ORIGINS OF OTHERING
Examining how discrimination against minorities emerged in Europe
THE ORIGINS OF ANTISEMITISM
The earliest days of antisemitism are commonly believed to have been around ancient Egypt on the basis of the book of Genesis (Lazare 1903, 20). The biblical stories of Abraham tell of Jacob who moves to Egypt along with his family. Eventually his descendants grow in number and form the Jewish people. The historical accuracy of these times is hard to determine but eventually the exodus from Egypt by a number of people to the promised land takes place (Keller 1969, 24). From this point onwards, the Jewish people were invaded and imprisoned by the Assyrians and the Neo-Babylonian Empire. After Cyrus the Great and the Achaemenid empire conquered Babylon, the Jewish people were allowed to go back to their homeland and rebuild, ultimately forming Judea, a theocratic republic. The Greek-Syrian Seleucid Empire forced Greek tradition and religion onto Judea but eventually Judea became self-ruling once again (Keller 1969, 27).
Pompeius conquered Jerusalem around 63 BC. After a long power-struggle, Herod, backed by Augustus (Octavius Caesar), became the king of Israel (Smelik 2004, 96). After Herod’s death the Promised Land became divided further and Judea came to be ruled by non-Jewish Romans (Smelik 2004, 97). Foreign rule caused multiple uprisings in 66 and 132 AD against the Romans. Heavy Roman repression followed and in 132 AD the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed, furthering the diaspora of the Jews across Europe and other parts of the world (Smelik 2004, 103).
While it is up for debate, until this time labelling these actions as antisemitism is hard to justify. What we mostly see is the territorial expansion of conquering nations and empires. Authors of these times often praise the Jewish people for being philosophical and speak very positively of them. The anti-Jewish measures taken, such as the banishment of Jews out of Rome in 19 AD, were usually as a result of Judaism threatening Roman ways of life (as other religions also did) (Smelik 2004, 127). Yet we see a turn during Roman times where Tacitus and other Egyptian authors describe Jewish people as hateful of strangers, lazy and sexual deviants (Flannery 1985, 23). For the first time, anti-Jewish propaganda emerges.
Slowly but steadily after the death of Jesus Christ, Jewish leaders and Judaist teachings quickly created a rift with the Jewish-Christians, eventually banning them from the synagogue. Rabbis rejected Jesus and his followers to protect the Jewish identity. Conflict seemed inevitable as the Church felt like they had the proper claim to the Old Testament and thus they in turn rejected the Jewish people (Smelik 2004, 137).
While at first Christianity was considered just another pagan religion by Rome, eventually, during the reign of Constantine the Great (306-337), it became an official religion of the Roman Empire. From this point onward anti-Jewish notions became more widespread as the Jewish people were seen as “they who killed the son of God” (Keller, 1969). In 386 AD Chrysostomus describes the Jewish people as disastrous. Anti-Judaist sermons were starting to become more widespread. Mostly out of fear that Judaism would interfere with Christianity’s status and influence. Insulting the entire Jewish people was an easy way to insult their faith which opposed the rightful ways of Christianity. As time went on oppressive measures against the Jewish population of the Roman Empire would increase (and sometimes decrease) and by the 5th century the Jewish people were completely isolated in a Christian society (Smelik 2004, 157).
While at first Christianity was considered just another pagan religion by Rome, eventually, during the reign of Constantine the Great (306-337), it became an official religion of the Roman Empire. From this point onward anti-Jewish notions became more widespread as the Jewish people were seen as “they who killed the son of God” (Keller, 1969). In 386 AD Chrysostomus describes the Jewish people as disastrous. Anti-Judaist sermons were starting to become more widespread. Mostly out of fear that Judaism would interfere with Christianity’s status and influence. Insulting the entire Jewish people was an easy way to insult their faith which opposed the rightful ways of Christianity. As time went on oppressive measures against the Jewish population of the Roman Empire would increase (and sometimes decrease) and by the 5th century the Jewish people were completely isolated in a Christian society (Smelik 2004, 157).
