ABSTRACT
What are the historical roots of European anti-Semitism and Jewish patriotism? How are these intertwined? Many historians, including Graetz, Dubnow, Baron, Ettinger and Poliakov, have been confounded by these questions; yet, more than generally recognized, modern Judaism and anti-Semitism as well as Jewish religious and social characteristics and Jewish social psychology are products of antiquity. Elements of modern anti-Semitism are traceable to the Greco-Roman Empires; and origins of modern Jewish political powerlessness and vulnerability of the Jews (and their unique status) derive from the early Christian era in the ancient Roman Empire. 1 Much of the Jewish diaspora — the exile or voluntary migration of Palestinian Jews to many parts of Europe — originated with the crushing Roman defeats of the Jews in three wars between 66–135 Ce. In exile, the Jews created a unique culture and identity that survived and developed until modern times, and that necessarily inculcated loyalty to the state.
