TIC—Antisemitism: Then, Now, FOREVER

Antisemitism – Then, Now, FOREVER

Antisemitism has existed throughout the history of the Jewish people.  The rise of Christianity -- a religion ironically enough started by and for Jews -- gave it added virulence: The literary beauty of John's gospel is notably marred by its continually naming the Christ-killing mob as 'the Jews.'   Vicious Church rhetoric in turn gave rise to sundry Jewish catastrophes:  The expulsion in 1290 of all Jews from England; Jews being burned alive en masse for allegedly poisoning wells during the Black Plague of 1346-1353; the expulsion in 1492 of all Jews from Spain and Portugal and their subsequent persecution by the Inquisition; sundry Eastern European pogroms including the particularly brutal 1648 Cossack riots and massacres in Ukraine.  One might say that the 18th century Enlightenment led to a 19th century of tolerance and assimilation for the Jews.  But that would be too generalizing optimistic:  In France the Code Napoleon could not prevent the injustice of the Dreyfus trial; and the religious tolerance of Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria-Hungary was at odds with the proto-Naziism of Vienna's mayor Karl Lueger.  Pogroms continued apace, and Jews continued to be accused of using the blood of Christian children in their religious rituals, "blood libel" trials taking place as late as 1913 in Kiev.  Nor was America immune from Old World hate:  The creator of the Model T, Henry Ford, was also the promulgator of "The International Jew" -- a work inspired by the fraudulent "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and which in turn inspired "Mein Kampf."  Add to all this the politically disruptive hemoclysm that was the First World War and its Versailles Treaty that plunged Germany further into economic desperation and Austria into a little country overwhelmed by Jewish refugees from the further reaches of its former empire.  Out of this pan-Germanic chaos rose a would-be savior, someone who promised order and who, like his antisemitic predecessors, would scapegoat, persecute, and ultimately burn Jews:  Adolf Hitler, whose 12-year 'Reich' began with his election as German Chancellor in 1933.

Facilitator: Stanley Ruskin

Wednesday, February 15^th

1:00 pm to 2:30 pm

Complimentary (Reservations required)

Please visit www.thecommonsclub.com or call 239-949-3800