Disaster: Who's really to blame?

Throughout history, tragedies have been interpreted in different ways. Whether it was the wrath of the gods, or of course, the old scapegoat the Jews. Many natural disasters in history have been blamed on the Jews. During the medieval period, this was most notable during the Black Death. In 1346, a mysterious illness swept across Europe. This disease was responsible for the deaths of one-third of the population of Europe. Naturally, a disaster on this scale was seen by the people of the time as unnatural, and the science of the time was not advanced enough to recognize the actual cause of the illness. Instead, other explanations were invented. God's divine wrath being number one, but the Jews were also fairly high on the list.

 

During this time period, rumors were spread that Jews were deliberately poisoning wells in an attempt to spread the plague. This lead to the destruction of many Jewish settlements throughout Europe. Of course, the Jews were not immune to the plague, and many died of the disease. However, this did not help to slow down the rapid spread of the rumors that the Jews were responsible for the plagues continuation.

In many cases, Jews were arrested for crimes for which they were obviously innocent. These poor souls were in many cases tortured until they gave a false confession, and then they were of course executed for their “Crimes”.

One might hope that after close to seven-hundred years that the modern world would have moved passed mindlessly blaming Jews for natural disasters. Sadly this does not seem to be the case as shown in 2014 when a Turkish newspaper blamed the Jews for the collapse of a mine that killed 300 people. This is shocking to say the least that even after such a long amount of time that there are still those attempting to blame the Jews for natural disasters. It seems that as a species we still have a long way to grow when it comes to tolerance. 

To Paint a Jew

What do Jewish people look like? You may have a picture or idea in your mind, but it's almost certainly an inaccurate portrayal. Don't be too hard on yourself though, you do happen to have over a millennium of racial stereotypes involving the physicality of Jewish people working against you. Throughout the years, anti-Semitic depictions and descriptions, along with racist pseudo-science, have affected the public's image of the Jewish people.

This began way back in the day when the Jews lost their homeland, and began to settle and disperse throughout medieval Europe. Those Europeans had great distrust for outsiders and strangers, and developed racial and religious biases almost immediately. These prejudices were further exacerbated by religious and civil leaders who needed a scapegoat for any number of problems plaguing their people at the time, and who found just such a whipping boy in the Jewish people. But there was a problem. Which ones were the Jews? How were furious peasants supposed to identify who to kill for their livestock getting sick? it was in this way that the physical qualities of the stereotypical Jew was born.

Gingers were identified as jews because supposedly Judas was also a ginger. this is sort of silly to think about, as I have never seen a man or woman from Lebanon with anything close to red hair. The Jewish nose is perhaps the oldest lasting stereotype, and it is just as foolish. the nose's iconic hook shape can be found all over the world, being sported by people of numerous races.

So, the question remains, what does a Jewish person look like? The answer is, it depends on where you are. Their spread throughout Europe led to a natural intermingling with its people, blurring their physical attributes together, and discrediting physical Jewish stereotypes.

What did the Jews ever do that was so bad? According to past (and some present) Christians, the answer is: be themselves.

One simply speaks the word ‘Jew’ and a wave of dark and terrible history comes to mind. According to the texts we have covered in class, such as The Prioress's Tale that pinpoints just how dangerous the Christians thought the Jews to be in medieval times, we know that Christians (I use the term loosely) have hated Jews as long as history dictates, but have we ever really known why there has been so much hate cast in that direction? I have a guess, but first, Martin Luther, who is seen as such a hero to the Christian church, will be the focus.

Title page of On the Jews
and Their Lies (in German)

The same Martin Luther that stood up to the Catholic Church in their wrongdoings for the people wrote an entire treatise called On the Jews and Their Lies that contains continuous bashing of the entire belief and people. He even went so far as to command that their schools, homes, and synagogues be set on fire and their property and money confiscated. He coins them “poisonous envenomed worms” and wished them all to be eradicated. Or, as we today would say, Luther writes a whole lot of antisemitism. This shows just how much powerful people of the Christian church hated all Jewish people and reiterates the hate that came before Luther's time, with his time being compared to medieval times. However, as I’m guessing many did, he started out trying his hardest to convert them and argued in their defense when others threw disgust their way but became overly enraged when he wasn’t able to convert them. So many acted in this way that they began to teach those after them to hate with few ever asking why. Christians have a history of forcing people to convert and becoming angry/killing them when they do not wish to do so with good examples being the Crusades or any time England went from one ruler to another and good citizens were burned at the stake for their “impertinence.” While the Christians did not focus their hate on only the Jews, it seems that most of their hate was directed there.

