Maya Mazor-Hoofien
Antisemitism: From the Ancient World to Today
In the United States in 2019, there were 2,107 acts of anti-Jewish hate crimes, including harassment, vandalism, and assault. This, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), is an all-time high, since the ADL began tracking these crimes in 1979. Antisemitism is a major problem in modern society, in the United States and elsewhere, but it is anything but new. Antisemitic propaganda, exile, violence, and prejudice are ancient, and have their roots throughout the ancient world.
Though the exact date is debated, circa 586 BCE is generally agreed to be the starting date of the Babylonian Captivity, when the Mesopotamian city-state of Babylonia conquered Palestine and forced the Jewish people out of their homeland and into captivity in Babylonia for about 50 years, though citing Jeremiah 29:10 would put the exile closer to 70 years long. The Jews called themselves “gola” or “bene gola,” which mean “exiles” or “children of exiles” respectively. The Jews were deported to communities together, so they lived alongside one another, wholly submerged in despair (Jewish Virtual Library). Eventually, Cyrus the Great, the king of the Persian Empire, would conquer Babylonia and release the Jewish people, which earned him a shining mention in the Torah as a servant to God (“Babylonian Captivity”). Some Jews would never return to their homeland, choosing to stay in Babylonia, forming the first communities of the Jewish Diaspora. The Diaspora is the displacement and exile of the Jewish people from their homeland, which continues to this day, some 2500 years later (“Diaspora”).
