The Jewish members of society have been forced to fight throughout the Twentieth Century for their right at equality. The Jewish society was most famously segregated against by Hitler. Throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s many of the European Jews were sent to concentration camps, in which they were either killed or made slaves. The only positive result of the Holocaust was the Jewish people were granted The State of Israel, but that only lead to endless fighting with Arabs and the British. During the first quarter of the twentieth century, many immigrating Jews suffered segregation in America. Numerous companies were segregating Jews from their work force. With the Holocaust, problems in Israel, and countless cases of segregation, the Jewish society has been faced with a legion of obstacles.
One of the greatest problems the Jewish society faced in the twentieth century was the Holocaust, which lasted between 1933 to 1948. After 1939 six million Jews were killed. Under the rule of Adolf Hitler Jewish businesses were vandalized in Germany, and by the year of 1935 under the Nuremberg laws the Jewish members of Germany lost their citizenship and were forbidden to intermarry with other Germans. “Nazi intentions should have become clear on November 9-10, 1938, the Night of Broken Glass when nearly when synagogue in Germany was destroyed along with many other Jewish institutions” (Comptons) The Jewish community kept their faith in the integrated German society, and stayed in their home country. What many did not realize is that the situation was only to get worse. One of the biggest problems faced during their fight was the fact that surrounding countries took the torturing silently, which lead Hitler to believe that his intentions were approved. The worst was yet to come with the introduction of concentration camps, which where located throughout Eastern Europe. “Many would be killed outright, while other would endure slave labor and meager rations until they died” (Comptons). The most effective way of killing the Jew was to pack them into a chamber and gas them. Others prisoners were shot or starved to death. They were not only killed, but stripped of all of their processions, including their teeth and hair. “After a Jew had been murdered the Nazis even removed from the corpse anything which they deemed could possibly be of use” (Shamir 115). The Jewish people where striped of their lives, processions and dignity. Once Germany lost the war in 1945 the killing started to come to a halt. “Out of an estimated 8.3 million Jews living in German-occupied Europe after 1939, about six million were killed” (Comptons). Allied leaders and Jewish American leaders tried to reverse the damage by bombing many of the concentration camps, but were found to be unsuccessful. The damage inflicted on the Jewish society left deep scars. The only benefit to come out of this destruction of a human race was the founding of the State of Israel as a Jewish homeland in 1948.
The State of Israel, although handed to the them in act of atonement, was plagued with many wars with the Arabs. “Since 1948, Israel has had to contend with hostile Arab neighbors, frequent wars, and in more recent years terrorists attacks by guerrillas of the Palestine Liberation Organization” (Comptons). The wars began once Israel was created because part of Palestine was taken away in order to create it. The Palenstines became Israelis greatest enemy. The first war started on November 30, 1947, before Israel was able to declare their statehood. The Arabs bombarded the cities of Israel and many small towns, where they attacked the Jewish people. Israel was able to fight them off, until Great Britain came to the scene. “In theory, the British adopted a neutral position, but in their day-to-day operations they were aiding the Arab side” (Shamir 120). The Jews were able to regroup and finally defeat the Arabs, and become a state. Ten days after pronunciation of their statehood, they were besieged by the Arabs. Throughout the fifty years Israel has been a state, it been constantly in war with at least one of the allied Arab states (Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, and Lebanon). The purpose of Israel was to give the Jewish society a save haven after the horror of the Holocaust, but they were never had more than a few years to live in safety and comfort. To this date, they are still being attacked, and never finding the compassion from the rest of the world.
The Jews along with many other cultures were discriminated against during the early twentieth century during the immigration surplus in America. With their arrival to the promising world they were posed with no place to worship, job discrimination, and a dislike for the Catholic community. In the 1920’s the Jews were forced to pray in the basements of apartment buildings because they no synagogues to go to. With the great immigration boost containing many Christian derived religions, the Jewish religion was often left out. Throughout the twentieth century in America the Jewish religion was seen as highly as the Christians one, with the fine example of Christmas. Christmas is marketed largely through anything from songs to decorations. The Jewish holiday, Hanukkah, was never seen as important to America, and was always seen as second place to the Christians. Business tycoon Henry Ford was rumored to having an anti-Semitism attitude. “Then facing a $1,000,000 libel suit, he addressed a letter to the late Louis Marshall, ‘retracting’ the all-out attacks on the Jews conducted under his name since 1920 in his own magazine, the Dearborn Independent” (Lindt 305) Although Ford retracted his statements, it was only after he was sued for a million dollars. The Jews had to suffer much discrimination during their move to America, even though they went there to escape it.
The Jewish members of society have been fighting an uphill towards quality. The Holocaust was the greatest destruction towards their religion, and they are now rebuilding their population. The Jewish religion was the most prosecuted religion of the twentieth century. They dealt was discrimination in both Europe and America, and were part of one of the largest slaughters of this century. The Jews have dealt with the difficulties with their heads up, and as the new millennium approaches, the Jews fight may finally have been won.