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Why the Jews

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HOMEJewish Holidays Tisha B'Av Anti-Semitism & Suffering Why the Jews – Part 1
Understanding the root of the world's longest hatred.

by Raphael Shore Prejudice, it seems, is a standard fare of life. In his folksong entitled "National Brotherhood Week," Tom Lehrer sings:

Oh the Protestants hate the Catholics, and the Catholics hate the Protestants, and the Hindus hate the Muslims and everybody hates the Jews.

In this song, Lehrer expresses the truism that hatred for the Jew is uniquely commonplace. The Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, blood libels, pogroms, countless expulsions and the systematic murder of 6 million.

The question is: Why? What lies behind these millennium of hatred? Why has the undercurrent of anti-Semitism bubbled and boiled and exploded against Jews everywhere, time and again throughout history?

In this 8-part seminar, we will examine the root reason for the world's longest hatred.

Causes versus Excuses – How Can We Tell the Difference?

When we study any theory, it is important to distinguish between a "cause" and an "excuse." The difference is not difficult to recognize:

When one thing causes another, if we remove the cause, the effect should vanish. If, on the other hand, one thing is an excuse for another, then even after taking away the excuse, the effect will remain.

A child who is chronically late to school may say in his defense, "But I don’t have a watch. How do you expect me to get to school in time if I don’t have a watch?"

If his parents would buy him a watch and he would still be late

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