Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
Horns, at least in the West, generally invoke devils, demons, imps or other various beasts of hell. They also have another referent: Jews.
For centuries, Jews have been depicted as horned in art and illustrated manuscripts; Nazis used the same imagery in antisemitic propaganda. The stereotype was so pervasive that even today, Jews have anecdotes of being asked to remove their hats or kippot so that people could check for their horns, or questioned about their tails and hooves.
It is hard to say whether those fashioning horned images for protests today are aware of their antisemitic history; it’s possible, and even likely, that they simply intended to critique both leaders by implying that they are evil, like the devil.
The association of horns with Jews began with a mistranslation of a passage about Moses descending from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments. The Hebrew text describes something surrounding Moses’ face as he entered the Israelite camp; Saint Jerome, an early Christian priest who translated the Hebrew Bible directly into Latin, took a word that could mean “rays of light” or “glory” and translated it as horns. While others may have made similar mistranslations, Jerome’s version of the bible, known as the Vulgate, became the accepted translation in the Catholic Church.
Judaism, too, was considered a bygone, false religion worthy of derision, so the association of horns with Jews was simply logical, especially given the history of depicting a horned Moses. It became so common to depict Jews as horned that even everyday folk art, outside the church, used horns to signify Jews along with other negative Jewish physical stereotypes such as a large hooked nose.
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For centuries, Jews have been depicted as horned in art and illustrated manuscripts; Nazis used the same imagery in antisemitic propaganda. The stereotype was so pervasive that even today, Jews have anecdotes of being asked to remove their hats or kippot so that people could check for their horns, or questioned about their tails and hooves.
It is hard to say whether those fashioning horned images for protests today are aware of their antisemitic history; it’s possible, and even likely, that they simply intended to critique both leaders by implying that they are evil, like the devil.
The association of horns with Jews began with a mistranslation of a passage about Moses descending from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments. The Hebrew text describes something surrounding Moses’ face as he entered the Israelite camp; Saint Jerome, an early Christian priest who translated the Hebrew Bible directly into Latin, took a word that could mean “rays of light” or “glory” and translated it as horns. While others may have made similar mistranslations, Jerome’s version of the bible, known as the Vulgate, became the accepted translation in the Catholic Church.
Judaism, too, was considered a bygone, false religion worthy of derision, so the association of horns with Jews was simply logical, especially given the history of depicting a horned Moses. It became so common to depict Jews as horned that even everyday folk art, outside the church, used horns to signify Jews along with other negative Jewish physical stereotypes such as a large hooked nose.
Are Jewish horns having a comeback? The history behind the antisemitic stereotype
Depictions of pro-Israel figures such as Benjamin Netanyahu include horns or devil symbols; there's a long antisemitic history there.
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