Hello,
I own a book called Why the Jews: The Reason for Antisemitism by
Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin (Touchstone, 1983/1985). The
authors conclude that antisemitism (hatred of Jews) exists for the
following reasons:
1) Jews have refused to assimilate into other cultures by giving up
their God, laws and national identity, thus challenging the legitimacy
of the dominant culture.
2) Jews believe they have to try to change the world for the better,
and in doing so, they sometimes challenge the norms of societies and
create tension.
3) Jews traditionally believe that God chose them to fulfill the role
of changing the world. Many antisemites misinterpret the concept of
the "chosen people" to mean that Jews think they are better than
others.
4) Because they are supposed to live their lives according to a strict
moral and religious code, Jews tend to have a higher quality of life
than non-Jews, even when the Jews have little money. This leads to
jealosy from antisemites.
Obviously, the list above is an attempt by the authors to simplify an
extraordinarily complex and deeply lodged problem. Also, the theory is
only the opinion of two people. The most-common theory not included in
Prager and Telushkin's list is that Jews simply provide a easy
scapegoat for leaders to blame all of a society's problems on.
Below are some sites that contain further information on this very
difficult topic.
Thank you for using Google Answers.
Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism
http://sicsa.huji.ac.il/
Antisemitism and Xenophobia Today
www.axt.org.uk
Simon Wiesenthal Center
www.wiesenthal.org
Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism
http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/
Anti-Defamation League
www.adl.org |
