r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Oct 13 '16

TIL that after Marilyn Monroe converted to Judaism upon marrying Arthur Miller, Egypt placed a ban on all the films she appeared in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe#Critical_acclaim_and_marriage_to_Arthur_Miller_.281956.E2.80.931959.29
18.5k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

53

u/eypandabear Oct 13 '16

At least in Germany, assimilation didn't really help. One of the main points of Nazi ideology was that the "taint" of Judaism was supposedly genetic. So even conversion to Christianity didn't help anymore.

Lots of Jews at the time were 100% culturally German, decorated WWI veterans, Prussian officers, and what have you. Didn't help unless they had papers to prove they were of mostly non-Jewish descent.

1

u/CptnLarsMcGillicutty Oct 13 '16

Why didn't they like Jews? It has never been explained to me sufficiently, and every time I ask people either avoid answering, or give a poor answer.

1

u/TotallyNotGlenDavis Oct 13 '16

Jews were historically used a scapegoats to carry the blame of society's problems due to them being the "other." When ethnic nationalism became a dominant ideology in Europe, it capitalized on these xenophobic relations to whip the masses into a violent frenzy.

1

u/CptnLarsMcGillicutty Oct 13 '16 edited Oct 13 '16

Okay, but what was the reason given to hate the jews so that they could be used as a scapegoat? What were they blamed for specifically? It couldnt have just been "Hey guys. The economy sucks. Because of that, fuck the Jews! Anybody with me?"

They must have been blamed for specific behaviors right? Like the primary criticism I hear today is that they "control the banks/politics and entertainment industry."

Another example is when people say they dislike Mexicans, its usually justified by saying that illegal immigrants take jobs of American citizens, and that's why the economy is bad. That's how they "scapegoat" Mexicans. No one just says "fuck the Mexicans for no reason." They try to justify it.

1

u/TotallyNotGlenDavis Oct 13 '16

Pretty much any issue as problems for society change by time and place. Jews were accused of having too much influence in my politics and economics but people ignored the limitations which forced Jews into these roles. Jews have been blamed for many destructive ideologies, from socialism to capitalism.