historynerd

Why were the jews been hated throughout european history?

The only answer I get is that they held many prominent jobs, like being good merchants and bankers.

But isn't there another explanation? Couldn't it had been because they had a different religion and thus other traditions, that thus threatened to undermine the social coherency in Europe?

Cedar Brown

They were always the "other." No matter where they went, they were always an alien group among a nation of alike people.

Lucius

Exactly. Fear and loathing of "the other" is something like a characteristic of humans.

pinguin

Christian bigotry. The Jews were accused of killing Jesus. Christians forgot though that Jesus was also a Jew.

Another reason it may have been the foreign origin of Jews. Jews were Middle Easterners, and as such foreign to Europe. Europe had a bad record of receiving immigrants from elsewhere, as it can be found when we compare the experience of Jews with the Gypsies, who came from India.

sturm

Please, somebody show me info about jews being hated in Orthodox eastern Europe?

Celticguy

How about the "pogroms" in Russia Sturm

Good old wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Jewish_pogroms_in_the_Russian_Empire

Patito de Hule

The were a number of reasons.

1) Among the greatest, IMO, is that they were always "the others" who always grouped together and maintained their own customs and traditions.

2) They were "Christ killers," but this was an ideological reason. Hans Morgenthau, in Politics Among Nations, defined ideology as a fictitious or pretended reason for a policy. That definition works here when leaders wanted to put down Jews for whatever (economic?) reasons, but the ideology for the masses becomes the real accepted reason.

3) They were at times refugees moving into a region in great numbers, thus causing some turmoil. An example would be Sephardic Jews moving to Eastern Europe or to the Ottoman Empire during the Spanish Inquisition. They were initially welcomed, but did cause some social disruption.

4) In some parts of Eastern Europe, Christians were not allowed to engage in money lending for interest or it was socially unacceptable to engage in the jeweller's trade. Jews who would practice these trades were welcomed, but were looked down on because of that such trades.

5) Often Jews had many international connections. Thus they were used by greedy nobles for connections so they could borrow large sums of money. This leads back into the ideological reasons about Jews being "Christ killers."

sturm

Ah yes the famous pogrom..
I think the skinheads in Russia are called "pogrom", i mean there group carry the name of those old sob's.
By the way, taken to consideration, orthodoxy in Russia was a bit violent no doubt.
Dimitry can tell us more if he checks this thread..

Patito de Hule

oops. double post

Toltec

Not intergrating into the local culture and choosing to stand out is a source of prejudice across the world today. Whether it be traditional Jews in London, Amish in the US, Mulsims in France or Cross Dressers in India.