Jewish History (Term Paper Sample)

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Jewish History
Introduction
In this paper the phenomenon of anti-Semitism will be investigated with especial concern for how it has affected the Jewish community. In addition the impact of conflicts which occurred in Europe between 1500 and 1900 will be audited. In short, the paper will look into he sources of anti-Semitism in the European Christian mind then connect that mentality with the circumstances which the Jewish community has found itself in over the years.
Discussion
The Jewish community cannot be spoken of in separation from the religious custom that created it. Long before the Christian theology was put together, Jews existed as a religious community that organized its life around the Talmud. The Talmud, in turn, is a collection of writings which are meant to be written by men who were inspired by God. The main line of argument which has keep the Jewish identity alive over the years is the idea that the Creator of the Universe brought it into existence in the Hebrew language thereby conferring special status to the children of Israel. At around the time that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was propagating his revolutionary theology; the Roman Empire had brought Palestine under its administrative umbrella.
After the death and the supposed resurrection and ascension of Jesus it did not take long for the Roman Emperor Constantine to convert to Christianity and demand the same from his subjects. That conversion led to widespread dissemination of Christian literature. The conversion also led to an altogether change in the manner in which the land of Palestine was viewed by Europeans. The whole of Palestine in general, and Jerusalem in particular became sacred territories which the Romans revered solemnly. In effect, they could not tolerate the existence of large communities of Jews there. The main bone of contention between Jews and Christians was that the majority of Jews did not take seriously Jesus’ claims of a unique ability to deliver eternal salvation by merely affirming his Divinity by heart.
With their ancestral land already the being the centre of gravity of another religion, Jews kept migrating to European societies where they were perceived with a mixture of awe and contempt. The awe was engendered by the fact European Christians had by that time heard about the special children of Israel and were somewhat respectful of the fact all the prophets whom they were taught to respect were Jews. The contempt, as stated above, derived from viscerally-held religious beliefs which the European masses had been drilled with and could not explain much about.
Come the 1500s the Jews had become a widespread presence in Western Europe. Often than not, they were money lenders. This tradition entered the 16th century in a region of Europe that was steadily under intellectual transformation. With the enlightenment, scientific discoveries were made which allowed for the expansion of the European economy. Thus, “the rise of mercantilism and capitalism in the seventeenth century made fiscal expediency a more important criterion for toleration than religion” (Scheindlin 149). These developments resulted in a state of affairs where the long-despised money lenders gradually transmuted into esteemed investment financiers. This was a time when the feudal stratification of European society had not been fully overhauled. Thus, with their skills of pecuniary management, “by 1600, Jews had settled whole districts and were engaged in crafts, agriculture, trade, tax farming, and customs collection,” (Scheindlin 152).
In Eastern Europe, the differences between Orthodox Ukrainians and Polish Catholics led to a situation in which Jews were caught up in a bloodbath that they only had a peripheral role in precipitating. The Polish nobility had for a long time hired labor from Ukrainian peasants. As most labor relations go, this one went sour when “the orthodox Ukrainians slaughtered Polish nobles and Catholic clergy and they were particularly vicious towards Jews, who were the hated tax collectors and managers of the estates that the peasants farmed,” (Scheindlin 153).
The medieval period of European history stands out as the epoch in which anti-Semitism became standard in Christian scholarship. However, the fourteenth and fifteenth century brought an intellectual movement with an especial élan for humanism. In line with that, “in 1513, a Christian scholar named Johannes Reuchlin defended the Talmud in an ecclesiastical court against a former Jew named Pfefferkorn who tried t have ass copied in the holy Roman empire confiscated,” (Sheindlin 154). That kind of enthusiasm among Christian intellectuals resulted in a boom of scholarship in Jewish history and art.
The eagerness of Christian scholars to study Jewish traditions did not result in trammeling the widespread anti-Semitism in the region. The failure was partly due to the self-serving manner in which protestant reformers had dealt with the Jewish question. In the initial period of his campaign against Catholic hegemony, Martin Luther has made acidic remarks on the Church’s persecution of Jews. This was done with a cynical hope that such talk would endear Jews to Christianity. “When it did not, he turned on them as ‘disgusting vermin’ urged Christians to treat them with enmity and endorsed their expulsion from various German states,” (Scheindlin 155).
In a Christian environment, the Jews of Western Europe were usually regarded as superstitious aliens. This gibe had its root in the fact that just like Christianity, the Jewish religion was had not taken time to separate the ethical bit from the nationalistic one. It was assumed that by being a member of either of the communities, one had his or her political allegiance defined by his identity. In Germany for example while the Jews flourished in commerce and academia, it was not until the religion was reformed to resemble Protestantism that would shed the political aspects and retain the moral campaign and feel-good spirituality.
In France, the Napoleonic era brought many positive changes for Jews. It was un...