Antisemitism in Europe
Antisemitism—prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews—has experienced a long history of expression since the days of ancient civilizations, with most of it having originated in the Christian and pre-Christian civilizations of Europe.
While it has been cited as having been expressed in the intellectual and political centers of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, the phenomenon received greater institutionalization within European Christianity following the dissolution of the ancient center of Jewish culture, Jerusalem, resulting in the forced segregation of Jewish populations and restrictions on their participation in the public life of European society at times.
In the 20th century, antisemitism in Europe, particularly during the reign of Nazi Germany, resulted in the Holocaust, a program of systematic murder and dislocation of the majority of Europe's Jewish population.
16th to 18th centuries[edit]
The Renaissance, Enlightenment and imperialist eras led to a series of increasingly xenophobic and non-religious expressions of antisemitic phobias and outrages, even as much of the continent had experienced significant political reformation.[16][17]
In western Europe, Jews were largely limited by local monarchs, especially as a consequence of the growing fear of competition with the local merchants due to the fact that the main occupation of Jews was commerce and banking. Notable examples are the limitation of the number of Jews allowed to settle in Breslau issued by Frederick II of Prussia in 1744 and the banishment of Jews from Bohemia by the archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa, who later also stated that Jews had to pay for remaining in the country.[18]
With the development of the banking system and the need of rulers for financing their growing state apparatus, the term "Court Jew" was used in some western European states. The court Jews were businessmen and bankers who received privileges from the sovereign and acted as their treasurers and tax collectors.[19][20]
In many cases, the court Jews obtained significant power as the "right hand" of the sovereign; in other cases, the court Jews were blamed for the financial problems of the states or when the sovereign lost his power. One notable court Jew was Joseph Süß Oppenheimer (1698–1738) the financial planner for Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg in Stuttgart. Oppenheimer was executed after the death of the Duke and his story was used by Nazi propaganda.[21]
Most of Europe's Jewish population was concentrated in central and eastern Europe within the borders of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Jews of Poland had been granted an unprecedented degree of religious and cultural autonomy since the Statute of Kalisz in 1264, which was ratified by subsequent Kings of Poland and the Commonwealth. Nevertheless, the Cossack uprising of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Polish-controlled Ukraine (1648) devastated many Jewish communities and tens of thousands of Jews were massacred, expelled, or sold as slaves by Khmelnytsky's Tartar allies. Between 1648 and 1656, tens of thousands of Jews—given the lack of reliable data, it is impossible to establish more accurate figures—were killed by the rebels, and to this day the Khmelnytsky uprising is considered by Jews to be one of the most traumatic events in their history.[22]
Following the Partitions of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria at the end of the 18th century, most Polish Jews found themselves under Russian rule. In order to restrict the Jews from spreading throughout the Russian Empire and to protect Russian merchants from competition, the Pale of Settlement was established in 1772 by the empress of Russia Catherine II, restricting Jews to the western parts of the empire with the exception of a number of Jews who received permission to live in major cities, such as Kiev and Moscow.[23][24]
After 1945[edit]
With the end of World War II in 1945, surviving Jews began to return to their homes although many chose to emigrate to the United States, the United Kingdom, and British-controlled Palestine. To some extent, the antisemitism of the Nazi regime continued in different guises. Claims of blood libel and persecution of Jews continued, in part due to fear that returning Jews would attempt to reclaim property stolen during the Holocaust or expose assistance given by elements of the local population in previously Nazi-occupied territories. An example was the Kielce pogrom, which occurred in 1946 in Poland when citizens violently attacked Jews based on a false accusation of the kidnapping of a Christian child.