Relief on the Arch of Titus - depiction of the roman victory over the Jewish revolts in Jerusalem.
THE CAUSES OF ANTISEMITISM... OR ANTIJUDAISM?
The Jewish people received hatred and persecution for a multitude of reasons during the middle ages. Some Jewish people were involved in the money business and had both wealth and influence. Many Christians got loans from Jews and paid interest. This created animosity towards money-lenders who, along with the rest of the Jewish people, often lived in their own isolated parts of the city with their own administration (Werner 2020, 78). Furthermore during the plague, as society and well-being were at an all-time low, Jews often received blame because there were significantly less deaths among the Jewish population. Many raids happened on the Jewish quarters resulting in mass killings. Jewish people were often given a choice: convert or die (Werner 2020, 79). Another example of hate would be the Russian pogroms in the 1880s where mobs of Russian citizens would terrorize the Jewish neighborhoods, destroying their properties, raping women and killing many (Keller 1969, 435). Plenty of examples could be given. The oppression and persecution of the Jewish people is extremely widespread and goes back thousands of years.
It is important to remember that Jewish people were often pushed into positions of wealth they came to be resented for. As Christians were forbidden to work in the money business, they were forced to leave those positions open for non-Christian citizens. Just like with the death-toll of the plague, the Jewish population carried no responsibility. But they became an easy scapegoat for the fears and problems of the Christian majority. The fact that the Jewish people lived in isolated communities and did not integrate likely played a big role as to why they ended up being targeted (Lazare 1903, 22).
During these times in Spain we can observe the vague borders of anti-Judaism and antisemitism appearing. At first Jews were ostracized simply for their beliefs. Eventually, due to them being in the money-business, being isolated and their higher survival rates during the plague, they were hated for being Jewish people. They went from not fitting in to being seen as a different, evil race of greedy people. The leaders of the Spanish inquisition were mostly obsessed with the purity of religious doctrine, yet eventually the purity of one’s blood became a matter of life and death (Abicht 2019, 70). This type of oppression is different from the one found during the Roman Empire where the Jewish people were ostracized and oppressed for their beliefs and the influence their religion might have on the empire. While arguments could be made that antisemitism did show up during this time period, it was predominantly anti-Judaism. While in the middle ages the more typical forms of antisemitism that still exist today become visible.
It should still be mentioned that in reality this was a very complicated issue. The border between anti-Judaism and antisemitism is not exactly agreed upon by scholars. Furthermore, Jewish people were sometimes tolerated while other religions were actively persecuted (such as Muslims). Should we also label that as Islamophobia? Christiane Stallaert proposes that antisemitism was often born simply as a result of egoism and opportunism in tough times (Abicht 2019). When the theological approach is unfulfilling and social problems remain, the racial theories pop up (Abicht 2019, 71). Meanwhile, it cannot be understated how widespread and influential antisemitism was and still is to this day.
Artworks depicting the Strasbourg Pogrom: burning of the Jewish people as a "punishment" for the Plague
ANTISEMITISM AND ISLAMOPHOBIA: OLD AND NEW FEARS
Antisemitism and Islamophobia have been on the rise in Europe in recent decades. Both Jews and Muslims are victims of irrational fear which leads to racism, discrimination and exclusion. In contrast to antisemitism, Islamophobia is a relatively recent phenomenon that has been on the rise since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 1997 the Runnymede Trust defined Islamophobia as: "anti-Muslim prejudice, unfounded hostility and prejudice towards, and a "phobic dread" of Islam” (Hargreaves & Staetsky, 2020). A phobia literally means fear or hate but which is not necessarily put into practice. According to Dobkowski this means that people with a phobia will not fight it. The word antisemitism, on the other hand, does imply action. ‘Anti’ refers to the fact that you are against something out of fear and hatred (Dobkowski, 2015). From this it can be deduced that the fear of the two groups manifests itself similarly but in a different ways. Therefore this fear is a shared experience, but not necessarily an identical one (Renton & Gidley, 2017). For this reason it is interesting to compare the current European fear of Islam with the past European fear of Jews (Renton & Gidley, 2017). In order to put this into perspective, we will first return to the period before World War II where Jews had an important economic status. Their social status was at the expense of this economic status where they were considered dirty, rich, greedy and corrupt. Europeans were afraid that Jews wanted to dominate the world. This assertion can be compared to the fear of current Islamic radicalism wherein "violent" Muslims allegedly want to Islamize Europe and the West. Islamophobia would serve as a means to secure European civilization (Bunzl, 2005). So there is clearly a fear of Muslims who want to invade from the outside and of Jews who would penetrate from the inside (Green, 2010). Furthermore, propagating white European Christian civilization throughout history has always been an important project to control their fears of others (Bunzl, 2005).
