Podcast episode

Below is the English version of the script

Today in the new episode of Alter nos we will deal with anti-Semitism. And we will see its history from antiquity to the modern age, focusing on the period between the Middle Ages and the first half of the nineteenth century.

There has been a continuous evolution of this over the years. What is it? Term coined by Wilhelm Marr, a German nationalist in his writing "The road to the victory of Germanism over Judaism" in 1879, indicates hatred and contempt towards all Semitic populations (Arabs, Jews and Aramaics) but in particular we will talk about the Jews.

MATTIA At every time and in every place there have been rivalries between clans, tribes and peoples, it is difficult to establish whether, as regards ancient Israel, the enmity manifested by the other neighbouring peoples was characterized by a particular aversion and if it had a special character. The Greeks make no mention of the Jews until the century of Alexander the Great, although they exercised their influence in Palestine from a very distant time, from this silence it can only be inferred that the Greek travellers, so curious, found nothing particular to be to say about the little people of Judea, nothing struck their imagination.

In the time of Caesar and Augustus, the Jews, 1 million in Palestine and 3 or 4 in the diaspora, represented about 7-8% of the population. Their trades were very diversified: many were agricultural settlers, others were engaged in weaving and dyeing, we also find them in the work of glass, bronze and iron, still others are simple workers.

The Jews had quickly assimilated with the people of the empire, they were similar in everything to the others, except for their iron monotheism and their adamancy on the Sabbath rest. Thus the Romans, as skilled administrators came to a compromise and dispensed them from making sacrifices to the emperor and from working on the Sabbath, which created the envy of other neighbouring peoples, and in some cases, as in Alexandria, explosions of popular ferocity against them, however, very isolated episodes.

We therefore observe that the discriminations of pagan antiquity cannot be defined as "state anti-Semitism". The attention of intellectual contemporaries were aroused by what Judaism offered to be singular, some take up sad tales that circulated about their origin, which portrayed them as lepers, others considered them atheists for their sincere horror towards other divinities; for example Pompey entered boldly into their temple and remarked that inside there were no images of gods, the place was empty and the sanctuary did not keep any secrets. Some authors expressed indignation at the very active proselytism of the Jews. In general, their attention fluctuated between two poles: the repulsion in front of Jewish particularism and the attraction for the monotheistic religion, a "strange fascination", also proven by the successes of Jewish proselytism.

It is interesting to note that in China there were Jewish settlements dating back to the first centuries of the Christian era; still in 900 in Kai-fong-fu in the province of Honan, in central-southern China, there was still a handful of men who refused to eat pork, they remembered that their ancestors were circumcised and also the ruins of a synagogue. This decline in the settlement is not to be attributed to particular persecutions, which probably did not happen, but certainly the indestructible armour of the monotheism of the God of Abraham ended up giving in to the wear and tear of time.

The first Christians were Jews who followed the teachings of the Nazarene, whose precepts, although considered somewhat extremist by many doctors of the law did not constitute a formal heresy from the Jewish point of view: for this reason, they will later be called Judeo-Christians. A huge turning point occurred with St. Paul, when he made the decision to dispense Christian proselytes from the Law and from circumcision; this decision obviously sparked conflicts between the Orthodox supporters of the Christian Church of Jerusalem and the innovators of the diaspora. This decision, however, by abolishing the distinction between proselytes "sons of Abraham" and "semi proselytes" allowed the new preaching to take giant steps.

From the first centuries, the different motives of the original antagonism between Jews and Christians were intertwined, which bear the germ of Christian anti-Semitism. The Romans already in the second century had learned to distinguish between Jews and Christians. In the third century, with the growing success of Christian preaching, great persecutions were born, accompanied by hatred towards Christian exclusivism. Jewish proselytism did not stop at all and in the second and third centuries it was as active as before, if not more so, the proselytes were of both pagan and Christian origin, and among them were also many doctors of Israel.

In this era, we find the roots of the doctrinal rivalry, which later became in its most extreme theological anti-Semitism expression, there was the idea of divine punishment against the Jews who are infidels and sinners of deicide, in fact, according to the Didache, one of the most ancient ecclesiastical documents received, the main reason for the solemnization of Easter seems to be, in addition to the commemoration of the Passion and Resurrection, the obtaining of forgiveness for guilty and unfaithful Jews, although most of Christendom quickly rejected this view.

Especially in the East, where the Jews were more numerous, preachers could be heard hurling unprecedented violence against them, and a Byzantine the tradition of anti-Semitism was established, from which the superstitious fear of the Jews would derive a millennium later in the Moscovite kingdom. In the West, however, the question was more serious

During the ninth century, we note a reform of the Roman Catholic liturgy in the part concerning the Jews. Before Jews were equated with catechumens and heretics, now they become a separate category, different and more serious than that simple infidels.

