Christians could complain to the Christian authorities and Jews would be drained of their wealth and then imprisoned or expelled. At times, it suited the Christian rulers to allow their Christian subjects to “riot,” that is, to enter Jewish homes and to rob, rape, and kill Jews at will, with no punishment by the rulers. There are heart-rending scenes depicted in Jewish poetry and prose—of women raped in the presence of their children and husbands; of children torn apart alive; of slit throats of children and parents in the presence of each other, of whole communities enclosed in synagogues and then burned alive. It didn’t happen every day, or even every year. But it happened every once in a while. The word was “pogrom” and it meant a riot by Christians, the purpose of which was to kill Jews, in the cruelest ways, with the quiet sanction of the state.
To be sure, living in a society that preached that Jews were Christ-killers, demons, and sorcerers, the source of the plagues that killed large percentages of the population, and so on, ensured that Jews would be a target. Christian education and preaching prepared the masses for the murder of the Jews. Jews in Christendom knew they were not safe.
Jews in Muslim lands were not much better off. There are searing narratives and poems that describe what it was like living in a society that forced Jews to cross the street when they encountered a Muslim; that did not allow public celebration of Jewish holidays; that made Jews pay a poll tax and get beaten publicly when they did; that invented the idea of special Jewish garb to single out Jews; that allowed Muslims to seize Jewish orphans and raise them as Muslims; that punished Jews for assaulting Muslims but not Muslims for assaulting Jews; and more. And then, there were the “riots” in which the masses were allowed, even encouraged, to roam through the Jewish community, raping, killing, torturing, and humiliating the Jews of all ages and genders.
The riots didn’t happen every day, or even every year. But they happened every once in a while, and became part of Jewish reality. The word was “sin’ut,” Jew hatred, and it meant the long-term humiliation of Jews, mixed with the sporadic violent murder of Jews. To be sure, living in a Muslim society that preached that Jews were deniers, apes and pigs, dishonest, greedy, and sources of illness, ensured that Jews would be a target. Muslim education and preaching prepared the masses for the murder of the Jews. Jews in Islamic lands knew they were not safe.
Then, came the Enlightenment with the idea that humans are alike. “Liberty, equality, and fraternity.” “All men are created equal.” It wasn’t true. Women were excluded. Blacks were excluded. So were Jews. But, it was a dream which, very slowly, was extended until the declaration of human rights was understood to be universal.
European and American Jews were glad to live in the Enlightenment. There were still remnants of the old regime and they were called “antisemitic,” but we, Jews, believed them to be remnants of medieval Christendom that would fade away in the Enlightenment. The problem was that antisemitism had very deep roots in western culture and religion and, in their enthusiasm for the Enlightenment, the Jews of Europe forgot those roots. In time, the forces of deep Jew hatred reared their heads, and secular modernity also turned against the Jews. Jews were hated because they were Jews, again: greedy for world power, the source of the loss of the old traditional values, vermin, an inferior race, modern Antichrists. That resulted in the Holocaust, an almost-successful, systematic, mechanized, state-sponsored effort to annihilate all the Jews in Europe. The education of the populace by these forces, especially in the Nazi and communist states, prepared the masses for the murder of the Jews. Jews in the modern world learned that they were not safe.
The Enlightenment never came to the lands of Islam—not for the Jews, not for women, and not for others. Modern technology came, but not the Enlightenment. Rather, modern Islam borrowed the “antisemitism” of the Christian modern world, added it to Islamic antisemitism, and began to educate Muslims to murder Jews in the modern spirit and way.
The Jews responded to Christian, secular, and Muslim Jew hatred by creating their own state. It was to be a place where Jews could live without pogroms and sin’ut, where Jews could breathe freely. At first, Jews moved to the Holy Land and settled there with their own self-government. Then, they established their own state with the purpose of making it into a place where they could live without fear of pogroms and sin’ut. They had to fight for it. Many died, but it was worth it. They were free to live, to work, even to quarrel with one another. There were occasional incursions of Muslims and wars with them, but the Muslims were fought off. We paid a price, but we thought we were safe—even to have mass protests against our own government. We knew that the Muslims hated us, but we held that at a distance and, when their hatred of us, welled up, we responded. A stalemate, but a livable one.
Remembering the Farhud and the Jewish Nakba 