Nationalism plays a prominent role in the categorization of Jews and Muslims as 'out-group’. In the Nazi era, for example, (racial) nationalism ensured the extermination of Jews in the Holocaust. According to the Nazis Jews did not belong to the Aryan race and were also a danger to decency and justice (Dobkowski, 2015). The Holocaust was therefore the perfect plan to create a(n) (ethnically) pure nation-state (Dobkowski, 2015; Bunzl, 2005). Today, European Muslims experience a resemblance of the antisemitism of Nazism in terms of surveillance (Renton & Gidley, 2017). The Nazis had an extensive anti-Jewish surveillance and a control apparatus. Since the attacks of 9/11, many countries in the world have adopted a war on terror approach that targets the "terrorist" Muslim. In France, this included destroying clandestine mosques and Islamic associations, criminalizing and militarizing certain neighborhoods and banning the headscarf from public schools (Silverstein, 2008). According to French right-wing parties, Muslims are culturally fundamentally different and therefore impossible to assimilate (Bunzl, 2005). These actions are just a few examples of many that prove that a phobia becomes the cornerstone of a society with attempts to shield themselves against ‘threats from without’. Ideologically, Islamophobia has the potential to suffer the same fate as historical antisemitism (Dobkowski, 2015). So it is no coincidence that the Muslim is called the new Jew. People will always be afraid and will look for scapegoats, whether they be Muslims or Jews.
More than 100 Jewish graves defaced in France with Nazi swastikas. Defacing graves is one of the most 'popular' vandalistic acts among neonazi groups.
MAGICAL ANTISEMITISM AND THE ETHNICIZATION OF IDEOLOGICAL DEVIANCE
Magical antisemitism refers to the idea that “The Jew” is a figure invented by antisemites rather than an actual ethno-religious identity. Adam Michnik (as cited in Engelberg, 1990) describes this specific form of antisemitism as follows: “In normal antisemitism, the argument goes: 'Kowalski is a Jew; therefore, he is a scoundrel.' […] Magical antisemitism works in this way: 'Kowalski is a scoundrel; therefore, he is a Jew.' '' This idea of the imagined Jew can also be found in Genevieve Zubrzycki’s 2016 article on the so-called ‘Jewish revival’ in Poland wherein she paints a picture of a newfound appreciation for all things Jewish by non-Jewish Poles. Her analyses of this growing cultural phenomenon hinges on the argument that the modern, multicultural, secular and cosmopolitan European nation is partly articulated through Jews and Jewishness. As Jewishness becomes a stand-in for a liberal, plural, and civic Europe, the conservative Catholic right points to “Jews”, i.e. symbolic Jews, as Europe’s true rulers who must be expunged.
