The History of the Jews

The Jews are the most persecuted community to have lived on Earth. Though they believe in the same God as the Christians, they do not believe Jesus Christ to be the Messiah (savior of humankind), which Christians have wanted them to believe. The ancient Roman rulers viewed this refusal to see Christ as the Messiah as a threat. They passed laws that discriminated against the Jews. The following events chronicle the adversities that Jews endured.

• Year 399: Jews couldn’t marry Christians

• Year 439: Jews couldn’t hold positions in government

• Year 531: Jews couldn’t appear as witnesses against Christians in court

Then, rumors began to spread that Jews have horns and tails and that they kill Christian children to use their blood for their rituals. The Catholic Church did not allow Jews to own land, so Jews could not build up wealth through property. The church also didn’t allow Christians to loan money for profit. Therefore, Jews commonly lent money at interest for a living. This led to Jews being stereotyped as greedy people who lent money and charged interest.

The Catholic Church then started preaching that the Jews were responsible for Jesus’s death, creating hatred in the minds of the masses for the Jews. In the 1300s, the event of the Black Death or Bubonic plague killed around one-third of the population of Europe. Christians blamed Jews, accusing them of poisoning the wells to spread the disease. As the Jews were not dying in as high numbers as the Christians—partly because they lived in isolated ghettos (socially distanced) away from the Christians and partly due to following good hygiene, in line with their religious customs—they were easily painted as the ones who caused the plague. As a result, tens of thousands of Jews were burned alive.

In 1543, Martin Luther encouraged the killing of Jews because he believed that Jews thirsted for the lives of Christians. In 1894, a Jew (Alfred Dreyfus) was falsely accused of selling military secrets, spreading further hatred toward the Jews. In 1903, the Russian secret police published fake news that described the conspiracy of Rabbies (Jewish men of God) to take over the world. Later, they murdered the entire Jewish community residing there.

In 1917, during the time of communist rule, more than 500 Jewish communities in Ukraine were murdered. Around 60,000 Jews were killed. Then happened one of the most barbaric mass killings the world has ever seen: the Holocaust. Hitler killed 60,00,000 (6 million) Jews in extermination and concentration camps.

Consequently, the Jews felt that the only way to escape discrimination, persecution, and genocide was to have a state that was exclusively for the Jews. Historically, the Jews hailed from the area of Canaan, which is modern-day Israel and Palestine. As more Jews started arriving in the erstwhile region of Canaan, the Arab inhabitants resented losing their land to the incoming Jewish people. The Arabs lived in the erstwhile Canaan region for centuries before the Jews started coming in en masse post-World War 2. Hence, they viewed the Jews as their land grabbers.

After the end of the Holocaust and World War II, more countries in the world started supporting the creation of a homeland for the Jews. The then newly formed United Nations proposed two states in the erstwhile Canaan region. One state for the local Arabs (Palestine) and the other for the Jews (Israel). At the time, Jews owned only 6% of the land in that region and composed one-third of the total population. However, the UN proposed carving out 55% of the land for the Jews to create the nation of Israel. On May 14, 1948, Israel was formed.

Israel immediately faced hostilities from the neighboring Arab countries. Egypt, Jordan, and Syria teamed up to attack Israel. Iraq and Sudan indirectly supported them with arsenals. With the clear military advantage of the coalition, the Jews appeared doomed. Pitted against 2,40,000 troops, 2504 tanks, and 957 aircraft, Jews only had 1,00,000, 800, and 300 of the same, respectively. But, this time, it was not to be a tragic tale for the Jews again.

The Jews weren’t willing to go down without a fight. Israel alone fought off Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and won the war in just six days. Israel did not relent at only stopping the Arab from invading them, but even grabbed much of the land that the Palestinians owned as per the UN's two-state proposition.

Though Israel is still having to ward off constant hostilities from the neighboring Arab nations, the acclaimed intelligence of the Jewish people has made it possible for Israel to have a highly advanced economy, with a standard of living even higher than that of many Western countries.