Antisemitism is not only a thing in the past but also becoming the new normal. This is the history about the longest hatred.
In December 1817, a ship stranded through a storm on its way to England off Western Norway. On board was a Polish Jew named Michael Jonas. He was rescued and arrived in Bergen on 30 December but was forwarded under police escort to Christiania, then the name of the capital of Norway on 5 January. In February, the Police Department arranged for him to be transported on to Gothenburg. He was a Jew and according to the Norwegian Constitution of 1814 was not allowed to reside in the kingdom.
That same autumn, another ship sank outside Bergen and 500 German emigrants who were not of Jewish descent rescued themselves ashore. In the report on the state of the kingdom at the opening of the Norwegian Parliament in 1818, it was stated that the shipwrecked had received the necessary support from the public authorities, and the Parliament rejected against 8 votes a proposal that they should be transported out of the country. This is what the Norwegian, Jewish historian Oskar Mendelsohn tells in his book “The History of the Jews in Norway”.
Norway has a little honorable history when it comes to the treatment of Jews.
Antisemitism After 7 October 2023
This small glimpse from a bygone era tells us that the Jews have always been treated differently. Not only in our country. We in our enlightened time believed that anti-Semitism was dead. That it would never reappear after the Nazi extermination camps. We were wrong. Despite awareness campaigns and slogans with the proclamation “Never again!”, this disgrace in human history once again shows its ugly face. That it would happen after October 7, 2023, was unbelievable. But it happened. All over the world and not least in our own country, anti-Semitism is becoming the new normal.
A large survey conducted by NRK in the winter of 2024 shows that Jewish Norwegians were silent, invisible and afraid after the start of the war on October 7. In the survey, 95.1 percent say that they have experienced anti-Semitism in the public debate or the online debate. Great was our dismay when Norwegian Jews told us last winter that they hide their Jewish identity in their encounter with the Norwegian health service.
In April 2025, over 100 priests, including a bishop and three former bishops, signed a petition to boycott Israel. They will not support “occupation” and “apartheid”. After the last parliamentary election, we have got the most anti-Israel parliament we have ever had. Some of the parties on the red-green side are demanding a full boycott of Israel. The Government Pension Fund has begun to divest from Israeli companies, and several countries in Europe are advocating sanctions against Israel.
They justify it with Israel’s warfare in Gaza and ignore Hamas as the cause of the war and that Israel was dragged into a war they did not want. Today, anti-Semitism is justified by Israel’s warfare. In the Middle Ages, it was justified by the Black Death, for which the Jews were blamed.
What Is Anti-Semitism?
Anti-Semitism is the irrational and demonic hatred of the Jewish people and Israel, and which is expressed through thoughts, words and actions against them.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has this definition: “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews that can be expressed as hatred of Jews. Rhetorical and physical expressions of anti-Semitism are directed against Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, against Jewish community institutions and religious buildings.”
It includes both classical anti-Semitisms, such as conspiracy theories and the demonization of Jews, and modern forms, such as denying the Holocaust or holding all Jews accountable for acts committed by the State of Israel. Anti-Semitism is a disease that anyone can be infected with, but from which only Jews die.
Can We Explain Anti-Semitism?
Anti-Semitism is irrational and satanic. Therefore, it is difficult to explain in the usual way. Historians, political scientists and others with good qualifications have been asked about the causes of anti-Semitism. They have expressed in various ways that there is something inexplicable about anti-Semitism. The explanatory models go a long way to explain it, but not completely.
This is because it is a phenomenon that has its cause in the spiritual world. It is a demonic spiritual battle that has been going on throughout human history and that had its beginning in a garden and is history’s longest hatred.
Anti-Semitism started in the Garden of Eden after the Fall. God himself tells us that he will put enmity between the seed of the woman, that is, Christ, and the seed of Satan, that is, the Antichrist. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
We see traces of this struggle throughout the Bible. Evil entered the world and penetrated to all people. But the devil’s aggression is primarily directed against the people God has chosen to fulfil the prophecy from the garden of the end, the Jewish people. We see this spirit of Antichrist at work to exterminate the people from whom Christ was to come. We can call it the Antichrist’s fight against the Jewish people. And it has been expressed through a rationally inexplicable hatred of all Jews.
Anti-Semitism Throughout History
It is frightening how Jew-hatred in various versions has appeared in history. And constantly in new disguises and with different justifications. All depending on what could gather the most support and channels the most aggression against this people.
From the time of the apostles to the Middle Ages, it manifests itself as Theological anti-Semitism disguised as replacement theology. Several of the Church Fathers’ statements about the Jewish people make frightening reading. God’s promises, which were once made to Israel, have now been taken over by the church, it was claimed. God had rejected Israel and the church had taken over.
