PERSECUTION OF JEWS

Review of Historical Events

Presented to: Dr. Kamal HassanPrepared by: Maha Youssuf

Higher Institute for Islamic Studies in Foreign Languages -- Second Year- English Department

Research Paper

OUTLINE

Outline

① Introduction② Persecution

Timeline

③ Holocaust④ Conclusion⑤ Notes

① INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Jews have been subjected to clear incidents of persecution throughout history, from the times of the Pharaohs of Egypt to the Nazi of Germany. But before we go through their history of persecution lets first delve into the origin of their nation and their cult.

The name Israel derives from the name given to Prophet Jacob (Genesis 32:28). His 12 sons were set the seeds of different tribes that later developed into the Jewish nation. As for the name Jew, it’s a derivative of Yehuda (Judah) one of the 12 sons of Jacob (Reuben, Shimon, Levi, Juda, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Yisachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Binjamin)(Exodus 1:1).

So, the names Israel, Israeli or Jewish refer to people of the same origin, themselves descendant of the Semite race from which Muslims originated.

After 40 years of their bewilderment in the Sinai desert, Moses led the Children of Israel to the Land of Canaan, that is cited in The Bible as the land promised by God to the descendants of the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants (Genesis 17:8).

Introduction (continued- 1)

When the punishment or sentence was lifted, the Jews were permitted into Palestine with the leadership of Joshua. The Jews maintained presence in the land previously known as Canaan, for the past 3,300 years, and the rule of Israelites there starts with the conquests of Joshua (ca. 1250 BCE).

“A line of stewards, or chiefs, known as ‘’judges” succeeded Joshua and were later themseles followed by a succession of kings. The first three kings were Talit, Dawud, and Sulaiman, many the be blessed. The kingdom was later divided into two parts, Israel and Judea, due to civil war and a succession crisis. In the sixth century B.C. the Babylnians invaded the land and exiled the Jews to Babylon. The rightous King, Cyrus the Great (Dhul Quarnain?) eventually allowed them to return. But in 70 A.D. an invading Roman army expelled the Jews again, as punishment for their submitting to Rome.“ (How to Tell Others about Islam by Yahya Emerick).

Following centuries witnessed a new phase of bewilderment of the Jews (Jews of the Diaspora) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Those who settled in Europe were the ones amongst which the dream of a separate homeland sprouted, for they were widely prejudiced against and hated. Whereas in the Middle East, Jews enjoyed considerable freedoms, excelling in Phylosophy, politics and arts. In the 19th century the aspirations of the European Jews of a new separate Homeland translated into the first Zionist movement, the political program supporting an all Jewish state.

European nations shipped Jews off their lands to a land that would witness their concentration and their future home away from their lands, hoping this would make up for their persecution against them, giving them a free hand to kill, mayhem and annihilate the original inhabitants of those lands to establish their own home- A genocide against Palestinians, who inhabited that lands for a few centuries took place.

The outcome of all this was the creation of nation of Israel.

Introduction (continued-2)

② TIMELINE

Timeline

Timeline (A)

Name Date Remarks

① Roman Destruction of Jerusalem

70 A.D. The Roman army invaded Jerusalem, expelled the Jews.

② Kitos War 73 A.D. The First Roman-Jewish War-

③ The Bar-Kokhba Revolt

(132-135 C.E.) A revolt against the Roman Empire that witnessed great expectations for Jews and ended with violent despair.

④ Edict of Milan 313 A.D. Issued by the Roman Emperor Constantine, it made Christianity the primary religion of the Roman Empire

⑤ Serious Persecution of Jews at the hands of Emperor Hadrian

134 CE Rabbinical literature alludes to the Hadrianic persecution of Jews that caused fear and apostasy. The Jews now passed through a period of bitter persecution; Sabbaths, festivals, the study of the Torah, and circumcision were banned.

Timeline (continued- 1)

Timeline (B)

⑥ Emperor Theodosius permitted the destruction of Synagogues

379- 395 The Emperor permitted the destruction of synagogues if it served a religious purpose.

