(Jewish Group) Ancient antisemitic tropes are resurfacing--it is time to uncover the myths

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

The new exhibition at Jewish Museum London, Jews, Money, Myth, is opening at a time when antisemitism is rarely out of the news. Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission has announced it is “engaging” with the UK's Labour party out of concerns that there may have been discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity and religious beliefs. Labour Members of Parliament have left the party citing its failure to deal with antisemitism. Meanwhile the Labour-supporting Momentum movement has felt the need to create a video to educate its membership on the conspiracy theory that wealthy Jews—in particular the Rothschilds—control the world.

Of course, this is not just a British problem. In France, protesters have made much of the fact that President Macron once worked for the French bank Rothschild and Cie Banque. There is plenty of international vitriol directed at the investor George Soros, caricatured as another global Jewish overlord. Communicating all this hatred and suspicion is a painfully familiar collection of images, which has had remarkable longevity.

At the museum, we hold collections that tell the history of Jews in Britain. We also aim to provide all visitors with a positive experience of the Jewish religion and culture and to bring them into our discussions. In Jews, Money, Myth, we have collaborated with the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck, to explore a troubling history of anti-Jewish stereotypes around money. We hope not just to communicate that antisemitic tropes have a long history, but also to empower visitors to identify and challenge them, even to the point of reconsidering their own language and choice of images.

Images are key to approaching this subject, since much of it developed through visual interpretations of the New Testament at a time of low literacy. Artists only began to distinguish Jews from Christians from the late-11th century. Initially they can be seen with beards and pointed hats, carrying scrolls. Half a century later, they acquire distorted faces. By the 13th century they are also carrying moneybags, shown clinging to the material world and denying spirituality. As the historian Sara Lipton explains in the publication that accompanies this exhibition, the aim was to encourage Christians to avoid sin rather than hate Jews, but history tells us that this caricature has persisted and inspired murderous hatred.

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Maybe we need to send a few people to this!