I have never understood the prejudice against Jews anywhere. Is it a Christian thing? A jealousy thing? A prejudice based on sheer ignorance and distaste for the other? :shrug: I just do not get it.
In my opinion it has many sources. Many religious Jews, throughout the centuries, segregated themselves from all those they lived among, making themselves a target. The purpose, cultural integrity and continuance. An easy target known not to fight back, despite that for the caravans of the silk route, Jewish mercenaries were among the most desired at guards, because they were insane killers in battle. Since the cultural continuance was based on literacy, this made them a serious enemy of the church which retained literacy specifically for the clergy and nobility as tools to suppress the rest of the population. Since both the Vatican and the Eastern Orthodox churches claimed usury as a sin, the wealthy, including the churches, hired Jews to collect rents, debts and tithes, making for the caricature of the money hungry Jew. The English gave us the image of Fagan, the hook nosed father of crime, Shakespeare gifted Shylock, the Jewish Lender of Merchant of Venice, how subtle our hate.
Needless to say, many Jews, in many countries were forbidden to own land, join the guilds and so on, found themselves working as jewelers, money lenders, bankers, managers, and so on, causing beliefs true or not, Jews were wealthy. Read Ivanhoe and a entire community of Jews in England is taxed for the ransom to free the King, captured by other Christians coming home from the Crusades. It is easy to hate those who are different. It was the Dutch King James who forbid Jews to wear their robes of many colors, which set them visually apart and special in the eyes of others, to the simple black suits and hats we now see Orthodox Jews wear almost as a uniform today. Those stylish fur hats a gift from the Russian Jews, who used scraps from fur garments they made for Russians, to make those hats.
Add to all this the admonishment of Christ Killers, a death ordered by a puppet government of the Romans, the Sanhedrin, and the concept of the Chosen People of God, with no realization of what being chosen meant, and we have another recipe for hate. Jews were Chosen to bring the words of God to all peoples, and for that they were promised more suffering during life in return. The words of God, delivered long after the covenant, the promise, in the arms of Moses, two stone tablets of 10 laws. Those laws the mainstay of three major religions, followed by none unless convenient.
There are many more smaller reasons, but most important, hate breeds hate. Long ago I went to a Union meeting with my grandfather, maybe I was ten. He spoke many languages. I heard Greek, Polish, German, Italian among other languages being spoken, and I asked my grandfather what they were saying. He told me they were all saying, "The Jews have the money," and we're leaving. I didn't understand, the few Jews we knew from out neighborhood were among the poorest people we knew.
Before he died, Woody Guthrie married a Jewish woman, lived in Coney Island with her family. Learned Yiddish and Hebrew, writing prolifically in both languages, calling Yiddish the perfect language for self expression. He was often published in the Forward, the leading Yiddish paper of the day. He was slowly rejected by the remainder of the Union movement he championed throughout his life, until he died when Pete Seeger made Woody a hero.
"This land is your land, this land is my land"
We're all in this mess together, but people need to hate and blame.