Must History Continue to Repeat Itself?

Although history has never been my personal passion, it demands my attention, as history provides keys to the future.  First, a study of our past can prove eye-opening – we discover our ancestry and the origins of our family and cultural traditions.  An understanding of whence we came helps us comprehend why we have certain tendencies or even how we ended up where we are now.  However, the most crucial reason for examining the past is to learn lessons from history that will empower us to avoid repeating the same mistakes. 

In the fourth chapter of her book, Journey to the Holocaust:  Anti-Semitism, the Bible and History, Dr. Susanna Kokkonen highlights the tragic persecution of Jews during the Middle Ages.  She points out that the Nazis were not by any means the first to insist that Jews wear yellow marks somewhere on their clothes to identify themselves as Jews.  Even during medieval times, Jews were segregated in separate neighborhoods and forced to wear identifying badges.  Thus, the yellow star we associate with the Holocaust was far from a new invention.  As if that were not enough, Jews were regularly criticized, persecuted, and even blamed for diseases (such as The Black Death) and natural disasters.

The Crusades, commonly portrayed as an initiative to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim rule, also served to give expression to longstanding antisemitic sentiment.  En route to the Middle East, Jewish communities were destroyed.  “Even before the knights had left Europe, they destroyed Jewish communities on their way.  Hatred toward the Jews, along with their hatred toward Muslims, was a motivation the leaders of the crusades openly expressed.  It was said, for instance, that the purpose was to take revenge on Jews for the death of Jesus and to eradicate the Jews completely from the face of the earth” (pp. 85-86).

Moreover, the Spanish Inquisition involved brutal victimization of the Jewish people.  Even those who ostensibly had converted to Catholicism were exposed and condemned – even executed – for observing practices that might be associated with Judaism, such as keeping the Sabbath.  The persecution finally culminated in the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. (Some scholars have brought evidence that Columbus may have been a Jew.   In that case, a Jewish person may have had a hand in the initial exploration of the Americas!)

Truly, as Ecclesiastes 1:9 states:  “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (NKJV).  Antisemitism is certainly nothing new.  However, the only way to avoid repeating gross errors and sins of the past is to study history, examine our own attitudes, and ask God to transform our hearts.   The sorrowful facts are written for our reflection; may we therein derive hope for a different future, free of persecution, prejudice, and indifference!