They hate them because medieval laws allowed Jews to loan money at interest. So the lords and kings would take out the loans to pay for their armies and then incite a pogrom when the loan payment came due.
I think I remember reading that similar laws placed Jews in other industries seemed as dirty, such as legal and medical fields. By happenstance those ended up being very desirable as society changed. Jews were often persecuted and blamed for a lot of social ills in that era, that, in addition to resisting cultural assimilation, meant they kept in fairly insulated communities, which made it easier to put them in the category of “outsider”.
They hate them because medieval laws allowed Jews to loan money at interest. So the lords and kings would take out the loans to pay for their armies and then incite a pogrom when the loan payment came due.
I think I remember reading that similar laws placed Jews in other industries seemed as dirty, such as legal and medical fields. By happenstance those ended up being very desirable as society changed. Jews were often persecuted and blamed for a lot of social ills in that era, that, in addition to resisting cultural assimilation, meant they kept in fairly insulated communities, which made it easier to put them in the category of “outsider”.