Editing Antisemitism in Christianity

{{Short description|none}}
{{Anti-Semitism|Manifestations}}
Some [[Christian church]]es, [[Christian groups]], and ordinary [[Christians]] express [[antisemitism]]—as well as [[anti-Judaism]]—towards [[Jews]] and [[Judaism]]. These expressions of antisemitism can be considered examples of ''antisemitism expressed by Christians'' or antisemitism expressed by Christian communities. However, the term ''Christian antisemitism'' has also been used in reference to anti-Jewish sentiments that arise out of Christian doctrinal or [[Christian theology|theological]] stances (by thinkers such as [[Jules Isaac]], for example—especially in his book ''Jésus et Israël''). The term is also used to suggest that to some degree, contempt for Jews and Judaism is inherent in Christianity as a religion, and as a result, the centralized institutions of Christian power (such as the [[Catholic Church]] or the [[Church of England]]), as well as governments with strong Christian influences (such as the [[Catholic Monarchs of Spain]]), have generated societal structures that have survived and perpetuate antisemitism to the present. This usage particularly appears in discussions about Christian structures of power within society—structures that are referred to as Christian hegemony or [[Christian privilege]]; these discussions are part of larger discussions about [[structural inequality]] and [[Power (social and political)|power dynamics]].

Antisemitic Christian rhetoric and the resulting antipathy towards Jews date back to [[early  Christianity]], resembling pagan anti-Jewish attitudes that were reinforced by the belief that [[Jewish deicide|Jews are responsible]] for the [[crucifixion of Jesus]]. Christians imposed ever-increasing [[Persecution of Jews|anti-Jewish measures]] over the ensuing centuries, including acts of [[ostracism]], humiliation, [[expropriation]], violence, and murder—measures which culminated in [[the Holocaust]].<ref name=HarriesAfter/>{{rp|21}}<ref name=Kung/>{{rp|169}}<ref name=Dawidowicz/>

Christian antisemitism has been attributed to numerous factors, including the fundamental [[Split of early Christianity and Judaism|theological differences]] that exist between the two [[Abrahamic religions]]; the competition between [[Church (building)|church]] and [[synagogue]]; the [[Christian mission]]ary impulse; a misunderstanding of [[Jewish culture]], beliefs, and practice; and the perception that Judaism was hostile towards Christianity.<ref>{{cite book |author=Nancy Calvert Koyzis |title=Paul, monotheism and the people of God: the significance of Abraham traditions for early Judaism and Christianity|year=2004 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=0-567-08378-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FsDxt4E_4UMC&q=judaism+proselytization&pg=PA119}}</ref> For two millennia, these attitudes were reinforced in Christian preaching, art, and popular teachings, as well as in [[anti-Jewish laws]] designed to humiliate and [[Social stigma|stigmatise]] Jews.<ref name=JCPSHorst>Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. May 5, 2009. [http://jcpa.org/article/the-origins-of-christian-anti-semitism/ The Origins of Christian Anti-Semitism: Interview with Pieter van der Horst]</ref>

Modern antisemitism has primarily been described as [[hatred against Jews as a race]] (see [[racial antisemitism]]), and the most recent expression of it is rooted in 18th-century [[scientific racism]]. Anti-Judaism is rooted in hostility towards the entire religion of Judaism; in [[Western Christianity]], anti-Judaism effectively merged with antisemitism during the [[12th century]].<ref name=HarriesAfter/>{{rp|16}} Scholars have disagreed about the role which Christian antisemitism played in the rise of [[Nazi Germany]], [[World War II]], and the Holocaust.<ref name="SG">{{cite book|title=The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity|last=Steigmann-Gall|first=Richard|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2003|isbn=0-521-82371-4|location=Cambridge|pages=abstract}}</ref> The Holocaust forced many Christians to reflect on the role(s) [[Christian theology]] and practice played—and still play in—anti-Judaism and antisemitism.<ref name="Susannah_Heschel_2008">Heschel, Susannah, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fiCJeNJIhoAC The Aryan Jesus: Christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany], p. 20, Princeton University Press, 2008</ref>

==Early differences between Christianity and Judaism==
{{main|Christianity and Judaism}}
{{further information|Anti-Judaism in early Christianity}}
The legal status of Christianity and Judaism differed within the [[Roman Empire]]: because the practice of Judaism was restricted to the [[Jewish people]] and Jewish [[proselyte]]s, adherents of it were generally exempt from adhering to the obligations that were imposed on adherents of other religions by the [[Roman imperial cult]]. Since the reign of [[Julius Caesar]], Judaism enjoyed the status of a "licit religion", but occasional persecutions still occurred, such as [[Tiberius#Gospels, Jews, and Christians|Tiberius' conscription and expulsion of Jews]] in [[19 AD]]<ref>Suetonius, [[Lives of the Twelve Caesars]], Tiberius 36</ref> followed by [[Claudius' expulsion of Jews from Rome]].<ref>Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Claudius XXV.4, referenced in {{Bibleverse|Acts|18:2}}</ref> Christianity however was not restricted to one people, and because Jewish Christians were excluded from the [[synagogue]] (see [[Council of Jamnia]]), they also lost the protected status that was granted to Judaism, even though that protection still had its limits (see [[Titus Flavius Clemens (consul)]], [[Rabbi Akiva]], and [[Ten Martyrs]]).

From the reign of [[Nero]] onwards, who is said  to have blamed the [[Great Fire of Rome]] on Christians by [[Tacitus]], the practice of Christianity was criminalized and Christians were frequently [[Persecution of Christians#Roman Empire|persecuted]], but the [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|persecution]] differed from region to region. Comparably, Judaism suffered setbacks due to the [[Jewish–Roman wars]], and these setbacks are remembered in the legacy of the [[Ten Martyrs]]. [[Robin Lane Fox]] traces the origin of much of the later hostility to this early period of persecution, when the Roman authorities commonly tested the faith of suspected Christians by forcing them to pay homage to the deified emperor. Jews were exempt from this requirement as long as they paid the {{lang|la|[[Fiscus Judaicus]]}}, and Christians (many or mostly of Jewish origin) would say that they were Jewish but they refused to pay the tax. This claim had to be confirmed by the local Jewish authorities, who were likely to refuse to accept the Christians as fellow Jews, which often lead to their execution.<ref>In [https://books.google.com/books?id=bBqOAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Pagans+and+Christians%22+Robin+Lane+Fox ''Pagans and Christians'']</ref> The {{transliteration|he|[[Birkat haMinim]]}} was often brought forward as support for this charge that the Jews were responsible for the [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire]].{{citation needed|date=May 2013}} In the 3rd century systematic persecution of Christians began and lasted until [[Constantine I (emperor)|Constantine]]'s conversion to Christianity.{{citation needed|date=May 2013}} In 390 [[Theodosius I]] made Christianity the [[state church of the Roman Empire]]. While pagan cults and [[Manichaeism]] were suppressed, Judaism retained its legal status as a licit religion, but anti-Jewish violence still occurred. In the 5th century, some legal measures worsened the status of the [[Jews in the Roman Empire]].{{citation needed|date=May 2013}}

==Issues which Judaism has with the New Testament==
{{more citations needed|date=March 2017}}

===Jesus as the Messiah===
{{See also|Jesus in Christianity|Judaism's view of Jesus|Rejection of Jesus}}
In [[Judaism]], Jesus is not recognized as the [[Messiah in Judaism#Jesus|Messiah]] and is viewed as one of many failed [[Jewish Messiah claimants]] and a [[false prophet#Judaism|false prophet]], a stance acknowledged by Christians as the Jewish people's rejection of him.<ref name="BergerDWyschogrodM">{{cite book|last=Berger|first=David|title=Jews and "Jewish Christianity"|year=1978|publisher=KTAV Publ. House|location=[New York]|isbn=0-87068-675-5|author2=Wyschogrod, Michael }}</ref><ref name="SingerT">{{cite book|last=Singer|first=Tovia|title=Let's Get Biblical|year=2010|publisher=RNBN Publishers|edition=2nd|isbn=978-0615348391}}</ref><ref name="KaplanA">{{cite book|last=Kaplan|first=Aryeh|title=The real Messiah? a Jewish response to missionaries|year=1985|publisher=National Conference of Synagogue Youth|location=New York|isbn=978-1879016118|edition=New}} [http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/the_real_messiah.pdf The real Messiah (pdf)]</ref><ref name="SingerT-Monotheism">{{cite web |last=Singer |first=Tovia| title=Monotheism |url=http://www.outreachjudaism.org/articles/monotheism.html|access-date=19 August 2013}}</ref><ref name="SpiroK">{{cite web|last=Spiro|first=Ken (Rabbi, Masters Degree in History)|title=Seeds of Christianity |url=http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/seeds_of_christianity/|work=Judaism online|publisher=Simpletoremember.com|access-date=19 August 2013}}</ref> In Judaism, the belief is that the arrival of the prophesied [[Messianic Age]] is contingent upon the coming of the Messiah. Consequently, the comprehensive rejection of Jesus as either the Messiah or a divine figure has not been a pivotal concern within Jewish theological discourse.

=== Jewish deicide ===
{{Main|Jewish deicide}}

Jewish deicide is the belief that [[Jews]] to this day will always be [[Collective responsibility|collectively responsible]] for [[Crucifixion of Jesus|the killing of Jesus]],<ref name="nostra">{{cite web |title=Nostra Aetate: a milestone - Pier Francesco Fumagalli |url=https://www.vatican.va/jubilee_2000/magazine/documents/ju_mag_01111997_p-31_en.html |access-date=2018-04-16 |publisher=Vatican.va}}</ref><ref name="GreenspoonHamm2000">{{cite book |author1=Greenspoon, Leonard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jHtg7jYw4TgC&pg=PA78 |title=The Historical Jesus Through Catholic and Jewish Eyes |author2=Hamm, Dennis |author3=Le Beau, Bryan F. |date=2000 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-56338-322-9 |page=78}}</ref> also known as the [[blood curse]]. Even before the Gospels were finalized, [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] described the Jews as those "who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets" in his [[First Epistle to the Thessalonians]] 2:14–15.<ref name=":7" /> A justification of the deicide charge also appears in the [[Gospel of Matthew]] 27:24–25, alleging a crowd of Jews told [[Pilate]] that they and their children would be responsible for Jesus's death.<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|27:24–25}}</ref> The [[Acts of the Apostles]], written by the same author as the [[Gospel of Luke]], repeatedly reproach the Jews for having "crucified and killed" Jesus.<ref name=":7" /><ref>(Acts 2:23, 2:36, 4:10, 4:27, 5:30, 10:39, 13:27-28)</ref> The [[Gospel of John]] exhibits a hostile tone towards 'the Jews', particularly in verses like John 5:16, 6:52, 7:13, 8:44, 10:31, and others, which also implicate them in Jesus' death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Gospel of Mark and Judaism |url=https://www.jcrelations.net/article/the-gospel-of-mark-and-judaism.html#:~:text=In%20conclusion%20to%20our%20discussion,are%20in%20conflict%20with%20Jesus. |access-date=2025-04-21 |website=www.jcrelations.net |language=en-EN}}</ref>

Most members of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] accept the notion of Jewish deicide,<ref name="Mauss 2003 213" /> while the [[Catholic Church]] repudiated it in 1965,<ref name="nostra" /> as have several other [[Christian]] denominations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deicide and the Jews |url=https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/texts/cjrelations/resources/documents/protestant/Episcopal_Resolution_1964.htm}}</ref><ref name="lut1">Evangelical Lutheran Church in America [http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Ecumenical-and-Inter-Religious-Relations/Inter-Religious-Relations/Christian-Jewish-Relations/Guidelines.aspx "Guidelines for Lutheran–Jewish Relations"] November 16, 1998</ref><ref name="lut2">World Council of Churches [http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/interreligious/cd33-23.html "Guidelines for Lutheran-Jewish Relations"] in [http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/interreligious/cd33-01.html ''Current Dialogue'', Issue 33] July, 1999</ref>

===Criticism of the Pharisees===
{{Main|Woes of the Pharisees}}
Many New Testament passages criticise the [[Pharisees]], a Jewish social movement and school of thought that flourished during the [[Second Temple period]] (516 BCE–70 CE). It has been argued that these passages shaped the way in which Christians viewed and continue to view Jews. Like most [[Bible]] passages, however, they can be interpreted in a variety of ways.

