JEWSin the Weimar Republic

Outline of Topics-A history: the Jewish-Christian

relationship

-Shifting 20th Century Ideologies

-Separatism and Freedom

Rootsof Antisemitism

BELIEFS OF THE CHURCH•Jews were cursed or abandoned by

God

•failed to recognize Jesus as the

Messiah

•were responsible for his crucifixion

•are consequently no longer the

"chosen people”

• accusations of Church fathers have

been handed down from generation to

generation

FORMATION OF AJEWISH ARCHETYPE

•Propagation of Jews as

sinners, blasphemers, demons, outcasts,

depraved

•Archetype bleeds into popular culture

•Ahavser: wandering Jew who mocked Jesus

•several symbols in the public’s

consciousness assume the stylized features

of an Ahasver

•vampire, goat-hoofed devil, Satan with a tail

RESULTINGCHRISTIAN FEELINGS

•Jews were regarded by Christians as

"irksome [and] intolerable”

•Many described feeling a "completely

irrational aversion”

•Antagonistic Christian-Jew relationship

has been passed down for centuries

and cultivated since birth

DIVERGINGTHOUGHT

PROGRESSIONTOWARDS EQUALITY

•ironically, the more rights they obtained, the more Jews conformed to popular social identity

•the more Jews conformed, the more unrest anti-Semites felt

•"the Jew who is unrecognizable–that is the dangerous Jew"

ISOLATION OF JEWS

•Motivations:

•counteract increasing equality

•strengthen anti-Semitic relationship

•Modernization processes and emphasis on rationality caused Churches to lose power

•Reactionary: economic setbacks, political instability, more aggressive nationalism

•Attempts to stigmatize Jews:•Satirical songs, jokes, and verses teaching Germans how to recognize Jews by their names

THE SECULAR JEW

•Movement from Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism

•Emphasis on Jews as a race with specific traits, rather than a religion with specific beliefs

•Isolation ideologies thus catalyze “annihilation” ideologies

THE NEWISH JEWISHARCHETYPE

•New words used by theologians, politicians, literary people, and publicists in Germany to describe Jews

•Parasites, degenerate, poison, bacilli, trichinas,

rats, blowflies

•Implied Jewish “racial

characteristics”•Live at cost of others•Uses flattery and submissiveness to profit•Unproductive and lazy

ISOLATIONAdvantage or Disadvantage?

VIEWS OF JEWS IN WEIMAR

Separatism

•Formation of more ethnic and cultural identities rather than religious ideologies

•Ethnic solidarity

•Freedom from general German public

Acculturation

• Benefit from

urbanization• Most Jews lived

in urban areas, few in the country

• “Threatened” German livelihoods

GEMEINDE•Means community in German

•-organization unique to central Europe

•focal point of Jewish life-centralized local

Jewish activities

•empowered by government to organize local

Jewish affairs

•ex: hired rabbis, religious

functionaries, maintained and built

synagogues, etc.

•youth movements

•Ex: Zionist groups, Jewish

schools, fraternities, libraries, singing societies)

COMMON CAREERS•Jews were prohibited from many professions

•As a result, they concentrated in a small

number of professions

•Usually found in urban areas

•Include: journalists, lawyers, doctors, or salesmen

•Some were industrial workers, artisans or peddlers;

•few Jews were unaffected by the mark's

hyperinflation

SYNOPSIS

•Christian-Jewish relationship underlying cause of Jewish persecution

•Paradigm shift to anti-Semitism

•Isolation allowed for

freedom

QUESTIONS?Feel free to raise your hand and speak up.