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.