Antisemitism: a modern phenomenon?

Scientific Racism

Often, the distinction between religious anti-Judaism and racist antisemitism is made. If one strictly defines racism as a scientific theory where the distinction between races is supposedly demonstrated by scientific methods such as physiognomy, skull measurements, and psychological traits, there was no racism in the Middle Ages, nor was there antisemitism. Such racial theories only emerged in modern times, particularly as they were used by the Nazis. However, outside the context of hatred against Jews, the term racism is also used for discriminatory and derogatory speech about certain races, for example, in biblical texts and their reception. Think, for example, of the Curse of Ham (Genesis 9:25-27), which was used throughout the Christian tradition to justify the inferior position of Black people and even slavery. No scientific racial theory was needed for this, yet today we still call it racist. Similar examples can be found in medieval Christian thinking and writing about Jews, especially in visual representations. 

The "Jewish Pig" 

I want to discuss the example of the "Jewish Pig" (Judensau in German). This image is found on churches and other public buildings, especially in German-speaking regions. The image shows a sow nursing several Jewish figures, identifiable by their clothing or a funnel-shaped hat, called a "Jewish hat." Sometimes the image is more elaborate, showing a Jew riding the sow backward, or more grotesquely, pointing to the animal's anus or even eating its excrement. In an earlier blog, I pointed out the connection between these images and other medieval anti-Jewish depictions. I also argued that comparing or equating people with animals is inherently racist. If a Jew drinks the milk of a pig, that animal becomes his mother, implying that Jews are pigs, and thus not human.

Yellow Skin and Foul Breath

The oldest of these 'Jewish pigs' date back to the thirteenth century, long before modern times. Later, text was sometimes added to these images. These texts leave nothing to the imagination and describe Jews in outright racist terms. For example, they refer to their skin color and foul breath, the latter supposedly caused by not eating pork! Below is a woodcut of a Judensau from the fifteenth century. As if the image on the woodcut wasn't degrading enough, it is also accompanied by explanatory text. As in a comic strip avant-la-lettre, the words of the figures are presented in text bands.

Below is the English translation of the "statements" of the characters. The original text is in German (Shachar, 34-35): 

The rabbi on the left says: "We Jews must pay attention to what we do with the sow."
Another rabbi, at the top in the middle, says: "We must not forget that we may not eat pork."
The figure near the snout says: "Look now, dear friends, how I fondle your mother."
The boy pointing to the back of the sow says: "Suck hard, dear brother, and I will blow into her ass."
The caption at the bottom reads: "Because we don't eat roasted pork, we are yellow, and our breath stinks."

Food Regulations 

The supposedly "yellow" skin color and "foul breath" of Jews are linked here to the biblical dietary laws prohibiting pork consumption (Leviticus 11). This can be considered a (reversed) religious motive: the prohibition of pork in the Hebrew Bible is, of course, not intended as something ridiculous or repulsive, but as a positive religious commandment. It is known that non-Jews, in the past and even in modern times, often pride themselves on eating pork as a form of identification as non-Jews. This is the case with many Spanish and French Christians (Har-Peled, Claude-Vassas), and perhaps with other Europeans as well. Jews who refuse to eat pork were and are accused of "not being normal" or always wanting to be "special," thus isolating themselves from other people. Even today, this may be an important aspect of Jew-hatred. If this is accompanied by references to skin color and negative bodily traits like foul breath, then it becomes racist. The fifteenth-century comic strip just discussed can therefore be called antisemitic. 

Classical Antisemitism as a Cover for Modern Antisemitism

Due to their distinct dietary and other customs, some ancient Greeks and Romans considered Jews to be misanthropes (people-haters). This is found, for example, in Apion, cited by Flavius Josephus in his Against Apion II, 137, but also in Tacitus and other authors (Stern, Bloch). The anti-Jewish statements of Greek and Roman authors were used by (Christian) classicists and theologians at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries to defend their own modern antisemitism. Here's how: antisemitism was initially not a negative term but a badge of honor for German opponents of Jews, led by the historian Heinrich von Treitschke, for their movement against Jewish influence in the German Empire. They called their movement the Antisemiten-Liga (League of Antisemites). By referencing the problems that classical authors like Tacitus had with Jews, they placed the blame on Jews themselves. If even the ancient Greeks and Romans had problems with the Jews, then the Jews themselves must be the cause! For this reason, René Bloch argues that antisemitism and the study of ancient antisemitism originated together (namely at the end of the nineteenth century). He also argues that the distinction between antisemitism and Jew-hatred usually does not hold, not even for classical antiquity and the Christian Middle Ages. 

Anti-Judaism Usually Mixed with Antisemitism

Another way to distinguish between anti-Judaism and antisemitism is this: anti-Judaism judges Jews for what they are not (e.g., Christians), while antisemitism judges Jews for what they are. In the first case, anti-Judaism ceases when Jews convert to Christianity, while in the second case, Jews are essentially beyond saving. It is rightly pointed out that modern, racist antisemitism evolved from Christian anti-Judaism. However, very early on, both were intertwined. This is evident, for example, in the writings of Hrabanus Maurus (9th century), Luther, and even Augustine. By invoking the Biblical verse "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matt 27:25), Jews were considered irredeemably lost, a situation which they passed down from generation to generation. Another theological argument for this would be the (involuntary) blindness of the Jews: God is said to have temporarily blinded the Jews to the meaning of their own scriptures and even to God's presence among them. This argument is based on Romans 11:7-10. These few examples already show that pre-modern Christian anti-Judaism often included antisemitism according to this definition because it portrayed the "Jewish condition" as an essential and, at least temporarily, unchangeable situation. 

Antisemitism is Not a Modern Phenomenon

In this brief overview, I have tried to demonstrate that the distinction between antisemitism and anti-Judaism walks a fine line and, in many cases, cannot be made. A form of Jew-hatred with clearly racist elements already existed in antiquity. Furthermore, pre-modern Christian anti-Judaism took on racist, antisemitic forms, also in interpretations of the Hebrew Bible, such as the dietary laws in Leviticus 11, to which the medieval woodcut of the Judensau refers, and certain texts from the New Testament.