Probably, before this century, there was no popular anti-Semitism, indeed it seems that Judaism still aroused fascination among Christian peoples, deductions that we can also draw from the very contents of the anti-Jewish propaganda typical of these centuries. In Carolingian Europe their favourable condition led to a rapid multiplication of the colonies, they were born in Champagne, Lorraine, but even in Prague. The Talmudic science which in those times was in decline in Babylon flourishes again on the banks of the Rhine and the Seine.

RICCARDO

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II began preaching the first crusade at the council of Clermont-Ferrand. Wondering if it would not have been better to take revenge first on the infidels present in their own land and then on those in the holy land that the Crusaders were trying to conquer, the Crusader battalions composed mainly of popular cohorts began to massacre the heretics and also the Jews. Asserting the true Catholic religion was not the only reason, in fact, the massacres of the infidels were used as a pretext to plunder them. Starting from Gaul, the Crusaders exterminated all Jews except those who allowed themselves to be converted. Thus the French Jews warned the Germans of the danger that threatened them, but the latter did not worry and, precisely in Germany, the greatest massacres took place, especially in the Rhine valley.

Many defended themselves with weapons, others, in order not to die killed by the crusaders, committed suicide, while still others managed to save themselves by taking refuge from the bishops who helped them.

After this story, Henry IV gave the opportunity to return to the ancient faith to the Jews who had converted. When a new crusade was induced in 1146, although it was more organized and led by the King of France and the Emperor of In Germany, there were still excesses against the Jews in various locations on a large scale caused by impetuous preaching monks. In total there were a few hundred victims. In recent years, the news reported for the first time the birth of ritual murder in Germany and England, that is the killing of a Christian child, accompanied by the accusation of the desecration of the hosts. Thus in medieval Europe, every time it was carried away by a great movement of faith, the hatred towards the Jews increased. The disclosure of any crusade will have the same consequences.

From the twelfth century, national readings began to appear in France and Germany concerning "miracles" in which the conversion of some Jews took place. These, however, were accessible only to a part of Christianity, but at that time the first great cathedrals were built, which were real "encyclopedias understandable" to all the faithful, in which, in addition to representing the story of the crucifixion, thanks to the artistic representations, the opposition between the Synagogue, a fallen widow, and the Church, a shining virgin, was also taught.

Between 1141 and 1150 the accusation of ritual murder was born, which consisted of the murder of a Christian child to mix his blood with unleavened bread. In the following century this accusation was very present in Germany and, when Frederick II in 1236 addressed the converted Jews, the latter said that neither from the Jewish precepts of the Talmud nor from the Old Testament would it be possible to conclude that the Jews were "greedy for blood And therefore the German emperor freed them from this atrocious accusation. But ten years later the Holy See, through the first bull concerning the question, made Frederick II's actions a waste of effort.

In the 13th century in the 4th Lateran council, even after an extreme defence by the rabbis, it was imposed on the Jews to condemn their sacred books and to use a mark. The methods of application of the provision varied according to the countries: France, which was the fastest to comply, differentiated them with a circular sign, "the tondo", yellow in colour and then subsequently white and red, in Germany, they used initially a yellow or red conical hat and later a round one, in Poland they wore a green conical hat, in England two stripes are sewn on the chest, while in Italy and Spain a round one which however remained almost purely theoretical.

It was because of the First Crusade that the Jews were forced to transform their possessions into easily dissimulate possessions, then into gold and silver, and, since the numerary was extraordinarily rare at that time, they became lenders in a natural and rapid way. Since the Jews, unlike the Italian and Hanseatic merchants, could not count on the protection of their city of origin, the possibility of waiting for customers at home and not making long journeys with the danger of being looted, convinced them to switch to this occupation. Soon, due to their economic liquidity, they managed to find the protection of the sovereigns. However, they were never, with the exception of England for a short time, the main source of income for the sovereigns since there were Italian brotherhoods, such as the Lombard and Corsini brotherhoods, which surpassed them. Although they were under the protection of the sovereigns, their situation remained precarious as the kings, depending on their mood, could defend or expel Jews from their state.

As all exhortations to God remained ineffective and the Church celebrated as a lot of the Jews only got worse, it was inevitable that the Jews would conclude that the sins of the chosen people had not been fully atoned for. This sense of guilt only strengthened their attachment to the Eternal. Since then, every victim of Christian fury became a fallen fighter to sanctify the Name (Kadosh). The fighting engaged by the Jews, however, was based on a pure passive resistance to evil (Christian society). Thus the Jews responded to the hatred of Christians with equally intense but restrained and repressed hatred.

