While the most famous example of Jewish people being blamed and punished for societal downfalls is the holocaust, the Jewish community have been used as a scapegoat for issues globally for the past 2000 years.

For years the Jewish Community have been blamed for epidemics and illnesses such as The Black Death, with the Jews being accused of poisoning the wells in which the people drank and therefore being burned alive between 1348 and 1351 and tortured for their confessions. [1]

The use of the Jews as a scapegoat for disease is not just a thing of the medieval ages. In 2007, Saudi Arabia accused Isreali Jews of trading fruits which were poisoned and in turn caused illness. The current Covid-19 pandemic has also allowed an opportunity for the Jews to be blamed for creating illness as a ‘Zionist agenda’. Throughout the pandemic social media posts have been spread (as collated by the CST 2020 research briefing) with posts claiming the virus is a hoax created by the Jews to ‘keep people kosher’ or their attempt to ‘depopulate the world’. [2]

Researchers Gibson and Howard focused their work on Jewish scapegoating in Russia claiming scapegoating is ‘a common response to economic or political distress’ [3]. The Jews in Russia throughout history have fallen victim to this use of scapegoating. In particular the Jewish pogroms of the 1880s were performed by the anti-Jewish Russian citizens who believed the Jews were to blame for taking up space and jobs. The pogroms killed 25 Jews between 1881 and 1882, as well as destructing multiple Jewish businesses and homes.

[1] S. Cohn, ‘The Black Death and the Burning of the Jews’, Past & Present, Vol. 196, Issue 1 (2007)
https://academic.oup.com/past/article-abstract/196/1/3/1488091

[2] CST ‘The Coronavirus and the Plague of Anti-semintism’ Research Briefing (2020)
https://cst.org.uk/data/file/d/9/Coronavirus%20and%20the%20plague%20of%20antisemitism.1586276450.pdf

[3] J. L. Gibson, M. M. Howard ‘Russian Anti-Semitism and the Scapegoating of Jews’ British Journal of Political Science, Vol 37,No. 2 (2007)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4497288?seq=27#metadata_info_tab_contents

Jewish people have been painted as villains for centuries, and this problem continues today.

• @Oliviabooth9 brought up great historical examples of the discrimination Jewish people have faced based on nothing but their identity as Jews. Jewish people were not only used as scapegoats, but as villains in stories of morality– they were often represented as a people no one should want to emulate.
• Taking Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales for example, the Prioress’ Tale in particular exemplifies medieval antisemitism. The Prioress uses the superstitious anecdote of a blood libel to make Jewish people the villain of the story. The very first lines of her tale describe a ghetto that lies in a city in Asia, where Jewish people are hateful to Christ and his company. A young boy is murdered by Jews who are angered by the sound of him singing the Alma Redemptoris. His throat is cut, and his body is thrown in a pit, which is meant to link Jewish people to uncleanliness and sin.
• Stories such as the Canterbury Tales, which have been studied for hundreds of years, show just how common antisemitism was and continues to be, hence why it is often referred to as the “oldest hatred in the world”.
• Jewish people being tied to a lack of morality can be seen in modern examples too, such as the alt-right conspiracy theory that Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment cases are tied to his Jewish identity. The anti-Semitic argument made is that Jewish people are at the heart of Hollywood, running sex scandals and money laundering schemes.
• Jewish people have long been unfairly considered immoral people, and the centuries of hate they have endured are just as prominent today.

Jews have been used as scapegoats for centuries. A less known example is the 2nd crusades were funded by edward the hamme of the scots. He funded them by expelling taxing and robbing jews for decades and started a 300 year long period of anti-Semitism in england

They've been kicked out of 109 countries.

When you get kicked out from many countries, with very different local cultures, at very different times, for the same exact reason, you cant just get away with it by saying that people are mean to you.

If my children were expelled from over 109 public schools, at some point I should stop blaming the schools and figure out what my children are doing to subvert the host school
https://i.imgur.com/XNNGlib.png