Who can reconcile the fact that Israel is a nation of G-d, an eternal nation and an eternal light unto the nations, yet it has been exiled from its Land, forced to serve the nations of the world, and brutally massacred by those that have ruled it? If G-d Rules Israel, then why have His people been driven into exile and ruled by strangers? And if G-d Defends Israel, then why has Israel suffered calamity after calamity, without respite; not even a moment's rest? It would be sinful to say that G-d is evil and that He would so brutally harm His people. It would be a mistake to say G-d has wished such harm upon His people, and that He Willfully Destroys His nation more than He Defends Israel.

A Ruler must Judge His people, and establish the Order of Justice upon them. G-d does not Defend those that mock Him and ignore His Laws; He does not Guard a nation of rebels. A Ruler preserves His Rule by Force and molds His people into a nation of His own. A nation of G-d cannot exist without G-d, therefore Israel has suffered, because Israel is eternal and must not break G-d's Laws. If Israel were to fade away like the ancient nations, then G-d would let His people die out and His nation would cease to be. But Israel is an Eternal nation; therefore His people cannot run from Him, and Israel can never escape its Role nor annul its Covenant.

G-d does not Defend those who rebel against Him and desecrate His Name. When Israel is not with G-d, G-d is not with Israel, and the nations have their way. When Israel is not with G-d, it suffers more than anyone else, for the Role of Israel is to bring Light to the nations and thus purge the world of evil. When Israel is not with G-d it fails to serve its purpose, thus evil has its way, and the nations are led astray. And evil leads itself against Israel, thus G-d Scolds His people and molds His nation into form. Just as the decadence of Israel is an offense against G-d, the evil of the nations is most offensive to Israel, for Israel is the servant of G-d, that serves G-d's Purpose in the world. When the children of Israel become a source of decadence and corruption, it is they who are punished most. For they are the ones who guard against iniquity and set an example for the rest of the world. But if the model of the nations is a disgrace to its name, then what is to become of the nations? And what is to become of the world?

It is true that Israel has suffered, and it has suffered unjustly. No nation has known the pain that is Israel and felt the curse that has constantly plagued the Jews. It is a tortured body that is not even comforted in death, for Israel is never Given rest. Israel has suffered beyond belief and has been cursed without remorse. The Hand of G-d has never left Israel, for Israel has never escaped the Rule of G-d. The Jews might run and they might hide, but there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide; for wherever they may go, they cannot find another home. In every land they have sought rest, but received only unrest. In every nation they have yearned for comfort and peace, but they have known only war and torment.

Has it not been Foretold?
 

Leviticus 26:36-38

And those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies I shall make so fainthearted, that if leaves rustle behind them, they will flee headlong, as if from the sword, though no one pursues them; stumbling over one another as if to escape a weapon, while no one is after them--so helpless will you be to take a stand against your foes. You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall consume you.

Deuteronomy 28:32-33, 37, 65-67

Your sons and daughters will be given to a foreign nation. You will see it happening with your own eyes, and will long for them all day long, but you will be powerless. A strange nation will consume the fruit of your land and all the soil of your toil. You will be constantly cheated and crushed...

You will become an object of horror, an example, and an abject lesson among all the nations to which G-d will lead you.

Among those nations you shall find no respite, no rest for your foot. There G-d will make you cowardly, destroying your outlook and making life hopeless. You will live in constant suspense. Day and night, you will be terrified, never sure of your existence. In the morning you will say, "If only it were night," and in the evening you will say, "If only it were morning!" Such will be the dread that your heart will feel and the sights that your eyes will see.

Ezekiel 20:31-36

...Will you investigate Me, O House of Israel? As I live, Says the Lord G-d, I shall not be investigated by you. For that which comes into your mind shall never be! That which you say: Let us be like the nations, like the families of other lands, serving wood and stone. As I Live, Says G-d, with a Mighty Hand and Outstretched Arm with outpoured fury, I Will be King over you.

From the Jewish History Atlas
quotation by Martin Gilbert

As my research into Jewish history progressed, I was surprised, depressed, and to some extent overwhelmed by the perpetual and irrational violence which pursued the Jews in every country and to almost every corner of the globe. If, therefore, persecution, expulsion, torture, humiliation, and mass murder haunt these pages, it is because they also haunt the Jewish story."

The first crusade was launched by pope urban 2 in 1095 at clermont. The stated purpose was to "liberate Jerusalem from the infidels." En route to the Holy Land, the crusaders destroyed countless Jewish communities in their wake. In Europe, anti-Semitic massacres occurred at speyer, metz, trier, and cologne. In rouen, every Jew refusing baptism was murdered. The Jews of rotisbon, germany, were forced to the banks of the danube; all those refusing to convert were subsequently drowned. One crusade in the rhineland resulted in the death of 5,000 Jews.

When the crusaders finally reached Jerusalem, the Jewish population gathered for safety and refuge in the city's main synagogue. This did not deter the crusaders, who set fire to the Jewish house of worship and burned all their victims alive. When a few Jews escaped to the roof of the dome of the rock, crusaders climbed up after them and beheaded the surviving remnant. The mosque was then ceremoniously converted into a church.

1212 - Spain - Rioting and blood bath against the Jews of toledo.

1215 - Italy - lateran council of rome decrees that Jews must wear the "badge of shame" in all christian countries. Jews are denied all public sector employment, and are burdened with extra taxes.

1231 - Europe - Rioting and forced conversion in the kingdom of leon.