Here we see the yellow Jewish nose
sweating nervously in a lineup.

For years we have been asking why someone would hate an entire people/race and be so prejudiced against traits they have been assigned like large noses and the color yellow. It can be seen as what politicians to do each other today by focusing on tiny details and bringing them out to poke fun at them. With the Christians believing that Jesus was born a Jew and is the messiah and Jews believing Jesus was an ordinary man, one can quickly see how the Christians became offended and saw it fit to convert them. The differences in how each group followed the Word of God, and how closely yet vaguely the Jews interpreted the Word, must have embarrassed the Christians and made them feel belittled and like they were poor followers of Christ. And, as mentioned above, angry Christians with a hurt sense of pride have done awful things throughout history. Having experienced constant switches between beliefs when each ruler with a different belief system came must have convinced the Christians of the time that it was easy to convert anyone. Encountering the Jews steadfast beliefs must have thrown them for a loop, causing them to act mindlessly. However, God chose to give everyone free will and, from a Christian standpoint, one of the hard things about sharing the Gospel that you believe in so whole-heartedly is that not everyone will choose to believe as you do. Christians of today are less ruthless and hateful, or at least we would like to think there are some good ones left. On the plus side, no one is burned at the stake anymore, at least not literally.

Who Cursed Jew?

"Lord Jesus, not our savior, please help us!"

      Throughout history, the Jewish people have always been treated as less than people. Not only were the Jews pushed out of England, they were pushed out of many many many other countries such as: Spain, Germany, Hungary, and France to name a few. They were forced out by the rulers and the other inhabitants because of their “known” qualities. One main quality that was widely known was them being cursed.

The little boy killed in the ghetto of Asia was killed because of the cursed Jews. Who cursed them? Satan. He did not like hearing the innocent little boy singing praise of Jesus, and neither did the Jews. This could be because of Satan being the fallen angel and the Jews being the ones who killed Jesus.

    
        I feel like the Jews in the Prioress' Tale wanted to finally feel as if they had conquered someone "above" them and that is why they were so easy to follow Satan's command. The Christian's weren't so easily taken down like the Jewish people were; in fact, most kings were of a Christian background. 

"Oh just, taking out the trash.."

        One thing I found strange is how guilt free the Jew's seemed to play everything off. They never once admitted to the death when they were caught. They were just taking whatever came to them. Were Jews commonly viewed to not have a conscious in the medieval era? Were they seen as an equal to Satan and is that why so many people didn't want them around? According to this website, yes. Jews were seen as Satan's minions. In many cases, Judaism was thought of as a satanic cult. It was even thought that the Jews would murder little boys specifically to use their blood in special satanic rituals. 

Denial: The Worst State To Live In

In medieval times, one of the trendy ways of being anti-Semitic was accusing Jewish people of engaging in blood libels, the murders of innocent, pure Christian boys just wanting to spread Christianity in a heartless, medieval society. This tactic worked fairly well, considering the Jews were banished from England until roughly 1829, massacred, and also held at internment camps and then killed. This strategy was simple enough, and it worked nicely even after the medieval times through the “modern” eras although it was presented in more ways than blood libels.

Then Hitler came on the scene which messed everything up for anti-Semitics in the long haul. First, Hitler lost the War, and second, the Holocaust, one of humanity’s greatest tragedies, was essentially discovered. People everywhere mourned with the Jewish people. The argument could be made that people around the world wanted to help the Jews and sympathize and encourage them simply because Hitler was evil, and anything associated with Hitler is wrong, therefore anti-Semitism is bad. So with these circumstances, the old medieval method of scapegoating is tossed out of the window for the time-being. At least for public use. 