Today, mainstream [[Rabbinical Judaism]] is directly descended from the Pharisaical tradition, which Jesus frequently criticized.<ref>Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943); Jewish Encyclopedia (1905), Exhibit 264.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12087-pharisees|title=PHARISEES - JewishEncyclopedia.com}}</ref> During Jesus's life and at the time of his execution, the Pharisees were only one of several Jewish groups, such as the [[Sadducee]]s, [[Zealot]]s, and [[Essene]]s, that mostly died out not long after the period;<ref>Jewish Encyclopedia (1905)</ref> Jewish scholars such as [[Harvey Falk]] and [[Hyam Maccoby]] have suggested that Jesus was himself a Pharisee. In the [[Sermon on the Mount]], for example, Jesus says, "The Pharisees sit in [[Moses]]' seat, therefore do what they say". Arguments by Jesus and his disciples against certain groups of Pharisees and what he saw as their hypocrisy were most likely examples of disputes among Jews and internal to Judaism that were common at the time (see, for example, [[Hillel and Shammai]]).

===Recent studies of antisemitism in the New Testament===
{{Main|Antisemitism and the New Testament}}

Professor Lillian C. Freudmann, author of ''Antisemitism in the New Testament'' ([[University Press of America]], 1994), has published a detailed study of the description of Jews in the New Testament and the historical effects that such passages have had in the Christian community throughout history. Similar studies of such verses have been made by both Christian and Jewish scholars, including Professors Clark Williamson (Christian Theological Seminary), [[Hyam Maccoby]] (The Leo Baeck Institute), Norman A. Beck (Texas Lutheran College), and [[Michael Berenbaum]] (Georgetown University). Most rabbis feel that these verses are anti-Semitic, and many Christian scholars in America and Europe have reached the same conclusion.

Another example is [[John Dominic Crossan]]'s 1995 book, titled ''Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus''. Crossan writes: "The passion-resurrection stories... have been the seedbed of Christian anti-Judaism. And without that Christian anti-Judaism, lethal and genocidal European anti-Semitism would have been impossible or at least not widely successful. What was at stake in those passion stories in the long-haul of history, was the Holocaust."{{sfn|Cohen|2007|p=20-21}}

Some biblical scholars have also been accused of holding anti-Semitic beliefs. [[Bruce J. Malina]], a founding member of [[The Context Group]], has come under criticism for going as far as to deny the Semitic ancestry of modern Israelis. He then ties it back to his work on first-century cultural anthropology.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Myles |first=Robert |author2=James Crossley |date=Dec 2012 |title=Biblical Scholarship, Jews and Israel: On Bruce Malina, Conspiracy Theories and Ideological Contradictions |url=http://www.bibleinterp.com/opeds/myl368013.shtml |journal=The Bible and Interpretation}}</ref>

==Church Fathers==
<!--{{Main article|Anti-Semitism in patristics}}-->
{{further|Adversus Judaeos|John Chrysostom}}
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2014}}

After [[Saint Paul|Paul]]'s death, Christianity emerged as a separate religion, and [[Pauline Christianity]] emerged as the dominant form of Christianity, especially after Paul, James and the other apostles agreed on a compromise set of requirements.<ref>{{bibleverse|Acts|15}}</ref> Some Christians continued to adhere to aspects of Jewish law, but they were few and often considered [[Christian heresy|heretics]] by the Church. One example is the [[Ebionites]], who seemed to have denied the [[Virgin Birth (Christian doctrine)|virgin birth]] of Jesus, the physical [[Resurrection of Jesus]], and most of the books that were later [[biblical canon|canonized]] as the [[New Testament]]. For example, the [[Ethiopian Orthodox]] continue [[Old Testament]] practices such as the [[Shabbat|Sabbath]]. As late as the 4th century [[Church Father]] [[John Chrysostom]] [[John Chrysostom#Homilies against Jews and Judaizing Christians|complained]] that some Christians were still attending Jewish synagogues. The [[Church Fathers]] identified Jews and Judaism with [[Heresy#Christianity|heresy]] and declared the people of Israel to be {{lang|la|extra Deum}} ('outside of God').

===Peter of Antioch===
[[Peter of Antioch]] referred to Christians that refused to venerate [[iconoclast|religious images]] as having "Jewish minds".<ref name=RobertM1>{{cite book|last1=Michael|first1=Robert|title=A history of Catholic anti-Semitism: the dark side of the church|date=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-0230111318|pages=28–30|edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZnFAAAAQBAJ&q=heretic&pg=PA28|access-date=9 February 2015}}</ref>

===Marcion of Sinope===
In the early second century AD, the heretic [[Marcion of Sinope]] ({{circa|85|160 AD}}) declared that the Jewish God was a different God, inferior to the Christian one,<ref name="Nicholls1993">{{cite book |last1=Nicholls |first1=William |title=Christian Anti-Semitism: A History of Hate |date=1993 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. |location=Lanham, Maryland; Boulder, Colorado; New York City; Toronto, Ontario; and Oxford, England |isbn=0-87668-398-7 |pages=178–187 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cBAAitrH9vMC&q=Marcion&pg=PA179 }}</ref> and rejected the Jewish scriptures as the product of a lesser deity.<ref name="Nicholls1993"/> Marcion's teachings, which were extremely popular, rejected Judaism not only as an incomplete revelation, but as a false one as well,<ref name="Nicholls1993"/> but, at the same time, allowed less blame to be placed on the Jews personally for having not recognized Jesus,<ref name="Nicholls1993"/> since, in Marcion's worldview, Jesus was not sent by the lesser Jewish God, but by the supreme Christian God, whom the Jews had no reason to recognize.<ref name="Nicholls1993"/>

In combating Marcion, orthodox apologists conceded that Judaism was an incomplete and inferior religion to Christianity,<ref name="Nicholls1993"/> while also defending the Jewish scriptures as canonical.<ref name="Nicholls1993"/>

===Tertullian===
The Church Father [[Tertullian]] ({{circa|155|240 AD}}) had a particularly intense personal dislike towards the Jews<ref name="Nicholls1993"/> and argued that the Gentiles had been chosen by God to replace the Jews because they were worthier and more honorable.<ref name="Nicholls1993"/> [[Origen|Origen of Alexandria]] ({{circa|184|253|lk=no}}) was more knowledgeable about Judaism than any of the other Church Fathers,<ref name="OLeary2004">{{cite book|last=O'Leary|first=Joseph S.|date=2004|chapter=Judaism|title=The Westminster Handbook to Origen|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riEdrWEDFq0C&q=Origen+ordination&pg=PA13|location=Louisville, Kentucky|editor-last=McGuckin|editor-first=John Anthony|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=0-664-22472-5|pages=135–138}}</ref> having studied [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], met [[Hillel, son of Gamaliel III|Rabbi Hillel the Younger]], consulted and debated with Jewish scholars, and been influenced by the allegorical interpretations of [[Philo|Philo of Alexandria]].<ref name="OLeary2004"/> Origen defended the canonicity of the Hebrew Bible<ref name="OLeary2004"/> and defended Jews of the past as having been chosen by God for their merits.<ref name="OLeary2004"/> Nonetheless, he condemned contemporary Jews for not understanding their own Law, insisted that Christians were the "true Israel", and blamed the Jews for the death of Christ.<ref name="OLeary2004"/> He did, however, maintain that Jews would eventually attain salvation in the final ''[[apocatastasis]]''.<ref name="OLeary2004"/> [[Hippolytus of Rome]] ({{circa|170|235 AD|lk=no}}) wrote that the Jews had "been darkened in the eyes of your soul with a darkness utter and everlasting."<ref name="Ref_m">Hippolytus, ''Treatise Against the Jews'' 6, in ''Ante-Nicene Fathers'' 5:220.</ref>

===Augustine of Hippo===
Patristic bishops of the patristic era such as [[Augustine of Hippo]] argued that the Jews should be left alive and suffering as a perpetual reminder of their [[deicide|murder of Christ]]. Like his anti-Jewish teacher, [[Ambrose of Milan]], he defined Jews as a special subset of those damned to [[hell]]. As "[[Witness People]]", he sanctified collective punishment for the [[Jewish deicide]] and enslavement of Jews to Catholics: "Not by bodily death, shall the ungodly race of carnal Jews perish{{nbsp}}[...] 'Scatter them abroad, take away their strength. And bring them down O [[God the Son|Lord]]{{' "}}. Augustine claimed to "love" the Jews but as a means to [[Proselytization and counter-proselytization of Jews|convert]] them to Christianity. Sometimes he identified all Jews with the evil of [[Judas Iscariot]] and developed the doctrine (together with [[Cyprian]]) that there was "no salvation outside the Church".<ref name=RobertM11>{{cite book|last1=Michael|first1=Robert|title=A history of Catholic anti-Semitism: the dark side of the church|date=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-0230111318|edition=1st Palgrave Macmillan pbk.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZnFAAAAQBAJ&q=heretic&pg=PA28|access-date=9 February 2015}}</ref>

===John Chrysostom===
[[John Chrysostom]] and other church fathers went further in their condemnation; the Catholic editor Paul Harkins wrote that [[St. John Chrysostom]]'s anti-Jewish theology "is no longer tenable{{nbsp}}[...] For these objectively unchristian acts, he cannot be excused, even if he is the product of his times." John Chrysostom held, as most Church Fathers did, that the sins of all Jews were communal and endless; to Chrysostom, his Jewish neighbors were the collective representation of all alleged crimes of all preexisting Jews. All Church Fathers applied the passages of the New Testament concerning the alleged advocation of the crucifixion of Christ to all Jews of their day, holding that the Jews were the ultimate evil. However, Chrysostom went so far as to say that because Jews rejected the [[God in Christianity|Christian God]] in human flesh, Christ, they therefore deserved to be killed:{{Disputed inline|John Chrysostom and Adversos Judaeos|date=March 2024}} "grew fit for slaughter." In citing the New Testament,<ref>{{bibleverse|Luke|19:27}}</ref> he claimed that Jesus was speaking about Jews when he said, "as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me."<ref name=RobertM11/>

