Jillian Rubin
Jews in the Modern World
Professor Lesses
November 17, 2008

1. There are many myths that are the basis of Christian anti-semitism in the ancient and medieval worlds. Medieval art, poetry, drama, and sermons identified Jews with the Devil. Also, in plays, Jews were being portrayed as evil demons with horns and tails. Christians believed the myth that Jews were evil. During the Middle Ages, there was an idea that the Jew was “the seed of Satan”. Christians believed that Jews played a role in the Black Death that took place in Europe in 1348 and 1349. The Christians in the Middle Ages believed that Jews had kidnapped and murdered Christian children, there were books written during this time to “prove” this.
During this time, Jews were associated with the devil in medieval thinking. The reason Jews were associated with the devil is because the devil was terrifying to early Medieval Christians, therefore they associated the devil with Jews because they had such a hatred of the Jewish people.
Martin Luther at first had the same hatred towards Jews that the rest of the Christian people during this time had. Soon after the start of the Reformation, he called for a gentler attitude toward Jews. By doing this he was hoping that the Jewish people would convert to Christianity. In a treatise that was written by Martin Luther that was titled Concerning the Jews and Their Lies, he wrote about his ideas for the “final solution” to the Jewish question. In the beginning of this treatise he wrote “What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews”? (81). This shows that he wrote about the Jews in a very poor manner. He continued to write other extremes about what he wanted done to the Jews including having their houses destroyed and to set fire to their synagogues. He continues to write that he wants their prayer books taken away from them. All of this shows that Martin Luther was hated the Jews very much because he wrote about them so negatively.