But what if the entire event that led the public away from scapegoating could be debunked? What if the event could be forgotten, or even trimmed around the edges so it wasn’t that bad? What if the public could be convinced that the Jews were lying about the Holocaust, and it was all a set-up? As bizarre as these questions sound, it’s kind of happening across the globe. Medieval anti-Semitism wants to be back in style.

Two things that should never be brought back: anti-Semitism and those dreadful hats.

The Anti-Defamation League, a group combating anti-Semitic views and championing peace, released survey findings from 100 countries with thousands of people interviewed for it. A little more than half of the people surveyed claimed to have never heard of the Holocaust. A third of the ones that have heard of it claimed it never happened. People insist that it was a hoax, a myth, or part of a political agenda pushed by the government.

Someone actually drew this and thought it was hilarious and truthful.

The main arguments deniers have are no one could have killed that many people, Israel (the Jewish 

People) is in it for the money and attention, and the Nazis weren’t that terrible. It’s only crazy people on the Internet that believe these things though, right? Maybe not. In 2014, a California school sent out a homework assignment that asked students whether they believed the Holocaust happened or if it was a part of a greater political scheme. The school claimed the assignment met the Common Core requirements of a critical thinking lesson. The denials are edging their way into common society and thought, much like anti-Semitic jokes and stereotypes already have.

More sophisticated than an accusation of a blood libel.

History has a funny way of working in cycles. Currently, we’re in a peculiar state of how the world views the Jewish people— we are splitting up in terms of supporting them, and instead of blaming, we are denying their tragedies. So when will the blame game really start back up again for medieval time’s sake? 

*As a side note, I believe that the Holocaust absolutely happened, but when I was doing research for this post, I found some dark and disturbing places on the Internet. If you are interested in seeing some arguments denying the Holocaust--warning, can contain extremely offensive content--look here, here, here, here, and you can watch this video among others if you check out the recommended videos on the side bar.

And it Was All Yellow (for the Jews)

Here we see some Jews and Christians (Jews in yellow, Christians in green)

Throughout history the Jewish people have been associated with the color yellow in a not so positive way, this tradition of appointing color to a certain undesirable race/religion can trace its history back to medieval times. There are many instances in history where the Jewish people have been mistreated, and this is common knowledge, although no one really knows the definite reason for the mistreatment of Jews by almost every religion, leaders, countries, etc. we can somewhat acquire a knowledge as to why they were allotted the bright and cheery color of yellow for a negative reason.

Another Jewish guy in yellow clothing

During the medieval period the color yellow carried multiple religious and cultural meanings that were both negative and positive. While in the Christian religion it a held symbolic meaning of “renewal and hope” it also was “associated with envy, greed, and treachery” (Source Two). “Cowardice, betrayal, egoism, and madness” are also associated with the color yellow (Source One). With this knowledge it makes sense as to why horrible leaders decided to force Jews to wear yellow clothing and garments during the medieval ages. The acts of greed and treachery have commonly (and wrongly) been associated with the Jewish people because of their infamous connection with usury and money.

Yellow Star of David worn by Jews during WWII 

While some leaders forced the Jewish people to wear yellow clothes, others like King Edward I and Pope Innocent III decided to throw some yellow Stars of David on them. These rules were established so that Jews were able to “distinguish themselves from the Christians” (Source Three). Another leader named Hitler came along and followed in their like by forcing the Jewish people to distinguish themselves from the Christians around them with yellow Stars of David that said “Jude” (how original). And also like the previously mentioned leaders, Hitler wrongly persecuted the Jews for crazy reasons thus continuing the bizarre anti-Semitic circle history seems to be turning in. 

Source One: http://www.colormatters.com/the-meanings-of-colors/yellow 
Source Two: http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/color-yellow.htm

Source Three: https://santitafarella.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/question-of-the-day-what-is-the-origin-of-the-yellow-star-of-david-that-the-nazis-required-jews-to-wear-at-the-time-of-the-holocaust/