===Jerome===
[[St. Jerome]] identified Jews with [[Judas Iscariot]] and the immoral use of money ("Judas is cursed, that in Judas the Jews may be accursed{{nbsp}}[...] their prayers turn into sins"). Jerome's homiletical assaults, which may have served as the basis for the anti-Jewish [[Good Friday prayer for the Jews|Good Friday liturgy]], contrasts Jews with the evil, and that "the ceremonies of the Jews are harmful and deadly to Christians", whoever keeps them was doomed to the [[devil]]: "My enemies are the Jews; they have conspired in hatred against Me, crucified Me, heaped evils of all kinds upon Me, blasphemed Me."<ref name=RobertM11/>

===Ephraim the Syrian===
[[Ephraim the Syrian]] wrote polemics against Jews in the 4th century, including the repeated accusation that Satan dwells among them as a partner. The writings were directed at Christians who were being proselytized by Jews. Ephraim feared that they were slipping back into Judaism; thus, he portrayed the Jews as enemies of Christianity, like Satan, to emphasize the contrast between the two religions, namely, that Christianity was Godly and true and Judaism was Satanic and false. Like Chrysostom, his objective was to dissuade Christians from reverting to Judaism by emphasizing what he saw as the wickedness of the Jews and their religion.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol1No2/HV1N2Palmer.html |title=Ephraim the Syrian and his polemics against Jews |publisher=Syrcom.cua.edu |access-date=2013-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120807105307/http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol1No2/HV1N2Palmer.html |archive-date=2012-08-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol5No1/HV5N1Shepardson.html |title=Analysis of Ephraim's writings |publisher=Syrcom.cua.edu |access-date=2013-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120807105203/http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol5No1/HV5N1Shepardson.html |archive-date=2012-08-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Middle Ages==
{{Main|History of European Jews in the Middle Ages|Medieval antisemitism}}
[[File:1182 french expulsion of jews.jpg|thumb|A miniature from [[Grandes Chroniques de France]] depicting the expulsion of Jews from France in 1182]]
In 7th century Spain, Visigoth Christian rulers and the Spanish Church's Councils of Toledo implemented policies of [[History of the Jews in Spain#Visigoth rule – Repression and forced conversions (5th century to 711)|forced conversions and expulsions of Jews]].  Later in the 12th century [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] said "For us the Jews are Scripture's living words, because they remind us of what Our Lord suffered. They are not to be persecuted, killed, or even put to flight."<ref>Catholic Book of Quotations, by Leo Knowles, Copyright 2004 by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. All rights reserved.</ref> According to [[Anna Sapir Abulafia]], most scholars agree that Jews and Christians in Latin [[Christendom]] lived in relative peace with one another until the 13th century.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Abulafia|editor1-first=Anna Sapir|title=Religious Violence Between Christians and Jews: Medieval Roots, Modern Perspectives|page=xii|publisher=Palgrave|location=UK|year=2002|isbn=978-1-34942-499-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bachrach|first=Bernard S.|title=Early medieval Jewish policy in Western Europe| page=3 | publisher=University of Minnesota Press| location=Minneapolis| year=1977| isbn=0-8166-0814-8}}</ref>

=== Massacres ===
Starting in the 11th century, the [[Crusades]] unleashed a wave of antisemitism, with attacks, massacres and forced conversions of Jews, which continued to occur throughout the Middle Ages.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=2025-04-16 |title=Judaism - Marginalization, Expulsion, Diaspora {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Judaism/Marginalization-and-expulsion |access-date=2025-04-17 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>  While Muslims of the Holy Land were the primary targets, the Crusades soon expanded to other perceived enemies of Christianity inside Europe - pagans ([[Northern Crusades]]) and heretics ([[Albigensian Crusade]]). Jews become targets of the Crusaders, due to their being viewed as "enemies of God", responsible for Christ's crucifixion.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Jeremy |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Christ_Killers/z0vuAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=jeremy+cohen+christ&dq=jeremy+cohen+christ&printsec=frontcover |title=Christ Killers: The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to the Big Screen |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-517841-8 |pages=55 |language=en}}</ref>

The knights of the First Crusade perpetrated the [[Rhineland massacres]] of Jews in 1096, while the Second Crusade led to massacres in France. The gathering for the Third Crusade in 1189-1190 brought about massacres of Jews&nbsp;in London,<ref name="fordham london massacre">{{cite web |author=[[Roger of Hoveden]] |title=The Persecution of Jews, 1189 |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/hoveden1189b.asp |access-date=2 January 2012 |work=[[Medieval Sourcebook]] |publisher=[[Fordham University]]}}</ref> Northampton<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Dan |author-link=Dan Jones (writer) |title=[[The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England]] |date=2012-05-10 |publisher=[[HarperCollins Publishers]] |isbn=978-0-00-745749-6 |language=en}}</ref> and [[York]]<ref>{{cite conference |date=March 2010 |title=York 1190: Jews and Others in the Wake of Massacre |url=http://www.york.ac.uk/medieval-studies/york-1190/about-york-1190-massacre-conference.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117173923/http://www.york.ac.uk/medieval-studies/york-1190/about-york-1190-massacre-conference.html |archive-date=January 17, 2012 |access-date=December 29, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Further massacres followed in [[Rintfleisch massacres|Franconia (1298)]], and in France in 1320 as part of the [[Shepherds' Crusade (1320)|Shepherds' Crusade]].<ref name=":4" /> The [[Massacre of 1391|1391 massacres]] of Jews in Spain, proved to be especially deadly, forcing many to convert. A prime mover of the violence in Spain was Archdeacon [[Ferrand Martínez|Ferrand Martinez]], who called for the [[Religious persecution|persecution of the Jews]] in his [[homilies]] and speeches,<ref name="Knowledge Commons2">{{Cite journal |date=10 September 2020 |editor-last=Miguel-Prendes |editor-first=Sol |editor2-last=Sofier Irish |editor2-first=Maya |editor3-last=Wacks |editor3-first=David A. |title=Ferrán Martínez's speech at the Tribunal del Alcázar in Seville, 19 February, 1388 (English version) |url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:32497/ |access-date=September 8, 2024 |website=Knowledge Commons}}</ref> claiming that he was [[God|obeying God's commandment]].<ref name="Lea 18962">{{cite journal |last1=Lea |first1=Henry Charles |date=1896 |title=Ferrand Martinez and the Massacres of 1391 |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=209–219 |doi=10.1086/ahr/1.2.209 |jstor=1833647 |doi-access=free}}</ref> In [[Vienna Gesera|Austria in 1420]] all Jews were arrested and jailed, with 200 burned alive on the pyre.

=== Expulsions ===
Beyond massacres, Jews were repeatedly expelled from Europe. In 1290, [[Edward I of England|King Edward I]] expelled all Jews from England; they were not permitted to return until 1656. Similar expulsions followed in France in 1306, Switzerland in 1348 and Germany in 1394,<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date= |title=Medieval antisemitism – The Holocaust Explained |url=https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/anti-semitism/medieval-antisemitism/#:~:text=throughout%20the%20Crusades.-,Banishment,1348%20and%20Germany%20in%201394. |access-date=2025-04-17 |website=The Wiener Holocaust Library |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 1492 the Catholic King and Queen of Spain, gave Jews the choice of either baptism or expulsion, as a result more than 160,000 Jews were expelled.<ref name=":5" /> Jews were only allowed officially back into Spain in <mark>1868</mark> with the establishment of a constitutional monarchy that allowed for the practice of faiths other than Catholicism, however, the ability to practice Judaism wasn't fully restored until 1968, when the edict of expulsion was formally repealed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Congress |first=World Jewish |title=Spain |url=https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/es#:~:text=In%201868,%20with%20the%20creation,practice%20Judaism%20as%20a%20community. |access-date=2025-04-18 |website=World Jewish Congress |language=EN}}</ref> The most common reasons given for these banishments were the need for religious purity, protection of Christian citizens from Jewish money lending, or pressure from other citizens who hoped to profit from the Jews' absence.<ref name=":6" />

=== Other discrimination ===
Jews were subjected to a wide range of legal [[Disabilities (Jewish)|disabilities]] and restrictions in medieval Europe. Jews were excluded from many trades, the occupations varying with place and time, and determined by the influence of various non-Jewish competing interests. Often Jews were barred from all occupations but money-lending and peddling, with even these at times forbidden. Jews' association to money lending would carry on throughout history in the stereotype of Jews being greedy and perpetuating capitalism. Another stereotype that appeared in the 12th century was [[Blood Libels|the blood libel]], which alleged that the Jews killed Christian boys and used their blood to make unleavened bread.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-04-15 |title=Blood libel {{!}} Meaning, Antisemitism, & History {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/blood-libel |access-date=2025-04-17 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Such accusations led to persecutions and killing of Jews.

In the later medieval period, the number of Jews who were permitted to reside in certain places was limited; they were concentrated in [[ghetto]]s, and they were also not allowed to own land; they were forced to pay discriminatory taxes whenever they entered cities or districts other than their own.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish history to the middle ages – Smarthistory |url=https://smarthistory.org/jewish-history-to-the-middle-ages/ |access-date=2022-03-23 |website=smarthistory.org}}</ref> The [[Oath More Judaico]], the form of oath required from Jewish witnesses, developed bizarre or humiliating forms in some places, e.g. in the Swabian law of the 13th century, the Jew would be required to stand on the hide of a sow or a bloody lamb.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Oath More Judaico |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11640-oath-more-judaico |access-date=2022-03-23 |website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref>

==={{lang|la|Sicut Judaeis}}===
{{lang|la|[[Sicut Judaeis]]}} (the "Constitution for the Jews") was the official position of the papacy regarding Jews throughout the Middle Ages and later.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Paula |last=Fredriksen |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/600873 |title=Review: Revisiting Augustine's Doctrine of Jewish Witness |journal=The Journal of Religion |volume=89 |issue=4 |pages=564–578 |date=October 2009 |jstor= 10.1086/600873|doi= 10.1086/600873|s2cid=170403439 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The first [[papal bull]] was issued in about 1120 by [[Calixtus II]], intended to protect Jews who suffered during the [[First Crusade]], and was reaffirmed by many popes, even until the 15th century although they were not always strictly upheld.

The bull forbade, besides other things, Christians from coercing Jews to convert, or to harm them, or to take their property, or to disturb the celebration of their festivals, or to interfere with their cemeteries, on pain of excommunication:<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=History of Toleration}}</ref>

{{blockquote|We decree that no Christian shall use violence to force them to be baptized, so long as they are unwilling and refuse.{{nbsp}}[...] Without the judgment of the political authority of the land, no Christian shall presume to wound them or kill them or rob them of their money or change the good customs that they have thus far enjoyed in the place where they live.<ref name="BaskinSeeskin2010">{{cite book|last1=Baskin|first1=Judith R.|last2=Seeskin|first2=Kenneth|title=The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521869607|page=120}}</ref>}}

=== Papal restrictions and persecution of Jews ===
[[File:Pope Paul IV – Palma il Giovane (1586–87).jpg|thumb|[[Pope Paul IV]], the author of ''[[Cum nimis absurdum]]'']]
While some popes offered protection to Jews, others implemented restrictive policies and actions that contributed to their marginalization and persecution. A key role was played by [[Pope Innocent III]] who justified his calls for lay and Church authorities to restrict Jewish "insolence" by claiming God made Jews slaves for rejecting and killing Christ. He proclaimed them to be the enemies of Christ, who must be kept in a position of social inferiority and prevented from exercising power over Christians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tolan |first=John |url=https://hal.science/hal-00726485/file/Of_Milk_and_Blood.pdf |title=The Legal Status of Religious Minorities in the Euro-Mediterranean World (5th – 15th centuries)}}</ref>

'''Devaluing testimony of Jews:''' The [[Third Council of the Lateran|Third Lateran Council]], convened by [[Pope Alexander III]] in 1179, declared the testimony of Christians should be always accepted over the testimony of Jews, that those who believe the testimony of Jews should be [[Anathema|anathemized]], and that Jews should be subject to Christians.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Lateran Council: On Jews |url=https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/344latj.html |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=history.hanover.edu}}</ref> It forbade Christians serving Jews and Muslims in their homes, calling for the excommunication of those who do.

