The Seven Stages of Antisemitism: From the Roman Era to Today
1. Romans Annihilate Jews in 70 A.D.
In 70 A.D., the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, killing around one million Jews. Survivors were sold into slavery, while a small remnant stayed in Jerusalem, and others relocated to Europe.
In 590 A.D., the Roman Catholic Empire was established and superseded Judaism. However, the Jews’ refusal to accept Jesus as the Messiah was seen as a threat to the Roman rulers and Christianity. Hence, anti-Jew sentiment began to brew. [ADL]
Hadrian’s wrath: Israel renamed Palestina to spite the Jews
Seventy years after the siege, Roman Emperor Hadrian established a new (pagan) city, Aelia Capitalina, on the ruins of Jerusalem. It led to the Bar-Kochba revolt.
To spite the Jews, Hadrian banished them and forbade the reading of the Torah. He sold Jewish prisoners into slavery, and the Jews were never to return or look at Jerusalem from a distance.[Harris] [Britannica]
Hadrian renamed Judea (Judeae, Land of Israel) into ‘Syria Palestina’ to remove Jewish identity in the Roman province. He chose ‘Palestina’ because the Philistines were the hereditary enemy of the Israelites.
The land of Judeae was part of the region known as Canaan, where the Kingdoms of a united Israel (Ancient Israel and Judah) were located.
1 Million Jews were murdered in 70 A.D.
QUICK ISRAEL-ARAB-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT.
2. Jewish Hatred in Europe
Antisemitism in Europe
A new pattern of institutionalized discrimination began in Europe during the Middle Ages. Jews were envied but were also ill-reputed for how they did business. Envy, prejudice, and racism were apparent factors for their antipathy.
They lived exclusively and avoided other ethnicities, earning a cold reputation. After all, they were “God’s chosen people.”
Black Death: The Jewish Massacre in the Middle Ages
The pivotal hatred for the Jews was during the Black Death. An estimated 25 million people were killed, but Jews were somewhat immune to contracting the Marburg virus (an Ebola-like virus). Consequently, they were accused of poisoning the water wells to infect their non-Jewish neighbors.
Jews were the perfect suspects
Desperate non-Jewish people, including Christians, blamed witches and the Jews for causing death. The hatred exploded into a series of massacres in Toulon, Erfurt, Basel, Aragon, Frankfurt, and Main, nearly wiping out Jews in Europe.
Religious rituals prevent lethal exposure to viruses
Jews isolated themselves (ghettos). Judaism places great importance on toilet habits, as demonstrated in the Torah and later Talmudic literature. Rituals such as washing their hands three times daily (Netilat Yadayim) helped prevent the spread of viruses within their community.
The Jews didn’t eat pork or crustaceans. They fasted regularly and sincerely regarded spiritual and physical purity. In short, hygiene and diet became their immune defense.
THE TRUE DEFINITION OF ANTISEMITISM.
Antisemitism in Russia in the 1800s
Pale of Settlement of Catherine the Great
In 1791, Catherine the Great created the Pale of Settlement after Russia annexed Polish territories with large Jewish populations. Jews were largely barred from living in most of the empire and confined to western provinces, reflecting entrenched state antisemitism. They were treated as a suspect minority and restricted in residence, education, and many professions.
Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Riots in Russia
Later Tsarist policies intensified hostility, leading to waves of anti-Jewish violence known as pogroms across the Russian Empire in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This environment of persecution forms the historical backdrop of Fiddler on the Roof, which depicts a Jewish village in Tsarist Russia eventually forced from its homes amid rising antisemitic pressure and displacement.
3. Nazi Antisemitism (1933–1945)
Successive phases of antisemitism
Antisemitism was not isolated in Nazi Germany. It was also in Russia, Paris, Italy, and bits and pockets of Europe. But in Germany, Hitler embodied hatred against God’s people.
The compound word ‘antisemitism’ (Judenhass) means ‘Jew-hatred.’ It was first used (in print) in Germany in 1879. Europe underwent a rapid economic change, and the emancipation of the Jews allowed them to prosper.
Jews started to get rich. They owned lands and entered the civil service. They did so well that Jews began displacing non-Jews in professions traditionally reserved for Christians.
