theAnti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish group which devotes its efforts to thefight against antisemitism and other forms ofracism, reported 1432 acts of antisemitism in the United States that year. The figure included 877 acts of harassment, including verbal intimidation, threats, and physical assaults.[132] ManyChristian Zionists are also accused of espousing antisemitism, such asJohn Hagee, who argued that the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by angering God.[133]
Relations between Jews and Christians have dramatically improved since the 20th century. According to a global poll which was conducted in 2014 by the ADL, data was collected from 102 countries concerning their population's attitudes towards Jews and it revealed that only 24% of the world's Christians held views that were considered antisemitic according to the ADL's index, compared to 49% of the world's Muslims.[134]
In the early 21st century, antisemitic beliefs among Western Christians have undergone something of a revival due to the rise of thealt-right and related political moments. A popular podcast,Stone Choir, promotes antisemitic theories, including the belief that theHebrew language is inherently demonic and that Biblical translations such as theLatin Vulgate should be avoided because they use the Hebrew as a source, rather than the GreekSeptuagint. The podcast caters to a subculture of primarily young, white Christian men who have been nicknamed TheoBros. Other TheoBro-affiliated podcasts also promote antisemitism.[135]
Many Christians do not consideranti-Judaism to beantisemitism. They regard anti-Judaism as adisagreement with the tenets of Judaism by religiously sincere people, while they regard antisemitism as an emotional bias or hatred which does not specifically target the religion of Judaism. Under this approach, anti-Judaism is not regarded as antisemitism because it does not involve actual hostility towards the Jewish people, instead, anti-Judaism only rejects the religious beliefs of Judaism.[citation needed]
Others believe that anti-Judaism is the rejection of Judaism as a religion or opposition to Judaism's beliefs and practicesessentially because of their source inJudaism or because a belief or practice is associated with the Jewish people. (But seesupersessionism)
Several scholars, including Susannah Heschel,[7] Gavin I Langmuir[136] and Uriel Tal[7] hold the position that anti-Judaism directly led to modern antisemitism.Pope John Paul II in "We Remember: A Reflection on theShoah," and the Jewish declaration on Christianity,Dabru Emet opinionated the position that "Christian theological anti-Judaism is a phenomenon which is distinct from modern antisemitism, which is rooted in economic and racial thought, so that Christian teachings should not be held responsible for antisemitism".[7]
Although some Christians did consider anti-Judaism to be contrary to Christian teaching in the past, this view was not widely expressed by Christian leaders and lay people. In many cases, the practical tolerance towards the Jewish religion and Jews prevailed. Some Christian groups condemned verbal anti-Judaism, particularly in their early years.[citation needed]
Some Jewish organizations have denounced evangelistic and missionary activities that specifically target Jews by labeling themantisemitic.[137][138][139]
TheSouthern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the U.S., has explicitly rejected suggestions that it should back away from seeking to convert Jews, a position which critics have called antisemitic, but a position whichBaptists believe is consistent with their view that salvation is solely found through faith in Christ. In 1996 the SBC approved a resolution calling for efforts to seek the conversion of Jews "as well as the salvation of 'every kindred and tongue and people and nation.'"
MostEvangelicals agree with the SBC's position, and some of them also support efforts that specifically seek the Jews' conversion. Additionally, these Evangelical groups are among the most pro-Israel groups. (For more information, seeChristian Zionism.) Onecontroversial group which has received a considerable amount of support from some Evangelical churches isJews for Jesus, which claims that Jews can "complete" their Jewish faith by accepting Jesus as the Messiah.
ThePresbyterian Church (USA), theUnited Methodist Church, and theUnited Church of Canada have ended their efforts to convert Jews. WhileAnglicans do not, as a rule, seek converts from other Christian denominations,[140] the General Synod has affirmed that "the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ is for all and must be shared with all including people from other faiths or of no faith and that to do anything else would be to institutionalize discrimination".[141]
TheRoman Catholic Church formerly operated religious congregations that specifically aimed to convert Jews. Some of these congregations were founded by Jewish converts, like theCongregation of Our Lady of Sion, whose members werenuns and ordainedpriests. Many Catholic saints were specifically noted for their missionary zeal to convert Jews, such asVincent Ferrer. After theSecond Vatican Council, many missionary orders that aimed to convert Jews to Christianity no longer actively sought to missionize (orproselytize) them. However,Traditionalist Roman Catholic groups, congregations, and clergymen continue to advocate the missionizing of Jews according to traditional patterns, sometimes with success (e.g., theSociety of St. Pius X which has notable Jewish converts among its faithful, many of whom have become traditionalist priests).
TheChurch's Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) is one of the ten official mission agencies of theChurch of England.The Society for Distributing Hebrew Scriptures is another organization, but it is not affiliated with the established Church.
There are several prophecies concerning the conversion of the Jewish people to Christianity in the scriptures ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). TheBook of Mormon teaches that the Jewish people need to believe in Jesus to be gathered to Israel.[142] TheDoctrine & Covenants teaches that the Jewish people will be converted to Christianity during the second coming when Jesus appears to them and shows them his wounds.[143][144] It teaches that if the Jewish people do not convert to Christianity, then the world would be cursed.[145] Early LDS prophets, such as Brigham Young[146]: 144 and Wildord Woodruff,[144] taught that Jewish people could not be truly converted because of the curse which resulted fromJewish deicide.[147]: 205–206 However, after the establishment of the state of Israel, many LDS members felt that it was time for the Jewish people to start converting toMormonism. During the 1950s, the LDS Church established several missions that specifically targeted Jewish people in several cities in the United States.[146]: 149 After the LDS church began to give the priesthood to all males regardless of race in 1978, it also started to deemphasize the importance of race concerning conversion.[146]: 151 This led to a void of doctrinal teachings that resulted in a spectrum of views on how LDS members interpret scripture and previous teachings.[146]: 154 According to research which was conducted byArmand Mauss, most LDS members believe that the Jewish people will need to be converted to Christianity to be forgiven for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.[27]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also been criticized forbaptizing deceased Jewish Holocaust victims. In 1995, in part as a result of public pressure, church leaders promised to put new policies into place that would help the church to end the practice, unless it was specifically requested or approved by the surviving spouses, children or parents of the victims.[148] However, the practice has continued, including the baptism of the parents of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocateSimon Wiesenthal.[149]
In recent years, there has been much to note in the way of reconciliation between some Christian groups and the Jews.[150][151][152][153]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Most Mormons hold both kinds of beliefs simultaneously (hostility and affinity beliefs), because both are part of a generally orthodox Mormon outlook... The index of religious hostility toward Jews combines responses to the two questions about perpetual Jewish punishment for the Crucifixion and the requirement for their conversion as a condition of forgiveness.
