Heritage And Holocaust

September 15, 1985
Lakeland

September 22, 1985
Port Charlotte

The heritage of the Jewish people is remarkable in its depth and persistence. The Holocaust was one of the most savage and cruel instances of man’s inhumanity to man. Although an outsider can never fully appreciate what the High Holy Days mean to the members of a Jewish congregation, we may try for a measure of understanding. Although an outsider can never perceive fully the pain, deaths, humiliation, and suffering of the extermination camps, one can speak plainly of the ancient and enduring evil of anti-Semitism and why cruel prejudice against the Jews has been a persisting pattern in Christian history.

Tomorrow, September 16, is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, beginning 10 days of worship and remembrance, culminating in Yom Kippur, September 25. Rabbi Abraham Karp, a friend in Rochester days, speaks of Rosh Hashanah as the birthday of the world, to some orthodox this is literally true; for most it is a metaphorical allusion. It is Yahveh’s gift of a new page in the Book of Life. The sounding of the ram’s horn, the shofar, reminds the faithful to examine their lives and repent of their sins. Sin is not an ineradicable trait inherited as a result of Adam and Eve playing around in the Garden. Sin is “missing the mark.”

To me, one of the most appealing concepts is the belief that when one repents of sins against God, or Yahveh, Yahveh will forgive. But Yahveh cannot forgive sins against one’s fellow men and women. As Rabbi Karp wrote (p. 164), “for sins committed against fellow men, one must seek and obtain forgiveness from those sinned against and make restitution if possible. In consequence of this teaching, there arose the custom that during the week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a Jew would call upon his friends, neighbors, and associates and inquire if he had wronged them and beg forgiveness. And if one is asked to forgive, the law demands that he do so. When a congregation joins for prayer on the Day of Atonement, it is a company of friends who have made peace with each other and have thus earned the right to approach their father in Heaven for understanding and pardon.” I would add that a saying attributed to Jesus, a Jew, encompasses that requirement for reconciliation: “If a man cannot love his fellow-man whom he has seen, how can he love God, whom he has not seen.”

The climax of the High Holy Days, Yom Kippur, begins with the Kol Nidre, a haunting melody that touches emotional depths. Inevitably, it renews memories of two thousand years of persecutions and of the six million slain in the Holocaust. In the 20th century it recalls the brave men and women, living and dead, who fought against overwhelming odds to re-establish the state of Israel.

The rich heritage of Judaism – the superb literature of the Psalms, the ethical prophets, the neat myths, legends, and history of the Exodus, the 10 Commandments, the Maccabees, the Talmud – all deserve unlimited appreciation, particularly from Christian believers who appropriated this greatness and called it their own.

But instead of praise and honor, Judaism has been the victim of persecutions most vile for two thousand years. Anti-Semitism is “hatred and persecution of the Jews as a group; not the hatred of persons who happen to be Jews, but rather the hatred of persons BECAUSE they are Jews.”

It should be needless to state in detail the tragic consequences of anti-Semitism. A partial outline would include:

The Crusades: the crusaders attacked every Jewish community and burned synagogues on their bloody journey to the Holy Land. Many Christians who did not go on crusades stayed home and killed and persecuted Jews, particularly in the Rhineland.

From the Middle Ages to modern times, in many European cities, Jews were confined to ghettoes (Miller, p. 9). In the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, they were driven from England, France, and Spain. Throughout most/all Europe, Jews were prohibited from owning land and farming. Not until 1832 did Great Britain grant the franchise of the vote to Jewish people. Norway did not permit Jews to enter that country until 1860. Under Tsar Alexander III, Cossacks killed and plundered Jewish villages in bloody pogroms. There was no European nation free of the terrible plague of anti-Semitism – except Spain, when, during the period, Iberia was controlled by the Moslems, who at that time not only tolerated but encouraged the flowering of Jewish culture.

