Jewish History

Jewish History

Ever since the Jews were driven from their homeland (now known as

Israel) they have faced discrimination and prejudice, mainly due to

their beliefs and culture. They spread throughout the world and in

some countries they were welcomed and enjoyed periods of peace with

their neighbors, however in Europe the population was mainly Christian

and the Jews found themselves being branded as outsiders. The reason

Jewish and Christian populations couldn’t get along was due to

different religious beliefs and for many years the Church taught of

how it believed the Jews had killed Jesus, however in modern times

this view has been discredited by many historians.

In Russia there was a long history of anti-semitism in Eastern Europe

which where highlighted by the Chmielnicki massacres throughout an

eight year period, 1648-1656. More than 100,000 Jews were murdered

during the massacres and many more were tortured and wounded.

By the late Nineteenth century around four million Jews were living in

Russia. Many of them were in ‘The Pale of Settlement’, a specially

designated area to which the Jews had been restricted.

In the Jewish communities the Jews suffered from persecution and

violence, such as looting of belongings and smashing the windows of

Jewish owned shops. These ‘pogroms’, from a Russian word meaning a

violent mass attack on a section of the community, were often condoned

and encouraged by the Russian government who were more than happy to

see someone else get the blame for their economic failures. Waves of

pogroms broke out in 1881 and 1882, and once again between 1902 and

1905. This period in history was a testin...

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...mans and Austrians were alarmed by the

sudden rise in political power of the working class. They all searched

for a scapegoat and the Jewish population became the obvious choice as

it has so many times before in history, once again the Jews were being

resented, this time it was mainly due to religious tolerance being

replaced by ideas of racial superiority. The Jews were finding

themselves accused of dominating and polluting the culture and

business of Germany. They had to face being called an alien race and

being told why they should be removed from society on an increasing

basis. Famous figures in the public eye started to put forward ideas

that germans were racially superior to Jews and how they wanted them

to leave Germany for the good of the Germany race. One example of this

was the famous composer Richard Wagner.