Jewish Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Era Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Jewish Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Era - Essay Example As the Jews started to prosper in there respective settlements, so did Anti-Semitism grow and developed into one huge monster that today’s history still recalls. Anti-Semitism is defined as the hate towards people of the Semitic group. This hatred is defined in various forms that include cultural, political, economic, religious, racial, and apocalyptic. Milestone events that marked the height of Anti-Semitism included the First Crusade back in 1096, that happened in France and Germany, The Massacre of Jews in Spain in late 1300s, Expulsions from England, Portugal, Russia and Soviet Republic. The peak of all these was the Holocaust by the Germans under Adolf Hitler. All these revolutions were about Jewish clearance due to many aspects relating to Anti-Semitism. The above historical events changed the Jewish perception of themselves. This was from the new definitions that were given of the Jews in the many expulsion revolutions that were Anti-Semitic. General fear of being assoc iated to the Jewish culture with an imagination that the same could eventually happen and the same fate repeat itself allover again is another main cause of change. These two causes have redefined the modern Jews, turning them into a cultureless population spread allover the world, and minority seclusions with respect to discrimination they faced back then. This has caused tremendous assimilation where the current Jewish has turned into a cosmopolitan culture, giving no origin or definition. This paper shall analyze some of the causes that the city has had in the identity-building process that has resulted into the evolution of the traditional Jew into an independent modern-day Jewish Cosmopolitan. The changes of the Jews shall be attributed to the main Anti-Semitic hatred forms that attributed the Jews as unique, thus deserving the hatred they received, and still to some reasonable measure, still receive. These are cultural, economic, religious, political, apocalyptic, and racial p erceptions. Major cities in the world are cosmopolitan; meaning that they host diverse cultures, races, religions and tribes. Based on the Anti-Semitic belief by the Jews that predominantly having the desire to exercise the Jewish Culture would lead to the easy identification of Jews, much care is taken. There is also a belief that since the Jews were considered as the Chosen Lot, there was a tendency of them wanting to overturn any other culture and make people assimilate their culture. The result of this fear made the modern-day Jew take up the cultures of various cosmopolitan groups in the city, gifting them with diverse survival tactics that aped all the communities. This gave the modern Jews an upper hand as they were able to interact with all the groups. According to them, this was a survival skill they had to learn in order not to be distinct and conspicuous for any attack from the Anti-Semites. This was good, but eventually, Jews lose their touch with their culture and thus lose there identity too. Judaism, the main Jewish religion, has had a long misunderstanding with Christianity ever since the emergence of Christianity. This misunderstanding arose from various factors that included the differences in beliefs about God, processes and general conduct. This is despite the origin of the two being from the same historical foundation, usually described as the Second Temple period. The dominance of Christianity has, however, outweighed Judaism with statistics showing a population of 2 billion