'''Prohibitions on holding public office'''. The [[Fourth Lateran Council]], of 1215, convened by [[Pope Innocent III]], declared: "Since it is absurd that a blasphemer of Christ exercise authority over Christians, we ... renew in this general council what the Synod of Toledo (589) wisely enacted in this matter, prohibiting Jews from being given preference in the matter of public offices, since in such capacity they are most troublesome to the Christians"<ref name=":3"/> These prohibitions remained in effect for centuries.<ref name=":0">Stow, Kenneth R. (2001). "Theater of Acculturation: The Roman Ghetto in the 16th Century". University of Washington Press. p. 18-19.</ref><ref name=":1">Chazan, Robert (2010). "Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe". Cambridge University Press. p. 137-138.</ref><ref name=":2">Grayzel, Solomon (1989). "The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century". Jewish Publication Society. p. 60-61.</ref>

'''Distinctive clothing and badges:''' The [[Fourth Lateran Council]] required Jews to wear distinctive clothing or badges to distinguish them from Christians. The reason given for this was to enforce prohibitions against sexual intercourse between Christians and Jews and Muslims.<ref name=":3" /> This practice of requiring Jews to wear distinctive clothing and badges was reinforced by subsequent popes and became widespread across Europe.<ref name=":2"/> Such markings led to threats, extortion and violence against Jews.<ref>{{Cite web |last=PLACEHOLDER |first=REPRINT AUTHOR |title=The Long History of Forcing Jews to Wear Anti-Semitic Badges |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-long-history-of-forcing-jews-to-wear-anti-semitic-badges-180981829/ |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> This requirement was only removed with the [[Jewish Emancipation]] following [[Age of Enlightenment|the Enlightenment]], but the Nazis revived it. The council also forbade Jews and Muslims from appearing in public during the last three days of Easter.

'''Condemnations and burning of the Talmund:'''  In 1239, [[Pope Gregory IX]] sent a letter to priest in France with accusations against the [[Talmud|Talmund]] by a [[Franciscans|Franciscan]]. He ordered the confiscation of Jewish books while Jews were gathered in synagogue, and that all such books be "burned at the stake.” Similar instructions were conveyed to the kings of France, England, Spain, and Portugal. 24 wagons of Jewish books were burned in Paris. Additional condemnations of the Talmud were issued by Popes [[Pope Innocent IV|Innocent IV]] in his bull of 1244, [[Pope Alexander IV|Alexander IV]], [[Pope John XXII|John XXII]] in 1320, and [[Antipope Alexander V|Alexander V]] in 1409. [[Pope Eugene IV|Pope Eugenius IV]] issued a bull prohibiting Jews from studying the Talmud following the Council of Basle, 1431–43.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Burning of the Talmud |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/burning-of-the-talmud#:~:text=Condemnations%20of%20the%20Talmud%20were,a%20condemnation%20of%20the%20Talmud. |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>

'''Spanish Inquisition:''' In 1478 [[Pope Sixtus IV]] issued a bull which authorized the Spanish Inquisition.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Spanish Inquisition {{!}} Definition, History, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Spanish-Inquisition |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> This institutionalized the persecution of Jews who had converted to Christianity (''[[converso]]s''), due to mass violence against Jews by Catholics (e.g. the [[Massacre of 1391]]). The Inquisition employed torture and property confiscation, thousands were burned at the stake. In 1492 Jews were given the choice of either baptism or expulsion, as a result more than 160,000 Jews were expelled.<ref name=":5" />

'''Portuguese Inquisition:''' In 1536 [[Pope Paul III]] established the [[Portuguese Inquisition]] with a papal bull. The major target of the Portuguese Inquisition were Jewish converts to [[Catholicism]], who were suspected of [[Crypto-Judaism|secretly practicing Judaism]]. Many of these were originally [[Sephardic Jews|Spanish Jews]] who had left Spain for Portugal, when Spain forced Jews to convert to Christianity or leave. The number of these victims (between 1540 and 1765) is estimated at 40,000.<ref>{{cite book |last=Saraiva |first=António José |title=The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians |publisher=Brill |year=2001 |location=Leiden |translator-last=Salomon |translator-first=Herman Prins |translator-last2=Sassoon |translator-first2=Isaac S. D.|p=9}}</ref>

'''Ghettos:''' In 1555, [[Pope Paul IV]] issued the papal bull ''[[Cum nimis absurdum]]'', which forced Jews in the [[Papal States]] to live in [[ghetto]]s. It declared "absurd" that Jews, condemned by God to slavery for their faults, had "invaded" the Papal States and were living freely among Christians. It justified restrictions by asserting that Jews were "slaves" for their deeds, while Christians were "freed" by Jesus, and that Jews should see "the true light" and convert to Catholicism. This policy was later adopted in other parts of Europe. The [[Roman Ghetto]], established in 1555, was one of the best-known Jewish ghettos, existing until the Papal States were abolished in 1870, and Jews were no longer restricted<ref>Stow, Kenneth R. (2001). "Theater of Acculturation: The Roman Ghetto in the 16th Century". University of Washington Press. p. 18.</ref>

'''Forced conversions and expulsions:''' Some popes supported or initiated forced conversions and expulsions of Jews. For example, [[Pope Pius V]] expelled Jews from the Papal States in 1569, with the exception of Rome and Ancona. In 1593 [[Pope Clement VIII]] expelled the Jews from the [[Papal States]] with the bull, ''[[Caeca et Obdurata|Caeca et Obdurata Hebraeorum perfidia]]'' (meaning ''The blind and obdurate perfidy of the Hebrews''<ref>Roth, Cecil. 1966. ''The Jewish Book of Days''. Hermon Press.</ref>) [[Pope Innocent III]] in 1201 authorized the forced baptism of Jews in southern France, declaring that those who had been forcibly baptized must remain Christian.<ref>Chazan, Robert (2006). "The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom: 1000-1500". Cambridge University Press. p. 49-50.</ref>

'''Restrictions on Jewish economic activities:''' Various popes imposed restrictions on Jewish economic activities, limiting their professions and ability to own property. In 1555 [[Pope Paul IV]], in his bull ''Cum nimis absurdum'', prohibited Jews from engaging in most professions, restricting them primarily to moneylending and selling second-hand goods. This bull also forbade Jews from owning real estate and limited them to one synagogue per city. Previously the Fourth Lateran Council, sought ''"to protect the Christians against cruel oppression by the Jews",'' who extort Christians with "oppressive and immoderate" interest rates.<ref name=":3" />

===anti-Semitism===
[[File:Burning Jews.jpg|thumb|Jews burned alive for the alleged [[host desecration]] in [[Deggendorf]], Bavaria, in 1337]]
Anti-Semitism in popular European Christian culture escalated beginning in the 13th century. [[Blood libels]] and [[host desecration]] drew popular attention and led to many cases of persecution against Jews. Many believed Jews poisoned wells to cause plagues. In the case of blood libel, it was widely believed that the Jews would kill a child before Easter and needed Christian blood to bake matzo. Throughout history, if a Christian child was murdered accusations of blood libel would arise no matter how small the Jewish population. The Church often added to the fire by portraying the dead child as a martyr who had been tortured, and who had powers like Jesus was believed to. Sometimes the children were even made into saints.<ref name="The Butcher's Tale">The Butcher's Tale</ref> Anti-Semitic imagery such as [[Judensau]] and [[Ecclesia et Synagoga]] recurred in Christian art and architecture. Anti-Jewish Easter holiday customs such as the [[Burning of Judas]] continue to the present time.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bachner |first1=Michael |title=Polish crowd beats, burns Judas effigy with hat, sidelocks of ultra-Orthodox Jew |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/polish-crowd-beats-burns-judas-effigy-featuring-anti-semitic-tropes/ |agency=Times of Israel |date=April 21, 2019}}</ref>

In Iceland, one of the hymns repeated in the days leading up to Easter includes the lines:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-vilhjalmur-f04.htm |title=Iceland, the Jews, and Anti-Semitism, 1625–2004 – Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson |publisher=Jcpa.org |access-date=2013-07-10}}</ref>

{{poemquote|
The righteous Law of Moses
The Jews here misapplied,
Which their deceit exposes,
Their hatred and their pride.
The judgement is the Lord's.
When by falsification
The foe makes accusation,
It's His to make awards.}}

===Persecutions and expulsions===
[[File:Massaker von Lissabon.jpg|thumb|[[Lisbon Massacre]] in 1506]]
[[File:Expulsion judios-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|right|[[Expulsions and exoduses of Jews|Expulsions of Jews]] in Europe from 1100 to 1600]]

During the [[Middle Ages]] in [[Europe]] [[Persecution of Jews|persecutions]] and formal [[Expulsions and exoduses of Jews|expulsions]] of Jews were liable to occur at intervals, and this was also the case for other minority communities, regardless of whether they were religious or ethnic. There were particular outbursts of riotous persecution during the [[Rhineland massacres]] of 1096 in Germany, these massacres coincided with the lead-up to the [[First Crusade]], many of the killings were committed by the crusaders as they traveled to the East. There were many local expulsions from cities by local rulers and city councils. In Germany, the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] generally tried to restrain the persecution, if only for economic reasons, but it was frequently unable to exert much influence. In the [[Edict of Expulsion]], [[Edward I of England|King Edward I]] expelled all of the Jews from England in 1290 (after he collected ransom from 3,000 of the wealthiest Jews), based on the accusation that they were practicing [[usury]] and undermining loyalty to the dynasty. In 1306, there was a wave of persecution in France, and there were also widespread [[Black Death Jewish persecutions]] because many Christians accused the Jews of either causing or spreading the plague.<ref name="isbn0-7065-1327-4">{{cite book |title=Anti-Semitism |publisher=Keter Books |location=Jerusalem |year=1974 |isbn=9780706513271 }}</ref><ref name="Teacher's">{{cite web|title=Map of Jewish expulsions and resettlement areas in Europe|url=http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/gallery/expuls.htm|work=Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida|publisher=A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust|access-date=24 December 2012}}</ref> As late as 1519, the Imperial city of [[Regensburg]] took advantage of the recent death of [[Emperor Maximilian I]] to expel its 500 Jews.<ref>[[Christopher Wood (art historian)|Wood, Christopher]], ''Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape'', p. 251, 1993, Reaktion Books, London, {{ISBN|0948462469}}</ref>

"Officially, the medieval Catholic church never advocated the expulsion of all of the Jews from Christendom nor did it repudiate Augustine's doctrine of Jewish witness... Still, late medieval Christendom frequently ignored its mandates".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cohen|first=Jeremy|title=Review: Revisiting Augustine's Doctrine of Jewish Witness|journal=The Journal of Religion|volume=89|issue=4|date=October 2009|pages=396, 564–578|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|doi=10.1086/600873jstor=10.1086/600873|s2cid=170403439}}</ref>

====Expulsion of Jews from Spain====
{{Main|Alhambra Decree}}
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2014}}
The largest expulsion of Jews followed the [[Reconquista]] or the reunification of Spain, and it preceded the [[Expulsion of the Moriscos|expulsion of the Muslims]] who would not convert, despite the protection of their religious rights promised by the [[Treaty of Granada (1491)]].  On 31 March 1492 [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] and [[Isabella I of Castile]], the rulers of [[Spain]] who financed [[Christopher Columbus]]' voyage to the New World just a few months later in 1492, declared that all Jews in their territories should either convert to Christianity or leave the country. While some converted, many others left for [[Portugal]], [[France]], [[Italy]] (including the [[Papal States]]), [[Netherlands]], [[Poland]], the [[Ottoman Empire]], and [[North Africa]]. Many of those who had fled to Portugal were later expelled by [[Manuel I of Portugal|King Manuel]] in 1497 or left to avoid forced conversion and [[Marranos|persecution]].

