Dr. John Donne was a cleric and poet who had the misfortune, like Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe and Thomas Kyd, to be writing at the same time in the same country as William Shakespeare. Donne was born into a devout Roman Catholic family, but converted to the Protestantism of the Church of England when he was young as a result of his theological convictions. (1) Donne is no mean figure in English history having been the Royal Chaplain to King James I and then Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
Despite the unfortunate and rather drastic amount of contemporary artistic and poetic competition. Donne has emerged remarkably well from the misty battle grounds of the opinions of generations of historians and as such is regarded as one of the preeminent representatives of the school of Metaphysical Poets. (2)
The interesting thing to us about Donne is that, as with Kit Marlow and Shakespeare himself, he was no friend of the jewish people who he would have known as the 'Portuguese' residents of London. (3) Therefore his criticism of them is - contrary to the usual reflexive charges leveled at famous individuals on this issue - based on a position of knowledge not ignorance.
Thus what Donne has to say on this subject is of significant interest to us. This is especially so since like Marlowe in 'The Jew of Malta'. Donne regarded jews and Turks as being deeply antagonistic to both Christians and Christianity. (4)
Donne however goes further and asserts in Holy Sonnet No. 11 that as a Christian; jews routinely spit in his face and pierce his side just as they did to Jesus. He asserts that this was, and is, a great act of impiety on the part of the jews. This is confirmed by Donne in his 'Devotions upon Emergent Occasions' when he declares that it was the jews who are the principle enemies of Christ, the apostles and all true followers of the faith of Jesus Christ.
This is particularly so, since as he relates in Holy Sonnet No. 8, he regarded the jews as Pharisaic unbelievers who deliberately twist Jesus' words to suit their evil purposes. Hence Donne's further references in 'Devotions upon Emergent Occasions' to the failure of the Church Militant to convert jews en mass as well as the jewish predilection to believe in 'signs and symbols' rather than Jesus.
Hence for Donne the jews were the principle foes – even more so than the forces of Islam – against which the Christian Churches of his time fought.
References
(1) Much of the biographical information we have about Donne comes from the biographical sketch of him written by his friend Izaak Walton.
(2) Cf. Robert Cecil Bald, 1970, 'John Donne: A Life', 1st Edition, Oxford University Press: London
(3) Cf. Albert Hyamson, 1951, 'The Sephardim in England: A History of the Spanish and Portguese Jewish Community, 1492-1951', 1st Edition, Methuen: London
(4) John Donne, Anthony Raspa (Ed.), 1993, 'Pseudo-Martyr', 1st Edition, McGill-Queen's University Press: Montreal, p. 36