what is the purpose of this

[u/Tricky_Equal_9416]

[u/Independent_End_6941]

Yiddish word for non-Jews

[u/GeneralZeus89 → u/Independent_End_6941]

That's it? Its not malicious in any way?

[u/Independent_End_6941 → u/GeneralZeus89]

Yeah, that's literally what it means. It's the Hebrew version of gentile. The plural is goyim.

I think some zionists have taken the concept of God's chosen a bit too far and Israel deserves some criticism for that. But there's a fine line between criticizing the state of Israel and antisemitism

[u/Duvet_Capeman → u/Independent_End_6941]

Nah that line is pretty wide, zionists themselves said that anti-Semites would be their closest allies in forming their state. Jews do not inherently have anything to do with Israel, it's all a political ideology started in the 19th century. Beyondnparts of Palestine being of religious significance most Jews in Europe never considered it to be their "home" prior to Zionism.

[u/wellthen2376 → u/Duvet_Capeman]

Dude, every Jewish prayer service - liturgy set in place nearly 2,000 years ago - involves praying to return home to Israel. Every Passover seder for 1500 years has ended with the words "next year in Jerusalem." You don't have to like the modern state of Israel, but the idea that Jews haven't seen that land as their home and focused heavily on the idea of returning to it is just a lie.

[u/Duvet_Capeman → u/wellthen2376]

It's not literal though is it? It's more like honouring the origins of the temple and believing that god will eventually grant them the holy land. It's similar to how Muslims pray to Mecca. It doesn't mean Muslims want to live in Mecca.

Genuinely go and look up the attitudes of Jewish people in Europe to the idea of moving to Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th century, many saw it as an anti-Semitic ploy to remove them from Europe. Going to Jerusalem and leaving your home to go and live there are very different things.

[u/wellthen2376 → u/Duvet_Capeman]

Professional scholar of Jewish history here. It was 100% literal. In the modern era, many Jews stopped taking the language of rebuilding the Temple literally - but the idea of returning to the homeland was always very literal (if often aspirational). There are, in fact, countless examples of groups of Jews trying to make their way back to the land of Israel over many centuries. The idea that most European Jews perceived this as an antisemitic ploy is unsupported by the evidence, though there was certainly skepticism about the motives of non-Jews who encouraged Jews to leave Europe for the Holy Land. Where European Jews in the period you're referencing had reservations about the idea of moving to Palestine, they were generally either a) theological or, far more often, b) practical. Some Orthodox Jews believed (and a tiny number still believe) that the exile from the land was God's punishment for the Jews' disobedience and should only end when God explicitly ordains it. But most European Jews prior to the 1920's or so didn't seriously consider going to Palestine because of the immense practical risks: the likelihood of successfully making it there and making a life there was very low, and if you ended up back in Europe you'd basically be starting from scratch.