Ask The Rabbi!!

[TanithT]

Why do people hate Jews is a good question. It basically boils down to politics and economics, as it usually does whenever one group hates another. Environmental resources are generally scarce, so evolution hardwires us to compete for them.

Homo sapiens, and indeed almost all social mammals, are fundamentally wired to think in terms of "my tribe" and "not my tribe". The reasons for this are fairly obvious; it has a direct impact on genetic survival. Primates in particular are wired to be aggressive and ugly to competing members of the same species who fall into the "not my tribe" category. Basically, we're still naked apes, only now it's nuclear warheads we're hurling instead of feces.

The rationale can be anything, really. It can range from what name you call your deities to what food you eat to making up factually inaccurate accusations (eg, "The Jews killed Jesus") to inflame hatred. It doesn't matter; we're still talking about the psychology of in-group versus out-group dynamics. And that's the game that monkeys play. It's a highly useful and functional game in terms of evolution and genetic survival, which is why we are unlikely to see it abandoned any time soon.

In case you can't tell, my religion is basically science. I don't generally have a very high personal opinion of any beliefs that can't be backed up in a peer-reviewed journal, though I do respect and sometimes admire the spirituality of others. Whether an individual believes in G-d, Satan, Almighty Isis, pink unicorns or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, it is not something I consider any of my business. It's personal to them, and as long as they don't try to pass laws to make everybody obey their particular religious taboos, we will get along just fine. Unfortunately monotheists have a tendency to do just that, and it annoys me rather a lot.

I do have a serious question for the rabbi. I am largely agnostic myself, but was raised in the Wiccan faith. My parents told me quite seriously that I should favor Jews over Christians in business dealings, because during hard times, Jews had a history of compassionately helping Witches, Romany gypsies, midwives, folk healers and others who were persecuted mercilessly by the Christians as "evil". In short, Christians would burn us or try to forcibly convert us, and Jews would respect us and help us. So that was their version of the in-group/out-group story. Any historical verification from the Jewish end possible here?