==From the Renaissance to the 17th century==
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2014}}

===Cum Nimis Absurdum===
On 14 July 1555, [[Pope Paul IV]] issued [[papal bull]] [[Cum nimis absurdum]] which revoked all the rights of the Jewish community and placed religious and economic restrictions on [[Jews]] in the [[Papal States]], renewed anti-Jewish legislation and subjected Jews to various degradations and restrictions on their freedom.

The bull established the [[Roman Ghetto]] and required Jews of Rome, which had existed as a community since before Christian times and which numbered about 2,000 at the time, to live in it. The Ghetto was a walled quarter with three gates that were locked at night. Jews were also restricted to one [[synagogue]] per city.

Paul IV's successor, [[Pope Pius IV]], enforced the creation of other ghettos in most Italian towns, and his successor, [[Pope Pius V]], recommended them to other bordering states.

===Protestant Reformation===
[[File:1543 On the Jews and Their Lies by Martin Luther.jpg|thumb|Luther's 1543 pamphlet ''[[On the Jews and Their Lies (Martin Luther)|On the Jews and Their Lies]]'']]
{{See also|Luther and anti-Semitism}}

[[Martin Luther]] at first made overtures towards the Jews, believing that the "evils" of [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] had prevented their conversion to Christianity. When his call to convert to his version of Christianity was unsuccessful, he became hostile to them.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theologian.org.uk/churchhistory/lutherandthejews.html|title=Luther and the Jews|website=www.theologian.org.uk|access-date=2017-02-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shaw|first=Wilhelmina Magdalena (Elmien)|date=2017|title=Theology of religions in Martin Luther|journal=HTS Theological Studies|volume=73|issue=6|pages=26–32|doi=10.4102/hts.v73i6.4839|issn=0259-9422|doi-access=free|hdl=2263/66473|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carty|first=Jarrett|date=2019|title=Martin Luther's Anti-Judaism and Its Political Significance|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/antistud.3.2.06|journal=Antisemitism Studies|volume=3|issue=2|pages=317–342|doi=10.2979/antistud.3.2.06|jstor=10.2979/antistud.3.2.06|s2cid=208620307|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In his book ''[[On the Jews and Their Lies]]'', Luther excoriates them as "venomous beasts, vipers, disgusting scum, canders,{{clarify|date=October 2024}} devils incarnate."  He provided detailed recommendations for a [[pogrom]] against them, calling for their permanent [[oppression]] and expulsion, writing "Their private houses must be destroyed and devastated, they could be lodged in stables. Let the magistrates burn their synagogues and let whatever escapes be covered with sand and mud. Let them be forced to work, and if this avails nothing, we will be compelled to expel them like dogs in order not to expose ourselves to incurring divine wrath and eternal damnation from the Jews and their lies."  At one point he wrote: "...we are at fault in not slaying them..."  a passage that "may be termed the first work of modern anti-Semitism, and a giant step forward on the road to [[the Holocaust]]."<ref name=Johnson>[[Paul Johnson (writer)|Johnson, Paul]]. ''A History of the Jews'', HarperCollins Publishers, 1987, p. 242. {{ISBN|5-551-76858-9}}. [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]].</ref>

Luther's harsh comments about the Jews are seen by many as a continuation of medieval Christian anti-Semitism. In his final sermon shortly before his death, however, Luther preached: "We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord," but also in the same sermon stated that Jews were "our public enemy" and if they refused conversion were "malicious," guilty of blasphemy and would work to kill gentile believers in Christ.<ref name=Luther>[[Martin Luther|Luther, Martin]]. ''D. Martin Luthers Werke: kritische Gesamtausgabe'', Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1920, Vol. 51, p. 195.</ref>

==18th century==
[[File:Sandomierz katedra - mord rytualny.jpg|thumb|250px|Painting in [[Sandomierz Cathedral]], Poland, depicts Jews murdering Christian children for their [[Blood libel|blood]], ~ 1750.]]
In accordance with the anti-Jewish precepts of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]],<ref name=Beller>Steven Beller (2007)  Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press 2007. 
{{ISBN|978-0192892775}}</ref>{{rp|14}} Russia's discriminatory policies towards Jews intensified when the [[partition of Poland]] in the 18th century resulted, for the first time in Russian history, in the possession of land with a large Jewish population.<ref name=Beller/>{{rp|28}} This land was designated as the [[Pale of Settlement]] from which Jews were forbidden to migrate into the interior of Russia.<ref name=Beller/>{{rp|28}}  In 1772 [[Catherine the Great|Catherine II]], the empress of Russia, forced the Jews living in the Pale of Settlement to stay in their ''[[shtetls]]'' and forbade them from returning to the towns that they occupied before the partition of Poland.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Poland.html |title=The Virtual Jewish History Tour By Rebecca Weiner |publisher=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org |access-date=2013-07-10}}</ref>

==19th century==
{{See also|Christianity and Judaism|Relations between Catholicism and Judaism}}
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2014}}
Throughout the 19th century and into the 20th, the Roman Catholic Church still incorporated strong anti-Semitic elements, despite increasing attempts to separate anti-Judaism (opposition to the Jewish religion on religious grounds) and racial anti-Semitism. Brown University historian [[David Kertzer]], working from the Vatican archive, has argued in his book ''[[The Popes Against the Jews]]'' that in the 19th and early 20th centuries the Roman Catholic Church adhered to a distinction between "good anti-Semitism" and "bad anti-Semitism". The "bad" kind promoted hatred of Jews because of their descent. This was considered un-Christian because the Christian message was intended for all of humanity regardless of ethnicity; anyone could become a Christian. The "good" kind criticized alleged [[Jewish conspiracy|Jewish conspiracies]] to control newspapers, banks, and other institutions, to care only about the accumulation of wealth, etc. Many Catholic bishops wrote articles criticizing Jews on such grounds, and, when they were accused of promoting hatred of Jews, they would remind people that they condemned the "bad" kind of anti-Semitism. Kertzer's work is not without critics. Jewish-Christian relations scholar [[Rabbi David G. Dalin]], for example, criticized Kertzer in the ''[[Weekly Standard]]'' for using evidence selectively.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

===Opposition to the French Revolution===

The [[counter-revolutionary]] Catholic royalist [[Louis de Bonald]] stands out among the earliest figures to explicitly call for the reversal of Jewish emancipation in the wake of the [[French Revolution]].<ref name="Battini1">{{Cite book|title=Socialism of Fools: Capitalism and Modern Anti-Semitism|last=Battini|first=Michele|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2016|pages=2–7 and 30–37}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Katz |first1=Jacob |title=From Prejudice to Destruction: Anti-Semitism, 1700–1933 |date=1980 |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=112–115}}</ref> Bonald's attacks on the Jews are likely to have influenced [[Napoléon Bonaparte|Napoleon]]'s decision to limit the civil rights of Alsatian Jews.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Socialism of Fools: Capitalism and Modern Anti-Semitism|last=Battini|first=Michele|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2016|page=164}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Garṭner |first1=Aryeh |last2=Gartner |first2=Lloyd P. |title=History of the Jews in Modern Times |url=https://archive.org/details/historyjewsmoder00gart |url-access=limited |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyjewsmoder00gart/page/n128 116]|isbn=978-0-19-289259-1 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Joskowicz |first1=Ari |title=The Modernity of Others: Jewish Anti-Catholicism in Germany and France |date=2013 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=99}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Michael |first1=Robert |last2=Rosen |first2=Philip |title=Dictionary of Anti-Semitism from the Earliest Times to the Present |date=2007 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=67}}</ref> Bonald's article {{Lang|fr|Sur les juifs}} (1806) was one of the most venomous screeds of its era and furnished a paradigm which combined anti-liberalism, a defense of a rural society, traditional Christian anti-Semitism, and the identification of Jews with bankers and finance capital, which would in turn influence many subsequent right-wing reactionaries such as [[Roger Gougenot des Mousseaux]], [[Charles Maurras]], and [[Édouard Drumont]], nationalists such as [[Maurice Barrès]] and [[Paolo Orano]], and anti-Semitic socialists such as [[Alphonse Toussenel]].<ref name="Battini1" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sanos |first1=Sandrine |title=The Aesthetics of Hate: Far-Right Intellectuals, Antisemitism, and Gender in 1930s France |date=2012 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=47}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Laqueur |first1=Walter |last2=Baumel |first2=Judith Tydor |title=The Holocaust Encyclopedia |url=https://archive.org/details/holocaustencyclo00baum |url-access=limited |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/holocaustencyclo00baum/page/n60 20]|isbn=9780300084320 }}</ref> Bonald furthermore declared that the Jews were an "alien" people, a "state within a state", and should be forced to wear a distinctive mark to more easily identify and discriminate against them.<ref name="Battini1" /><ref name="Michael1" />

In the 1840s, the popular counter-revolutionary Catholic journalist [[Louis Veuillot]] propagated Bonald's arguments against the Jewish "financial aristocracy" along with vicious attacks against the Talmud and the Jews as a "deicidal people" driven by hatred to "enslave" Christians.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Graetz |first1=Michael |title=The Jews in Nineteenth-century France: From the French Revolution to the Alliance Israélite Universelle |date=1996 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=208}}</ref><ref name="Michael1">{{cite book |last1=Michael |first1=Robert |title=A History of Catholic Antisemitism: The Dark Side of the Church |date=2008 |publisher=Springer |pages=128–129}}</ref> Gougenot des Mousseaux's {{Lang|fr|Le Juif, le judaïsme et la judaïsation des peuples chrétiens}} (1869) has been called a "Bible of modern anti-Semitism" and was translated into German by Nazi ideologue [[Alfred Rosenberg]].<ref name="Michael1" /> Between 1882 and 1886 alone, French priests published twenty anti-Semitic books blaming France's ills on the Jews and urging the government to consign them back to the ghettos, expel them, or hang them from the gallows.<ref name="Michael1" />

In Italy, the Jesuit priest [[Antonio Bresciani (writer)|Antonio Bresciani]]'s highly popular novel 1850 novel ''L'Ebreo di Verona'' (''The Jew of Verona'') shaped religious anti-Semitism for decades, as did his work for ''[[La Civiltà Cattolica]]'', which he helped launch.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brustein |first1=William |title=Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust |url=https://archive.org/details/rootshateantisem00brus_487 |url-access=limited |date=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/rootshateantisem00brus_487/page/n93 76]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Feinstein |first1=Wiley |title=The Civilization of the Holocaust in Italy: Poets, Artists, Saints, Anti-semites |date=2003 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |pages=151–152}}</ref>

[[Pope Pius VII]] (1800–1823) had the walls of the Jewish [[ghetto]] in Rome rebuilt after the Jews were [[Jewish emancipation|emancipated]] by [[Napoleon and the Jews|Napoleon]], and Jews were restricted to the ghetto through the end of the [[Papal States]] in 1870. Official Catholic organizations, such as the [[Jesuits]], banned candidates "who are descended from the Jewish race unless it is clear that their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have belonged to the Catholic Church" until 1946.

