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The Growth of The Anti-Jewish Stereotype

An Attempt at a Hypothetical-Deductive Method of Historical Research*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Dik Van Arkel  and
M. W. H. Schreuder
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There are three good reasons at the present time to try to arrive at an historical model to explain the development of anti-Jewish stereotyping and prejudice, and in this way, provided it is worked out at a sufficiently high level of abstraction, at an historical model of racism.

The first reason is that both the Netherlands and its neighbours are increasingly faced with racism and that for a good line of action it is necessary to collect all kinds of knowledge. Moreover, it is desirable that historians prove willing to co-operate by making their particular contribution to this collection of knowledge. The second reason is that in contemporary thinking about history a tendency seems to have made itself felt that considers the narrative element of history as the only true activity of the historian, so that a hypothetical-deductive, one might say Popperian, approach to the past seems to be wrong. Although I do not want to enter into a methodological discussion, which I am glad to leave to my friend P. H. H. Vries, who has very capably formulated a point of view that I subscribe to, my intention is to show the usefulness of an abstract, partially mathematical, model in this article. By the way, in the framework of an article it is impossible to present an extensive test of the predictions of the model by means of source material. It can only be hinted at. This article is not non-narrative because I want it to be non-narrative, but because of lack of space. A full exposition would need a book. I shall only present in summary what I hope is the logical argument that lies at the basis of the model.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , December 1985 , pp. 270 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1985

Footnotes

*

This article is a translation and an adaptation of “De Groei van het Anti-Joodse Stereotype. Een poging tot een hypothetisch-deductieve werkwijze in historisch onderzoek”, in: Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis, X (1984), pp. 34ff.

References

1 See notably Popper, K. R., Conjectures and Refutations. The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, 2nd ed. (London, 1976)Google Scholar.

2 Vries, P. H. H., “Geschiedbeoefening, Historisme en Positivisme. Een overzicht van intenties, pretenties en misverstanden in de debatten over de aard van de huidige sociaalwetenschappelijke geschiedbeoefening”, in: Theoretische Geschiedenis, XII (1985), pp. 141ffGoogle Scholar.

3 I am preparing a book on the subject, which will be published soon, presumably in 1986.

4 Jansen, H., Auschwitz, Christelijke Theologie na, Vol. I: Theologische en kerkelijke wortels van het antisemitisme, 2nd ed. (The Hague, 1982)Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., pp. 556ff.

6 The instrinsically anti-Semitic remark “The more Jews, the more anti-Semitism” can easily be shown to be false. It is apparent that the number of Jews in itself cannot be the cause of the antipathy. A (large) number can only reinforce an already existing antipathy, but the origin of the antipathy is independent of it. Not a single German town ever had as many Jewish inhabitants as the city of Amsterdam (before 1940) or Saloniki, where (according to the standards proposed) no anti-Semitism occurred.

7 It is impossible to present a complete argumentation for these observations here. Partly, they rest on a consensus, based on general impressions, partly on research that has not yet been published and that will appear as Pt II of my book. The measuring of anti-Semitism in the terms given can, of course, only be done broadly. In relation to this problem, see also Dawidowicz, L. S., “Can Anti-Semitism Be Measured?”, in: Commentary, L (1970), No 1, pp. 36ffGoogle Scholar.

8 See also Pt II of my book, in which this question is treated in detail; for a few references see van Arkel, D., Antisemitism in Austria (Leyden, 1966), pp. 121, 129, 170Google Scholar; id., “Racism in Europe”, in: Racism and Colonialism. Essays on Ideology and Social Structure, ed. by Ross, R. (The Hague, 1982), p. 25Google Scholar, as well as the literature mentioned there, esp. Wahrmundt, A., Das Gesetz des Nomadenthums und die heutige Judenherrschaft, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1892)Google Scholar.

9 Here only a few classics are referred to: Adorno, T. W. et al. , The Authoritarian Personality (New York, 1950)Google Scholar; Antisemitism: A Social Disease, ed. by Simmel, E. (New York, 1946)Google Scholar; Allport, G. W., The Nature of Prejudice (Reading, Mass., 1973)Google Scholar; Rex, J., Race Relations in Sociological Theory (London, 1970)Google Scholar; Race, Science and Society, ed. by Kuper, L. (London, 1975)Google Scholar; Ackerman, N. W. and Jahoda, M., Antisemitism and Emotional Disorder (New York, 1950)Google Scholar; Glock, C. Y. and Stark, R., Christian Beliefs and Antisemitism (New York, 1966)Google Scholar.

