The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (26)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 1. Wave of nationalism and socialism (1945-1956) (10)

 

026. Israel independence(2): Who is a Jew ? (2/3)

 Frequent resistance movement against the Roman Empire in around AD 100s resulted in prohibition Jews from living in Jerusalem. Roman Emperor Hadrian repressed them thoroughly in 135 AD. Last long Diaspora (Jews' discrete) had started. They had to settle in various places in Europe.

 

Semian Jews who kept their own religion were despised and persecuted in Europe where Christianity was widely prevailing. The stigma of Judas who betrayed Christ was burdened on the Jews. Christians constrained the Jews to "ghetto" (residential district) and imposed them the dirty jobs.

 

The moneylending business was one of such job. In the medieval Christian society moneylender was regarded as a filthy occupation because the financial business made human beings greedy. Greed for money was incompatible with the purity of religion. Moneylending business was not recommended both by Christianity and Islam. Islam was more strictly interpreted and even now Islamic ethic teaches that the interest on money is "Al-Haram (prohibitive)". When famous playwright William Shakespeare wrote "Merchant of Venice", the moneylending business was monopolized by Jewish people. In Europe, even highly educated Shakespeare hated Jews. Such a stereotypical view of Jewish remained until 20th century. Holocaust by Nazis in Germany was one of the biggest tragedy in the history.

 

 

 

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)