Anti-semitism

Essay by Karmadog October 2006

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Have you ever been scorned by a person or a group of people because of the color of your skin, the shape of your eyes and nose, your clothing, your belief or disbelief in God, or the way of your living? If you have, you probably did not enjoy it. This is prejudice, and the Jews have suffered most of the hands of it. Prejudice directed against the Jews is called is called anti-Semitism. Jews faced different forms of anti-Semitism such as personal prejudice, discrimination, and even persecution. Anti-Semitism has two definitions. The strict definition regards anti-Semitism as a tool for governments, rulers, political and social factions, and religious bodies to gain an advantage for themselves by acting against a segment of the population. The loose definition of anti-Semitism regards it as a prejudice and discrimination toward and against Jews. The loose definition is most commonly used. The worst act of Jewish persecution was when Adolph Hitler's Nazis set out to exterminate all the Jews living on the Continent in the 1940s.

Hitler killed more than 6 million of them. The Jews faced anti-Semitism well before this time, but it started to get bad when Hitler came to rule.

Though the Jews have suffered at the hands of various peoples throughout history, the term anti-Semitism is a fairly new one. It was invented by a German writer, Wilhem Marr, in 1879. He thought of it while writing an anti-Jewish pamphlet, a booklet where he accused wealthy Jews of trying to dominate Germany economically. Sometimes the term is misleading because it use the word Semitism. Semitism refers to the Semites. They are a group of people that are Ethiopians, Arabian peoples, and the Jews. Anti-Semitism, however, refers only to hatred of the Jews and does not include their fellow Semites. The...