The Usual Suspects: An Inquiry Into Two Millennia Of Selective Scapegoating – OpEd |
The Bloodhound Gang posed the question in 1996: “Why’s everyone always pickin’ on me?”[1] After two thousand years of systematic persecution across continents and political systems, Jews are entitled to ask it without irony. Understanding the persistence of this phenomenon matters not merely for historical interest but for comprehending a pattern that defies conventional explanations of prejudice. The hatred survives transitions from monarchy to democracy, from religious to secular governance, from agrarian to industrial to information economies. What remains constant across these transformations?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks captured the essential dynamic: “Antisemitism is not a belief but a virus… it mutates.”[2] The accusations change to match whatever society currently fears most. Jews have been blamed for being too rich and too poor, too isolated and too integrated, for being stateless wanderers and for having their own state. Douglas Murray observed: “Tell me what you accuse the Jews of, and I’ll tell you what you believe you are guilty of.”[2] Medieval Europe accused Jews of deicide. Nazi Germany blamed them simultaneously for capitalism and communism. Contemporary progressives label them white colonizers. The content evolves while the target persists.
The Theological Foundation
The deicide charge established the conceptual architecture. For nearly two millennia, Christian Europe held Jews collectively responsible for the crucifixion. That the execution was carried out by Roman authority, that the accused was himself Jewish, that collective transgenerational guilt violates elementary principles of justice, all proved irrelevant. The narrative served its function: it transformed Jews into permanent outsiders whose suffering could be rationalized as theologically warranted.
This theological resentment maintains institutional force. Much of Europe consists of historically Christian nations that exercise disproportionate influence in the deliberations of the United Nations. The institution that condemns Israel more frequently than all other nations combined draws heavily from populations whose formation narratives include Jewish collective guilt. This cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence in explaining contemporary institutional antisemitism.
The Resentment of Excellence
Ashkenazi Jews demonstrate the highest average performance on standardized intelligence assessments of any measurable demographic. Their contributions to theoretical physics, chemistry, medicine, philosophy, and economics, as documented through Nobel Prizes and patent registrations, stand statistically unparalleled relative to population size.[3] Their dominance in competitive intellectual pursuits from chess to mathematical olympiads proves consistent across generations and geographic contexts.
Yet this success emerged not from inherent characteristics but from specific historical circumstances.[4] The emphasis on intellectual capital developed as a strategic response to exclusion. When physical property proved unreliable due to periodic expulsion and expropriation, Jewish communities invested in portable knowledge. Professions previously undervalued........