The postwar period also witnessed a rise in antisemitic persecution in the USSR. In 1948, Stalin launched the campaign against the "rootless cosmopolitan" in which numerous Yiddish-language poets, writers, painters, and sculptors were killed or arrested. This culminated in the Doctors' Plot, issued between 1952 and 1953, during which a number of Jewish doctors were arrested and accused of attempting to murder leading party leaders. Modern historian Edvard Radzinsky has also suggested that Stalin planned to deport the Jewish population of the USSR to exile in Kazakhstan, Siberia or the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.[38]
By country[edit]
Armenia[edit]
A major source of antisemitism in Armenia is Israel's strong relations with and arms sales to Azerbaijan. During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, Nagorno-Karabakh president Arayik Harutyunyan accused Israel of complicity in a 'genocide' against Armenians.[67] Armenians in Lebanon burned the Israeli flag, along with the Turkish and Azerbaijani flags at a protest during that war.[68]
In April 1998, Igor Muradyan, a famous Armenian political analyst and economist, published an antisemitic article in one of Armenia's leading newspapers Voice of Armenia. Muradyan claimed that the history of Armenian-Jewish relations has been filled with "Aryans vs. Semites" conflict manifestations. He accused Jews of inciting ethnic conflicts, including the dispute over Nagorno-Karabagh and demonstrated concern for Armenia's safety in light of Israel's good relations with Turkey.[69]
In 2002, a book entitled National System (written by Romen Yepiskoposyan in Armenian and Russian) was printed and presented at the Union of Writers of Armenia. In that book, Jews (along with Turks) are identified as number-one enemies of Armenians and are described as "the nation-destroyer with a mission of destruction and decomposition." A section in the book entitled The Greatest Falsification of the 20th Century denies the Holocaust, claiming that it is a myth created by Zionists to discredit "Aryans": "The greatest falsification in human history is the myth of Holocaust.... no one was killed in gas chambers. There were no gas chambers."[70]
Similar accusations were voiced by Armen Avetissian, the leader of the small ultra-nationalist party, Armenian Aryan Order (AAO), on 11 February 2002, when he also called for the Israeli ambassador Rivka Kohen to be declared persona non-grata in Armenia for Israel's refusal to give the Armenian massacres of 1915 equal status with the Holocaust. In addition, he asserted that the number of victims of the Holocaust has been overstated.[71] In 2004, Armen Avetissian expressed extremist remarks against Jews in several issues of the AAO run The Armeno-Aryan newspaper, as well as during a number of meetings and press conferences. As a result, his party was excluded from the Armenian Nationalist Front.[72] He was arrested in January 2005 on charges of inciting ethnic hatred.[73]
Shortly after, during a prime time talk show, the leader of the People's Party and the owner of ALM television channel, Tigran Karapetyan, accused Jews of assisting Ottoman authorities in the 1915 Armenian Genocide. His interviewee, Armen Avetissian stated that "the Armenian Aryans intend to fight against the Jewish-Masonic aggression and will do what it takes to repress evil in its own nest." Speaking about Armenia's Jewish community Avetissian said that it consists of "700 of those who identify themselves as Jews and 50,000 of those whom the Aryans will soon reveal while cleansing the country of Jewish evil." The Jewish Council of Armenia addressed its concerns to the government and various human rights organizations demanding to stop promoting ethnic hatred and to ban ALM. However, these demands were mostly disregarded.[72]
On 23 October 2004, the head of the Department for Ethnic and Religious Minority Issues, Hranoush Kharatyan, publicly commented on so-called "Judaist" xenophobia in Armenia. She said: "Why are we not responding to the fact that on their Friday gatherings, Judaists continue to advocate hatred towards all non-Judaists as far as comparing the latter to cattle and propagating spitting on them?"[72] Kharatyan also accused local Jews of calling for "anti-Christian actions."[74]
The Jewish Council of Armenia sent an open letter to President Robert Kocharian expressing its deep concern with the recent rise of antisemitism. Armen Avetissian responded to this by publishing yet another antisemitic article in the Iravunq newspaper, where he stated: "Any country that has a Jewish minority is under big threat in terms of stability." Later while meeting with the Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia Artur Baghdasarian, head of the Jewish Council of Armenia Rima Varzhapetian insisted that the government took steps to prevent further acts of antisemitism. Avetissian was arrested on 24 January 2005. Several prominent academic figures, such as Levon Ananyan (the head of the Writers union of Armenia) and composer Ruben Hakhverdian supported Avetissian and called upon the authorities to release him.[75] In their demands to release him they were joined by opposition deputies and ombudsman Larisa Alaverdyan as the authorities had arrested him for political speech.[76]
In September 2006, while criticizing the American Global Gold corporation, Armenian Minister of Environment Vardan Ayvazyan said during a press conference: "Do you know who you are defending? You are defending kikes! Go over their [company headquarters] and find out who is behind this company and if we should let them come here!"[77][78] After Rimma Varzhapetian's protests, Aivazian claimed he did not mean to offend Jews, and that such criticism was intended strictly for the Global Gold company.
On 23 December 2007, The Jewish Holocaust Memorial in central Yerevan was vandalized by unknown individuals. A Nazi swastika symbol was scratched and black paint was splattered on the simple stone. After notifying the local police, Rabbi Gershon Burshtein, a Chabad emissary who serves as Chief Rabbi of the country's tiny Jewish community said "I just visited the memorial the other day and everything was fine. This is terrible, as there are excellent relations between Jews and Armenians." The monument has been defaced and toppled several times in the past. It is located in the city's Aragast Park, a few blocks north of the centrally located Republic Square, which is home to a number of government buildings.[79]
On 12 February 2021, the Holocaust Memorial in Yerevan was once again vandalized.[80]