Language:
English
Year of publication:
1997
Titel der Quelle:
American Jewish History
Angaben zur Quelle:
85,3 (1997) 195-230
Keywords:
Antisemitism History 19th century
;
Antisemitism History 20th century
;
African Americans Relations with Jews
;
Jews
;
Southern States Ethnic relations
Abstract:
Racial consciousness in the South permeated the attitudes of its population towards Jews in the 19th-20th centuries. Although the sources of Southern antisemitism may have been religious, economic, or social, racist ideas, incoherent and mainly borrowed from the North or from Europe, added authority to the prejudice. Many Southern writers tended to regard Jews either as Black, of mixed origins, as "Asiatic", or belonging to a separate race. Antisemitic racism, in particular the belief that it was Anglo-Saxon Christians (or Blacks, according to some Black authors) who were the genuine descendants of the ancient Hebrews, helped to enhance the self-esteem of Southerners. Some factors, such as the immigration of "swarthy" Eastern European Jews, or the role of Jews as a group bridging the cultural gap between Whites and Blacks, reinforced Southern antisemitism, but antisemitism never had serious social consequences for the Jews in the South. Following the assimilation of Jews in the 20th century, Southerners ceased to regard them as non-White.
Note:
Appeared also in "Dixie Diaspora" (2006) 390-426.
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