The real answer, is that the Jews were necessary evil
The Jews had a kingdom, the one that they claimed to be built by David. That kingdom crumbled when the Romans came along and invaded the Levant. The Jews weren't pleased by this and wanted to re-establish their independence, and generally harassed the Romans however they can, which did not endear them to the Romans but that's par for the course compared to the Germans
After that, Christianity came knocking. For obvious reasons the Jews just don't mingle with Christians, which was fine for the first few centuries but then Emperor Constantine the Great adopted Christianity and basically made it state religion.
The biggest problem with Christianity isn't just that they claim to be Judaism 2.0: the problem is it specifically bans usury
This was a big problem to Christian rulers who sometimes need to borrow money to fund whatever it is that Christian rulers want. That's why Christian rulers exploit one specific fact: Christianity banned Christians from lending money for the express hope of getting paid more, but it never bans borrowing money with the understanding you have to pay back more
So the Christian rulers borrow money from the Jews, and as everyone knows the painful part of borrowing money is paying it back. By getting paid more than they lend out the Jews naturally accumulate wealth, which caused concern among rulers. Realms may be wealthy but the kings themselves often are not, and nothing stokes the fear of a king more than his subjects growing wealthier than himself
This concern caused the rulers to shoo Jews away from important political positions, such as ministers and military commanders. This naturally pigeonholed the Jews to be merchants, which paired with their primary use of being a loanshark caused them to amass even more wealth. This caused the feedback loop of them growing wealthier and rulers growing more concerned
This also worked on the lower social strata. Merchants weren't viewed that favorably back then, Indians for example placed merchants at the bottom of social ranking even below servants because merchants - always looking for profit - are viewed full of lies and deceit.
Eventually, the Jews became a natural, easy scapegoat whenever christian rulers need someone to blame for their misfortunes. The Black Death for example was at some point blamed at the Jews. This was because by banishing the Jews the rulers can seize their assets, and since the Jews were naturally rich that's a lot of assets to prop up the king, plus in so doing whatever debt the ruler had would've been nullified
So you have a bunch of rich people who literally weren't allowed to be anything but rich, living near poor people who view them as nothing but liars and deceivers, practicing an old, different version of your religion, and basically sticking to each other not opening up because Judaism doesn't proselytize, and they get blamed for everything simply for their money
Raestloz t1_itp3z75 wrote
Reply to ELI5: Why exactly have Jewish people been discriminated against for so long throughout history? by DumpsterPuff
A lot of people posting random long answers
The real answer, is that the Jews were necessary evil
The Jews had a kingdom, the one that they claimed to be built by David. That kingdom crumbled when the Romans came along and invaded the Levant. The Jews weren't pleased by this and wanted to re-establish their independence, and generally harassed the Romans however they can, which did not endear them to the Romans but that's par for the course compared to the Germans
After that, Christianity came knocking. For obvious reasons the Jews just don't mingle with Christians, which was fine for the first few centuries but then Emperor Constantine the Great adopted Christianity and basically made it state religion.
The biggest problem with Christianity isn't just that they claim to be Judaism 2.0: the problem is it specifically bans usury
This was a big problem to Christian rulers who sometimes need to borrow money to fund whatever it is that Christian rulers want. That's why Christian rulers exploit one specific fact: Christianity banned Christians from lending money for the express hope of getting paid more, but it never bans borrowing money with the understanding you have to pay back more
So the Christian rulers borrow money from the Jews, and as everyone knows the painful part of borrowing money is paying it back. By getting paid more than they lend out the Jews naturally accumulate wealth, which caused concern among rulers. Realms may be wealthy but the kings themselves often are not, and nothing stokes the fear of a king more than his subjects growing wealthier than himself
This concern caused the rulers to shoo Jews away from important political positions, such as ministers and military commanders. This naturally pigeonholed the Jews to be merchants, which paired with their primary use of being a loanshark caused them to amass even more wealth. This caused the feedback loop of them growing wealthier and rulers growing more concerned
This also worked on the lower social strata. Merchants weren't viewed that favorably back then, Indians for example placed merchants at the bottom of social ranking even below servants because merchants - always looking for profit - are viewed full of lies and deceit.
Eventually, the Jews became a natural, easy scapegoat whenever christian rulers need someone to blame for their misfortunes. The Black Death for example was at some point blamed at the Jews. This was because by banishing the Jews the rulers can seize their assets, and since the Jews were naturally rich that's a lot of assets to prop up the king, plus in so doing whatever debt the ruler had would've been nullified
So you have a bunch of rich people who literally weren't allowed to be anything but rich, living near poor people who view them as nothing but liars and deceivers, practicing an old, different version of your religion, and basically sticking to each other not opening up because Judaism doesn't proselytize, and they get blamed for everything simply for their money
Not a wonder that Jews were not treated well