I'll give my take on how Anti-Semitism has started and why does this horrible practice still exist. It's like a bad urban myth that is still circulating in society, although less in big cities now, but still very prevalent in rural areas.

1) Blood Libel & Crucifiction of Jesus

It's a totally false accusation and it's still prevalent in rural areas. Well rural areas are still very religious, and religion dumbs people's minds down, so they invent all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories involving blood, Satan, demons and things like that.

Villagers are always wary of strangers, and they literally hate any kind of stranger that moves into their village regardless of what ethnicity they are. And if they are already Anti-Semitic, and have Anti-Semitic canards spread in their community, then their hatred will double towards the Jewish community.

The Church had a very bad tradition of spreading Anti-Semitism in the middle ages, mostly referring to the Crucifiction of Jesus, and conducted many Pogroms just based on false invented nonsense.

• First of all we don't even know whether Jesus existed at all, there is no concrete evidence other than the Bible, not even the Roman historians have wrote about him, but they wrote about many of Rome's enemies so surely they could have written about Jesus if he had existed.
• Secondly we don't know the events surrounding Jesus's death even if he did exist, so the Judas Iscariot's betrayal could be just another Anti-Semitic conspiracy theory since there is slight evidence that the Bible may have been written by Romans, and they were already Anti-Semitic after the Jewish-Roman wars, so history could have been re-written

2) Anti-Assimilation

The Jewish culture is very rich in tradition and it has a very nice community and customs, and it insists the preservation of that. It was usually a nomadic group of people after the loss of the 2nd Temple, and usually nomadic people do assimilate over time, especially if their number is small in a larger country.

The Jewish culture didn't assimilate, and totalitarian tyrants across the past 2000 years didn't like this. Starting from the Jewish-Roman wars, Anti-Semitism in Rome was already starting to reach it's peak, many Pogroms happened later. Then the Anti-Semitism was passed down to the Catholic Church who has also carried out many atrocities against the Jews in the middle ages.

Then you had the era of Nationalism, Napoleon was a rabid Anti-Semite, Bismark was a rabid Anti-Semite, Stalin was a rabid Anti-Semite, and we know about Hitler too of course.

Every single tyrant, totalitarian dictator, who wants to gain total power, they always hate minorities, not just Jewish minorities but all kinds of other minorities, but where other minorities were coerced to assimilate, Jewish groups usually stood together and resisted, heroically, but have suffered a lot for this decision.

Only a Totalitarian State demands total assimilation and obedience from it's citizens, it's the worst kind. And a multi-cultural State where all religions, ethnicities coexist together in peace is paving the way for a free society.

3) International Jewish conspiracy

This also seems like it originates from small religious villages, and their crazy fantasies that they passed down from generation to generation in small communities, from the middle ages.

Again totalitarian, brutal, and feudalistic countries during the middle ages probably invented all sorts of boogeyman just to control their population, and send them to war with one another. Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories were aimed against the Jews who did not assimilate.

Then it came the "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" which is a total fraud, it was already proven to be a forgery and it probably originated from State sponsored efforts to crush down on dissenters and disobedient minorities.

Hitler based it's entire rhetoric on this concept and all the atrocities that he committed, he did it because of this lie that was promoted for centuries.

There are still several arab / islamic-extremist groups that use such Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to further their evil agenda, is is really disgusting that a lie can live for so long.

4) Israel

• First people hated Jews because they didn't want to assimilate in a larger country
• Now they hate Jews because they reclaimed their homeland and mostly moved there where they want to live in peace

So which one is it? It can't be both?

• Because at first the hateful groups have committed the horrible Pogroms against the Jews because they lived in a foreign country and didn't assimilated.
• And now the Palestinian extremists are still committing horrible atrocities even when the Jews have moved back to their homeland.

So they hate Jews regardless of what they do, just because they exist. That is the kind of evil that the Anti-Semites are engaged in. This is a very horrible state of affairs.

The Anti-Semites are filled with absolute vicious and irrational hatred, that is all based on centuries of lies and dogma passed down from generation to generation, mostly originating from small religious-extremist communities.

---

Solution

I think the solution to this is quite straightforward. Anti-Semitism is based only on a lie, so exposing that lie is how it is defeated. Accurate news reporting, researching topics on your own and eliminating biases in one’s head is how people find the truth. If the environment is toxic and filled with hatred, then it’s easy to get lost in the hatred and emotions, that is why friendship and peace has to be promoted in society.

I think what the European Jewish Congress and other similar Jewish organizations are doing is good. They promote friendship between people and educate people about cultural things.

I think this is the best way to get rid of racism in general, people have to connect with eachother and make some friends with various ethnicities, then the ethnic conflict will shrink. People could organize various social festivals and events where they can get to know eachother.

I mean people can still be friends without having to assimilate or having to give up their individual culture or traditions. Nationalism and xenophobia is not the way to do it, but friendship and social interaction between people is.

---

Sources:
https://pixabay.com

---

Upvote, ReSteem &