Since money, which was indispensable for a Jew, the permanent symbol of a hostile and detestable world, the spiritual world on the contrary acquired greater importance. For this reason, the rabbis, who had always placed the study of the Law above earthly goods, began to follow these precepts with as much ardour as ever before. At that time, the Jewish mentality being increasingly fearful and restricted due to persecutions, the belief in evil spirits began to be present in Northern Europe.

MATTEO

The fourteenth century, also known as the century of the Devil, was a century characterized by enormous plagues such as the black plague and famines, social struggles, peasant revolts such as the jacqueries, crusades, witch hunts and a strong anti-Semitism. There were already episodes in which Jews were persecuted as such, but a particularly significant one, which we can consider as the beginning of the great persecutions occurred in 1315, when there was a terrible famine, among the worst ever, with thousands of people dying on the roads, and then a considerable number of peasants and shepherds set out, beginning to carry out foul slaughters after a shepherd boy said he had had visions in which he was ordered to fight the infidels. It became a crusade, nicknamed the crusade of the little shepherds, with atrocious massacres, particularly bitter against the Jews, sources tell of more than 140 (!) Communities were destroyed and hundreds of Jews committed suicide in order not to fall into their hands. The massacres continued until they were suppressed by the authorities. In fear of revenge by the Jews, with a dynamic that will be found several times in history, they were accused of crimes not committed, in this case, the poisoning of wells in league with lepers, as a pretext for massacres.

When decades later, in 1347, the plague arrived in Europe, the Jews were accused, with rumours from Savoy, of being the cause and of poisoning the wells again, as in the age of the shepherds. Because of these persecutions their presence and wealth decreased, therefore also their contributions to the state coffers, and starting from 1388 they will be expelled first to Germany, then to France, to arrive at continuous expulsions during the fifteenth century which led many Jews to become wandering and homeless merchants. Over the centuries, a situation was reached in which their presence was above all in the territories of the empire, since there the central authority was less strong, and in which they practised mostly trades such as second-hand dealer or the loan shark, earning a living when they succeeded. . This led to a very strong anti-Jewish hatred, which led Eramo da Rotterdam to affirm: “if a good Christian must hate the Jews, then we are all good Christians.

This hate grew a lot even within art and literature, there was no literary genre in which negative figures of Jews were not present, even in countries where they were not present such as Belgium, or England, from which they had been expelled in 1290 and yet they were even found in works by such a prestigious author as Geoffrey-Chaucer. Italy was perhaps the place where this happened less, in fact, at times there was the figure of the honest Jew.

In medieval theatre the favorite themes were inspired by the New Testament, from which, however, many liberties were taken, fueling anti-Semitism. Passion was much more appreciated than Christ's birth, life and resurrection, creating a real genre, the Mysteres de la Passion, in which the devils, with truculent names like (...) in which they instructed the Jews, with their absurd names as well (…) To kill Jesus. These shows were often so realistic that sometimes the actor playing the Nazarene would die. With the plastic arts, for example, the depictions of macabre dances of the fourteenth century, the artists indulged even more, depicting the Jews as scorpions or suckled by the troy or with horns and long noses.

The latter are typical attributes of the depiction of the devil of the time whose figure, with the phenomenon of the witch hunt, assumed ever more defined contours, from a simple entity of evil, began to have its own character and behaviour. In addition to taking on its own characteristics, the Jews also take on witches, for example, in some cases, are represented with menstruation or with one arm longer than the other and so in Christian eyes increasingly come out of the sphere of reality to enter that of the sacred. . Even to cultured Christians, theologians, preachers, in general with a strange obsession with the devil, such as St. Vincent Ferrer, sadly also known for his fury towards the Semitic people, or St. especially relentless against Jewish doctors, who however were very competent, so much so as to treat illustrious personalities such as Maria de Medici, Francesco I and the emperor Frederick III who probably did not believe in these superstitions towards them.

Paradoxically, on the part of Christianity there was also a bit of reverence, of awareness of the inheritance from the Jewish people, almost like when one feels hatred and fear towards the supplanted father, even the obsession with taking possession of their souls only increased the idea of their importance.

The detachment, however, grows more and more, and the Jews respond to invectives and insults with an icy silence, without giving up a shred of their inner pride, so much so as to arrive at real mass suicides, and to report to themselves the maxim Talmudic: "The Jewish people are not in a position to rejoice like other peoples"; every aspect of the life of Jewish communities reflects this climate of penance and austerity. Only once a year, on Purim, did they give themselves to a carnival celebration; the profane theatre was strictly forbidden, dancing between girls and boys was forbidden even on the occasion of weddings, men and women wore black or grey clothes.

