Modern antisemitism tends to several different strains. There's the people who follow the traditional Christian antisemitism I described first, and then three other forms. The first two are racialized antisemitism, the antisemitism of the early 20th century Nazi party, and the antisemitism of modern neo-Nazi groups. Racialized antisemitism, the idea that Jewish perfidy is in the blood, and cannot be shed by conversion, or being raised in a gentile house, or whatever, is hard to square with being Christian and Jesus being of Jewish birth, and the two forms of racialized antisemitism both have a different way of dealing with this.
Classic Nazism actually promoted atheism and Germanic paganism, hoping to root out this Jewish deception of Christianity. Hitler himself was an atheist, and many of his inner circle held Germanic pagan or mystical beliefs. They worked to unravel the ties of the German people to Christianity, and wean them away from it.
Modern neo-Nazis however are often virulently Christian. They often follow Christian Identity beliefs, which along with claiming the non-whites are evil for biblical reasons, (usually that non-whites are the descendents of Cain, or that Adam and Eve weren't the first people, but instead the first white people, and non-whites were "the beasts of the field". Some Christian Identity folks hold with both, saying that non-white non-Jews are of the inferior "beasts of the field" stock, whereas Jews are descended from Cain, who was the child of Eve and Satan as the serpent. Thus while other races are simply animals and inferior to whites, Jews are particularly evil, and in league with Satan. They also believe the Flood was not global, but instead a localized punishment in ancient Israel, to kill off white people who had been mixing with other races. To deal with the whole "Jesus was a Jew" thing, they believe in so-called British Israelism, the belief that white people are descended from the tribes of Israel, and that after Jesus, the diaspora had dispersed them across Europe. Meanwhile, the children of Cain (or a small group of Turkish "beasts of the field", or whichever racial identity a particular CI sect ascribes to the Jews) usurped the title of the people of Israel and tricked the world into thinking that we were the Hebrews of the bible. Because of this thinking, many CI adherents try to "reclaim" Jewish practices like Passover, which they believe that the false Hebrews like me sully, which adds another level to my distaste for Christian Seders.
The most common form of modern antisemitic hate by far is a nonracialized antisemitism. It is the form that really doesn't need to make any logical sense. It's the "Jews are weird, and not like me, and my parents hated them, and my grandparents hated them, and maybe they kill Christian babies to make their matzo or Passsover wine or something, and, you know what, they just make me uncomfortable." They don't stop to consider that Jesus was Jewish. This isn't a belief they question. It's mostly unconscious.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
2/2
Date: 2013-07-31 02:44 pm (UTC)Classic Nazism actually promoted atheism and Germanic paganism, hoping to root out this Jewish deception of Christianity. Hitler himself was an atheist, and many of his inner circle held Germanic pagan or mystical beliefs. They worked to unravel the ties of the German people to Christianity, and wean them away from it.
Modern neo-Nazis however are often virulently Christian. They often follow Christian Identity beliefs, which along with claiming the non-whites are evil for biblical reasons, (usually that non-whites are the descendents of Cain, or that Adam and Eve weren't the first people, but instead the first white people, and non-whites were "the beasts of the field". Some Christian Identity folks hold with both, saying that non-white non-Jews are of the inferior "beasts of the field" stock, whereas Jews are descended from Cain, who was the child of Eve and Satan as the serpent. Thus while other races are simply animals and inferior to whites, Jews are particularly evil, and in league with Satan. They also believe the Flood was not global, but instead a localized punishment in ancient Israel, to kill off white people who had been mixing with other races. To deal with the whole "Jesus was a Jew" thing, they believe in so-called British Israelism, the belief that white people are descended from the tribes of Israel, and that after Jesus, the diaspora had dispersed them across Europe. Meanwhile, the children of Cain (or a small group of Turkish "beasts of the field", or whichever racial identity a particular CI sect ascribes to the Jews) usurped the title of the people of Israel and tricked the world into thinking that we were the Hebrews of the bible. Because of this thinking, many CI adherents try to "reclaim" Jewish practices like Passover, which they believe that the false Hebrews like me sully, which adds another level to my distaste for Christian Seders.
The most common form of modern antisemitic hate by far is a nonracialized antisemitism. It is the form that really doesn't need to make any logical sense. It's the "Jews are weird, and not like me, and my parents hated them, and my grandparents hated them, and maybe they kill Christian babies to make their matzo or Passsover wine or something, and, you know what, they just make me uncomfortable." They don't stop to consider that Jesus was Jewish. This isn't a belief they question. It's mostly unconscious.