Jews, Crucifixions, 9/11 and Muslims

The treatment of Jews in Medieval Europe was a reaction to the crucifixion of Jesus and the treatment of Christians in the first centuries of the Common Era. After the crucifixion, Romans and Jews in power persecuted Christians in both Rome and Jerusalem. Rome adopted Christianity as its official state religion in the 4th century and the persecuting was shifted to the Jews in Europe. Many of the stereotypes of the Jewish people were formed during this time and caused a feeling of anxiety in the common man that the Jews were demonic creatures or would take power back. Much of this anxiety stemmed from racism but also from their own previous persecution at the hands of the Jewish people and the fear that they would be persecuted again. Medieval Europe’s portrayal of Jews was an attempt to get the general public to expel Jews that led to mass killings of Jews communities in Europe. Medieval literature like Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain caused the English to believe that their race was pure while Chaucer’s The Prioress’ Tale and many other stories caused the people to believe that the Jews would seek to kill their own pure race. These stories caused the expulsion of Jews from various medieval countries and in even worse cases the killings of Jews.

There are many parallels between the treatment of Jews in Medieval Europe and the treatment of Muslims in Post 9/11 America. The attacks on September 11th were the reaction of the extremist Islamic group Al-Qaeda to their view of the United States support of Israel. The United States portrayal and treatment of the Muslim people changed following this attack. The attacks caused an increase in anxiety and a change in the treatment of Muslims in everyday life. Increased security measures were added following the attacks that included random searches. However, these searches were subjective and lead to racial profiling. In media outlets like the television show CSI, the terrorist villain was usually a Muslim stereotype with traits like wearing a taqiyah or a turban.

The treatment of Muslims following 9/11 caused similar feelings to the persecution of Jews in Medieval Europe. Some Muslims even chose to leave America similar to the Jews expulsion from Europe. The anxiety that resulted from the crucifixion of Jesus and the 9/11 attacks caused the treatment of the races to change dramatically. While the persecution is not as extreme today as it was in Medieval Europe it still has many parallels in what caused it and the effects. 

Medieval Jewish Stereotypes in Media From Animation to Music

         About a week ago, I saw a movie with my roommates.  The 2012 animated feature film The Boxtrolls tells the story of an orphan boy who is raised by a community of, well, trolls.  While the story is, at its core, about acceptance of those who are different from the standard norm, the methods of execution of this moral fall short.  The titular box trolls are exemplary of the medieval stereotypes and images of Jews.  They were banished from the human community, only to live in a box-built ghetto, and the general, ignorant public, believes them to kidnap and eat boys.  These strange, bodily, grotesque images were not uncommon in Medieval Europe.  In fact, the Jewish ghetto depicted in the “Prioress’ Tale” adheres to those stereotypes.  So what does it say that this film used Jewish stereotypes to get its point across?

            While Anti-Semitism is still prevalent today, the caricatures of the Medieval past seem to be just that—the antique past.  Perhaps the movie was resurrecting these negative stereotypes because it assumed that people wouldn’t put the pieces together.  However, this decision raises very interesting choices about how caricatures and stereotypes are portrayed in the media.  This stereotype’s age somehow made it more “OK” to be featured in a children’s film.  After all, the purpose of the movie was to bridge the gaps separating different cultures.  The movie actively sought to prove that the real antagonists of the film were the humans who wrongfully accused the trolls of monstrous deeds.  Seemingly, the derogatory stereotypes were redeemed by the fact that these characters were not so different after all.  Does that make it ok though?  Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an abolitionist novel, yes, but it is also credited with the creation and/or popularization of some of the most damaging stereotypes.  Stowe utilized negative stereotypes in order to make an anti-slavery argument.  So, yes, The Boxtrolls preaches the acceptance of these anti-Semitic characters, however, it has to blatantly and offensively distinguish them first.

            But perhaps this decision was not entirely intentional.  However, that only reinforces the notion that these anti-Semitic caricatures are ingrained in history. I recall that about a year or so ago, Macklemore performed his hit song “Thrift Shop.”   When he walked on stage, he wore, a wig, and a fake nose, both of which seemed to create an eerily familiar image.  According to an article published in Rolling Stone, he said on his website “I personally thought I looked very ambiguous in terms of any ‘type’ of person’”(Rolling Stone).  Whether or not the singer was telling the truth, this claim raises an interesting point.  Perhaps we, in history, have reached a time where negative stereotypes are so engrained in our minds that we do not even think twice before further preserving them.  To go back to an earlier discussion, one of the characters in The Boxtrolls essentially tells the protagonist that he doesn’t look like a boxtroll.  This could go back to the notion of an individual “looking Jewish.”  These are characters who are distinguished based on appearance, and one perhaps not adhering to those standards could comment on the shock that accompanies an inability to place real life people in categories based on caricatures and stereotypes.