1239 - France - Jewish learning is prohibited, and in Paris a specific ban is imposed on the talmud. Three years later, 24 wagon-loads of the talmud are publicly burned in Paris.

1240 - austria - Property is confiscated from the austrian Jewish community. Jews are either imprisoned, converted, expelled, or burned.

1255 - Blood libel in lincoln results in the burning of many Jews and the torture of hundreds.

1264 - germany - council of vienna declares that all Jews must wear a "pointed dunce cap." In addition, thousands are murdered.

1270 - England - The libel of the "counterfeit coins"--all Jewish men, women, and children in england are imprisoned. Hundreds are hung.

1276 - The Jews are expelled from upper bavaria. When they return a few years later, 180 Jews are burned at the stake.

1279 - Hungary and poland - The council of offon denies Jews the right to all civic positions. The Jews of Hungary and poland are forced to wear the "red badge of shame."

1290 - England - king edward 1 issues an edict banishing all the Jews from england. Many are drowned. Jews do not return to england in any significant numbers until the 17th century.

1291 - France - The Jewish refugees from england are promptly expelled from france.

1292 - Italy - Forced conversions and expulsion of the italian Jewish community.

1298 - germany - The libel of the "desecrated host" is perpetrated against the Jews of germany. Approximately 150 Jewish communities undergo forced conversion.

1298 - austria - reindfel's decree is propagated against the Jews of franconia and bavaria. Riots against these Jewish communities, as well as those in austria, result in the massacre of 100,000 Jews over a six-month period.
 

The Black Plague Accusation
from Discovery
Published by Esh HaTorah, June 1996
As a handbook for the Discovery Seminar

Probably the single most horrifying frenzy of them all was the tragic "well poisoning" charge of the embattled 14th century. In 1348, the Black Death erupted in Europe, hitting Italy, France, and eventually all of the continent, save poland and Bohemia. The bubonic plague ran rampant despite frantic efforts to control its spread, and as many as one-third of the people of europe succumbed to its effects.

It was not long before the Jews were blamed for the scourge. Charged with having "poisoned the wells" of Europe with spiders, frogs, lizards, and other loathsome vermin, the Jews--who were already suffering from the plague on a level comparable to that of the christian community--were forced to endure a holocaust which would not be equaled in scope for 600 years. By the hundreds and thousands, Jews were murdered by frenetic christian mobs. In germany, where the massacres were most intense, the Jewish community was nearly exterminated. Historical records of the time report that "in over 200 communities of germany, Jewish inhabitants were put to the indescribable tortures of which the catholic church was such a subtle master, and finally put to death."

Pogroms erupted throughout eastern europe in the early 20th century. Pogroms in the ukraine and bessaraia in 1903, for example, swept through 64 towns; in odessa alone, 300 Jews were killed and thousands wounded. In 1921, pogroms by the retreating ukranian army under the command of simon petlyura resulted in the deaths of 8,000 Jews. Another 1,500 Jews were killed in pogroms perpetrated by the counter-revolutionary white army, under the command of general a.i. denikin. That same year, thousands more Jews were killed in pogroms by anti-soviet bands in the ukraine.

auschwitz. bergen-belsen. treblinka. dachua. The names are far too familiar in our national consciousness. Between 1933-45, roughly two-thirds of european Jewry was wiped out. In gas chambers. In death marches. In crematoria ovens. Herded into ghettos. Stuffed onto cattle cars. Turned into lampshades and soap.

hitler spoke openly and freely about his plan to annihilate the Jewish People, and was democratically-elected chancellor of germany in 1933. he moved swiftly in his plan, and by 1935 the infamous nuremberg laws were in place: Jews were forbidden to hold citizenship or marry german "nationals." The kristallnacht raid of 1938 saw the mass destruction of Jewish property: synagogues, businesses, and homes were burned to the ground. Then the genocide began. nazi troops invaded Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Russia, and Poland; nary a single Jew was spared. In all, Six Million Jews were murdered, One Million Children amongst them.

The Middle East
from Discovery
Published by Esh HaTorah, June 1996
As a handbook for the Discovery Seminar

From islam's inception in the 7th century, the Jews living in Arab countries were legally considered and treated as second-class citizens.

Violent outbreaks sporadically occurred throughout the following 1300 years and reached a climax during 1948 and 1967, when seven Arab nations launched annihilation attacks to "drive the Jews into the sea." During that period, almost all of the Jews living in aden, algeria, egypt, iraq, syria, and Yemen--over 600,000 in all--were forced to flee, fleeing for their lives, in the wake of pogroms, assaults, and massacres.

In the past 50 years, many thousands of Israelis have lost their lives defending against Arab military attack. Additionally, Arab terrorism against Israel--bus bombings, airport attacks, and school yard shootings--has claimed the lives of approximately 1,000 Jewish men, women, and children.

A speech about the irrationality of anti-Semitism
by professor Michael Curtis, of Rutgers University, 1987

The uniqueness of anti-Semitism lies in the fact that no other people in the world have ever been charged simultaneously with alienation from society and with cosmopolitanism, with being capitalistic exploiters and also revolutionary communist advocators. The Jews were accused of having an imperious mentality, at the same time they're a people of the book. They're accused of being militant aggressors, at the same time as being cowardly pacifists. With being a Chosen people, and also having an inferior human nature. With both arrogance and timidity. With both extreme individualism and community adherence. With being guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus and at the same time held to account for the invention of christianity.