A: The word usually translated "Jew" is identical in Greek to the word "Judean." Although the Romans used the name Judea to refer to the entire land of Israel, the New Testament authors retain a distinction between Judea, Samaria and Galilee. Here, as in other parts of the New Testament, the term is used to refer to the inhabitants of the region around Jerusalem, where the Pharisees and the Saducees were the dominant religious influences. These were the people who were responsible for the arrest, trial and conviction of Yeshua and for persecuting the early church..

In any case, the author is not saying that the entire Jewish nation is to blame - or even all of Judea. He is talking about how the Judean/Jewish churches had suffered at the hands of their Judean/Jewish neighbors. That is, the good guys are also Judeans, or "Jews." Although he made his home in Galilee, Yeshua himself was of Judean extraction, being of the tribe of Judah (for which Judea is named) and born in Bethlehem of Judea. The Apostle Paul, the author of these verses, (1 Thess 1:1), was himself a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11:1), which was linked with Judea in the divided Kingdom. Also in Romans 11:1 Paul declares that God has not abandoned the Jewish people. In Romans 11:13-24, he warns the Gentiles not to boast that they have superceded Israel, which in time will again take center stage in God's plan, for "God's gift and his call are irrevocable." (v. 29)

Anyone who uses 1 Thess 2:14-15 as an excuse for anti-Semitism is taking the verses out of context and can expect the judgment of God (Genesis 12:3).