In short, envy was widespread because Jews did very well in art, education, and business. [Africame]
Adolf Hitler’s Hatred of Jews
Before Hitler became a great Nazi leader, he was an artist. His application was rejected twice at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, which was dominated by Jews. When Germany lost in World War I, Hitler blamed the Jews for hyperinflation because they dominated the financial institutions.
The Nuremberg “Racist” Laws
Then came the Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935 that aimed for the “Protection of German Blood and German Honor.” The Nazis believed that the German (Aryan) race was superior to non-Aryans.
The document was posted publicly to educate the people on what it meant to be Jewish. Their German citizenship was revoked, including the mischlinge (non-Aryans or half-Jews). They were also forced to wear the yellow Star of David to identify and quickly exclude them from German society.
Intimate relationships between Jews and Germans were taboo. For example, Julius Wolff and his German fiancée Christine Neumann were humiliated in Norden. They carried the signs: ‘Ich bin ein Rassenschänder‘ (I defile the race) and “I am a German girl, and I allowed a Jew to defile me.“
Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler
Author Ben Urwand’s book, The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler, exposes the problematic relationship between Hollywood executives and the German Propaganda Ministry in the 1930s. Studios agreed to refrain from making films that criticized the Nazis.
Urwand believes studio heads willingly assisted them because the Nazis may prohibit American films and put anti-American content in German cinema.
Goebbel’s Propaganda
The movie “The Eternal Jews” was an antisemitic propaganda film in 1940, presented as a documentary. In 1937, the Propaganda Ministry put on an art exhibition in Munich titled Der ewige Jude, followed by the book comprising 265 photographs, each with a derogatory caption asserting the degeneration of the Jewish race.
German race was superior to non-Aryans.
Jewish Holocaust in WW2
6 million Jews murdered
From 1939 to May 1945, the Nazis murdered six million Jews during World War 2. Adolf Hitler blamed the Bolsheviks, socialists, and Jews (social democrats) for Germany’s loss in World War I. With growing hatred, Hitler pushed for “ethnic cleansing,” the Final Solution that led to the genocide.
6 Million Jews were murdered in WW2.
4. The United Nations and Russia After the WW2
Zionist conspiracy
The Cold War began in 1947, and a purge in Moscow spread throughout the capitals of Eastern Europe. Of Budapest, Prague, and East Berlin, which accused the Jews and Zionists of sabotaging the Communist States (USSR).
The conspiracy culminated in the Slansky trial in 1952 in Prague and the Merker case in East Berlin (GDR) in the mid-1950s. Jews were accused of a conspiracy to dominate the world through Zionism.
Even the recent COVID pandemic and the 9/11 terrorist attack are blamed on Jews, even if evidence suggests China and Al-Qaeda terrorists were to blame.
Russia’s role in end-times prophecy
Even though the Soviet Union supported the creation of Israel in 1948, it quickly turned against it. After Stalin died in 1953, his successors began aligning themselves with Arab countries, including Egypt and Syria, who advocated for Israel’s destruction. [Marshall]
UN support for Palestinians and condemnation of Israel
In November 1975, the United Nations voted to single out Jewish nationhood as the only crime among all forms of nationalism. They established a committee on the “Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People” or CEIRPP.
U.N. pans Arab propaganda supported by mainstream media.
- The General Assembly condemns Israeli actions disproportionately.
- UN resolutions on “Nakba Day” as an official observance.
- The UN criticizes Israeli policies while neglecting other regional human rights violations.
Nakba Day
In 1998, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat declared May 15 as Nakba Day or “Disaster Day.” It’s meant to commemorate the displacement of hundreds of thousands of persons as a result of establishing a Jewish state in 1948, granted by the League of Nations.
In 2022, the United Nations adopted a resolution commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Nakba next year, which perpetuates hatred against the Jewish people.
With rising UN support for Palestine, Israel faces growing alienation and an uncertain future.
WHERE IS THE ARK OF COVENANT TODAY?
5. Double Standard: Israel Against the World
On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas (a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization) led surprise attacks against Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, sea, and air. [CRS]
They kidnapped families, raped women, and killed babies. Israel retaliated with full force. It’s been almost 20 years since Hamas has been firing missiles and sending orchestrated suicide bombers to Israel. [HRW]
The IDF repeatedly told Palestinians living in Gaza to evacuate, but Hamas encouraged its citizens to remain and “die for Allah.” However, it was Israel who faced the outrage, not the Palestinian terrorists.