10 For formal proof see van Arkel, D., Quispel, G. C. and Ross, R. J., ‘De Wijngaard des Heeren?’ Een onderzoek naar de wortels van ‘die blanke baasskap’ in Zuid-Afrika (Leyden, 1983)Google Scholar, and the literature mentioned there.

11 Parkes, J., A History of the Jewish People (Harmondsworth, 1964), p. 63Google Scholar.

12 Simon, M., Verus Israel. Etude sur les relations entre Chretiens et Juifs dans l'Empire Romain (135–425) (Paris, 1948), p. 94Google Scholar. A similar idea is to be found, e.g., in Justin Martyr, see Williams, A. L., Adversos Judaeos. A Bird's Eye View of Christian Apologiae until the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1935), pp. 31ff.Google Scholar; Parkes, A History, p. 62.

13 B. Pascal, Pensées, ed. by L. Brunschvicg, No 640.

14 Sulzbach, W., Die zwei Wurzeln und Formen des Judenhasses (Stuttgart, 1959), p. 29Google Scholar; Simon, Verus Israel, op. cit., p. 268; Isaac, J., Genèse de 1' Antisémitisme. Essai historique (Paris, 1956), pp. 166ffGoogle Scholar.

15 On proselytism and Judaizing see, inter alia, Anchel, R., Les Juifs de France (n.p., 1946) pp. 23ff.Google Scholar; Lovsky, F., Antisémitisme et Mystère d'Israël (Paris, 1955), pp. 35ff., 139ff., 161Google Scholar; Poliakov, L., Histoire de 1'Antisemitisme, I: Du Christ aux Juifs de Cour (Paris, 1955), p. 39Google Scholar; Simon, Versus Israel, pp. 175, 336, 432; Williams, Adversus Judaeos, op. cit., pp. 132, 338; Parkes, A History, p. 62.

16 Lovsky, Antisemitisme, p. 187; Juster, J., Des Juifs dans l'Empire Roman. Leur condition juridique, economique et sociale (2 vols; Paris, 1914)Google Scholar; Simon, Verus Israel, pp. 156–57.

17 Baron, S. W., A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 2nd ed. (12 vols; New York, 1957), III, pp. 8, 10, 30, 189Google Scholar; Lovsky, Antisèmitisme, pp. 36, 108, 109, 164, 179; Parkes, A History, p. 64; Simon, Verus Israel, p. 351.

18 See note 15; Blumenkranz, B., Juifs et Chretiens dans le Monde occidental 430–1096 (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar; Bachrach, B., Early Medieval Jewish Policy in Western Europe (Minneapolis, 1977)Google Scholar.

19 Simon, Verus Israel, p. 263.

20 E.g., Tacitus, Historiae, V, 4.

21 In this framework a complete argument is impossible. See Pt I of my book. For a summary of the discussion see, e.g., Poliakov, Histoire de l'Antisemitisme, I, op. cit.; Isaac, Genese de 1'Antisemitisme, op. cit.

22 Dubnov, S., History of the Jews, transl. by Spiegel, M. (5 vols; South Brunswick, N.J., 1967–73), II, pp. 193fGoogle Scholar. For a very vivid description see Gibbon, E., The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. by Smeaton, O. (6 vols; London, 1946), V, pp. 11ffGoogle Scholar.

23 Dubnov, History of the Jews, II, pp. 210f., 527ff.; Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, op. cit., III, p. 3; Lovsky, Antisémitisme, p. 116.

24 See my book. For a better understanding of the Byzantine situation the following works are of great importance: Ostrogorsky, G., History of the Byzantine State, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1968)Google Scholar; id., “Agrarian Conditions in the Byzantine Empire in the Middle Ages”, in: The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, I, 2nd ed., pp. 205ff.; S. Runciman, “Byzantine Trade and Industry”, ibid., II, pp. 103ff.; Vasiliev, A. A., History of the Byzantine Empire (2 vols; Madison, 1928)Google Scholar; Sharf, A., Byzantine Jewry from Justinian to the Fourth Crusade (London, 1971)Google Scholar; Starr, J., The Jews in the Byzantine Empire (641–1204) (Athens, 1939) (documents)Google Scholar.

