25 January, 2008
Antisemitism and Islamophobia are both instances of xenophobia. In a way that's consoling to us Jews who prefer to consider ourselves hated because we are viewed as Other, something possibly overcome by educating the majority population, by ourselves demonstrating by behavior that we are as loyal to our country of residence as our non-Jewish neighbor. More so! A consoling thought, but unfortunately does not conform to our unique history of dispersion among Christendom. Without going into describing 1700 years of persecution, torture, murder and expulsion which was a constant of our life in dispersion, our most recent brush with our host's Jewish Problem presents an excellent example of the tragedy of mere xenophobia to describe Shoah. Jews lived in and had colonies in Germany for more than 2000 years (how far back can the forerunners of modern non-Jewish Germany trace their forebears?). In pre-Hitler Germany we were leaders in politics, culture and commerce, intermarried at a rate only now approached in the US. In no country before or since were our people more loyal or assimilated. When we seek a reason for the aberration Hitler serves both as explanation and reassurance. After all, pre-Hitler Germany was among the most civilized and cultured in Christendom. turning on a minority constituting less than 1% of the total population; then expanding its machinery of death to include all Jews in Europe and, if successful, worldwide? The sheer magnitude, the insanity of the project bangs at the door of insanity-, of mystery-as-explanation.
But how explain the residents of Jewabne, Poland forcing their Jewish neighbors and friends into barn and then setting it ablaze? And the Ukrainians who rescued their Jewish neighbors from the SS only to club them to death before, what was described as the disgusted eyes of the Germans, were they Nazis, also under the sway of that half-crazed German leader? Or the French police who rounded up the Jews of Paris for deportation to Auschwitz Nazis also? Was all Europe Nazi, under the evil influence of the madman from Germany? Were we the victims of world-wide xenophobia?
I think not. Simple explanations are consoling. They are also dangerous, and in the case of the Jewish people, fatal. We are singled out not because we are “strangers”, for how long does it take to be considered native, 200 years, or 2000? In the case of the Jews xenophobia is at best a partial explanation, a background as explanation and justification.
The real cause of anti-Jewish animus lies at the very heart of Christian dogma and belief. Condemned by the gospels as the deicide people, blamed for the death of the Christian god, condemned for the crime for all generations it should be no mystery that anti-Judaism, and its secular daughter antisemitism are a permanent part of Christendom, and of Jewish experience in the Christian Diaspora.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
You will think I'm a simpleton, but that's alright with me. You presume to know the heart of every man. You do NOT know. I was raised a Christian and not one time have I ever heard of your theory of antisemitism. As a matter of fact, numerous Christian pastors I recall hearing told a very different story. The Jews present at the trial of Jesus were responsible for their own actions and brought a curse to themselves personally and to their decendents. That doesn't make ANY other Jews guilty of something they knew nothing about. That would be like saying I am guilty of Jeffrey Dahmer's unspeakable horrors because I have blonde hair and blue eyes. It's ludicrous.
I have always been taught that the Jews are the Chosen People, that they are the very apple of the eye of God. When Jesus said, "whatever you do to the least of these, my brethren, you do it as unto me" he was talking about the Jews! At least that's what I've been taught all my life.
My "brand" of Evangelical Christianity also taught me that Jesus Christ came to save a lost world of Gentiles (meaning "not Jews") as He was a sacrificial Lamb for payment for our sins. The Jews had no need for Jesus because they are God's Own People with whom He made a covenant long, long ago through Abraham - and God cannot break His covenant. Jesus brought the "New Covenant" to the Gentiles. If you will re-read the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament with these thoughts in mind, you will see one confirmation after another by Paul of exactly what I've described above.
Interestingly, we also believe that when Jesus returns as our Messiah then the Jews will recognize Him on that day as their own prophetic Messiah. At present, Christians AND Jews are awaiting the Messiah's return.
I'm no theologian or historian or even anything other than an ordinary citizen of the United States who happened to find your blog by clicking on other links. And I find your theory interesting and horrifying and probably very, very true for millions of people in the past and probably even today. I admit my naivety is abhorrent. But I do want you to know that many, many tens of thousands of Christians do NOT hold the Jews responsible in any way as a people for the death of Jesus. In fact, we hold the Jews is the very highest esteem and hope that they would welcome us as step-brothers and sisters into their family as a grafted branch into the ORIGINAL family of God.
Post a Comment