Hence, Muslim terrorists and their Western supporters accused Israel of genocide when the fact is that Israel’s approach to the war had the least aggression compared to other wars.
War is War, and Israel has to respond
The United States was forced to join World War II after Japan killed about 2,403 Americans in Pearl Harbor. They retaliated with two atomic bombs that killed about 300,000 Japanese. The Nazis killed about 6 million Jews, and about 4 million Germans died after the Allied Forces retaliated.
In the 1990 Gulf War, Iraq annexed Kuwait, prompting U.S. intervention in the name of democracy. About 1,000 Kuwaiti civilians perished, while Iraqi casualties are estimated to be around 100,000.
We have seen the same pattern in Muslim-against-Muslim wars through the decades, but the West barely protested. The double standard is clear and demonic. Satan seeks to kill, steal, and destroy God’s chosen and make a mockery out of it.
6. Islamic leaders: “In their own words.”
Islamic leaders and clerics have openly called for the eradication of Israel, often using the phrase “From the river to the sea,” which is a vision of a Palestine without Israel, along with numerous speeches, sermons, and official declarations, highlighting a consistent stance against Israel’s existence in the Middle East.
- Hassan al-Banna (Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood)
- 1948: Al-Banna expressed opposition to the creation of Israel and called for its destruction.
- Sayyid Qutb (Prominent Islamist Theorist)
- 1960s: Qutb advocated for the liberation of Palestine from Israeli control and supported armed resistance against Israel.
- Yasser Arafat (Former Chairman of the PLO)
- 1960s-2000s: Arafat’s rhetoric often included calls for the liberation of Palestine, though his stance evolved over time to support a two-state solution.
- Hassan Nasrallah (Hezbollah Secretary-General)
- 2000: Nasrallah declared, “Israel is a cancerous tumor that must be eradicated.”
- Khaled Mashal (Former Hamas Leader)
- 2012: Mashal stated, “We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation. Therefore, there is no legitimacy for Israel.”
- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Iran’s Supreme Leader)
- 2015: Khamenei tweeted, “There will be no Israel in 25 years.”
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Former President of Iran)
- 2005: Ahmadinejad declared, “Israel must be wiped off the map.”
- Yahya Sinwar (Hamas Leader in Gaza)
- 2018: Sinwar stated, “We will break the walls of the blockade, remove the occupation entity, and return to all of Palestine.”
- Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas Political Leader)
- 2020: Haniyeh declared, “We will liberate Jerusalem and all of Palestine from the river to the sea.”
Extremist context of “Inshallah” and “River to the Sea”
“Inshallah” (إن شاء الله) means “God willing” and is used to express hope for a future event, as well as “Inshallah bikhair” (إن شاء الله بخير), which expresses hope for positive outcomes.
The majority of Arabs or Muslims do not use “Inshallah” in a hateful manner. However, the “positive outcome” can refer to many things, including the extremist context of wishing for the eradication of Israel from the map.
In Western terms, this is the “River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” chant, which means the same thing.
“Khaybar, Khaybar…”
Known as the Battle of Khaybar (628 B.C.), Muslims fought against Jewish tribes in the Khaybar oasis (present-day Saudi Arabia). Thus, the expression “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahud, jays Muhammad saw you’d,” which translates to “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return,” clearly references the Battle of Khaybar, used by extremists to express hostility towards Jews.
7. Antisemitism in the Middle East Today
Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs coexisted peacefully until the first day that the state of Israel was formally established as a nation. Since 1948, several Islamist leaders, along with their millions of followers, have called for the destruction of Israel.
Antisemitism Among Left-Liberal Students
Today, Jews are seen as “land grabbers.” The war victories that allowed them to reclaim adjacent lands were considered Israeli aggression.
Students at prominent U.S. universities, including Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania, are increasingly influenced by pro-Islamic propagandists, portraying Palestinians as victims while ignoring historical context.
These institutions fostered anti-Israel rhetoric by allowing protests that threatened American Jews and led to more antisemitism on campuses.
In response to public outrage and embarrassment for allowing the “wrong side of history” to dominate the discourse, several university presidents were forced to resign, further exposing the deep-rooted bias in academic circles.
Consistently, far-left liberals disregard the Hebrew Bible as a historical document. They discount archeological evidence that supports Israel’s right to its land.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Simplified history of the Israel-Palestinian war.
Rebuilding update of the Third Temple.
Why are Jews hated?
