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From: abeles@mhuxm.UUCP (J. Abeles (Bellcore, Murray Hill, NJ))
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian,net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Historical Persecution of Jews
Message-ID: <532@mhuxm.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Mar-86 10:32:23 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxm.532
Posted: Fri Mar 14 10:32:23 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 23:34:20 EST
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
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Xref: lsuc net.religion.christian:380 net.religion.jewish:1902

> It seems to me that Jews have historically been easy marks for
> persecution.  I don't think that the primary reason for this persecution
> is that Judaism runs counter to Christianity.  That is a secondary reason at
> best.
(& etc., etc.)

In my opinion there are a lot of facts to be reconciled with any simple
theory explaining the persistent persecution of Jews and Judaism.
For starters, Jews have been viciously persecuted in virtually all
of the European countries (including the ones we view as enlightened
today such as England) in which they have resided.  Next, there have
been many other identifiable ethnic groups which were not similarly
persecuted.  Oh, yes, they may have been second-class citizens in
a foreign culture; that's different.

One possible conclusion would be that the lack of a homeland is
what causes persecution of Jews.  All other ethnic groups originate
somewhere or other and could go back there, giving them some strength.
Thus arose "The Jewish Question" and its solution was Zionism.
But antisemitism still continues and Soviet Russia still persecutes
Jews.  It is not inconceivable that further Jewish persecution could
occur on a grand scale (similar to Hitler) if the world economy
was seriously depressed as in Weimar Germany.

The real question is "Why are Jews chosen to be the scapegoats?"
Is is because we seem to be more financially successful than the
average?  Is that even true, or is it a distortion of statistics?
(Surely there are many incredibly wealthy non-Jews.)  Is it because
we are better educated than the average?  In Russia Jews are prevented
from competing on an equal basis for university entrance.  In the
United States the Ivy League Colleges and MIT have a greater proportion
of Jewish students than our number in the general population (some
3% in the general population).

Personally, I believe that one should not discount the influence
of the Christian Churches.  After all, during the Dark Ages the
only functioning institution was the Church (to some approximation).
And, the Church was virulently anti-Jewish during that time all
the way up to the sixties (the Catholic priests in Catholic
Europe did next to nothing to stop the Germans).  The Church
still does not recognize the State of Israel.  But more important
is the establishment of a culture among Christians over many
centuries, a culture which cannot be easily purged of its anti-Judaism,
and which lies just beneath the surface spread over many millions
of Christians.  It will take a long time before that can be changed.

--J. Abeles
  mhuxm!abeles