Antisemitic stereotypes

Antisemitic stereotypes, also known as antisemitic tropes,^[1] refer to antisemitic stereotypes about Jews.^[1]

Overview

Antisemitism, or Judeophobia, is the fear, dislike or hatred of Jews. Antisemitic stereotypes were created by those holding beliefs attributable to antisemitism. Antisemitic stereotypes have been rife throughout human history.

Consequences

Antisemitic stereotypes shaped the laws of countless empires throughout history and contributed to genocides of Jews, the worst of which was the Holocaust.

Recent trend

Further information: Holocaust inversion and Hamas § Antisemitism

Recent antisemitic stereotypes tend to feature the denial or trivialization of atrocities against Jews, especially the denial or trivialization of the Holocaust (or the Jewish exodus from Muslim countries since 1948).^[2]

Holocaust denial or trivialization

Holocaust deniers tend to spread the lie that the Holocaust has been "fabricated" or "exaggerated to benefit Israel".^[3]

October 7 denial or trivialization

The most recent example is the denial or trivialization of the Hamas-led October 7 massacre within Israel in 2023, whose victims were overwhelmingly Jewish, including several Holocaust survivors.^[4]

Stereotypes

Below is a summary of common antisemitic stereotypes, many of which still believed by nearly half of the world's adult population.^[5]

Ancient

Main articles: Jewish deicide and Supersessionism

1. Jews killed Jesus^[6][7]
2. Jews betrayed their prophets^[6][7]
3. Jews conspire against Christianity^[8]

Middle Ages

1. Jews take blood from Christian babies for rituals (blood libel)^[8][9]
2. Jews worship Satan^[6][7]
3. Jews poison wells to cause epidemics, including the 14th century Black Death^[8][10]

Modern

1. Jews control mass media^[8][11]
2. Jews control banks^[8][12]
3. Jews control governments around the world^[13][14]
4. Jews create wars and revolutions around the world^[8][15]

Contemporary

Further information: Secondary antisemitism, Holocaust denial, Holocaust inversion, and Holocaust trivialization

1. Jews are rootless cosmopolitans^[16][17]
2. Jews are fake European converts to Judaism descended from the Khazars^[18][19]
3. Jews ran the Atlantic slave trade^[19][20]
4. Jews created the AIDS and COVID-19^[21]

Contradictory accusations

In her 2003 book The Holocaust and Antisemitism: A Short History, Jocelyn Hellig wrote:^[22]

Michael Curtis has pointed out the many directly contradictory accusations, claiming that Jews are simultaneously:

• alienated from society but also cosmopolitans
• isolated but also intermingled among other peoples
• individualist but also communal
• capitalist exploiters and international financiers but also revolutionary Marxists
• materialistic but also People of the Book
• militant aggressors but also cowardly pacifists
• arrogant but also timid
• superstitious but also promoters of secularism
• upholders of rigid law but also morally decadent
• a chosen people but also an inferior race
• crucifiers of Christ but also inventors of Christianity

Argentinian-Israeli educator Gustavo Perednik (b. 1956) wrote in his book Judeophobia:^[23][24]

The Jews were accused by the nationalists of being the creators of Communism; by the Communists of ruling Capitalism. If they live in non-Jewish countries, they are accused of double-loyalties; if they live in the Jewish country, of being racists. When they spend their money, they are reproached for being ostentatious; when they don't spend their money, of being avaricious. They are called rootless cosmopolitans or hardened chauvinists. If they assimilate, they are accused of being fifth-columnists, if they don't, of shutting themselves away.

Polish anthropologist Joanna Tokarska-Bakir also commented on the issue:^[25]

When secularism became fashionable, Jews were loathed as ‘dark reactionaries’. Under capitalism, they were persecuted as communists, and under communism, as capitalist [...] whereas ebbing nationalism allows Jews to be stigmatised as crazed chauvinists.

From anti-Judaism to antisemitism

Since ancient times, antisemites have promoted false claims about Judaism by quoting passages from the Talmud and Midrash out of context,^[8][26] judging them by modern moral standards and ignoring the fact that they were written two thousand years ago by those in different cultures.^[8][26]

Examples

Ignatius of Antioch

In the early decades of Christianity, Church Father Ignatius of Antioch (c. 50–117) claimed that those who followed Jewish custom were "partakers with those who killed Jesus".^[27]

Justin Martyr

Church Father Justin Martyr (100–165) claimed that God's covenant (also known as the Old Covenant or Mosaic Covenant) with the Jews^[28] was no longer valid and that Christians had replaced them because the Jews "[had] slain the Just One [Jesus]",^[27] who would deserve exile and persecution in the centuries to come.^[27]

John Chrysostom

Church Father John Chrysostom (c. 347–407), who served as the archbishop of Constantinople, wrote in his homily series Adversus Judaeos (Ancient Greek: Κατὰ Ἰουδαίων Kata Ioudaiōn, "against the Jews"):^[29]

[The synagogue is worse than] a brothel and a drinking shop [...] a den of scoundrels, the repair of wild beasts, a temple of demons, the refuge of brigands and debauchees, and the cavern of devils, a criminal assembly of the assassins of Christ [. ...] demons dwell in the synagogue and also in the souls of the Jews.

