Antisemitism Quiz 3

Describe two ways modern antisemitism (18th c - now) is SIMILAR to “premodern” antisemitism.

1. some understanding as Jewishness as hereditary (purity of blood, nazi racial theory)

2. features of the imagined jew: conspiratorial, control all the money/power (elders of zion, apion’s blood libel (conspiratorial),

3. Jews scapegoated (germans blaming jews for their WWI loss, Rothschild family blamed for all the downsides of capitalism)

Describe two ways modern antisemitism (18th c - now) is DIFFERENT from “premodern” antisemitism.

1. modern based on non-(explicitly) religious worldview/not Christian-centralized worldview

2. Jews as a race

3. Mass media and mass politics heavily involved

Provide two historical examples of mass media playing a key role in antisemitic ideas. Provide time period, place, medium, and person/work.

1. Henry Ford’s newspaper The Dearborn Independent, 1920s

2. The Elders of Zion, Russia 1903, published as a document and published in papers

3. Father Charles Coughlin’s radio show, 1930s America

Give at least two aspects of modernity for which Jews have been blamed.

1. Nazis accused Jews for the rise of communism

2. Great Depression

3. Jews blamed for everything bad about Christianity

How did Enlightenment philosophers view Judaism?

• rejected “revealed religion (ie. religions based on belief in God’s alleged communications w/ humans)

• Jews and Judaism “infected” the world with Christianity *****

What was “Jewish Emancipation?”

• the process of removing the legal restrictions and social disabilities faced by the Jews and recognizing Jews as equal citizens

Where/When did Jewish emancipation take place?

Europe, 18th - 19th c

Why was Jewish emancipation controversial for non-Jews?

• *** There was a general sense that national citizenship conflicted with Jewish communal affiliation

• If Jews were to have civil and political rights just as non-Jews did, to what extent should they have to become like their fellow citizens? (ie. give up Jewishness to fit in)

• What did Jews have to do to become a “good” citizen?

  • Was it necessary to be a good Christian to be a good citizen?

Describe the Conservative’s perspective on Jewish emancipation.

Jews should have to convert to Christianity before being emancipated

Describe the Liberal’s perspective on Jewish emancipation.

Religion was a matter of personal conscience. Jews did not have to convert.

Describe the Radical’s perspective on Jewish emancipation.

All religious affiliations (including Christians) should be abolished

How were all of the perspectives on Jewish emancipation (conservative, liberty, radical) similar in their attitudes toward Jews?

• All had a general disdain for Jews

How did the Industrial Revolution shape the experience of Jewish emancipation?

• Jews were able to enter the workforce

• created a lot of economic expansion which created a lot of opportunities to make money (but also lots of risks to lose money and fall into poverty)

• Jews can now participate in the IR and become very wealthy (ie. Rothschild Family) —> accusations of Jews using economic events to exploit poor people.

Who were the Rothschild family?

• a wealthy Jewish family that did well financially during the recession that became a representation of the exploitation of capitalism

How did antisemites characterize the Rothschild family?

• portrayed as larger than others

• standing on large pile of money

• puppeteer

• hiding in French colors while manipulating those around them (wolf in sheep’s clothing)

What was the Dreyfus Affair?

• started when a cleaning lady snooped through a trashbin and found a paper showing there was a French officer spying on the French military for Germany

• Made France even more fearful and led to the incorrect conclusion that the only Jewish service member in the army was the spy (Alfred Dreyfus)

What are two roles that mass media played in the Dreyfus Affair?

1. Story is leaked to antisemitic press before Dreyfus is arrested (stated that Dreyfus sold secrets to Germany)

2. “Judas Dreyfus” cartoon (puts Dreyfus into the mold of a Jewish traitor)

3. Mass media caused a divide b/w those who supported Dreyfus and those who didn’t

4. 1898 —> J’Accuse! (Émile Zola) accuses the French gov’t for being unlawful, believes in Dreyfus’ innocence

Describe one way the Dreyfus Affair illustrates the BENEFITS of Jewish emancipation for Jews.

1. Dreyfus was able to be in a leadership role in the French Military

Describe one way the Dreyfus Affair illustrates the LIMITS of Jewish emancipation for Jews.

1. even when a Jew did everything correctly and was integrated into French society, it made no difference in the end and he was still blamed

2. When a Jew was successful, they would be attacked

What were the Russian pogroms?

• Pogrom = “destruction”

• riotous attacks on and massacres of Jews in the Russian empire

• came in 3 main waves

When and where were the Russian pogroms?

• Russia (USSR) including parts of Austria, Ukraine, Latvia, Belarus, etc.