==20th century==
In Russia, under the Tsarist regime, anti-Semitism intensified in the early years of the 20th century and was given official favor when the secret police forged the ''[[Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]'', a fabricated document purported to be a transcription of a plan by Jewish elders to achieve [[New World Order (conspiracy theory)|global domination]].<ref>Steven Beller (2007) ''Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction'': p. 32</ref> Violence against the Jews in the [[Kishinev pogrom]] in 1903 was continued after the 1905 revolution by the activities of the [[Black Hundreds]].<ref>Steven Beller (2007) ''Antisemitism: A Very Short Introduction'': p. 29</ref> The [[Menahem Mendel Beilis|Beilis Trial]] of 1913 showed that it was possible to revive the blood libel accusation in Russia.

Catholic writers such as [[Ernest Jouin]], who published the ''Protocols'' in French, seamlessly blended racial and religious anti-Semitism, as in his statement that "from the triple viewpoint of race, of nationality, and of religion, the Jew has become the enemy of humanity."<ref name="Michael">{{cite book |last1=Michael |first1=R. |title=A History of Catholic Antisemitism: The Dark Side of the Church |date=2008 |publisher=Springer |page=171}}</ref> [[Pope Pius XI]] praised Jouin for "combating our mortal [Jewish] enemy" and appointed him to high papal office as a [[protonotary apostolic]].<ref name="Marks">{{cite book |last1=Marks |first1=Steven Gary |title=How Russia Shaped the Modern World: From Art to Anti-semitism, Ballet to Bolshevism |date=2003 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=159}}</ref><ref name="Michael" />

===From WWI to the eve of WWII===
{{Main|Pope Benedict XV and Judaism}}
[[Image:Antisemitisches Wahlplakat CSP 1920.jpg|thumb|An anti-Semitic campaign placard used by the [[Christian Social Party (Austria)|Christian Social Party]] during the 1920 elections in Austria]]
In 1916, in the midst of the [[World War I|First World War]], [[American Jews]] petitioned Pope Benedict XV on behalf of the [[History of the Jews in Poland|Polish Jews]].

===Nazi anti-Semitism===
{{further|Pope Pius XI and Judaism|Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust|The Holocaust}}

During a meeting with Roman Catholic Bishop [[Wilhelm Berning]] of Osnabrück On April 26, 1933, Hitler declared:
<blockquote>
I have been attacked because of my handling of the Jewish question. The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc., because it recognized the Jews for what they were. In the epoch of liberalism, the danger was no longer recognized. I am moving back toward the time in which a fifteen-hundred-year-long tradition was implemented. I do not set race over religion, but I recognize the representatives of this race as pestilent for the state and for the Church, and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions.
</blockquote>

The transcript of the discussion does not contain any response by Bishop Berning. [[Martin Rhonheimer]] does not consider this unusual because in his opinion, for a Catholic Bishop in 1933, there was nothing particularly objectionable "in this historically correct reminder".<ref name="firstthings.com">{{cite web |title=The Holocaust: What Was Not Said|first=Martin |last=Rhonheimer |publisher=First Things Magazine |date=November 2003 |access-date=1 July 2009 |url=http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/the-holocaust-what-was-not-said-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091016114240/http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/the-holocaust-what-was-not-said-10 |archive-date=16 October 2009 }}</ref>

The Nazis used [[Martin Luther]]'s book, ''[[On the Jews and Their Lies]]'' (1543), to [[Luther and antisemitism#Use by the Nazis|justify their claim]] that their ideology was morally righteous. Luther seems to advocate the murder of Jews who refused to convert to Christianity by writing that "we are at fault in not slaying them."<ref>Luther, Martin. ''On the Jews and Their'' ''Lies'', cited in Robert.Michael. "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," ''Encounter'' 46 (Autumn 1985) No.4.343–344</ref>

Archbishop [[Robert Runcie]] asserted that: "Without centuries of Christian anti-Semitism, Hitler's passionate hatred would never have been so fervently echoed... because for centuries Christians have held Jews collectively responsible for the death of [[Jesus]]. On Good Friday in times past, Jews have cowered behind locked doors with fear of a Christian mob seeking 'revenge' for deicide. Without the poisoning of Christian minds through the centuries, the Holocaust is unthinkable."<ref name=HarriesAfter>Richard Harries.  After the evil: Christianity and Judaism in the shadow of the Holocaust. Oxford University Press, 2003.  {{ISBN|978-0199263134}}</ref>{{rp|21}} The dissident Catholic priest [[Hans Küng]] has written that "Nazi anti-Judaism was the work of godless, anti-Christian criminals. But it would not have been possible without the almost two thousand years' pre-history of 'Christian' anti-Judaism..."<ref name=Kung>Hans Küng. ''On Being a Christian''. Doubleday, Garden City NY, 1976 {{ISBN|978-0385027120}}</ref>{{rp|169}} The consensus among historians is that [[Nazism]] as a whole was either unrelated or actively opposed to [[Christianity]],<ref name="SG"/> and [[Religious views of Adolf Hitler|Hitler was strongly critical of it]],<ref>Speer, Albert (1971). ''Inside the Third Reich''.  Trans. [[Richard and Clara Winston|Richard Winston, Clara Winston]], Eugene Davidson. New York: Macmillan, p. 143; Reprinted in 1997. ''Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs''. New York: Simon and Schuster. {{ISBN|978-0-684-82949-4}}</ref> although Germany remained mostly Christian during the Nazi era.

The document [[Dabru Emet]] was issued by over 220 [[rabbi]]s and [[intellectual]]s from all branches of [[Judaism]] in 2000 as a statement about [[Christianity and Judaism|Jewish-Christian relations]]. This document states,<blockquote>
Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon. Without the long history of Christian anti-Judaism and Christian violence against Jews, Nazi ideology could not have taken hold nor could it have been carried out. Too many Christians participated in, or were sympathetic to, Nazi atrocities against Jews. Other Christians did not protest sufficiently against these atrocities. But Nazism itself was not an inevitable outcome of Christianity.</blockquote>
According to American [[historian]] [[Lucy Dawidowicz]], anti-Semitism has a long history within Christianity. The line of "anti-Semitic descent" from Luther, the author of ''[[On the Jews and Their Lies]]'', to Hitler is "easy to draw." In her ''[[The War Against the Jews]], 1933–1945'', she contends that Luther and Hitler were obsessed by the "demonologized universe" inhabited by Jews. Dawidowicz writes that the similarities between Luther's anti-Jewish writings and modern anti-Semitism are no coincidence because they derived from a common history of ''Judenhass'', which can be traced to [[Haman (Bible)|Haman]]'s advice to [[Ahasuerus]]. Although modern German anti-Semitism also has its roots in German [[nationalism]] and the [[liberalism|liberal]] revolution of 1848, [[Christianity|Christian]] anti-Semitism she writes is a foundation that was laid by the [[Roman Catholic]] Church and "upon which Luther built."<ref name=Dawidowicz>Lucy Dawidowicz ''The War Against the Jews, 1933–1945''. First published 1975; this Bantam edition 1986, p. 23. {{ISBN|0-553-34532-X}}</ref>

====Collaborating Christians====
[[Image:German Christians symbol.png|thumb|150px|A symbol used by the [[German Christians movement]]]]
* [[German Christians movement]]
* ''[[Gleichschaltung]]''
* [[Hanns Kerrl]], Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs
* [[Positive Christianity]] (the approved Nazi version of Christianity)
* [[Protestant Reich Church]]

====Opposition to the Holocaust====
The [[Confessing Church]] was, in 1934, the first Christian opposition group. The Catholic Church officially condemned the Nazi theory of racism in Germany in 1937 with the [[encyclical]] "''[[Mit brennender Sorge]]''", signed by [[Pope Pius XI]], and Cardinal [[Michael von Faulhaber]] led the Catholic opposition, preaching against racism.

Many individual Christian clergy and laypeople of all denominations had to pay for their opposition with their lives, including:
* the Catholic priest [[Maximilian Kolbe]].
* the Lutheran pastor [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]]
* the Catholic parson of the Berlin Cathedral, [[Bernhard Lichtenberg]].
* the mostly Catholic members of the [[Munich]]-based resistance group the [[White Rose]] which was led by [[Hans Scholl|Hans]] and [[Sophie Scholl]].

By the 1940s, few Christians were willing to publicly oppose Nazi policy, but many Christians secretly helped save the lives of Jews. There are many sections of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Museum, [[Yad Vashem]], which are dedicated to honoring these "[[Righteous Among the Nations]]".