Anti-Semitism, subtly but unmistakably, was disclosed even among the so-called enlightened. Charles Dickens certainly was conscious of the terrible conditions that so many poor and underprivileged endured. However, in OLIVER TWIST he refers to the corrupt Fagin as “the Jew,” again and again. Villains in his other novels were not so identified. Uriah Heep is not “the Anglican” or “the Presbyterian” or “the Methodist.” Similarly, Steerforth in DAVID COPPERFIELD is not “the Puritan” or “the Roman Catholic.” Only open or latent anti-Semitism could produce such distinctions.

When I remember the 1930s, there is no doubt that anti-Semitism was widespread here in our “land of the free.” Fascist organizations were blatantly anti-Semitic [CJW note: and financed with highly “respectable” sources]. Jewish people were scapegoated for every bad social force. Father Coughlin, a radio preacher with a large listening radio audience of millions, berated Jewish people weekly. Anti-Semitic jokes were repeated interminably and enjoyed hugely. There was unchecked discrimination in housing, professions, schools, and employment.

Even when the horror of Hitler’s “final solution” began to be reported, consciousness was dull (see Koestler). Jewish refugees to Palestine on leaking, rusty ships could not land anywhere. Only relatively few were admitted to the U.S. or the U.K. Thousands lost their lives as the rust-buckets sank or Jewish refugees died at sea of want and sickness.

How ironic that the welcoming lines on the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your [tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free]” were composed by Emma Lazarus, a Jewish poet.

It could be comforting to think that anti-Semitism is a thing of the past, but I’m afraid that’s not so. I still hear persons say, “My doctor is Jewish, but....” I do not hear “my doctor is Episcopal (or Roman Catholic), but....” Or [consider], “I’m in trouble, I’ve got to get me a Jewish lawyer,” etc. I would surmise many of you have heard these too, if you have listened.

More blatant and dangerous activities are coming to light. I have begun to be a supporter in a small way of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which calls attention to such neo-fascist, paramilitary groups in our country as the Aryan Nation (associated with the KKK). [In] April 1985, 23 were arrested and charged with the murder of Alan Berg of Denver, who happened to be a Jewish talk radio host and was an outspoken critic of racist, neo-fascist groups. Those arrested were also charged with the arson bombing of a Boise synagogue and other crimes. The Simon Wiesenthal Center came across one of the creedal statements of “The Aryan Nation” - I [will] read it to you, although it turns my stomach:

“We are the race of God; the Talmudic Jew is the chosen people of Satan. We are the front line of life and liberty, the Jew is the cauldron of death and enslavement. ... We do not want any other race to be present in our land at any time.”

Is Hitler dead? I wonder!

Years ago, I clipped these lines (author unknown):

SWASTIKA

What can erase
This thing from the scrawled
Walls of the mind; exterminate
This spider from the infested conscience? It hooks
Convulsively on the memory of man: the obscene
Insignia of hate. It mates and spawns
In every season and climate, crawls
On the faces of Nations. What
Can kill it but implacable
Wrath?

SEC

“What can erase this thing from the scrawled walls of the mind”

For one thing, I believe we must go deeper into the roots of Christian theology and appraise and recognize its central role in the sorry, bloody history of anti-Semitism.

Another source I am drawing [from] is the October 1984 issue of Theology Today, a publication of Princeton Theological Seminary, a graduate school for persons training for the Christian ministry. Also basic is Jules Isaac’s distinguished study, THE TEACHING OF CONTEMPT.

For almost 2000 years, the Christian church in most of its branches has explicitly or by implication taught that the 1st century Jewish people were “Christ Killers” - and because Christ was God, ... the Jewish people were [guilty of] deicide – killers of God! For this, the teaching proclaimed, they were punished by being dispersed to wander the earth forever. Ideas have consequences, particularly theological ideas imposed as “divine revelation.”

[Charging] the people of Israel [with deicide] has no historical validity. Not only do we have no original documents from Jesus’ followers, but we do know that the land was ruled by Roman officials who commanded the occupying force of Roman soldiers. Crucifixion was Roman-style execution. Pilate and a relatively few collaborators were responsible for executing a man they tagged as a dangerous rebel.