⑨ Burning of Milan Synagogue

380 A.D. Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, was considered a Jewish enemy. He had hoped to become a martyr by the destruction of a synagogue.

⑩ Expelling Jews from Egypt

415 In Alexandria, through the bishop Cyril, hostility broke out between the Jews and the Christians, and Cyril expelled the Jews from the city-- (Socrates, "Hist. Eccl." vii. 15; Theophanes, l.c. p. 223).

Timeline (continued-2)

Timeline (C)

⑪ Emperor Justine’s persecution of Jews

528 A.D. Emperor Justinian issued the Justinian Code, banning Jews from building synagogues, reading the Bible in Hebrew, assembling in public, celebrating Passover before Easter, or testifying against Christians in court.

⑫ Ferreol, Bishop of Uzès expelled Jews

558 A.D. Ferreol ordered the Jews of his diocese to meet in the Church of St. Theodoric, and preached to them a baptismal sermon. Some Jews abjured their faith; he forbade the others to remain in the city, and expelled them from his diocese (558)

Timeline (continued-3)

Timeline (D)

⑬ First Persecution of Jews in Spain

613 A.D. King Sisebut ordered the first persecution of Jews in Spain. Whether he was influenced by Emperor Heraclius, or whether the clergy brought it about, is unknown, but he ordered that within a year all Jews should either submit to baptism or leave the kingdom forever.

⑭ Exile of Jews from Italy

855 A.D. Emperor Ludwig II. (855-75) is said to have issued an edict in 855 ordering all Italian Jews to leave the country before the 1st of October of that year.

Timeline (continued-4)

Timeline (E)

⑮ Crusades’ targeted Jews in Cologne

1096 The Crusaders hunted the Jews of Cologne out of the villages…

⑯ Crusades’ slaying of Jews

1096 Expeditions from western Europe to recover Jerusalem and the holy sepulcher from the control of the infidel. The undisciplined mobs accompanying the first three Crusades attacked the Jews in Germany, France, and England, and put many of them to death.

Timeline (continued-4)

Timeline (F)

⑰ The Second Crusade- A French Monk, Rudolph, called for the destruction of the Jews.

1146 The inflammatory sermons of the French monk Rudolph caused the populace throughout the Rhine provinces to attack the Jews, and torture and kill such of them as would not accept baptism.

⑱ King of France, Philip Augustus usurped Jewish properties and persecuted them.

1180 Philip Augustus shoed anti-Jewish hostility, and in 1180, he ordered the imprisonment of all the Jews in his kingdom, their release being conditioned on the payment of the sum of 15,000 silver marks. In the spring of 1181 he banished them all, confiscated their lands and dwellings, and annulled four-fifths of their claims against the Christians, exacting the remainder for himself.

Timeline (continued-4)

Timeline (G)

⑲ The Crusade 1189- 1190

1189 At the coronation of Richard I.- on Sept. 3, 1189, and before he started for the Third Crusade, a severe riot broke out, and after he had left the country the crusaders who were preparing to follow him attacked, with the aid of the populace, the Jews at Lynn, Stamford (March 7), Bury St. Edmunds (March 18), Colchester, Thetford, and Ospringe. In York on the night of March 16, 1190, 150 Jews, headed by Rabbi Yom-Tob of Joigny, immolated themselves to escape slaughter or forced baptism.

MORE PERSECUTIONS WERE FOUNDBut the authenticity of their reporting needs review

③ THE HOLOCAUST

The HolocaustA

In 1933, Adolph Hitler was appointed the Chancellor of Germany. Under his rule, the nation grew increasingly prejudiced against the Jews and gradually their rights faded with strict Adopted to limit their control and influence in the country, educing them to second-class citizens with no right to vote, hold office, works in prestigious posts or marry non-Jews.

Moving in Eastern Europe in 1939, Hitler gained control over Jews in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, indigenous inhabitants of these nations cooperated largely with the Nazi forces, in hope of controlling the Jews.