 credit: huffingtonpost

            There could very well exist ignorance regarding medieval Jewish stereotypes.   Perhaps more and more people are recognizing these stereotypes while others remain ignorant.  The point is, they are still being utilized in media to illustrate a moral, they are still being used to be a racial “other,” and both fictional characters and singers alike need to learn of the humanity beneath the surface.

The Devil and The Jews

Starting in 1050 until 1650 the practice of Jewish religion was seen to be satanic to the early European Christians. Christians believed that the Jews or the “Red Jews” were against them and wanting to destroy the practice of Christendom. They thought the Jews were going to kill their babies, poison them, and pursue sexual acts on them. They also believed the Jew’s Messiah was the Antichrist. For an example Cabala or “Kabbalah” Jews believed that they can “redefine” reality, such as bad is good and fiction is truth. Also they believed that God interacts with the world through them. This is Satanic because this mix-up of reality makes no sense and people cannot define God’s will. The Jews are apparently taking over society. The Illuminati Jews have united with the Masons promote homosexuality, feminism, abortion, and pornography. Also they encourage feminist to be an “agent of change” which is a part of the “New World Order” and have babies on their own.  During the Medieval Ages women had little power so by encouraging women to take a dominate place in society is a form of representing the “Antichrist.” Apparently the Jews were in every way evil.

"The Eternal Jews"

A stereotype that still exist about Jews that started in the Medieval Ages are that they are charmers. They believed that the Jews could trick you into buying things also they practice witchcraft. Jews today are known to be great business people and great doctors. They are known to get what they want and to pinch pennies. Another stereotype about the Jews is that they promote homosexuality. Yes there is a higher population of gay Jews than there is in most regions, but they do not promote homosexuality. Some also believe that Jews have no morals and they just run around and do what they want, again not true.

-Zara Robinson

Christians reasons for persecuting the Jews

Why Christians hated the Jews

During the Medieval time period, Jewish people were seen very differently by Christian people then how they are viewed in today's society. One reason Christians viewed them differently was because of their thoughts and because of that Christians viewed them as the enemy. Christians were always worried that the Jews were going to spread their religion and that they would lose supporters to the Jews. The Jews were hated so much that they were not even allowed to have jobs that Christians held for example if you were a Jewish doctor you were not even allowed to see a Christian patient. 

The Jews were blamed for everything from the Crucifixion of Jesus to performing Anti-Christian rituals. The things that the Jews were blamed for were usually for problems that were uncontrollable. Christians had blamed the Jews for poisoning the whole village's drinking water. Even though the city officials had made objections to this crazy assumption, Christians still attacked the Jews. Christians would kill for Jews for things like this and others. One of the main reasons Jews were killed was because of their religion. Christians believed that their religion should be the only religion anyone who believed in a different religion was considered an outsider and was usually put to death. In many ways the Jews were treated how they were by Hitler during the Holocaust. They were forced to live in ghettos and Christians made up reasons to attack them. Many of times Jews were burned to death by Christians in a bonfire. The Crusaders were one of the major groups who killed large groups of Jews at once. They would attack Jewish villages and communities. The Medieval Era was just the start of discrimination against the Jews. People of high authority from rulers to Popes would ban Jews from their cities throughout the Era. One question I have about all of this is why would the Christians hate God's chosen people?

The Barricade Still Stands

In medieval history, due to nobility and social status, conquering other races of people made nations appear stronger and even invincible. The fastest and strongest race had to remain pure in order to continue being the best. To protect themselves from sieges of “lesser” races, it only makes sense to build a barricade. For some kingdoms walls did the job, but if the walls were not properly defended, the nations were up for grabs. In today’s society, there is not a lot of conquering happening, and most countries are on equal ground with each other. However, if crime is pouring in from another country, a wall can still be beneficial. While its usefulness has shifted, walls are still used to protect countries from perceived danger.