The end of the Middle Ages is the time when the Jewish quarter is transformed into a ghetto. Behind this enclosure, the Jewish community is definitively closed in on itself, education plays a fundamental role. At the age of four, the little Jew is sent to school, the rabbis constantly teach that there is nothing is more admirable than study, all the children study the Torah and the prophets, Hebrew and Aramaic, plus the rudiments of the Talmud, and afterwards the most virtuous pupils enter the Great School and these will study all their life. At thirteen they are considered ripe for marriage, which is arranged, the girl is mainly valued for dowry and the boy for culture. These early marriages are extremely fruitful, so much so that some Christian rulers will later try to impose birth control on Jews.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

The film "Il Mercante di Venezia", directed by Michael Radford, released in 2004, is a perfect example of how Jews were seen and considered at the end of the 16th century: it was mandatory to live in the city's ghetto and a red hat was mandatory to wear.

Antonio, a Christian merchant who at that time had no economic liquidity due to the fact that his merchant ships were on their way, asking for a loan of 3,000 ducats from a Jewish usurer named Shylock so that he could lend them to his friend Bassanio so that he could take the hand of a rich young woman, Portia. Shylock accepts and agrees that if Antonio did not return the money within three months, in exchange, he would take a pound of meat from Antonio himself, who had disrespected him many times. Bassanio manages to marry Porzia, but unfortunately, Antonio's ships are wrecked and he is unable to sustain the agreement. Shylock then wants to take the pound of flesh but Portia, who had disguised herself as Doge manages to prevent the execution of the punishment as she manages to find a legal quibble by forcing Shylock to convert to Christianity as well.

THOMAS

FRANCE

Jews are expelled from France at the end of the fourteenth century and therefore in the seventeenth-eighteenth century, there are very few, in most cases undeclared or originating from other countries. Everywhere in Europe the accusations against them increased during this period and the image of the Jewish usurer became even more important also due to theatrical performances in which stereotyped Jewish characters appear. What is sobering is that, in fact, most French people had never even met a Jew in their life. At that time the definition of Jew in the dictionary was as follows: "He who lends to usury or who sells at an exorbitant price and, in general, anyone who tries to earn money at all costs" (from Littré, French Dictionary in 1863).

At the origin of these prejudices, education: from childhood Christian children were transmitted a feeling of contempt towards the Jews, a people deemed guilty regardless, for which all the discrimination, suffering and persecution they suffered were considered by the more justified and legitimate. Anti-Semitic pamphlets circulated in France and furthermore, during the weekly sermons in the church, there was frequent insulting the Jews, held responsible for the killing of Christ.

In the sixteenth century there was less violence against Jews because the advent of Protestants attracted all the attention of the Catholic Church; however, the sentiment of anti-Jewish hatred remains present, manifesting itself in aggressive proposals, such as those of hanging them, having them wear a special badge or castrating them all to extinguish the "race".

However, there were exceptions to this common feeling: the philosopher Jean Bodin wrote for example a dialogue in which 7 religions were discussed, with the conclusion that all were equally good.

ENGLAND

In 1290 the Jews were expelled from England, and only in 1649, when the Calvinist leader Oliver Cromwell took power, did rumours of their official readmission begin to spread, Cromwell was in fact called derogatory "the messiah of the Jews". One day, even, the rabbi of Amsterdam came to propose to Cronwell to have the English colonize, as suggested in the Old Testament, The Corner of the Earth, that is, the extremity of the world, to be allocated to the Jewish people. But the feeling of hatred towards Jews was deeply rooted, suffice it in the Oxford dictionary that the word "Jew" read: "A name of opprobrium or reprobation, applied to a moneylender that bargains" and Cromwell had to abandon the project of readmission of the Jews to English soil.

GERMANY In Germany, a prosperous and trading country, the term "jude" had ended up taking on a double and indistinct meaning: that of Jew and usurer, often attracting the rancor and hatred of the popular classes, who identified Jews as the major money holders.

Luther in 1542 in an anti-Semitic pamphlet Against the Jews and their lies also stated that the greatest enemies of Christ were 2: the the devil and the Jews, proposing measures against the latter: burning the synagogues, seizing their books and then expelling them from the state.

In the sixteenth century in Germany the figure of court Jew (Hofjuden) was born, a sort of banker who administered finance, supported armies, minted money, and created new industries.

POLAND

In Poland, at least initially, the Jews lived in harmony with the Christians: in 1300 they received "papers" with rights and principles put in writing, despite protests from the local clergy. The numerical weakness of the Jewish community helped their integration, as there was no competition in commercial and mercantile activities. In 1765 they made up 10% of the population.