Ultimately, individuals and groups that are not portraying the prominent place of Catholicism and its symbols in the public sphere, are turned into “Jews”. We understand this process as an ethnicization of ideological deviance from the ethno-Catholic model of Europe and it lies at the source of antisemitism. For example, many scholars have considered the intersections between antisemitism and homophobia and have offered explorations of the powerful ways in which Jews are associated with non-normative sexual and gender categories (Boyarin, Itzkovitz & Pellegrini, 2003; Mosse, 1985; Kulpa, 2020). In this sense, those of ascribed deviant status, namely Jews, are lumped together and attributed the same characteristics as those of achieved deviant status, particularly homosexuals. Consequently, simply the idea of Jewishness has started to soften, stretch, and reshape the symbolic boundaries of European nations that right-wing nationalists seek to harden and shrink (see: The Rise of Ethno-Religious Nationalism and ‘The Decline of Western Civilization’). Not only homophobia but also Islamophobia has been deemed the ally of 21st century antisemitism (see: Antisemitism & Islamophobia: old and new fears). Discourse on the ‘Muslim Question’ or ‘The Great Replacement’ reveals the striking similarities between the racialization of Jews and Muslims as the ideological deviants defining the modern European nation (Bracke & Hernández Aguilar, 2020).
In conclusion, the imagined Jewish figure has grown beyond its original ethno-religious meaning and has become a symbolic device through which other ideologically deviant ideas are articulated. This is why antisemitism remains a persistent issue in Europe despite its limited Jewish population.
THE ORIGIN OF ROMA RACIALIZATION
To begin with, who do we consider to be Roma? For instance, some scholars claim that even the common name of Roma, which politicians and academics try to promote, encompasses a vulnerably wide variety of communities, groups and sub-groups (Vermeersch 2001). Despite the diversity of those groups, they share the common fact that throughout history some similar negative attributes have been assigned to their identities. As scholars mentioned, until the 1990s only a few people knew the meaning of the term "Roma," but almost everyone knew who the “Gypsies” were. Recently the term Roma has been used more extensively in politics and official discourse and has gained the legitimacy of “political correctness.”
The most popular historical notion is that Roma originate from the northern Indian subcontinent. Based on their racial and cultural otherness as well as lifestyle, some Roma never feel quite at home within Europe or nation states, and always perceive themselves as “outsiders”. Thus, discrimination against Roma is naturalized because Roma are “(un)seen as being in Europe but not from Europe, so non-Western, an alien ‘race’”(Fejzula 2019:2102). This is centrally deployed in the political mechanisms that are used to negatively represent Roma, indicating the power, both symbolic and political, that is used to designate them as foreign. The power underlying representation is often used to maintain the status quo and the existing social structure (Van Baar 2018).
Some polls show that skin color and inappropriate social behavior are the most frequently indicated factors in the classification of who is Roma and who is not. Moreover, people almost always determine Roma as people of darker skin since they usually have darker features compared to the population of the locality in which they live. Roma are often labelled as “dirty, uncivilized, not to be trusted, thieves” by their neighbors who belong to ethnic majority groups (McGarry 2017). Other common stereotypes about Romani people are that they dress differently, live off others by begging, theft or social assistance. Roma who are wealthy are often accused of doing dishonest, or resorting to illegal, work for a living. Thus, we can clearly observe how racialization of Romani people is based on skin color, how stigmatization of ethnic groups has become part of the “whiteness myth”. With creation of the non-human or barely human other through marginalization and criminalization, Fejzula claims “whiteness will reveal fundamental shared connections between the Black and the Roma experience, both based on the fact of being constructed as an inferior alterity of the white man/woman.” (2019:2101)
To conclude, anti-Roma racialization is heavily rooted within a history of marginalization and alienation. Being forgotten or excluded from major historical re-telling is a large indicator of this.
Strikingly, the Roma are still one of the most stigmatized and racialized groups in Europe. Scholars are still debating and recalculating the number of Romani who died during the events in 1935-1945. There is no widespread awareness of the scope and significance of the Romani genocide committed by the Nazis. So, while Jews and Romani experienced the same fate , the remembrance is not being allocated proportionately since the Holocaust is largely acknowledged (“Never Again”) while the Romani genocide is mostly overlooked and falls under “historical amnesia”. As a result, anti-Roma sentiment is followed by constant discrimination and, unlike antisemitism, is not being broadly outcried; the promise of Never Again has become “again and again” in forms of stigmatization and pogroms against Romani in Europe.
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