Anti-semitic, anti-immigrant

[Katha Pollitt]

Alessandro -- If the romans gave the Jews a hard time in First Cent. bc 
wasn't it because the Jews rejected  state polytheism and were also
making trouble trying to get Palestine out from under rome?  That's not
really anti-semitism, or anti-Judaism as we are thinking about it. The
romans didn't like  anybody (christians for example) who exempted
themselves from the state religion , which could accomodate all sorts of
new ethnic divinities but not those who rejected the basic roman
understanding of multiple gods all telling you to fulfill basic civic
obligations (to pay taxes,  play your part in civic functions, accept
the Roman state as underwritten by the gods etc). Correct me if I'm
wrong but I don't think the Romans thought the Jews were a special
magically evil people set apart from normal humanity  and responsible
for plagues, child murder, natural disasters etc. They were just pains
in the neck.

  I don't understand your point about nomadism. In the first Century BC,
the Jews had their own homeland, albeit it was a Roman province. They
were no more nomadic than the Greeks, or the Romans themselves.

Katha

does anyone know a good book about "anti=semitism" in the pre-christian
world?  Now I'm fascinated.

  
Katha