In the period from the Middle Ages to after the First World War, we see the Classic Anti-Semitism. The Jews were expelled from England in 1290, and when the Crusaders passed through Europe on their way to Jerusalem, their first goal was to tyrannize the Jews. They were given the choice between baptism or death, and the cry was: “Kill a Jew and save your soul.” The Inquisition in Spain was established to chastise false teachers, and the Jews were particularly affected. 1492 was the year that Columbus discovered America. For Spain’s Jews, it was a catastrophic year under the mercilessness of the Inquisition.
Classical anti-Semitism reached its peak when Martin Luther in 1543 published the book “On the Jews and Their Lies”. The recommendations he gives there for how society should treat the Jews are so full of Jew-hatred that the Nazis used them as a guide when they planned the Kristallnacht pogroms in 1938. Although Luther in this book stands as a glaring example of prejudice and theological decay, he stood in a tradition from the early church where there was no place for Israel in God’s salvation story. During this period, one of the most anti-Semitic conspiracy theories emerged. That Jews kidnapped Christian children to use their blood in religious ceremonies. It has led to countless pogroms, exiles, and massacres and is kept alive right up to the present day.
From the interwar period to the end of World War II, we encounter Racist anti-Semitism. The Nazis tried to give anti-Semitism a scientific justification through the racial theories. It was claimed that some breeds were more high-ranking than others. Not unexpectedly, the Jews ended up at the bottom. It resulted in 6 million Jews being killed in the Nazi extermination camps.
The new anti-Semitism has emerged after Israel regained its land on May 14, 1948, and especially after the Six-Day War on June 5-10, 1967. Now anti-Semitism has once again mutated and comes disguised as anti-Zionism. One hears the most history less and lying claims that Israel is an invader in a country they have no right to. Christians who support Israel’s right to its land are called fundamentalists who misuse the Bible. The phrase “Christian-Zionism” is used as a mock-word.
It is a historical fact that the national character of the Jews was attacked long before the State of Israel was established. And one forgets that demands for a boycott of Jewish trade have been the first phase of Jew-hatred in our modern history. It was Jewish businesses in Germany and Austria that experienced the November pogrom on the night between 9 and 10 November 1938. Long before the Jews regained their homeland. Boycotts of Israel and Israeli trade are not about national borders. It is very much about pitch-black anti-Semitism.
Today, a distinction is made between Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism. No one wants to be an Anti-Semite, while Anti-Zionist is perfectly fine to be. The Holocaust is used as a rhetorical tool against Israel. Now it is the Palestinians who are the victims and Israel who are the aggressors. There is a cry for a just peace. For the most extreme, this means a Middle East without Jews.
The Longest Hatred Will Be The New Normal
Olivier Melnick, a French Messianic Jew whose parents survived World War II, describes how we are experiencing a normalization of anti-Semitism today in the book “The Normalization of Antisemitism: When the Longest Hatred Becomes the New Normal.” He describes several steps in such a development.
The first is apathy and passivity. People don’t care about anti-Semitism unless they are directly affected through someone they know. This is also shown by the fact that the vast majority, including Christians, are not concerned with anti-Semitism. If we continue to be passive against anti-Semitism, we will not discover the other dangers that threaten our society. The Jew is like the canary in the mines in previous times.
The next step is a lack of knowledge. Most people today have never heard of the San Remo Conference in 1920 where the Jewish people were promised all of Palestine to their future homeland. They believe that the UN’s partition decision from 1947 is valid international law. It is not. Therefore, one speaks of “the occupied West Bank» and does not understand that Judea and Samaria were occupied from 1948 to 1967 and that it was Jordan that occupied the area. That is why it got it’s name “the West Bank”.
The third step towards the normalization of Antisemitism is the under-reporting of anti-Semitic incidents, i.e. we experience an under-reporting of crimes committed against Jews compared to what is common in society in general.
When we get used to seeing all the Jew-hatred that characterizes the news, the next step comes we no longer react because we get used to seeing Jew-hatred. This is a mental defense mechanism called desensitization. However, it does not concern us. Have you seen the short film “Sing a little louder” on the internet? If not, you should see that.
This leads to not taking responsibility when we encounter anti-Semitism. We have seen that on numerous occasions in many countries. Israel-hatred had no consequences.
The result of disclaimer is that we facilitate anti-Semitism and encourage Jew-hatred. This has led to a drastic increase in anti-Semitic incidents worldwide after October 7.
This in turn leads to a demonization of those who defend Israel and the Jews. You must be pretty hard-skinned when you stand up for Israel in the public space today. Politicians will experience this, who will not condemn Israel for what happened in Gaza.
Increased persecution of Jews is a natural consequence of this.
And when it is shouted “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free”, it is a call for the murder of Jews. The state of Israel is to be destroyed.
What Should We Do?
- Be careful which narrative we open our minds to when it comes to news coverage. Anti-Semitism survives because of lies.
- Read yourself up on the history of Israel and the Jewish people.
- Stand up against lies about Jews and Israel.
- Support the Jewish population in your country.
- Pray for peace for Jerusalem.