In The History of the Kings of Britain, the Romans command the Britons to build a wall stretching across the width of the country. They comply with these orders, hoping the wall will protect them from invading Picts, Scots, and other people considered to be barbaric, lesser races. This wall was called Hadrian’s Wall, named after the reigning emperor of Rome at the time. After the wall was completed, the Romans grew weary of Britain, and pulled out of the country. None of the Britons knew how to fight, and people, who did not know how to properly defend it, manned the wall.

Hadrian's Wall

Similarly in HBO’s Game Of Thrones, an enormous wall of ice separates the country of Westeros from the mythical inhabitants beyond. According to the lore presented in the show, the wall was originally built thousands of years ago in order to prevent an invasion of the White Walkers. An order called the Night’s Watch was created to guard the wall. While the White Walkers’ army of the dead and other crazy magical beings live beyond the Wall, multiple tribes of people also live in this icy world. The Wall came up and they happened to be on the wrong side. These people, known as Wildlings, are branded as enemies and are believed to be an uncivilized race of people. As viewers spend more time watching these people, they see that they are as civilized as many of the people in Westeros. They just don’t live in castles.

It's 700ft tall and 300 miles wide, in case you're curious.

In Westeros, no one, except the Night’s Watch, believe there is a threat looming. Instead of sending well-trained soldiers to the Wall, the Lords of Westeros send criminals to the Wall as punishment. Only a small number of people in The Watch have any sort of training. While the Romans completely pull out of Briton, leading to an invasion, the Rulers of Westeros remain in the country but grow careless and neglectful of the Wall. 

Walls in today’s society are not built to stop sieges. Instead, they are built to prevent crime. While walls do not always put a halt to invasions, they have been proven to lower crime rates. During the 2000s, the Israeli government built a wall known as the Israeli West Bank Barrier. This barrier was constructed because of the large amount of suicide bombers coming in from Palestine. Between 2000 and 2003, 72 suicide bomber attacks occurred in that area, killing 293 Israelis and injuring nearly 2,000. As the wall continued to grow in size, the number of attacks decreased significantly. After its completion, the number of attacks is now almost non-existent on the west bank, but the wall is causing several problems for Palestinians. The wall cuts through Palestinian lands and is causing economic and health care problems for many people.

Israeli West Bank Barrier

Recently, while debating and campaigning for a spot on the ballot for president, many of those running, Donald Trump specifically, have brought up building a wall on the Mexico border. With illegal immigration being a growing problem in the United States, it is an idea worth looking into. Since it is undecided if this wall will be built or not, it's not possible to know whether it would help in this case. However, it cannot be denied that, walls, though an imperfect defense, have proven to be useful in multiple mediums.

We Hated Jews Then and We Somewhat Still Do

The medieval English spite towards the Jews is evident in a multitude of ways seen in the blood libels, “The Prioress’s Tale”, stereotypes, murder of hundreds of Jews, and the ultimate expulsion of all Jews from England. The same stereotypes used hundreds of years ago can still be seen today, including the progeny of the original stereotypes from medieval England. These stereotypes are surrounded by incredible amounts of hypocrisy and are completely outlandish, and sometimes they can be initially rather comical due to nature of the claims being made. However, it is deeply troubling how deeply ingrained anti Jewish and anti-Semitic ideas are in today’s society.

In “The Prioress’s Tale”, the prioress describes the Jews as a race around whose hearts Satan had curled himself. In a time when the bible was taken very literally, it would take a massive amount of hypocrisy and hatred for a Christian to claim that “God’s chosen people” had been infected with the evil from Satan directly. Because the degradation of Jews was culturally upheld, this facilitated the development of legends designed to inspire more animosity to the Jewish population. An example of these stories is the blood libels following the discovery of murdered boys. The blood libels created the idea that the Jews would murder little Christian boys in a reenactment of the crucifixion of Christ (but wasn’t Christ a Jew?) to capture the Christian blood so that the Jews could make matzos with the blood of the innocent.

