Alright, this is possibly going to be a stupid question, but it's been bugging me for years and I can't seem to get an answer.

What's everyone's beef with Jews?

I've heard that Christians don't like Jews because one betrayed Jesus and got him killed. Which is an extremely moot point as I understand it because Jesus himself was Jewish and it's such a dull point when it was the Romans that actually killed him.

Other than that one thing, I don't understand. Yeah, Muslims hate Jews, but they hate everyone that isn't them. Jews have been persecuted throughout history, most notably in WWII, but all of Europe did what they could to put them in ghettos and restrict their businesses and practices. I mostly recall Italy having sanctions on Jews that limited them to specific parts of cities and only able to do business there, limiting the interest they could incur in the lending of money, and so on.

The closest I can come to a reasonable explanation is they're just outright cheats. Frankly I'm completely ignorant of how true this is, but it seems to me if that were even remotely true, they would have secured economic control centuries ago and wiped out opposition. As far as I know, though, there has never been a period like this before WWII (where we can possibly say Israel is a significant, albeit heavily sanctioned, military power today).

I'm probably going to catch all sorts of shit for this and I hate thinking this is going to lead to a flame war, but can someone seriously explain to me why it seems like the whole world treats Jews like a punching bag?