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One of the reasons I've seen for it is that the Jews killed Jesus.

But they as a people didn't. If I recall correctly, the Romans had him executed at the insistence of a crowd of Jews who had been hyped up by corrupt ancient religious leaders who didn't like Jesus pointing out how they had corrupted or neglected the Mosaic Law, among other examples of their hypocrisy.

But that's no reason to hate Jews, those Jews died centuries ago and, besides, those Jews had been influenced by the mob mentality.

I'm Christian, and I don't see the point of hating Jews because of one event. That's like hating all Japanese people because some Japanese people bombed Pearl Harbor a long time ago.

Then there's the "those greedy bastards" angle... wealth and/or frugality is no reason to hate someone.

I guess people just like to hate.

The history of antisemitism is one of conspiracy theories.

There are a couple of different reasons people look for phantoms: wanting someone to blame for their problems, wanting to live in a more exciting world, wanting to feel like they know something others don't, wanting to define their own culture in opposition to a different one.

Whatever the reason, the desire exists, and it manifests in very many forms. But as Plugabugz suggested, it is most often directed at the outsider. And Jews, who were first made outsiders in their own country and then had to live as outsiders in the rest of the world, have been a very convenient target for this desire.

There is also a state-sponsored antisemitism, which I think is partly to please the people and partly to create a more homogeneous state that is easier to rule: The Romans hated that the Jews were not polytheists, the Russian czar hated them for being a different race (not technically true), as did Hitler, Stalin feared that religious Jews plotted against him.
In all these examples, the rulers of a totalitarian state were able to make their people happy and silence dissenters with one stroke.

Jews are not the only people who get fingered by conspiracy theorists, but I there is a kind of snowball effect going on. As an example: When the Black Death hit Europe, the Christians somehow came to believe that it had been caused by Jews poisoning the wells. This story was reinvented when the czarist secret police wanted to make up allegations against Russian Jews. Then WW1 came and went, and many German officers could not understand how they had lost they lost; but then somebody who had heard all these old conspiracy tales came to suspect that many of the Jews who fought in the German army had betrayed their own country, and this became a widespread belief in Germany and helped the rise of the Nazi party.

Once there is one bad rumor about you, another may follow, and then the snowball gets rolling. And suddenly you are history's favorite victim.

They're cowboy boots from the MTV shop (Sunset Croture?).

How did people come up with the idea that Jews were poisoning the drinking water? Wouldn't Jews be affected by that too?

One thing I want to point out in regards to WWII, contrary to popular belief, it wasn't just the Jews that were targeted. Catholics were also put into the concentration camps, as well as people who were caught working against or disagreeing with the Nazi party.

As far as the topic goes, my thoughts have pretty much already been said. It is basically a blame game. People like having someone or something else to put all their problems on. For Jews to have been used as such in the past makes them a convenient and "believable" {not really, but some people think so} scapegoat.

Jehovah's Witnesses actually had an easy way out, the Nazi government offered Witnesses the opportunity to sign a little card renouncing their faith in God.

Few took it, choosing persecution and faith in God rather than the easy way out.

I feel pretty bad about forgetting those groups.

Bad times, then.

These are crimes that shouldn't be attributed towards a race rather than the individuals themselves.
They are not traits of a race in particular. I know of of Indian landlords who neglect there properties and would cut any corner to maximize profits and I know of Caucasian landlords who are exactly the same.

There are bad apples in every batch. If we allow these people to turn our views of the entire race they are from, then we ourselves are behaving bigoted.