And don ' t you dare say hip hip hooray , because that was also used while hunting Jews in concentration camps . Interesting . I had to look this up . Dunno if this reference is true or not but it is interesting . Whether one of the above origins is true or not , hep hep was the rallying cry of the rioters in the Hep Hep Riots of the 19 th century . These riots against the Jews began on August 2 , 1819 in Wrzburg , Germany . They subsequently spread across parts of Denmark , Poland , Latvia , and Bohemia . In many regions , troops had to be called in to prevent the mass massacre of the Jewish population in those areas . Most Jews quickly fled the cities at the start of the riots and camped out in remote regions until things calmed down , eventually returning to their often destroyed homes . h i p i n h i p h i p h o o r a y w asonceanantisemiticphrase