Here the Jews did not live in degradation and were not reduced to vile trades, they could own lands and devote themselves to trade and culture, having full right of citizenship. They formed a kind of autonomous and self-managed community: their language was German, which then changed into Yiddish. A sort of Jewish Parliament was also created, with a representative for each kahal, a community with powers to collect taxes, manage public order, synagogue issues ...

Polish nobles were generally protectors of the Jews; the clergy, on the other hand, despised the Jews and sometimes caused pogroms against them. Finally, the peasants, having no say in the matter, limited themselves to repeating some popular discriminatory saying.

In 1648 a protest movement began, known as the "Flood", characterized by the insurrection of Ukrainian peasants and Polish magnates, of Greek Orthodox religion, who hated both the Catholic masters and the Jewish administrators. This led to the massacre of thousands of Jews and Poles in the countryside. The total number of victims was around 100,000. Jewish communities in Poland never recovered. Among the survivors, some emigrated, but the majority ended up in extreme misery. In the same period, however, new currents of Judaism began to spread and, in 1650, the first Jewish nation was born in the forests of the Carpathians.

An important figure of these years was Baal Schem Tov, creator of Hasidism, who lived as a hermit in the forests of the Carpathians. He was very successful because he proclaimed a consolatory doctrine based on faith, hope and the search for God. The particularity of Hasidism, therefore, consisted in the existence of a person, the Righteous, in direct contact with God by whom he was influenced. TheRighteousis therefore a kind of Messiah (a concept taken from Christianity). This necessarily provoked a schism. The Hassidim were like heretics because of their bizarre customs. The rabbis' efforts were in vain, however, and Hasidism continued to spread faster and faster throughout the Polish and Ukrainian Jewish world. Hassidim prayer, very different from traditional prayer, consisted of an initial mystical ecstasy, a kind of passionate union with God.

RUSSIA

During the reign of Ivan III some Jews began to emigrate to Russian territory. Initially, they were tolerated. However, the Jewish heresy of the "Judaizers" began to spread, who did not recognize the divinity of Christ, denied the Trinity and destroyed the Sacred Icons; they were not Jews, as they glorified Jesus, but these heretical positions spread quickly until they reached Moscow. As a result, Jews were seen as carriers of contagion, and from the 16th century they were isolated in ghettos. Only between 1605 and 1613 many Jews were able to return to Moscow where they remained in the following years. During the reign of Catherine I, politics changed again and all Jews in Russia were forced to emigrate. The Senate in 1743 illustrated to Elizabeth Petrovna, the new Tsarina, the advantages that could come from readmission of the Jewish population to Russian land, but the latter did not want to have anything to do with those she considered "Enemies of Christ".

The massive presence of Jews in the territory between Odessa, Vienna and Berlin inevitably led to disastrous consequences that we are all aware of.

An emblematic story that took place between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was that linked to the figure of Dreyfus, as well narrated in Polansky's film "The officer and the spy". Dreyfus was a Jewish French officer who was accused of being a traitor to his homeland, tried and sent into exile. In the film, an officer named Picquart is appointed head of the secret services of the French army and - although anti-Semitic - decides to resume the investigation of the case, thus discovering important new elements. For example, he manages to ascertain that the bordereau, the document that would prove the officer's built - a series of letters addressed by Dreyfus to German military and diplomats - was not written by Dreyfus, like the graphologist summoned he had declared in court, but by another soldier: MajorEsterhazy, the real spy in the pay of Germany. France, once again, is divided into 2 factions. Esterhazy's handwriting is the same as that of the bordereau and the dossier, therefore, contains falsified documents. The government, also driven by the clamour of the case (and by the fiery support of Dreyfus by important writers such as Emile Zola), orders a review of the trial. This time Dreyfus is sentenced to a 10-year sentence at home, but 7 years later he will be acquitted and reinstated in the army. In 1907 Picquart became Minister of War. Ultimately, The Sense of Justice (by Piquant and the court) overcame prejudice.

And now let's give the floor to Baruch Lampronti, graduated in architecture, has been following for years research projects and enhancement of the historical and artistic heritage of the Italian Jewish communities, collaborating in particular with the Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy. He has curated and participated in the curation of numerous exhibitions and is the author of articles and essays. Among the positions currently held, he is also a member of the Cultural Heritage Commission and of the Cultural Commission of the Jewish Community of Turin.

*Here's an interview in italian*

Between 800 and 900 we reach the peak of biological and racial anti-Semitism that will bring disastrous consequences, but this, this is another story ...