History of Jews

Early Christian thought held Jews collectively responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. This religious teaching became embedded in both Catholic and Protestant theology during the first millennium, with terrible consequences for Jews. Following many centuries of persecution and exclusion, the Jewish minority in Europe achieved some rights after the Enlightenment. As Europe became more secular and Jews integrated into mainstream society, political forms of antisemitism emerged. Jews were targeted for their ideas and their role in society. In the late nineteenth century, pseudo-scientific theories that legitimized a racial form of antisemitism became popular with some intellectuals and political leaders. All of these centuries of hatred were exploited by the Nazis and their allies during World War II culminating in the Holocaust, the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews.



A woman sits on a park bench marked “Only for Jews.” Austria, ca. March 1938. —USHMM #11195/Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library Limited
In February 2007, a Jewish memorial to the Holocaust was defaced and nearly 300 Jewish graves desecrated in Odessa in southern Ukraine.

In February 2007, a Jewish memorial to the Holocaust was defaced and nearly 300 Jewish graves desecrated in Odessa in southern Ukraine. —Photo courtesy European Jewish Press

In recent years, there has been an increase in antisemitism, in the form of hate speech, violence, and denial of the Holocaust. These incidents are occurring everywhere, but especially in the Islamic world and in lands where the Holocaust occurred. In many Middle Eastern countries, antisemitism is promoted in state-controlled media and educational systems, and militant groups with political power, such as Hamas, use genocidal language regarding Jews and the State of Israel. The president of Iran repeatedly has declared the Holocaust a “myth” and that Israel should be “wiped off the map.” In Europe, antisemitism is increasingly evident among both far-right and far-left political parties. And in the United States, some Jewish students on some college campuses are confronted by antisemitic hostility. Violence targeting Jews and Jewish institutions continues around the world. Denial and minimization of the Holocaust, along with other forms of hatred against Jews, is now widespread on the Internet in multiple languages.

In the aftermath of the moral and societal failures that made the Holocaust possible, confronting antisemitism and all forms of hatred is critical.