By then millions of Jews were said to have been trapped in European countries, and became a burden for those nations. And one of two solutions had to be pursued, Either deport them to concentration camps in occupied countries. And indeed thousands of Jews were shipped to Eastern Europe where they worked till they died. The second solution was brought a long in 1941, and was led by the Nazi, Hitler.

The Holocaust (continued)B

Jews were biologically exterminated, using Zyklon B Gas- it was the cheapest method sought by the Nazi and his aids. Jews were grouped into gas chambers, where all valuables and possessions taken away from them, even gold teeth, before they were trapped till asphyxiation.

The Germans called the Holocaust “the final solution to the Jewish question.” The word Holocaust itself is derived from the Greek holokauston, a translation of the Hebrew word ʿolah, which means a burnt sacrifice offered whole to God. (according to Encyclopedia Britannica)

The Holocaust has long been the cause of much controversy, over its acceptance as a historical fact, denial of its existence, the number of Jews persecuted and the true motives that drove the Nazi, the leader of a nation that’s credited for many artistic, philosophical and scientific breakthroughs, commit such heinous crime.

The Holocaust (continued)C

While some put the number of those killed in the mass extermination of Jews at the hands of the Nazis at 6 million (and that is the most accepted statistics), some exaggerate the number, and others deny the incident altogether.

To conclude this part about the Holocaust, let me quote this valuable research paper that was prepared on the sidelines of The Tehran Conference on The Holocaust-in December 2006, with the prime aim of refuting the story about 6,000,000 Jews being exterminated or killed during World War II,

“the huge Second World War in all its tragedy should be analyzed as a whole. No doubt, hundreds of thousands of Jews must have perished because of the war, and a great part of them where killed intentionally out of prejudiced reasons. But it can't be fair to extract the Jews as one single minority and concentrate all attention just on them. Let us instead face this horrible past as a whole, and together.”- Stockholm October, 31st, 2006 Jan Bernhoff

④ CONCLUSION

Conclusion The reason why the persecution of Jews was that successful throughout history is simply because none stood up to stop it, Germany was then a superpower and no country would stand between the Nazi persecutors and the persecuted.

But one notable remark that has to be made to conclude the presentation here is that Jews have been subject to persecution mainly at the hands of Christians, the timeline and historical review presented here showed scarce or strictly no Muslim persecution to Jews.

Jews were shipped out of European lands that witnessed the early immigration of Jews, the Middle East was a save haven for Jews where they lived peacefully for generations. And while Western nations preached anti-Jews hatred and prejudice, rejecting their culture and beliefs, persecution against Jews was prohibited in Arab and Muslim states.

Conclusion (Continued)Today, nobody would dare speak a word against – let alone persecute – Jews and anything related to their culture, practices or motives- And denying the Holocaust can send you to jail. Speaking against Israel is anti-Semite and rejecting the persisting and illegal occupation of Palestine can make an entire nation suffer, from superpowers themselves supportive of the nation of Israel.

Christians and Muslims, among many other cults and cultures had long been severely persecuted and wronged, yet none’s cries had been as loud and as shrewdly manipulated as the Jews, expectedly for political motives exploited to rule the world.

Barbarism and persecution of human beings is surely regrettable and prohibited, but what’s more abhorrent is to have such accepted for one nation and rejected for the other- human dignity and sanctity of human lives knows no double standards. Why is anti-Jews crimes more criminal than other crimes?

⑤ NOTES

① How to Tell Others about Islam, By Yahya Emerick

② The Jewish Encyclopedia: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/

③ The Ancient History Encyclopedia

④ Religions of The World

⑤ Holy Bible, International New Version

⑥ Encyclopedia Britannica

⑦ Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (www.religioustolerance.org)

⑧ Al Balagh (www.albalagh.org)

⑨ http://www.ancient.eu.com/cyrene/

⑩ Holocaust Demography, Paper prepared for The Tehran Conference on The Holocaust December 2006

WASSALAAM.