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Two Thousand Years of Antisemitism: from the Canonical Laws to the Present Day

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Two Thousand Years of Antisemitism: from the Canonical Laws to the Present Day Two Thousand Years of Antisemitism: From the Canonical Laws to the Present Day Anita Waingort Novinsky* My interest in antisemitism began during long years of studying, researching, and teaching about the Holy Office of the Inquisition and the converted Jews in Portugal and Brazil (New Christians, conversos, marranos, and anussim). In this paper, I want to ask a question that was formulated a few years ago at a con- ference in Paris sponsored by the Jules Isaac Association:1 “Antisémitisme—a-t-il encore aujourd’hui des racines chrétiennes?” One of the conference participants, Alain Finkielkraut, gave a positive answer, but said that we have to understand this question considering its paradox. On the one hand, the Church is today dialoguing with the Jews, but on the other hand present-day anti- Jewish propaganda is repeating the old slogans and defamatory arguments against them.2 Nostra Aetate has abandoned the infamous references to “Jewish deicide” and “treacherous Jews,” but if we compare the language and the vocabulary used by the present antisemites to that used in past centuries, we will still find a strong influence of the Church doctrine against the Jewish people. Let us go back to the sources. Reading the canonical laws and analyzing the expressions, opinions, and ideas that appear during the Church councils, we find terms like “abominable Jew,” “impious people,” “hard-hearted,” and “unbelievers.” If we decode the discourse of the language and find the hidden significance of the author’s experience, we will understand that the sense and the defamation message are the same as in the 20th and 21st centuries. During the Visigothic period (4th and 5th centuries), there was a similar phenome- non to the forced conversion of the Jews to Christianity that occurred in Portugal in 1497. A clandestine Judaism flourished for more than a century in high medieval Spain, and we can compare, in many aspects, this early marranism to crypto-Judaism in the modern era (16th to 18th centuries).3 Izidoro (560-636), the famous Bishop of Seville, can be considered the ideologist for the discrimination against the Jews and one of the most ferocious antisemites of the * Professor, Department of History, University of Sao Paulo. 1 L’Antisémitisme a-t-il encore aujourd’hui des Racines Chrétiennes? Nouvelle Série, No. 8, Cahier de L’Association des Amis de Jules Isaac, July 2007. 2 Ibid., at pp. 8-13. 3 On the marranos and the Inquisition in Portugal, see M. Kayserling, Historia dos Judeus em Por- tugal, 2nd ed. (Sao Paulo: Perspectiva 2009), translated from the original German by Gabriela B. Correa da Silva and Anita Waingort Novinsky (Geschichte des Juden in Portugal, 1867). 345 Charles Asher Small (ed.), Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity. © 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV. ISBN 978 90 04 21457 6. 346 ANITA WAINGORT NOVINSKY 4 Church. His statements anticipated Nazi antisemitism. by more than a thousand years. He tried to denigrate the Jewish faith, attacking the most sacred Jewish symbols—the synagogue and the Jewish Sabbath. To the holy place of prayer, the synagogue, he gave a sexual label; the Jewish Sabbath he considered a repulsive holy day, originating from luxurious sins.5 Physically, the Jews were characterized as having a “bad smell,” which was a sign of their spiritual deterioration and biological evidence of a gradual dehumanization.6 Here we find the same accusation as in Germany in the 20th century, namely that Jews were “worms” and not human beings. Baptism will not help, said the Bishop of Seville, as nothing can change the evil nature of these people, for they are all the anti- christ and carry the forces of Satan.7 The accusation that Jews are not human beings may be considered the most extreme example of all the cruel designations that were imposed on the Jews. One thousand one hundred and forty years before the rise of Nazism, Izidoro, together with the high clergy, spread the idea that Jews were different creatures with a different nature and that no human reaction could be expected from such creatures.8 Canonical law prohibited intermarriage and sexual intercourse between Christians and Jews. Jews were not permitted to eat together with Christians,9 to hold public office,10 to employ Christian servants or have Christian slaves,11 or to walk in the street during Passover.12 It was ordered that the Talmud and other Jewish books should be burned,13 and Christians could not use the services of Jewish doctors (even though all Portuguese kings had Jewish doctors). 14 From the 13th century onward, Jews were obliged to wear a badge on their clothes. and were forbidden to build new synagogues.15 The Synod of Breslau (1267) imposed compulsory ghettos on the Jews,16 and at the Council of Basel (1434, session XIX) they were forbidden to obtain academic degrees.17 4 “Izidore’s theological anti-Judaism was translated into practical measures through the legisla- tion of the Fourth Council of Toledo.” Bat-Sheva Albert and Renata Sancovsky, Inimigos da Fé— Judeus, Conversos e Judaizantes na Península Ibérica. Seculo VII. (Rio de Janeiro: Imprinta 2009) p. 262, n. 586. On Isidoro de Sevilha. see Bat-Sheva Albert, “Isidore de Sevilha: His Attitude towards Judaism and His Impact in Early Medieval Canon Law,” in The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. LXXX, Nos. 3-4 (January-April) (Philadelphia; Annenberg Research Institute 1990); Sancovsky, supra, at p. 203, n. 586. 5 Sancovsky, supra n. 4, at pp. 275-276. 6 Ibid. 7 J. Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews. (New Haven: Yale University Press 1943); Sancovsky, supra n. 4, at p. 280, n. 744. 8 Sancovsky, supra n. 4, at p. 282. 9 Synod of Elvira (306). 10 Synod of Clemont (535). 11 Third Synod of Orleans (538). 12 Ibid.. 13 Twelfth Synod of Toledo (681). 14 Fourth Lateran Council (1215). 15 Council of Oxford (1222). 16 Sancovsky, supra n. 4, at p. 285. 17 Ibid., at p. 297. .
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