====Pope Pius XII====
{{further|Pope Pius XII and Judaism|Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust}}

Before he became Pope, Cardinal Pacelli addressed the [[International Eucharistic Congress]] in [[Budapest]] on 25–30 May 1938 during which he referred to the Jews "whose lips curse [Christ] and whose hearts reject him even today"; at this time anti-Semitic laws were in the process of being formulated in Hungary.<ref>Donald J. Dietrich.  ''Christian responses to the Holocaust: moral and ethical issues Religion, theology, and the Holocaust''. p. 92, Syracuse University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-8156-3029-8}}</ref>

The 1937 encyclical ''[[Mit brennender Sorge]]'' was issued by [[Pope Pius XI]],<ref>Coppa, Frank J. (1999). ''Controversial Concordats.'' Catholic University of America Press. p. 132</ref> but it was drafted by the future [[Pope Pius XII]]<ref name="Pham45">Pham, p. 45, quote: "When Pius XI was complimented on the publication, in 1937, of his encyclical denouncing Nazism, ''Mit brennender Sorge'', his response was to point to his Secretary of State and say bluntly, 'The credit is his.'"</ref> and it was also read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches, it condemned [[Nazism|Nazi ideology]] and scholars have characterized it as the "first great official public document to dare to confront and criticize [[Nazism]]" and "one of the greatest such condemnations ever issued by the Vatican."<ref>Bokenkotter, pp. 389–392, quote "And when Hitler showed increasing [[Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany|belligerence toward the Church]], Pius met the challenge with a decisiveness that astonished the world. His encyclical ''Mit brennender Sorge'' was the 'first great official public document to dare to confront and criticize Nazism' and 'one of the greatest such condemnations ever issued by the Vatican.' Smuggled into Germany, it was read from all the Catholic pulpits on Palm Sunday in March 1937. It denounced the Nazi "myth of blood and soil" and decried its neopaganism. The Nazis retaliated by closing and sealing all the presses that had printed it and took numerous vindictive measures against the Church, including staging a long series of immorality trials of Catholic clergy."</ref>

In the summer of 1942, in the presence of his college of Cardinals, Pius explained the reasons for the great gulf that existed between Jews and Christians at the theological level: "Jerusalem has responded to His call and to His grace with the same rigid blindness and stubborn ingratitude that has led it along the path of guilt to the murder of God." Historian Guido Knopp describes these comments of Pius as being "incomprehensible" at a time when "Jerusalem was being murdered by the million".<ref>Knopp, Guido. ''Hitler's Holocaust'', Sutton,2000, p. 250, {{ISBN|0-7509-2700-3}}</ref> This traditional adversarial relationship with Judaism would be reversed in ''[[Nostra aetate]]'', which was issued during the [[Second Vatican Council]] starting from 1962, during the papacy of [[John XXIII]].<ref>Kessler, Edward, Neil Wenborn.'' A dictionary of Jewish-Christian relations''", p. 86, Cambridge University Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-521-82692-6}}</ref>

Prominent members of the Jewish community have contradicted the criticisms of Pius and they have also spoken highly about his efforts to protect Jews.<ref>Bokenkotter, Thomas (2004). A Concise History of the Catholic Church. Doubleday. pp. 480–481, quote: "A recent article by an American rabbi, David G. Dalin, challenges this judgment. He calls making Pius XII a target of moral outrage a failure of historical understanding, and he thinks Jews should reject any 'attempt to usurp the Holocaust' for the partisan purposes at work in this debate. Dalin surmises that well-known Jews such as Albert Einstein, Golda Meir, Moshe Sharett, and Rabbi Isaac Herzog would likely have been shocked at these attacks on Pope Pius. ... Dalin points out that Rabbi Herzog, the chief rabbi of Israel, sent a message in February 1944 in which he declared 'the people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness ... (is) doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history.'" Dalin cites these tributes as recognition of the work of the Holy See in saving hundreds of thousands of Jews."</ref> The Israeli historian [[Pinchas Lapide]] interviewed war survivors and concluded that Pius XII "was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000&nbsp;Jews from certain death at Nazi hands". Some historians dispute this estimate.<ref>Deák, István (2001). ''Essays on Hitler's Europe''. University of Nebraska Press. p. 182.</ref>

==="White Power" movement===
[[File:proper hands.jpg|thumb|right|In Proper Hands. The Protestant Christian-dominated KKK hinted at violence against Jews and Catholics. Illustration by Rev. [[Branford Clarke]] from ''[[Heroes of the Fiery Cross]]'' (1928), by Bishop [[Alma White]] and published by the [[Pillar of Fire Church]] in [[Zarephath, New Jersey]].]]

The [[Christian Identity]] movement, the [[Ku Klux Klan]], and other [[White supremacy|White supremacist]] groups have expressed anti-Semitic views. They claim that their anti-Semitism is based on purported Jewish control of the media, control of international banks, involvement in [[Far-left politics|radical]] [[left-wing politics]], and the Jews' promotion of [[multiculturalism]], [[Criticism of Christianity|anti-Christian]] groups, [[liberalism]] and perverse organizations. They rebuke charges of [[racism]] by claiming that Jews who share their views maintain membership in their organizations. A racial belief that is common among these groups, but not universal among them, is an [[Historical revisionism (political)|alternative history]] doctrine concerning the descendants of the [[Ten Lost Tribes|Lost Tribes of Israel]]. In some of its forms, this doctrine absolutely denies the view that modern Jews have any [[Jewish ethnic divisions|ethnic connection]] to the [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|Israel of the Bible]]. Instead, according to extreme forms of this doctrine, the true [[Israelites]] and the true humans are the members of the Adamic ([[White people|white]]) race. These groups are often rejected and not considered Christian groups by mainstream [[Christian denomination]]s and the majority of [[Christianity|Christians]] around the world.<ref>Michael Barkun for the Southern Poverty Law Center. [http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/ideology/christian-identity/the-christian-identity-movement The Christian Identity Movement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140930190613/http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/ideology/christian-identity/the-christian-identity-movement |date=2014-09-30 }}</ref><ref>Southern Poverty Law Center. [http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan Ku Klux Klan]</ref>

===Post World War II anti-Semitism===
[[Antisemitism in Europe|Anti-Semitism remains a substantial problem in Europe]] and to a greater or lesser degree, [[Geography of antisemitism|it also exists in many other nations]], including [[Eastern Europe]] and the [[Post-Soviet states|former Soviet Union]], and tensions between some [[Islam in Europe|Muslim immigrants]] and Jews have increased across Europe.<ref>{{cite news|last=Stone |first=Andrea |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-11-22-jews-france_x.htm |title=As attacks rise in France, Jews flock to Israel |publisher=Usatoday.com |date=2004-11-22 |access-date=2013-07-10}}</ref><ref>[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/841445.html Jews for Le Pen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417090654/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/841445.html |date=2009-04-17 }} by Daniel Ben-Simon. Haaretz. 25/03/07</ref> The [[United States Department of State|US State Department]] reports that anti-Semitism has increased dramatically in Europe and Eurasia since 2000.<ref>[https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/40258.htm State Department Report on Anti-Semitism: Europe and Eurasia: anti-Semitism in Europe increased in recent years] (2005 report)</ref>

While [[Antisemitism in the United States|it]] has been on the decline since the 1940s, a measurable amount of [[History of antisemitism in the United States|anti-Semitism still exists in the United States]], although acts of violence are rare. For example, the influential [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]] preacher [[Billy Graham]] and the then-president [[Richard Nixon]] were caught on tape in the early 1970s while they were discussing matters like how to address the [[Antisemitic canard#Accusations of controlling the media|Jews' control]] of the [[Media of the United States|American media]].<ref name="bbcregret">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1850077.stm "Graham regrets Jewish slur"], [[BBC]], March 2, 2002.</ref><ref name="newsweek1">{{cite magazine |title=Pilgrim's Progress|page=5 |url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/46365/page/5 |magazine=Newsweek |date=August 14, 2006 |access-date=September 20, 2008}}</ref> This belief in Jewish conspiracies and domination of the media was similar to those of Graham's former mentors: [[William Bell Riley]] chose Graham to succeed him as the second president of Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School and evangelist [[Mordecai Ham]] led the meetings where Graham first believed in Christ. Both held strongly anti-Semitic views.<ref>Himes, A (2011) ''The Sword of the Lord: The roots of fundamentalism in an American Family'', {{oclc|752306393}}</ref>  The 2001 survey by the [[Anti-Defamation League]] (ADL), a Jewish group which devotes its efforts to the [[Anti-antisemitism|fight against anti-Semitism]] and other forms of [[racism]], reported 1432 acts of anti-Semitism in the United States that year. The figure included 877 acts of harassment, including verbal intimidation, threats, and physical assaults.<ref>[http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/4057_12.asp ADL Audit: Anti-Semitic Incidents in U.S. Declined in 2001 Americans Reject Conspiracy Theories Blaming Jews for 9/11] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030210065655/http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/4057_12.asp |date=2003-02-10 }} (2002 report)</ref> Many [[Christian Zionism|Christian Zionists]] are also accused of espousing anti-Semitism, such as [[John Hagee]], who argued that the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by angering God.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tabletmag.com/scroll/40563/my-hagee-problem%E2%80%94and-ours|title=My Hagee Problem—And Ours - Tablet Magazine – Jewish News and Politics, Jewish Arts and Culture, Jewish Life and Religion|date=2010-07-26}}</ref>

Relations between Jews and Christians have dramatically improved since the 20th century. According to a global poll which was conducted in 2014 by the ADL, data was collected from 102 countries concerning their population's attitudes towards Jews and it revealed that only 24% of the world's Christians held views that were considered anti-Semitic according to the ADL's index, compared to 49% of the world's Muslims.<ref>{{cite news |title=ADL Poll of Over 100 Countries Finds More Than One-Quarter of Those Surveyed Infected With Anti-Semitic Attitudes |url=https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-global-100-poll |access-date=November 20, 2019 |work=[[Anti-Defamation League]] |date=May 13, 2014}}</ref>

==Anti-Judaism==
{{Main|Anti-Judaism}}
Many Christians do not consider [[anti-Judaism]] [[anti-Semitism]].{{according to whom|date=May 2013}} They regard anti-Judaism as a [[Criticism of Judaism|disagreement with the tenets of Judaism]] by religiously sincere people, while they regard anti-Semitism as an emotional bias or hatred which does not specifically target the religion of Judaism. Under this approach, anti-Judaism is not regarded as anti-Semitism because it does not involve actual hostility towards the Jewish people, instead, anti-Judaism only rejects the religious beliefs of Judaism.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}}

Others believe that anti-Judaism is the rejection of Judaism as a religion or opposition to Judaism's beliefs and practices ''essentially because'' of their source in [[Judaism]] or because a belief or practice is associated with the Jewish people. (But see [[supersessionism]])

Several scholars, including Susannah Heschel,<ref name="Susannah_Heschel_2008"/> Gavin I Langmuir<ref name="langmuir_1990">Langmuir, AvGavin I., [https://archive.org/details/historyreligiona0000lang History, Religion, and Antisemitism], p. 40, University of California Press, 1990</ref> and Uriel Tal<ref name="Susannah_Heschel_2008"/> hold the position that anti-Judaism directly led to modern anti-Semitism. [[Pope John Paul II]] in 'We Remember: A Reflection on the [[Shoah]],' and the Jewish declaration on Christianity, [[Dabru Emet]] opinionated the position that "Christian theological anti-Judaism is a phenomenon which is distinct from modern anti-Semitism, which is rooted in economic and racial thought, so that Christian teachings should not be held responsible for anti-Semitism".<ref name="Susannah_Heschel_2008"/>

Although some Christians did consider anti-Judaism to be contrary to Christian teaching in the past, this view was not widely expressed by Christian leaders and lay people. In many cases, the practical tolerance towards the Jewish religion and Jews prevailed. Some Christian groups condemned verbal anti-Judaism, particularly in their early years.{{citation needed|date=November 2011}}

==Conversion of Jews==
{{See also|Catholic Church and Judaism|Hebrew Catholics|Hebrew Roots|Judaism and Mormonism|Judaizers|Messianic Judaism|Philosemitism|Protestantism and Judaism}}
Some Jewish organizations have denounced evangelistic and missionary activities that specifically target Jews by labeling them [[Antisemitism|anti-Semitic]].<ref>"Keeping Faith. Scottsdale Progress" by Kim Sue Lia Perkes (Religion Editor, ''The Arizona Republic'') December, 1982</ref><ref>[http://www.bnaibrith.ca/publications/audit1998/audit1998-07.html 1998 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents: Missionaries and Messianic Churches] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060719205927/http://www.bnaibrith.ca/publications/audit1998/audit1998-07.html |date=2006-07-19 }} (Bnai Brith Canada)</ref><ref>[http://torahatlanta.com/IntheNewsArticles/Portland.html Portland Jews Brace for Assault by 'Jews for Jesus'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060515145611/http://torahatlanta.com/IntheNewsArticles/Portland.html |date=2006-05-15 }} by Paul Haist (''Jewish Review'') May 15, 2002</ref>

The [[Southern Baptist Convention]] (SBC), the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the U.S., has explicitly rejected suggestions that it should back away from seeking to convert Jews, a position which critics have called anti-Semitic, but a position which [[Baptists]] believe is consistent with their view that salvation is solely found through faith in Christ. In 1996 the SBC approved a resolution calling for efforts to seek the conversion of Jews "as well as the salvation of 'every kindred and tongue and people and nation.'"