25 Aronius, J., Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden im Fränkischen und Deutschen Reiche bis zum Jahre 1273 (Berlin, 1902), No 189Google Scholar.

26 van den Bergh, G. van Benthem, De Staat van Geweld. Essays (Amsterdam, 1980), p. 57Google Scholar.

27 Wilke, H., “Vooroordeel: begripsvorming, detoekenningervanenbenaderingen”, in: Vooroordeel en discriminatie, ed. by Kok, G. J., van Knippenberg, A. and Wilke, H. (Alphen aan den Rijn, 1979), pp. 13ffGoogle Scholar.

28 The threshold values lie on the curve SD = 2n-1–l. The area between this curve and the n axis denotes the increase or decrease of the chances of non-discrimination. That area is calculated at 1.443(2n-1–l)–(n–1) by using integral calculus. The disappearance of one Jewish subgroup, therefore, implies that the chances of non-discrimination are more than halved, and vice versa.

29 Aronius, Regesten, op. cit., passim.

30 Ibid., No 67.

31 Ibid., Nos 84–97, 105–11.

32 Coornaert, E., “Les Ghildes médiévales (Ve-XIV siècles). Définition. Evaluation”, in: Revue Historique, CXCIX (1948), pp. 22ffGoogle Scholar.; Caffiaux, M. H., “Mémoire de la frairie de la halle basse de Valenciennes”, in: Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de France, XXXVIII, Fourth Series, VIII (1877), pp. 1ffGoogle Scholar.

33 See notably Pirenne, H., Les Villes et les Institutions urbaines (Paris, Brussels, 1939)Google Scholar; Niermeyer, J. F., “Judaeorum Sequaces, Joodse kooplieden en Christelijke kooplieden. Bijdrage tot de ontstaansgeschiedenis van de Lotharingse burgerij (elfde eeuw)”, in: Mededelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde, New Series, XXX (1967), pp. 167ff.Google Scholar; le Goff, J., “Au Moyen Age: Temps de l'Eglise et temps du marchand”, in: Annales. Economies, Societes, Civilisations, XV (1960), pp. 417ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Pounds, N. J. G., An Economic History of Medieval Europe (London, New York, 1974), p. 339Google Scholar.

35 Ibid., pp. 86ff.; Latouche, R., The Birth of Western Economy. Economic Aspects of the Dark Ages, transl. by Wilkinson, E. M. (London, 1967), pp. 211ffGoogle Scholar.

36 Pounds, An Economic History of Medieval Europe, pp. 89ff.

37 Chazan, R., Medieval Jewry in Northern France. A Political and Social History (Baltimore, London, 1973), p. 15Google Scholar.

38 Aronius, Regesten, No 244.

39 Chazan, Medieval Jewry in Northen France, op. cit., p. 33.

40 Aronius, Regesten, No 142. See also Glaber, R., Les cinque livres de ses histoires (900–1044), ed. by Prou, M. (Paris, 1886)Google Scholar.

41 Neubauer, A. and Stern, M., Hebräische Berichte iiber die Judenverfolgungen wahrend der Kreuzziige (Berlin, 1892)Google Scholar.

42 Runciman, S., A History of the Crusades (2 vols; Harmondsworth, 1971), 1: The First Crusades and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem pp. 121ffGoogle Scholar.; Neubauer and Stern, Hebraische Berichte, pp. 25, 131, mention that Peter asked for food from the Jewish communities while on his passage. Nothing further happened.

43 Roth, C., The History of the Jews of Italy (Philadelphia, 1946), pp. 115–16Google Scholar. Other important works on the history of the Italian Jews are, inter alia, Cassuto, U., Gli Ebrei a Firenze nell'Età di Rinascimento (Florence, 1918)Google Scholar; Vogelstein, H., History of the Jews in Rome (Philadelphia, 1940)Google Scholar; E. Kantorowicz, Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite, facsimile ed. (Düsseldorf, 1973); Shulvass, M. A., The Jews in the World of the Renaissance (Leyden, 1973)Google Scholar; Milano, A, Storia degli Ebrei in Italia (Turin, 1963)Google Scholar; Caro, G., Sozial–und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Juden im Mittelalter und der Neuzeit (2 vols; Frankfort/M., 1924)Google Scholar.

