Can someone please explain anti-semitism to me?

[Agent Orange]

No he isn't, he just has different life experiences to you. Please be aware that other people have different experiences and that these experiences help form views. The world doesn't only run as you see it.

 

I have heard many, many people labelled as Anti-Semites because they are against Israel.

 

Depends how you define "against Israel"?

[sgtkate]

So what do you call people who are against Palestine?

 

:confused:

 

Morons? Surely most people with eyes and ears can see that the main destabiliser in the region is Israel's foreign policy. Palestine isn't totally innocent here, but how can they possibly win? Israel has in effect blockaded them in and controls ALL imports in and out of the country giving it the power to completely starve the entire country. If someone stopped you leaving your house and withheld any food getting in, I'm sure you'd come out guns blazing too...

[Alan Ladd]

You had better hope and pray that Israel, (the only functioning democracy in the middle east) stays strong, if she is ever overwhelmed we are next.

[rainbow2411]

How do they get "special treatment"?

In Leeds they have, for donkeys years, just got on with making a business work and have never been any trouble.

Over the years my wife has worked for a few of them and has only kind words for all of them.

 

:confused:

 

I worked for 2 Jewish gentlemen who had worked hard to build their small businesses they paid excellent wages and we're always understanding when I was absent due to children's illnesses etc. I very much enjoyed working with them and their wives, lovely people.

[SevenRivers]

AFAIK a lot of it dates back centuries and was to do with usury. Christians & Muslims regarded interest on loans as sinful, so guess what, not many Christians & Muslims were willing to lend money because there was nothing in it for them because they couldn't/wouldn't charge interest.

 

But Jews on the other hand had no such restriction on usury, so Jews became the "go to" money lenders of the age, for small businesses and war waging monarchs and barons alike, which is why Jewish families like the Goldsmiths and Rothschilds became successful families on the back of finance.

 

I remember a Simon Schama documentary about the history of Jews, dozens were murdered in Lincoln, so their debtors didn't have to pay them back.

 

Clifford's Tower in York was also set ablaze while Jews sought refuge from a mob, I don't know what that was about though.

[Ryedo40]

I must admit I thought this. Why should they be forced to accept other people's Gods just to fit in, especially those of invaders? Surely we all have the right to believe what we want to believe, I don't think it makes us intolerant of other's beliefs or religions, just that we treasure our own. As someone said, they don't seek converts so I don't understand the issue. For example, despite being brought up Catholic, I don't believe in any God from any religion. I wouldn't bow or pray to any of them. Doesn't mean I don't acknowledge that other people believe, and I'm happy for them if it works for them.

 

That said, it comes back to a point I made that this relates to something that was relevant in ancient times - how can that possibly be an influence today? I'm truly baffled

 

Thanks for your input though, I never knew any of this!

 

 

Alan Ladd is correct when he says Judaism was an intolerant religion - it's also one of the reasons why they didn't seek converts. There were Jews though who saw how advanced and "civilised" other civilisations were and, wanting a piece of that, sought to modernise Judaism. So you end up with different factions - some more tolerant than others.

 

Later, Christianity branched off from Judaism and inherited its intolerant attitudes towards other religions. It too, for various reasons, became intolerant of Judaism and Jews.

[blake]

Alan Ladd is correct when he says Judaism was an intolerant religion - it's also one of the reasons why they didn't seek converts. There were Jews though who saw how advanced and "civilised" other civilisations were and, wanting a piece of that, sought to modernise Judaism. So you end up with different factions - some more tolerant than others.

 

Later, Christianity branched off from Judaism and inherited its intolerant attitudes towards other religions. It too, for various reasons, became intolerant of Judaism and Jews.

 

This post is total, utter garbage.

 

In the earlier centuries of Judaism proselytizing WAS practiced and Jews did seek converts, in fact at one time apparently around 1 in 8 of the whole world population equivalent to 800 million people today were Jews, however what brought proselytizing to a halt was when the Romans imposed the death penalty on Jewish proselytizers and converts. Since then the custom has been for Jews not to proseltyze however there is nothing in Jewish scripture that forbids it and today some Jewish groups believe Jewish proselytizing should be practiced again. And many thousands of people do convert to Judaism every year.

 

Also it is just wrong to claim that Judaism is 'intolerant' when, unlike Christians and Muslims, Jews do not believe that anybody who doesn't believe in their g*d will suffer eternal damnation in hell.

[Flanker7]

By definition there is an element of intolerance in any 'belief' system.

Not sure about Buddism. Is it a belief system?

[Ryedo40]

This post is total, utter garbage.

 

In the earlier centuries of Judaism proselytizing WAS practiced and Jews did seek converts, in fact at one time apparently around 1 in 8 of the whole world population equivalent to 800 million people today were Jews, however what brought proselytizing to a halt was when the Romans imposed the death penalty on Jewish proselytizers and converts. Since then the custom has been for Jews not to proseltyze however there is nothing in Jewish scripture that forbids it and today some Jewish groups believe Jewish proselytizing should be practiced again. And many thousands of people do convert to Judaism every year.

 

Also it is just wrong to claim that Judaism is 'intolerant' when, unlike Christians and Muslims, Jews do not believe that anybody who doesn't believe in their g*d will suffer eternal damnation in hell.

 

 

Blake, I'm talking about the time of Deuteronomy (627-539BCE) when Judaism was isolationist and increasingly hostile towards foreign influence. When you get to the Hellenistic period, things began to change. Jews start to take on Greek customs and ideas and begin to reform Judaism. Various factions opposed that.

 

Christianity inherited some of Judaism's intolerant ideas(hostility towards other religions/foreign nations with other gods) and they too became a cult where they condemned and became hostile towards anything not considered Christian.

 

Rome, on the otherhand, was very diverse when it came to religion. People could have their religions as long as they kissed Rome's backside(that was intolerable to most Christians and many Jews because of their intolerance of those who worshipped "false" idols and other gods). And, of course, some Jews became Roman citizens and even married Roman citizens. So it's not entirely black & white.

Edited February 13, 2015 by Ryedo40

[FazFnd]

What I don't understand is that if anyone with free speech denies the Holocaust then why do we get into trouble with the law. More black people died in the years of slavery than the Holocaust and if you mentioned that they turn around say that's a different story