Tuesday, October 19, 2010

PERIOD 3 - THE LONGEST HATRED

You recently viewed the PBS documentary The Longest Hatred in class. Please share what you learned from the film and make at least one comment on another student's post.

22 comments:

Anna Degtyareva said...

I was outraged by the mistreatment and hatred of Jews. I wasn't really aware of injustices (an understatement?) toward the Jews before the Holocaust, so this film really opened my eyes to all the hate and intolerance out there. I couldn't believe that PRIESTS like Martin Luther preached about things that later became the Nazis' views. This really makes one wonder - why are people so intolerant of others' differences??

Kelsey Landroche said...

One thing that I learned from this film was how early on in history Jews were viewed as bad. I thought the hatred for Jews mostly evolved around the time period of the Holocaust, however I learned it started as early as soon after the death of Jesus.
I agree with Anna's statement. I was shocked how leaders like the Priest was preaching about the evils of Jews.

Michael Doran said...

I thought that the film allowed me to see how the Jewish people were treated even before the Nazi groups erupted in society. I did not realize that the hatred towards Jewish people began after the death of Jesus. I thought it was shocking how the Christian wanted everyone to believe that Jesus was never a Jew.

I agree with Anna as well. I did not realize that the priests were preaching against the Jewish people.

Connor Gibbs said...

I thought that this was a very interesting film. I didnt really realize how much the Jewish population was discriminated against until I saw this film. It really opened up my eyes to how much the Jews were discriminated against all over the world. Before seeing this film, I thought that Nazi Germany was the first to publically discriminate against the Jews but I now realize that this was not the case.
I agree with what Anna said about how even Martin Luther King preached against the Jews. I was extremely shocked to hear this and was rather hard for me to believe at the time.

Sam Nichols said...

This film was definatley eye opening to the extent of the persecution of Jews throughout history. It seemed as though they had always been the scapegoats. This began when they were blamed for killing Jesus Christ. From then on and up until very recently there have been people of the Christian Religion who have sought out Jews to elminitate them, their religion, and what they supposedly represent. These acts have been carried in mass murders several times from the crusades to the holocaust. Overall these are a people who have possibly faced the most difficult past of any other ethnic or religious group.

Mike's point about Christians trying to hide Jesus' link to the Jews is another thing that shocked me. I have always been aware that Jesus was a Jew and had been under the impression that this was and always has been widely excepted.

Anna Degtyareva said...

I agree with Sam Nichols and how he said that the Jewish people were basically the scapegoats of history. I still cannot believe how the whole world stood [and still stands?] by doing nothing while all of this was happening.

Brian Goodliffe said...

I was astounded by the long history of antisemitism. I had always assumed that this was originated by Hitler and his propaganda administration in order to give the people of Germany a uniting scapegoat. Although, as I learned in the film, Jews have been made into scapegoats since the times of Christ. Jews have been blamed for the death of Christ, discriminated against in the New Testament, blamed by priests and many other religious figures.

I agree with Anna in that it was alarming that people of Christianity(my faith) have discriminated so heavily against a sect of people.

Sam Klefstad said...

This film really captured me by making connections to the Nazis and the early days for anti semitism. Already knowing most of the early days of anti semitism it was interesting to see how the film described the nazi party as followers of the early christians. Many people think that the Nazis were leaders, but this film was really able to show that they weren't.

Tucker McKinnon said...

One thing that relly amazed me form this film were the early connections to the Nazi's. Anti semitism was not only shown in World War 2 but also in ancient times. This film made me realize the true troubles the jewish community has faced throughout history.

Zachary Michaels said...

I feel I was more aware of the origin of Jewish persecution than some of the other commentators. I knew about Jews relationship with banking, and the blame upon them for the murder of Christ. I didn't know about how Luther influenced antisemitism. That said I do not feel very surprised. I think that any one who feels that they have been chosen by God to spread his true word would feel that anyone who disagrees with them is anti-god. I think that any dominant group will find a scapegoat for problems, and any ideology will find personal fault with those who don't agree.

Tom Houle said...

One thing that I learned from this film is that Martin Luther had preached anti-semetic ways during his life time. This is all because jewish people would not convert to the protestant religion. I agree with Anna, that it is surprising that Martin Luther a man reknowed in history for going against the chruch, would go against and discriminate against Jewish people.

Shady Mostafa said...

I am right there with Brian Goodliffe. Never have I thought antisemitism existed before Hitler. This film truly made me realize that Hitler did not begin this. It now all makes sense that he was able to pursuade a whole country to follow his beliefs. We all blame Germany for the mistreatment of Jews, but it was shocking to see that it was the Christians that founded this. The history shown about antisemitism was just alarming.

Andrew Grant said...

The longest hatred has really been a shock to me. Before this movie I never fully realized the hatred and prejudice that the jews have gone through for centuries. The ignorance of people passing judgment based on stereotypes for generation after generation of jews is mind-blowing.

I agree with sam in the fact that the jews have faced some of the most hatred of any race in history. And i also believe that this will continue unless people become educated on the situation.

Allie Arpante said...

I thought this film was very interesting a lot of what was said was knew to me. I thought all that the Jews were hated for was both interesting and ridiculous a left me with a lot of questions. I was also unaware of how long this hatred has actually been around for and long before Hitler.
Like a few others, I was also taken back when they said Martin Luther King had preached against the Jews.

Trevor Laham said...

It surprised me how high up the hatred and predjudice of the Jewish people originated and was upheld. Prominent Christian church leaders and political figures were not only supporters of the hatred of Jews, but in many cases they were the leaders of this hatred. The other thing that surprised me was the neo-nazis and the presidential candidates in Germany who are still running based on anti-semitism.

I agree with Anna. It was shocking to learn that church leaders were at the head of anti-semitism.

Zach Howe said...

This film truly showed me how the Jews were treated by everyone else before the Nazis. It was disturbing to see how the Nazis took and picked ideas that were from other people and twisted them into their own needs that they felt that they needed to have in order to blame all of their misgivings on the Jews. When the antisemitism is coming back to Austria and Germany because of their guilt to what they did to the Jews, they still hate them with a passion even if it is in the undertones. They just blame the Jews for the most insane reasons that they can think of just because they believe that the Jews truly did it.

Shane Ruffing said...

I found this film really interesting to learn where nazism originated from. The fact that it started so early and continued for that long and still exist today even after what we have witnessed is shocking. I found the statistics about the number of Jews still remaining in Poland today compared too before the war to be the most alarming fact. Before the war the Jewish community was two thirds of the populations and there is now an excedeling low number which tells us that they are still being forced to leave a country that they belong to

Joe Venditti said...

I agree with Anna's view on what she learned from the film. I was saddened and angered at the mistreatment of the Jews. One of the things that really surprised me was how the painting they showed in the film made the Jews look vulgar and disgusting. People thought of them as sub-human because they have slightly different beliefs. Even the Pries spoke negatively of the Jews.

alyssa noble said...

I was also unaware that anti semitism had been going on for so long. Like kelsey i was shocked that high figures such as preists spoke agiasnt people like this.

Tucker Mckinnon said...

I was absent for the day of the past film

Tucker McKinnon said...

I was absent for the day of the film

Gabe Stahl said...

I knew a lot of these injustices before but I wasn't aware of the extent of it and how many different groups were involved with immense anti-semitism. I didn't know how bad the Spanish were to Jews. I also didn't know much about how Luther influenced ant-semitism.