Monday, March 28, 2011

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.

38 comments:

Jenny Volpe said...

I thought the film was very informational as well as interesting. Personally, I never knew that the reason the Jews were persecuted was because they were thought to have killed Jesus. I think that even if this is true, the people that were killed during the Holocaust had absolutely nothing to do with the death of Jesus because it was so long before. They should not have been to blame for that event, and certainly should not have been exterminated for it.

Andy Tabb said...

I found this film to be incredibly interesting. One thing that stood out to me from this film was the amount of antisemitism that has been present in the world for such a long period of time. It was really eye opening to see poorly Jews have been treated for the past two thousand years. I think that we are incredibly fortunate to be living in a time and place with minimal antisemitism.

Andy Tabb's Blog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Andy Tabb said...

I agree with Jenny's point about how even if it were true that the Jews killed Jesus, the present day Jews shouldn't still be blamed for his death because it happened two thousand years before any of us were even born.

Steph Debs said...

Sorry that last comment was me!

Steph Debs said...

I agree with Andy. I also think we are so lucky to be living in an area where there is hardly any hatred towards the Jews. It’s hard to believe that there are a few people who still hold a grudge against Jews for something that happened in the past and no one can change.

Jess Ward said...

I thought this film was really interesting because I had no idea that the Jews were blamed and killed because they were the ones who killed Jesus Christ. I found this so fascinating because even if the Jews had been the ones who killed Jesus, the Jews living in Germany and Europe had nothing to do with the Jews in Jesus' time. They were all innocent, but yet Hitler and other political influences convinced all of Germany to turn against them, even Christians involved in the church.

Jess Ward said...

I agree with Jenny, the Jews killed during the Holocaust had nothing to do with the death of Jesus because it really was centuries before. I also didn't realize to what extent Jews are discriminated and looked poorly upon to this day. There still are neo-nazis out there that really hate the Jews for no actual reason.

Jenny Volpe said...

I agree with Andy. I was shocked at the amount of anti-semitism that is still alive and well in the world today. I think while we are fortunate that the United States has minimal anti-semitism, places in Germany and Europe still have lots of it. I think it is wrong that this is still the case.

Ricky Packer said...

I thought the film was excessive in portraying Christianity itself as the root cause of Antisemitism. While some Christians do use the "Jews killed Christ" argument to justify Antisemitism, most devout Christians would never believe that argument, since Christian doctrine says Jesus had to die in order to absolve humanity's sins. Christians believe he died willingly and intentionally, and therefore the Jews are not to blame for carrying out the task. I think the actual root cause of Antisemitism were the significant cultural differences between Jews and the rest of Europe, especially centuries ago. Orthodox Jews dressed and acted differently, and usually spoke their own language, Yiddish. Therefore, Antisemitism is less a result of some Christian grudge, and more an example of traditional xenophobia, like the kind we see on the US-Mexico border today. Most masses of people are simply uncomfortable around other groups, and if they are ignorant enough, this leads to hatred and racism.

Nick Eames said...

I can see where Ricky is coming from about how the video does seem to portray Christiainity as the root of all Jewish hatred. I find it strange how the Christians in the Roman times could blame the Jewish people for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Even if they did inadvertently crucify him, in what way is it just and logical to blame them in modern times for actions that took place hundreds of years ago? It is unfortunate that this loathing of the Jewish people has survived throughout history, and eventually lead to the Holocaust.

Taylor S said...

I found this film to be very interesting as well as very disturbing. As i was watching the horrible things that were done to the Jewish people i couldn't begin to fathom the idea of how any human being could do these things. I am glad we live in a society with not as much antisemitism but this film still shocks me.

Nicky Simard said...

The film "The Longest Hatred" gave me many different views on what was going on in Germany around the time the Jews were being exterminated. There were many religious aspects that had developed long before Adolf Hitler had come to power as well as propoganda that compared Jewish people to rodents. I also think the film footage of Germany in recent time still having anti-Jewish feelings is appalling.

Taylor S said...

I agree with Jenny. I also found this film very informational. I also had no clue Jews were prosecuted because they were thought to have killed Jesus. Its interesting and disturbing how people can base a whole extermination of people based on something thats isn't certain and happened numerous years before.

Nicky Simard said...

I personally am not at all religious so going along with Ricky's comment, I did hear that the Christian religion came from the Jewish religion which I was surprised by. I also think that Ricky's point about that the cultural differences were a major aspect of how the disturbances errupted in that country.

Ellen Donahue said...

In this film, I learned that the things Jews were forced to do to separate themselves from the rest of society when they were under attack have been the same throughout the centuries. I had known that the Jews had a long history of persecution, but I didn't know how similar it was over time in various cultures. I think it's important for everyone to know these things because then it's easier to see potential massacres in the future before they happen so the people can help prevent it.

Ellen Donahue said...