• 3 waves:

  • 1881 - 1882 (after assassination of Tsar Alexander II —> Jews were blamed)

  • 1905 - 1906 (during 1905 revolution; Fiddler on the Roof, Jewish self-defense groups; mass immigration; most deaths - 30,000)

  • 1918 - 1920 (civil war in the former Russian empire)

Describe two major impacts of the pogroms on Jews in the Russian empire.

1. many Jews fled to USA during the 1905-1906 pogroms

2. A lot of their rights were revoked after the first wave (1881 - 1882)

3. first big wave of immigration to Palestine (now Israel)

What political movement did many non-Jewish Russians associate with Jews?

Capitalism

What are the Protocols of The Elders of Zion?

• forged conversation that claims to be meeting records from a meeting with a group of powerful Jews

• conversation discussed how they (the Jews) were going to bring a political revolution to enhance their power

  • “tyranny of capital” —> Jews control capitalism and all the money

When and where were The Protocols of The Elders of Zion published?

Russian Empire, 1903

Describe two central messages of The Protocols of The Elders of Zion.

1. Jews are controlling the government and all of the money

2. Jews make people poor so they can have more power over them

3. Every kind of political movements (capitalism, socialism, anarchism) are all Jewish inventions made to cause chaos

Explain two reasons why expressions of antisemitism have, overall, been more muted in the USA than in many other parts of the world.

1. Foundation of USA is freedom of religion and it is in the constitution —> gives Jews a legal document to point to and bring a case against someone for antisemitism

2. Jews could take people to court for injustices

3. Pre-1880s, the Jewish population was very small, highly assimilated, and mostly German

4. Everyone too focused on the black/white racial divide

Provide two reasons for the increase of antisemitism in the USA in the 1880s.

1. Large-scale Jewish immigration from E. Europe and Russia, Jews living in poverty

2. Theories of Eugenics

3. Popularity of Nativism

What is nativism?

• anti-immigrant sentiment

• the policy of protecting the interests of native-born against those of immigrants)

What are Eugenics?

• coined in 1881 by British naturalist and mathematician Francis Galton

• the science of the improvement of the human race by selective breeding

How did Eugenics affect attitudes toward Jews during the first half of the 20th c.?

• inspired the Nazi’s forced sterilization program

• stated that Jewishness is a race and “the cross between any of the three European races and a Jew is a Jew)

How did Henry Ford spread his antisemitic views?

• printed The Protocols of The Elders of Zion in English in his newspaper in the 1920s —> distributed them at his car dealerships

• his newspaper The Dearborn Independent

Provide two examples of expressions of antisemitism in the USA during the 1920s and 1930s.

1. blamed Jews for the Great Depression and the Communism/accused them of being communists

2. Leo Frank —> lynched for false murder charge 1915

3. American Nazi Rallies (ex. Madison Square Garden 1939 “Pro-American rally”)

What are two historical developments that Jews were blamed for in the USA during the 1930s?

• Great Depression

• USA entering into WWII

List two features of Nazi antisemitism that were NOT NEW in the history of antisemitism.

1. demonization of Jews expressed through visuals of Jews w/ beast-like features

2. Diseased Jews

List two features of Nazi antisemitism that WERE NEW in the history of antisemitism.

1. eugenics

2. ruling political party takes beliefs about “race” to new levels of mania

3. believed they could tell race visually and by measuring parts of them

List two groups other than Jews whom Nazis sought to exterminate.

1. Romani people (Gypsies)

2. Disabled people (mentally or physically)

3. Gay people

4. Slavics

In less than one sentence, define propoganda.

mass manipulation that appeals to peoples’ emotions

List two methods Nazis used to spread anti-Jewish propoganda.

1. radio (give people radios/make them cheaper —> everyone has radios —> cant escape the propos)

2. Unprecedented massive rallies

3. Watching rallies in movie theaters

List two stipulations of the Nuremberg laws of 1935.

1. prohibits marriage and sex between a Jew and a non-Jew

2. citizenship —> a Reich citizen can only be a person of German or German-related blood who proves by his attitude that he is willing and capable of serving the German people and the Reich faithfully

List three types of evidence that document the Holocaust.

1. written documents by victims and the Nazi gov’t

2. documents from allied forces who entered Germany at the end of WWII

3. eyewitness testimonies

4. photos

5. existence of camps

6. Nazi victims/survivors (both Jewish and non-Jewish)

Provide two examples of types of Holocaust denial.

1. Holocaust inversion —> potraying Israel and/or Israelis as Nazis; claims the “the victims have become the perpetrators

2. Accusing Jews of exaggerating the Holocaust to gain sympathy for the state of Israel

3. Saying Jews exaggerated the number of Jewish deaths

4. Saying there were no gas chambers

In less than one sentence, explain one way Holocaust denial is antisemitic.

1. Denies the trauma, suffering, and death of Jews as well as the events leading up to the Holocaust

2. Implies that Jews exaggerated for their own agenda on a large scale —> conspiratorial accusation