Many people, myself included, initially find these fictitious defamations rather comical. It seems so far fetched that it is amusing; but these libels did result in hostility, many cases of which resulted in violence and murder, against the English Jews. Although the blood libels were nearly a millennium ago, the same thing happened to a community of Russian Jews only ten years ago. The same circumstances applied around the disappearance of these five boys, and the same exact belief that the Jews of the community were to blame for the evil that had transpired. To extend his modern blood libel, the author of the article which pinned members of another faith to the disappearance and implied murder of five children, Nazarov explains that Jews have been proven to murder people in rituals.

    Here we see the infallible logic that proves undoubtedly the guilt of all Jews in the conspiracy to murder people

Stemming from the tales of Jews staging mock crucifixions, there is the idea of Jews being monstrous creatures, who only answered the most basic of urges. They were also rumored to be cannibalistic at times. The Jewish faith was seen as one that could not or would not accept Christ, so therefore it was unsophisticated and all its adherents are savages and abominations. In many stories Jews are depicted as cannibals, and the idea of them eating or harvesting body parts has lingered in some cultures. In 2009 a Swedish tabloid called “Aftonbladet” published an article written by Donald Bostrom that claimed that Israelis had seized and detained Palestinians only to have their organs harvested from their bodies. The Israeli government immediately recognized this depiction of its government as a recurring anti-Semitic horror story. As it turns out, there was no evidence of any Israeli soldiers harvesting any organs from any Palestinian citizens (who would have guessed).

The cover of the published article that reads “Our sons are being plundered for their organs”

Far less frightening than the fashion of painting Jews as cannibalistic demons, but not any better, Jews were imagined to be conniving rapacious businessmen. Jews’ infamous reputation in medieval England came from the positions to which they were appointed after William the Conqueror acquired land in England. The Jews were the designated loaners of coin for the king because the Torah does not explicitly prohibit the practice of usury. The development of hate towards the Jews for placing a simple interest on a loan created a stereotype that has been more prevalent than any other. In todays society Jews are thought of as these insatiable businessmen who have control over Hollywood and Wall Street, people who won’t spend a penny more than they must... the list is long. This image does not only shadow the Jewish people in the western world, but it does also extend to other regions. This became evident upon South Korean corporation Samsung depicting a shareholder, Paul Singer, who is Jewish as a hawk with an axe asking for more money. Demeaning propaganda style cartoons were put up on the Samsung C&T website following Singer’s opposition of a business deal that, to me, seemed as a massive case of nepotism. This style of aggression towards Jewish people has existed for almost one thousand years because xenophobic debtors were angered by the fact that foreigners could make money in England.

This is one of the images Samsung released following the business meeting’s results. What a lighthearted jab at Mr. Singer

Wow! This is such a creative joke!

            A much more offensive depiction of Jews than the common stereotypes of Jews in today’s society, Sacha Baron Cohen’s character, Borat, combines all the stereotypes in his anti-Semitic dialogues and sketches. This character is met with responses that vary. Some people see nothing wrong with his depictions other than the physical dissimilarity, and others are outraged. However, there is actual value behind these racist depictions of both the Kazakh people and Jews These caricatures are used to highlight the resentment people have towards foreigners and people of foreign faith. The medieval English probably had similar levels of spite to the Jews that Borat displays. In the final video below, this mob-mentality justifies racism to the song’s participants. It seems probable that this type of mentality is what caused the deaths of hundreds and thousands of Jews in medieval England.

Borat's "Running of the Jew"

A false news report from Kazakhstan in Borat’s small village

Borat's "Jew Hunt"

Borat visits a ranch in Texas and has a very intellectual conversation with a very fair poacher, in which the ranch owner blames the German Jews for the Holocaust.

Borat's "Throw the Jew Down the Well"

Borat preforms a child friendly folk tune in a country bar- maybe in Texas. Possible connection to they myth that Jews had poisoned the water of a town in Medieval England. This may be coincidental, but it could also be intentional

The disposition that today’s society has towards Jews is a far deal less extreme than what was experienced by the Jewish people in medieval England, but that does not go to say that it is acceptable for these stereotypes to be perpetuated. No, Jews are not being murdered in large groups by angry Christian mobs, but all too often they are blamed for public misfortune and economic issues. These common beliefs are directly connected or very closely related to the rampant anti- Jew attitude present in medieval England.