I agree with Ricky that this movie put too much blame on Christians as a whole. I'm sure that there have been many other groups over time that have done similar things, which is not to decrease the significance of others but rather emphasizes the point that this cultural phenomenon has been happening for centuries in a variety of cultures and must be stopped.

Natalie Donabedian said...

I, too, didn't know the Jewish people were treated in such horrible ways because they were though to have killed Jesus. The film was very informative. It's amazingly disturbing how the Jews were treated so poorly.

Natalie Donabedian said...

I agree with Jess. Hitler and the Nazis shouldn't have acted the way they had because the Jews in that time period were not the Jews from Jesus's time. They are a whole different generation.

Fernando Silva said...

After watching "The Longest Hatred" in class, I became more informed about the Nazi party, and how they weren't the only ones that were openly anti-Semitic. The Christians developed hatred towards the Jews ever since the death of Christ. Having a background on this information makes it easier to understand what happened in Germany, and how the Holocaust occurred.

Fernando Silva said...

I agree with Andy, the film was very interesting. It shows to us how other cultures have been anti-Semitic, not only the Nazi-Germans. The Jews have been treated poorly this past 2000 years, and hopefully that changes to the better.

Gabby King said...

After watching this film, I learned a lot more about the Nazi party and how they came to power. I also learned how cruel and mean the Germans were to the Jewish people. I didn’t know that they thought the Jews were “responsible” for the death of Jesus Christ. The amount of hatred shocked me and was very sad to hear.

xoxivette said...

This movie was very eye opening. I never knew that one of the reason Jews were persecuted was because the Christians believed that the Jews had killed Jesus. Even if this was remotley true I'm pretty certain that the Jews that were killed had no relation to the events of Jesus' death since it was a long time before. I agree with Jenny and we basically have the same thought. It honestly was not fair to think of the Jews as bad because of what their ancestors "did"

Andrew_Lipke said...

This is an interesting documentary. It is informative, but I do think it is still extremely bias toward Christianity, making the claim that Hilter was only following in its example. I understand that it created/ assisted in a world of Anti-Semitism, but Hitler took it farther than anyone else, and no matter what you can't blame the church for Hitler, not in the slightest. But the film is still fairly decent in it presentation of facts and anaylsis.

Isaiah Mutesasira said...

This movie really educated me because i didn't realize to what extent the jew really suffred and to make it worse, they suffred because they were being punished for something they didnt have any part in.. which is the death of jesus.

Isaiah Mutesasira said...

I agree with a lot of people on this blog in that the death of jesus should not have been blamed on the jews because it happened along time ago

Brenton Croteau said...

From "The Longest Hatred", I learned that antisemitism is still highly prevalent in society. It is hard to believe that many people in the modern world can actually see the Jews as inferior to the rest of humans. I agree with Ricky that the hatred towards the Jewish religion stems from cultural differences. I believe that the film raises awareness about the ever-present antisemitism that exists, and attempts to help viewers see the issue through more open eyes.

Kasey Murphy said...

I found this film very interesting nad informative, this film really answered alot of my questions that i had about the holocaust, the little details. The power of Hitler was unstopable and he showed complete confidence in his plans to destroy the jews.

Jen Bracey said...

Before watching this film I was unaware that Jews were subjected to persecution because they were thought to have killed Jesus. I also couldn't believe that there was recent footage of German people having an anti-Jewish outlook. It's crazy that even after everything horrible that happened to the jews that people could still feel that way towards them.

Jen Bracey said...

I agree with Andy and Jenny how it is completely unfair for the Jews to be blamed for the death of Jesus, because it was something that had happened so long ago. I also agree with Andy in the sense that we are lucky to be from a place where people don't face that kind of discrimination that the Jews faced during the holocaust.

Berit Bancroft said...

I was absent this day

Dan Underwood said...

I thought this film was very interesting. Before watching this, I did not know that the reason for so much Anti-Semitism was because the Jews were blamed for killing Jesus Christ. I agree with Jess, and I think it is very unreasonable for anyone to hold a grudge against a group of people for over two thousands years.

Tony Silva said...

I beleive this film was very informational. Many religious points and reasons for doing things were cleared up for me while watching this video.

Tony Silva said...

I agree with Jenny's comment that film was very informational.

Chris said...

This was a great and enlightening movie. It really showed parts of the holocaust that i had never thought of or known about before. I was intriguied by how much the people idolized Hitler and his work. They worshipped him and commended his work and that was really astonishing. I was also interested by how there is still very anti-semetic feelings still occuring in Europe to this date.

Chris said...

I agree with Jenny. I was shocked by the fact about the Jews being persectued for the thought of them being responsible for the death of Jesus. This was not true and caused alot of un-needed and unfortunate deaths.

clark masterson said...

It is terrible, but I was not surprised by the movie. Jews have always faced persecution and ignorant people continue to hate them for being different. I find it sad that people who helped exterminate jews still are being elected and then blaming the jews for social ills. For all those who were unaware of the extent to which jews have been persecuted; I believe this was a very important documentary to show.

Jack said...

I was absent :(