SHEMOT: The Nature Of Antisemitism

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We just finished reading the book of Bereshit, Genesis. Bereshit is not a book of laws. It is a book about the origins of humanity and particularly about the beginning of “Israel”. The book of Bereshit, however, does not mention the “people of Israel”, only the “children of Israel”. In the book of Shemot, Exodus, the family of Ya’aqob is transformed into a people, a nation. It is here, in our Parasha, where we find for the first time the word ‘am: people, nation, to define “Israel”.
The words עם בני ישראל, “the nation of the children of Israel” is first mentioned by none other than Pharaoh, and in a very particular context. Pharaoh refers to the people of Israel in a negative, hostile, today we would say “anti-Semitic” tone. Pharaoh speaks directly to his people warning them about the threat posed to Egypt by the Jewish people and presents a plan for getting rid of them. Isn’t ironic, and incredible, that in the first scene in which “the Jewish people” appears the “final solution” appears for the first time as well ?
In the coming days I would like to take a more profound look on the speech of Pharaoh, his evil plan and its execution. I think that this exercise will help us understand better the deep roots of anti-Semitism.
How did antisemitism begin in Egypt?
In Shemot pasuq 1:8 the Tora presents the events that led to it.
 “And a new Pharaoh arose in Egypt, who did not know Yosef”
Why would a new Pharaoh ignore the contributions of Yosef and wish to destroy the Jewish people? The Tora only mentions explicitly the surging of a new King. Following one of several interpretations I would say that we are dealing here with a very common political phenomenon. When a new government, say the “opposition”, takes over, it is natural that the allies of the former government would automatically become the enemies of the new government. Example: In a 180 degrees change from the previous government, the new Argentinian government does not consider Venezuela, Cuba and Iran as allies.
If in Egypt a new pharaonic dynasty surged, or as some historians suggest, if the native Egyptians regained the power that the Hyksos usurped two centuries earlier,  in either case, it would be nothing but expected that, if the former government was friendly with the Jewish people, the new government won’t.
Following this assumption we can learn a great lesson about the nature of antisemitism. The hatred toward Jews is not necessarily the effect of something bad Jews have done to the non Jews. Sometimes, many times, antisemitism arises for reasons that are far beyond what Jews can do or avoid doing. When Jews live in exile, and a government is friendly with us, it does not mean that the next government will treat us well too. Even though we would do nothing wrong to deserve being mistreated. This phenomena happened hundreds of times in the history of the Jewish people in exile. For centuries the Jews lived in peace, tranquility and relative prosperity in Spain until 1492. Something similar happened in Germany before 1938. But when a new Pharaoh arose in Spain, Germany, England, France, etc. things turned very bad for the Jews, without deserving it….
Accordingly, anti-Semitism had nothing to do with what Jews did toward the non-Jew. For Hitler the Jews were Communists, for Stalin we were capitalists. When the antisemitic tyrant wants to hurt us , the only thing that changes is the excuse.
What we are going to explore now is the anti-Semitic propaganda by which the tyrant justified his determination to hurt, expel or eliminate the Jewish people.
אשר לא ידע את יוסף  “A new Pharaoh who did not know [that is, who chose to ignore] Yosef”. The first thing an antisemitic tyrant in power would do is to ignore the contributions of the Jewish people. The more important or impressive those contributions were, the bigger the effort to conceal them (revisionism, demonization, etc.). The Nazi government ignored the participation and loyalty of the Jews who fought for the “motherland” Germany during the First World War. Nazi Germany chose to ignore the contribution of Jews in medicine, science, arts, etc. Men and women who contributed greatly to make from pre-Nazi Germany one of the most advanced countries in Europe.
The Spanish kings ignored the contribution of the Jews in the fields of medicine (think of Lorenzo Badoz, the physician to Queen Isabel), astronomy and navigation (think about Rabbi Abraham Zacuto) and especially in the area of trade and commerce, the main profession of Jews in pre expulsion Spain. .
Today we experience a similar phenomena. The world systematically ignores the enormous contributions of the State of Israel to the modern world. Israel excels in the fields of medicine, technology, agriculture, optical, irrigation, etc, etc. (see below). But instead of considering Israel as the most amazing country in the world, for their incredible contributions to humanity despite being the only country whose existence is threatened, Israel -the Jew among the nations- is according to a BBC poll, the country “that threatens world peace more than any other country”
Anti-Semitic propaganda did not change. In any case, it became more sophisticated.