People do not “hate Jews” for any good or rational reason; the hostility you are asking about is called antisemitism, and it is based on prejudice, conspiracy thinking, and scapegoating, not on anything inherent to Jewish people.
What antisemitism is
Antisemitism is prejudice, hostility, or discrimination directed at Jews as individuals or as a group, often treating “the Jews” as a single, evil force behind society’s problems. It can show up as insults, exclusion, violence, vandalism of Jewish sites, or made‑up ideas that Jews secretly control governments, media, or finance.
Historical roots
Negative stereotypes about Jews go back many centuries and were often tied to religion, politics, and economics. In Christian Europe, church teachings that blamed Jews for Jesus’s death helped justify social restrictions, forced segregation in ghettos, and periodic violence.
Scapegoating and “the other”
Jews have often been minorities who kept distinct religious and cultural practices, which made them visible and easy to label as “outsiders.” When societies faced crises like war, plague, or economic collapse, leaders and demagogues sometimes encouraged people to blame Jews for these disasters, turning fear and anger into hatred.
Modern racial and political hatred
In the 19th and 20th centuries, antisemitism also took on a racial form, falsely describing Jews as a separate, dangerous “race.” The most extreme result was Nazi ideology, which portrayed Jews as the source of Germany’s problems and led to the Holocaust, the state‑planned murder of six million Jews.
Why it still matters
Today, antisemitism continues in updated forms: old myths are recycled online, and Jews are still wrongly blamed for everything from capitalism to communism or for conflicts in the Middle East. Understanding that this hatred is irrational and rooted in long‑standing prejudice is important for challenging it and standing with Jewish people against discrimination and violence.