44 De Felice, R., Storia degli Ebrei Italiani sotto il fascismo, 2nd ed. (Turin, 1972), p. 302Google Scholar and passim. See also Michaelis, M., Mussolini and the Jews. German-Italian relations and the Jewish question in Italy, 1922–1945 (Oxford, 1978)Google Scholar.

45 Two important sources about the relations between Jews and Popes are Stern, M.. Urkündliche Beiträge über die Stellungder Päpste zu den Juden (2 vols; Kiel, 1893–1895)Google Scholar; Grayzel, S.. The Church and the Jews in the XHIth Century (Philadelphia. 1933)Google Scholar. See also Grayzel, S., “The Papal Bull Sicut Judeis”, in: Studies and Essays in Honor of Abraham A. Neuman. ed. by Ben-Horin, M., Weinryb, B. D. and Zeitlin, S. (Leyden, 1962)Google Scholar.

46 Dobson, R. B., The Jews of Medieval York and the Massacre of March 1190 (York, 1974)Google Scholar; for a general background see Jacobs, J., The Jews of Angevin England. Documents and Records from Latin and Hebrew Sources (London, 1893)Google Scholar; Roth, C., A History of the Jews in England, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1978)Google Scholar; Richardson, H. G., The English Jewry under Angevin Kings (London, 1960)Google Scholar.

47 Germania Judaica, ed. by J. Ellbogen, A. Freimann and H. Tykocinski, facsimile ed. (2 vols; Tubingen, 1966), II: Von 1238 bis zurMittedes 14. Jahrhunderts, in alphabetical order of place names.

48 Contribution of van Dillen, J. G. in Brugmans, H. and Frank, H., Geschiedenis der Joden in Nederland (Amsterdam, 1940)Google Scholar; see also Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis van het Bedrijfsleven en het van Amsterdam, Gildewezen, ed. by van Dillen, J. G. [Rijks Geschiedkundige Publication, LXIX and LXXVIII] (The Hague, 1929–33)Google Scholar, passim. Gans, M. H., Memorboek. Platenatlas van het leven der Joden in Nederland van de middeleeuwen tot 1940 (Baarn, 1972)Google Scholar, contains a wealth of data.

49 The anti-Semitism that cannot be measured usually (see above) becomes obvious in Amsterdam in the form of sneering and, e.g., in the use of the word “smous” in the diary of Jacob Bicker Raije, a daily note of “faits divers”; Beijerinck, F. and de Boer, M. G., Het dagboek van Jacob Bicker Raije, 1732–1772Google Scholar. naar het oorspronkelijke dagboek medegedeeld, 2nd ed. (Amsterdam, n.d.), passim.

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51 For the Council of Elvira see, e.g., Marcus, J. R., The Jew in the Medieval World. A Source Book, 315–1791 (New York, 1975)Google Scholar.

52 About the Pastoureaux: Anchel, Les Juifsde France, op. cit., pp. 79ff.; Cohn, N.. The Pursuit of the Millennium. Revolutionary Messianism in Medieval and Reformation Europe and its Bearing on Modern Totalitarian Movements. 2nd ed. (New York. 1961)Google Scholar.

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57 Address by Mrs O. Hufton at Oxford, February 1978.

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60 See note 28.

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65 See, e.g., Wurmbrand, M. and Roth, C., The Jewish People. 4000 Years of Survival (London, 1966), pp. 104ffGoogle Scholar.

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70 An extremely fascinating discussion about the imperfect character of the emancipation of the Jews: Katz, J., Out of the Ghetto. The Social Background of Jewish Emancipation 1770–1870 (Cambridge, Mass., 1973)Google Scholar; and Rürup, R., Emanzipation und Antisemitismus (Gottingen, 1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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73 See Pt II of my book; for a survey my “Racism in Europe”, loc. cit.

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