Why have Jews been targets of oppression for so long? Look to the Bible
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Listening to the speakers at the Rally for Israel in Washington, D.C., I heard House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries relate “the painful history of the Jewish People.” He said, “For centuries, Jews have been persecuted, brutalized by antisemitism and violently thrown out of country after country.” He went on to list some of the nations that had “violently expelled Jews”:
Jerusalem (the Roman Empire)
Alexandria (Egypt)
France
England
Spain
Switzerland
Portugal
The Middle East (in 1948)
He then added the genocide of Jews throughout Europe by the Nazis, and the latest terrorist attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.
One could be forgiven for wondering how the Jews have triggered such enmity.
Perhaps the first book of the Bible provides a clue.
Antisemitism explained in the Bible
The Book of Genesis in Chapter 26 illuminates a pattern that has repeated itself for literally thousands of years. It relates the experience of Isaac, the son of Abraham, who flees a famine with his family to Gerar, a valley controlled by the ancient Philistines in the Negev Desert. It is not far from Gaza. The existence of “Nahal Gerar” has been established by several Bronze Age archaeological sites.
There, according to the Torah, Isaac dug wells that produced water allowing his family and the surrounding population to survive a drought …
“And Isaac sowed in that land, and he found in that year a hundred fold [return on investment in crops], and the Lord blessed him.”
But the Philistines, continued the narrative, “envied him” and “stopped up his wells.” King Abimelech, who had protected Isaac and his family from the restive local population, ordered him out,
“Go away from us, for you have become much stronger than we.”
So, Isaac left to settle in another part of the valley. He again successfully dug two wells, but the local Philistines claimed them, so he again was forced to move. Isaac traveled further away to Beersheba (Be’er Sheva), digging another well that he was able to maintain in peace. According to the Torah, however, King Abimelech follows him some time later from Gerar, along with his general. The Bible relates,
“And Isaac said to them, ‘Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and you sent me away from you?’"
The king answers,
“We have seen that the Lord was with you; so we said: Let there now be an oath between us, between ourselves and you, and let us form a covenant with you.”
More perspective: This Hanukkah, we all must push back against the rising tides of antisemitism
'Canary in the coal mine'
The Biblical treatment of Isaac has formed the pattern of Jewish experience in foreign lands since time immemorial. Every one of those nations that Jeffries mentioned that expelled the Jews later suffered economic and social crisis, with the great empires from the Babylonians to the Romans, to the Nazis and Soviets, no longer in existence. The prosperity that Jews bring to a society — along with values that originated in the Torah of every human life being precious, equal justice under the law, tolerance of other cultures and social responsibility — turns to hostility when the dominant culture comes under crisis and seeks an external cause.
Many historians call Jews the “canary in the coal mine,” a metaphor referring to the practice by miners of sending canaries into mine shafts to determine if they were safe from dangerous levels of toxic gases. When societies blame Jews for their problems, both are in trouble. Or, as the late Chief Rabbi of Britain, Lord Jonathan Sacks, put it, “The hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.”
The classic paradigm is the experience of Jews in Spain and the Spanish Inquisition. Thousands of Jews were burned at the stake for “insincere” conversions. In 1492, with the Spanish treasury depleted by the fight to dislodge Muslim rule, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella enacted the Alhambra Decree to expel the Jews and seized their money. The confiscated wealth, however, never made up for the economic and cultural loss of so many prominent merchants, artisans, scientists and philosophers. Ironically, the Jews of Spain were welcomed by the Ottoman Empire and its Sultan who said, “They tell me that Ferdinand of Spain is a wise man, but he is a fool. For he takes his treasure and sends it all to me.”
Spain declined and went bankrupt 100 years later, while the Ottoman Empire became a great power.
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Most, if not all, of the countries that expelled or made life intolerable for the Jews later invited them back, a process we see happening today in the Middle East with the Abraham Accords. As many as 900,000 Jewish refugees fled or were violently expelled from Muslim-majority countries in the 20th century (most in 1948 with the creation of the Jewish State) and 650,000 refugees settled in Israel. The Abraham Accords represents the recognition of modernizing Arab nations that Jews and Israel can bring prosperity and peace, and stopping this effort proved to be the major objective of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
It is no coincidence that China, Russia and Iran have opposed Israel in the current crisis, as authoritarian societies have always found Jews and Jewish values a thorn in their side. The rise of antisemitism can be seen throughout history as the scapegoating of a tiny but successful minority, representing just .2% of the world’s population, and rejection of Jewish values that have become the bedrock of Western Civilization.
President John Adams put it this way:
“I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations ...
They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bauble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern.”
Alexander Roberts is a former New York City television news reporter and founder and CEO emeritus of the nonprofit Community Housing Innovations, based in White Plains, New York.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Antisemitism explained: Origin story comes from the Bible