Most [[Evangelicalism|Evangelicals]] agree with the SBC's position, and some of them also support efforts that specifically seek the Jews' conversion. Additionally, these Evangelical groups are among the most pro-Israel groups. (''For more information, see [[Christian Zionism]]''.) One [[Messianic Judaism|controversial group]] which has received a considerable amount of support from some Evangelical churches is [[Jews for Jesus]], which claims that Jews can "complete" their Jewish faith by accepting Jesus as the Messiah.

The [[Presbyterian Church USA|Presbyterian Church (USA)]], the [[United Methodist Church]], and the [[United Church of Canada]] have ended their efforts to convert Jews. While [[Anglicans]] do not, as a rule, seek converts from other Christian denominations,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2003/5/20/ACNS3443 |title=Anglican Communion News Service: European Anglicans set common goals at Madrid consultation |publisher=Anglicancommunion.org |access-date=2013-07-10}}</ref> the General Synod has affirmed that "the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ is for all and must be shared with all including people from other faiths or of no faith and that to do anything else would be to institutionalize discrimination".<ref>{{cite web|last=Owen |first=Peter |url=http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/003647.html |title=General Synod - Uniqueness of Christ in Multi-Faith Britain |publisher=Thinking Anglicans |date=2009-02-11 |access-date=2013-07-10}}</ref>

The [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic Church]] formerly operated religious congregations that specifically aimed to convert Jews. Some of these congregations were founded by Jewish converts, like the [[Congregation of Our Lady of Sion]], whose members were [[nun]]s and ordained [[priest]]s. Many Catholic saints were specifically noted for their missionary zeal to convert Jews, such as [[Vincent Ferrer]]. After the [[Second Vatican Council]], many missionary orders that aimed to convert Jews to Christianity no longer actively sought to missionize (or [[proselytism|proselytize]]) them. However, [[Traditionalist Catholic|Traditionalist Roman Catholic]] groups, congregations, and clergymen continue to advocate the missionizing of Jews according to traditional patterns, sometimes with success (''e.g.'', the [[Society of St. Pius X]] which has notable Jewish converts among its faithful, many of whom have become traditionalist priests).

The [[Church's Ministry Among Jewish People]] (CMJ) is one of the ten official mission agencies of the [[Church of England]]. [https://www.sdhs.co.uk/ The Society for Distributing Hebrew Scriptures] is another organization, but it is not affiliated with the established Church.

There are several prophecies concerning the conversion of the Jewish people to Christianity in the scriptures of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS).  The [[Book of Mormon]] teaches that the Jewish people need to believe in Jesus to be gathered to Israel.<ref>{{Sourcetext|source=Book of Mormon (1981)|book=2 Nephi|chapter=10|verse=7}}</ref> The [[Doctrine & Covenants]] teaches that the Jewish people will be converted to Christianity during the second coming when Jesus appears to them and shows them his wounds.<ref>{{Sourcetext|source=The Doctrine and Covenants|book=Section 45|verse=51-53}}</ref><ref name=Books>{{cite book|title="This Is My Doctrine": The Development of Mormon Theology|author=Charles R. Harrell|publisher=Greg Kofford Books|year=2011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPtiEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA404|page=404}}</ref> It teaches that if the Jewish people do not convert to Christianity, then the world would be cursed.<ref>{{Sourcetext|source=The Doctrine and Covenants|book=Section 98|verse=17}}</ref> Early LDS prophets, such as Brigham Young<ref name=lds_thought>{{cite journal|author=Green, Arnold H.|year=1994|title=Jews in LDS Thought|journal=BYU Studies Quarterly|volume=34|issue=4|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol34/iss4/9}}</ref>{{rp|144}} and Wildord Woodruff,<ref name=Books /> taught that Jewish people could not be truly converted because of the curse which resulted from [[Jewish deicide]].<ref name=Gathering>{{cite journal |last1=Green |first1=Arnold H. |title=Gathering and Election: Israelite Descent and Universalism in Mormon Doctrine |journal=[[Mormon History Association#Journal of Mormon History|Journal of Mormon History]]|date=Spring 1999 |volume=5 |issue=21 |jstor=23287743 |url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=mormonhistory|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Champaign}}</ref>{{rp|205–206}} However, after the establishment of the state of Israel, many LDS members felt that it was time for the Jewish people to start converting to [[Mormonism]].  During the 1950s, the LDS Church established several missions that specifically targeted Jewish people in several cities in the United States.<ref name=lds_thought />{{rp|149}} After the LDS church began to give the priesthood to all males regardless of race in 1978, it also started to deemphasize the importance of race concerning conversion.<ref name=lds_thought />{{rp|151}} This led to a void of doctrinal teachings that resulted in a spectrum of views on how LDS members interpret scripture and previous teachings.<ref name=lds_thought />{{rp|154}} According to research which was conducted by [[Armand Mauss]], most LDS members believe that the Jewish people will need to be converted to Christianity to be forgiven for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.<ref name="Mauss 2003 213">{{cite book |title=All Abraham's Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage |first=Armand L. |last=Mauss |pages=199–201 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7lXq9JfR_EYC&pg=PA213|publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-252-02803-1|quote=Most Mormons hold both kinds of beliefs simultaneously (hostility and affinity beliefs), because both are part of a generally orthodox Mormon outlook... The index of religious hostility toward Jews combines responses to the two questions about perpetual Jewish punishment for the Crucifixion and the requirement for their conversion as a condition of forgiveness.}}</ref>

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also been criticized for [[Baptism for the dead#Jewish Holocaust victims|baptizing deceased Jewish Holocaust victims]].  In 1995, in part as a result of public pressure, church leaders promised to put new policies into place that would help the church to end the practice, unless it was specifically requested or approved by the surviving spouses, children or parents of the victims.<ref>[http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/ldsagree.html Agreement with the LDS Church]</ref> However, the practice has continued, including the baptism of the parents of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate [[Simon Wiesenthal]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17036046 Mormons baptise parents of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal]</ref>

==Reconciliation between Judaism and Christian groups==
{{Main|Christian–Jewish reconciliation}}
In recent years, there has been much to note in the way of reconciliation between some Christian groups and the Jews.

==See also==
{{Portal|Christianity|Judaism}}
* [[Christianity and Judaism]]
* [[Christian–Jewish reconciliation]]
* [[Antisemitism by country|Geography of antisemitism]]
* [[History of antisemitism]]
* [[History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance]]
* [[Religious antisemitism]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|60em}}

* Beck, Norman A. ''Mature Christianity: The Recognition and Repudiation of the Anti-Jewish Polemic in the New Testament'' (Expanded Edition). Crossroad Pub Co 1994.  {{ISBN|978-0824513580}}
* [[Daniel Boyarin|Boyarin, Daniel]]. [http://nes.berkeley.edu/Web_Boyarin/BoyarinArticles/70%20Subversion%20of%20the%20Jews%20(1993).pdf ''The Subversion of the Jews: Moses's Veil and the Hermeneutics of Supersession'']  diacritics 23.2: 16–35 Summer 1993.
* Boys, Mary (Ed.). ''Seeing Judaism Anew: Christianity's Sacred Obligation''.  Sheed & Ward, 2005 {{ISBN|978-0742548824}}
* Carmichael, Joel. ''The Satanizing of the Jews: Origin and development of mystical anti-Semitism''. Fromm, 1993 {{ISBN|978-0880641326}}
* Eckhardt, A. Roy. ''Elder and Younger Brothers: The Encounter of Jews and Christians'', Schocken Books (1973)
* Eckhardt, A. Roy. ''Your People, My People: The Meeting of Christians & Jews'', Crown Publishing Group (1974); {{ISBN|0-8129-0412-5}}
* [[John Gager|Gager, John C.]] ''The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes Toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity''. Oxford Univ. Press, 1983 {{ISBN|978-0195036077}}
* Gould, Allan, (Ed.). ''What Did They Think of the Jews?'',  Jason Aronson Inc., 1991 {{ISBN|978-0876687512}}
* Hall III, Sidney G. ''Christian Anti-Semitism and Paul's Theology''. Fortress Press, 1993. {{ISBN|978-0800626549}}
* Johnson, Luke. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3267112 ''The New Testament's Anti-Jewish Slander and Conventions of Ancient Polemic'']  Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 108, No. 3, Autumn, 1989 
* [[Pinchas Lapide|Lapide, Pinchas E]], ''Three Popes and the Jews''. Hawthorne Books, 1967 {{ISBN|978-0285501973}}
* Micklem, Nathaniel. [https://archive.org/details/nationalsocialis009929mbp ''National Socialism and the Roman Catholic Church: Being an Account of the Conflict between the National Socialist Government of Germany and the Roman Catholic Church, 1933–1938'']. London: Oxford University Press, 1939.
* Nicholls, William, ''Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate''.  Jason Aronson Inc., 1993. {{ISBN|978-0876683989}}
* [[Rosemary Radford Ruether|Ruether, Rosemary Radford]] ''Faith and fratricide: the theological roots of anti-Semitism''. New York 1974, Seabury Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8164-2263-0}}.
* {{cite book |author-link=David Nirenberg|last=Nirenberg|first=David|year=2013 |title=Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition |title-link=David Nirenberg#Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition|location=New York |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-34791-3 }}
* [[Synan, Edward A.]] ''The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages''. Macmillan, New York, 1965 {{ISBN|978-1597400947}}
* Tausch, Arno, ''The Effects of 'Nostra Aetate:' Comparative Analyses of Catholic Antisemitism More Than Five Decades after the Second Vatican Council'', 2018. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3098079
* Utz, Richard. "Remembering Ritual Murder: The Anti-Semitic Blood Accusation Narrative in Medieval and Contemporary Cultural Memory". pp.&nbsp;145–162 in ''Genre and Ritual: The Cultural Heritage of Medieval Rituals''. Ed. Eyolf Østrem. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press/University of Copenhagen, 2005.  {{ISBN|978-8763502412}}
* Wilken, Robert L.  ''John Chrysostom and the Jews : Rhetoric and Reality in the Late 4th Century'', University of California Press, Berkeley, 1983 {{ISBN|978-0520047570}}
* S. J. Greenstein [https://wearenotgoingtoburninhell.com/ ''We Are Not Going to Burn in Hell, A Jewish Response to Christianity'']  (Biblically Speaking Publishing Company) 
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Christianity and antisemitism}}
*[https://www.ushmm.org/ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]
*[https://www.yadvashem.org Yad Vashem]

{{Antisemitism topics|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christianity And Antisemitism}}
[[Category:Christianity and antisemitism| ]]
[[Category:Christianity and race]]
[[Category:Early Christianity]]
[[Category:New Testament]]
[[Category:Religion and race]]