As there were only two other ordained individuals in Antioch legally recognized as Christian preachers, Chrysostom managed to promote his ideas to most local Christians.^[30]

Nazi Germany

In Nazi Germany (1933‒45), "criticism" of Judaism was a major theme in state propaganda.^[26] Top Nazi racial theorist Alfred Rosenberg justified intellectual attacks on Judaism:^[26]

[w]e are not doing so out of disregard of freedom of thought [...] but to attack a legal viewpoint which completely contradicts that of all countries.

Rosenberg and other Nazis saw the Jewish emphasis on following the commandments for small details in life as a sign of "lack of moral understanding",^[26] while accusing Jews of "double moral standards" in dealing with gentiles.^[26] Some Nazis were experts on Judaism themselves,^[26] who were able to attack Judaism in a way more convincing to the public.^[26]

Public views

Anti-Defamation League

Regarding the matter, American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) noted:^[8]

This is not to say that Jews have historically borne no animus towards Jesus and the Apostles, or towards Christianity as a whole. In the two-thousand year relationship between Judaism and Christianity, many of them marred by anti-Jewish polemic and Christian persecution of Jews, some rabbis have fulminated against the church [...] But contemporary anti-Semitic polemicists are not interested in learning or reporting about the historical development of Jewish-Christian relations. Their goal is to incite hatred against Judaism and Jews by portraying them as bigoted and hateful.

Rabbi Rowe

Rabbi Rowe, the former executive of Aish UK, said that the Talmud was "the most natural target of antisemitism",^[26] which has been "going on for centuries".^[26] The Talmud has been targeted because the Torah is the Old Testament of Christianity,^[26] and the secret nature of the Talmud makes it harder for laymen to have enough knowledge to refute false claims made by antisemites about it.^[26] Rabbi Rowe noted that antisemitism was always about demonization ‒ making Jews look hateful and demonic ‒ to justify emotional hatred of Jews.^[26]

In addition, Rabbi Rowe cautioned that what used to be only Neo-Nazi propaganda was going mainstream due to social media influencers like the Armenian-American businessman Dan Bilzerian,^[26] who has millions of followers ‒ across the political spectrum ‒ on Twitter and been exploiting the recent war in Gaza to link Israel with their twisted view of Judaism in order to sway the ignorant away from sympathizing with the Jews.^[26]

False claims about Judaism

Some false claims made by antisemites about Judaism are summarized as follows.^[8][26]

Aspect	Summary
Gentile humanhood	Myth 1: "Non-Jews are subhumans."[8] Fact: Mainstream Judaism has never seen non-Jews as subhumans.[8] It believes that everyone is equal as everyone is created by God in His image.[8][31]
Treatment of gentiles	Myth 2: "Jewish law allows Jews to kill non-Jews."[8] Fact: Antisemites cite a line allegedly from Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai (2nd century).[8] However, the line refers only to the situation of war.[8] Simeon lived at a time when Jews were forced to fight non-Jews,[8] especially in the Bar Kochba revolt,[8] due to persecution by Roman Emperor Hadrian.[8]
Child sex abuse	Myth 3: "Judaism allows sex abuse of young girls."[8] Fact: This claim was made by Russian Catholic Reverend I.B. Pranaitis.[8] He was found to have distorted Talmud writings to demonize Jews.[8] The Talmud actually treats child sex abuse as rape.[8][32] The distorted writings came from a chapter in the Ketubot discussing victims of child sex abuse,[8] which actually stated that a girl sexually abused before three should be seen as a virgin and deserving of higher status.[8]
Study of Torah	Myth 4: "Non-Jews studying the Torah are worthy of death."[8][33] Fact: This claim was made by David Duke,[8] the former KKK leader and a Holocaust denier.[34] He was found to have cherrypicked a line from a whole passage.[8] Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yohanan said that the misquoted passage did not refer to Jews but the generic "Man",[8] who is supposed to be studying the Torah as a believer rather than making it a subject of study without spiritual commitment,[8] which would be a form of blasphemy.[8] Non-Jews studying the Torah are respected if they are studying it as a matter of faith.[8]
Honesty	Myth 5: "As per Libbre David 37, a Jew must give non-Jews a false explanation about the Talmud, or the Jew will be put to death."[26] Fact: Libbre David 37 does not exist.[26] It was made up by Neo-Nazis who run several disinformation websites.[26]
Gentile acts towards Jews	Myth 6: "If a Goy hits a Jew, he must be killed."[26] Fact: This claim is based on the distortion of Sanhedrib 58b,[26][35] which actually discusses options for dealing with non-Jewish attacks on Jews.[26] It does not incite Jews to kill non-Jews.[26]
Socialization	Myth 7: "Tosfot Yevamot 84b[36] says that a Jew eating with a Goy is the same as eating with a dog."[26] Fact: It is a falsification.[26]
Lost items	Myth 8: "Bava Matzia 24a[37] says that a Jew does not need to return an item lost by a Goy."[26] Fact: This claim is based on the distortion of Bava Matzia 24a,[26] which actually discusses options for dealing with items found lost after a flood or a wild animal encounter.[26]

Related pages

• Jésus et Israël
• Black Hebrew Israelites
• Dual-covenant theology
• Accusations of Jewish anti-Christianity
• Antisemitism in the Soviet Union