Then, too, in that time there were Jewish communities all over the Roman world. Such groups never heard of the Nazarene at the time. [CJW note: no TV, radio, newspapers] Similarly, one can reasonably surmise that most of the Jewish population in Palestine knew nothing about this wandering prophet. How under any standard of justice or common sense can both they and their religious descendants be held eternally responsible? Such ideas are nonsense, but for the Jewish people they have had a devastating effect through the centuries.

A. Roy Eckardt, a distinguished United Methodist clergyman and professor emeritus at Lehigh University, writes (THEOLOGY TODAY p. 301) “The late James Parkes, British historian ... always stressed that anti-Semitism has nothing to do with Jews and surely nothing to do with Jewish behavior. Anti-Semitism’s dwelling place is the minds and hearts of anti-Semites. Accordingly, Jewish behavior becomes “bad” not because it is humanly bad, but because it is Jewish. This means that it could be “good” but still would be as “bad” as ever. For the imputed guilt is one not of DOING but of BEING. To impute badness to being is a pathological act, or theologically put, a uniquely sinful act.”

In addition, the story that the Jews were dispersed to become wanderers because they were responsible for the death of Jesus-God is an historical falsehood. The Romans, under Titus, did conquer Jerusalem in 70 and destroyed the Temple. In 132, the rebellion of Bar Kochba was crushed by the Romans and thousands of Jews [were] sold into slavery.

But migration of Jewish communities had been in process for 500 years before the time of Jesus. There had been the Babylonian captivity. When return to Jerusalem was permitted by Cyrus, many Jews chose to remain in Babylon, where a Jewish community existed long after that. There, the synagogue was created for worship and teaching because there was no temple. There, the Babylonian Talmud was developed by the scholarly Rabbis.

When Alexander the Great conquered and built and named a great city in Egypt for himself ..., more than 300 years before Jesus, there, too, was a distinguished Jewish community of scholars, traders, and workers.

When Paul the Apostle went on his numerous preaching journeys, it is recorded that he spoke in synagogues – obviously there were Jewish communities established long before he got there.

And even in Palestine, Judaism survived. The rabbinical schools continued. The writings comprising the Jerusalem Talmud took form after the so-called “Dispersion.”

To claim that there was dispersion as punishment for killing God simply has no validity, but it HAS been a harmful historical lie.

Heritage and holocaust – who can help but admire the strength of the bonding of the followers of Judaism – to persist in their faith and to endure all the consequences of hate, discrimination, lies, death, humiliation. Perhaps it is the shared burdens of prejudice which has kept them united. Perhaps it is the power of their faith in the one God, Yahveh, and their obedience to the Torah, the Law. Perhaps it is the ancient thirst for knowledge, painstaking scholarship, perhaps it is the family structure of their religion and the Sabbath at home. All of these things – and much more – [are] beyond my comprehension.

Most of you know that a mezuzah is a parchment under cover placed on a door of a Jewish family indicating that the household follows the Law, the Torah. The story goes, “while being shown an apartment on West 86th Street in New York City, the prospective renters gave themselves away as recent arrivals with one question, ‘What’s that on the door?’ ‘That is a mezuzah,’ responded Evelyn Weiser, who represented Metropolitan properties. She went on: ‘It indicates that an observant Jewish family once lived here.’ One of the newcomers responded, ‘I thought it was part of the security system.’ Mrs. Weiser said, ‘Well, in a way, it is.’”

To summarize – hail to our friends and neighbors as they observe their most solemn holy days.

Then, recognize that anti-Semitism exists and speak up when you hear or see its manifestations, blatant or subtle.

Don’t be misled that historical fabrications can be either a true or humane foundation for anyone’s theology or salvation scheme.

And remember that as Rabbi Tarfon reminded in the Pirkei Avot 2/16 - “You are not required to finish the task, but neither are you free to desist from it.”