Earlier this year, my darling wife S. and I enjoyed a delightful and educational voyage in the eastern Mediterranean, which culminated in a four-day tour of Israel. Yes, I know that four days isn’t long enough to work through the NYT Sunday crossword puzzle, much less understand a country with as complex a history as Israel… or is it Palestine, or maybe the Promised Land, or possibly Canaan, or even Judah? You see what it I mean. It’s complex before I even begin.
Before I start, and in a nod towards full disclosure, you should know that my genealogy consultant informed me some years ago that my long ago antecedents were most probably Sephardic Jews who fled their home in Càceras, Spain in an effort to escape the ravages of the Inquisition. Somewhere along the way the Torah got left behind as they made their life in the new world and embraced the Catholic Church. Somehow I wound up a Southern Baptist. Now I lean toward secular humanism, although I’m not much for dogma of any stripe. Not your typical religious heritage.
I am, and have been, interested in Israel for many years for many reasons, and when my darling wife S. asked why were we going to Israel when we could have been chowing down on some souvlaki and chasing it with a portion of ouzo on a charming Greek island, I had only the fuzziest of answers… I think I said, “Well, just because.” Because it has been the locus of conflict for thousands of years; because it is home base, or at least very important to, the Abrahamic religions of the world; because it sits in the middle of some Islamic states that vow to destroy it; and finally because it may be the root cause, in a most generic sense, of our next great global conflict. She showed little interest in my explanation, but did ask about the shopping. I didn’t mention that our visit coincided with Passover week and that most, if not all, the chi-chi shops would be closed or see limited action.
We did all the normal stuff. The Sea of Galilee, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock… all the highlights you would see in one of Rick Steves’ informative and entertaining guide books. All of which only served to reinforce the opinion I expressed after my first visit over thirty years ago: If you came there inclined to a belief in religion, it would be reinforced… if, on the other hand, you came here as a religious skeptic, this view would be reinforced as well.
But that’s not what attracted my attention this time. I was reading the Times of Jerusalem or maybe it was the Jerusalem Post and was intrigued by an article on the rise of anti-Semitism. At first I thought this subject had pretty much been worn out over the ages; however, the writer made a strong case that the signs were bad, not just in the Middle East where it is more or less de rigueur, but in Europe and even in the United States. I decided to do a deeper dive in the subject. I was less interested in the statistics of anti-Semitism than the root cause(s) of anti-Semitism. Why does it exist at all, and where did it come from? Did it pre-exist Christianity? Does it exist in non-Abrahamic religious climates? Are there anti-Semitic Buddhists? What about Hindus?
Semite, Semitism, Semitic, anti-Semitic. What does it all mean? A Semite is one of any of the peoples who speak or spoke a Semitic language, including, in particular, the Jews and the Arabs. What! Egads! The Arabs are Semites too? Did you know that the word Semite/Semitic is derived from “Shem,” the name of the third son of Noah, and was not in usage until the later part of the 18th century? Surprisingly, to me at least, is the fact that the term anti-Semite was not known or used until 1860, when an Austrian Jewish scholar wrote it in his criticism of a book claiming that the Semitic races were inferior to Aryan races. Clearly, this hatred, vilification, and persecution of Jewish peoples predated the term that came to describe it. But that still does not get at the root cause of what we now know as anti-Semitism.
It is generally understood that elements of Judaism have existed since 4000 BCE and was the first monotheistic religion. So it’s natural to ask if anti-Semitism existed throughout this extended era. The answer is yes, but… Let me refer you to the Classical Period when the world was more or less ruled by the Greeks and Romans. There is evidence of anti-Jewish sentiment expressed in writings of scholars of this era, but it was a much different kind of expression than we see after the death of Jesus. The Greeks and Romans pretty much thought everyone not like them was a barbarian, and held all non-classical religions and peoples in contempt, even legislating to limit their influence on contemporary society. Their anti-Jewish sentiment is considered to be primarily ethnic in nature, unlike the virulent anti-Jewish sentiments that erupted and persisted after the death of Christ. The Greeks and Romans didn’t like Jews because they were different from them. They did, however, grant legal status to Judaism long before Christianity was even thought of.
So let’s be clear. Antipathy, even persecution and killing of Jews did pre-exist Christianity, but as I said above, it was of a different sort than we began to see after the death of Christ. Surprisingly, in the first two-thirds of the Middle Ages (roughly the 5th century to the 11th century), problems, even hatred and persecution of the Jews did exist for many reasons, particularly in Western Europe. Then we see an uptick, maybe even a crescendo of anti-Semitic acts around the time of the 1st Crusades in 1096. This was further inflamed by a myth called The Blood Libel, which claimed that the Jews killed the children of Christians and used their blood in the making of matzo bread for Passover… a myth that first began in England in the 12th century, and persisted and grew throughout Europe. I know it sounds crazy today, but it is part of the story, and they didn’t even have Twitter to spread the news. And finally the topper… Jews were blamed for the Black Plague (1388-1351) which decimated Europe, including the Jewish population. We know that however wrong it is, it was impossible to prove a negative. As it turns out, current science agrees that it was poor sanitary conditions and a proliferation of rats and fleas that were the culprits, and not the Jews.
But no one thinks that these notions, however wrong-headed and loathsome they may be, are the root causal factors of the hatred of Jews now lasting over 2000 years. As discussed above, the death of Christ was a seminal event – if not then, certainly in hindsight. I’m hesitant to use the Christian Bible as a source of information, due to the many questions raised by scholars on the authenticity, even the authorship of its writings… but I’m in a substantial minority here.
Sidebar: Did you know that in 325 CE, the 1st Council of Nicea convened by Emperor Constantine not only settled the divinity of Christ (yes, he was declared divine) but also which books were good enough to be in the Good Book. I don’t know whether they voted by voice or by raising their hands, but they got the job done… and came up with the Nicene Creed to boot. For you backsliders out there you’ll have to look that up yourself.
There is much said in the writings of the Christian Bible about the Jews, but only one or two things which deal specifically with the role of Jews in the death of Jesus, and their perpetual and encompassing guilt for same. The most cited passage is from The Gospel According to Matthew, which was widely suggested to have been written by the Apostle Matthew in approximately 80 CE. By the way, it is far from settled among those who care about this kind of thing who the actual author was. The case for Jewish deicide (that’s “dei-cide” as in god-killer) was pretty well nailed by old Pontius washing his hands of the matter when he purportedly said in Matthew 27:24, “…I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it.” …referring, of course, to the assembled Jewish crowd. And the crowd responded in Matthew 27:25, “Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.” Hmm, doesn’t sound like a particularly strong case for perpetual guilt for all Jews. Just for a few overly-wrought ones lounging around Pontius’ courthouse. Yet, all Jews are guilty forever for killing Jesus? More on this later.
Then later in Paul’s Epistle to the Thessalonians, he piles it on when he says in 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16, (speaking of the Jews) “Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come unto them to the uttermost.” So even the learned itinerant Paul opines that not only are the Jews “contrary to all men,” they are not pleasing to God. How much worse can it get?
Okay. Enough of this biblical citation stuff. I’m starting to sound like Baptist preacher. And by the way, as far as I can tell none of this kind of rhetoric appears in the Quran, the teachings of Buddha, the many holy books of the Hindu, or any other of the world’s religions. Yes, I know, the Muslims hate the Jews, but not because they think the Jews killed Jesus. The bottom line is that the early writings of Christianity that make the case for Jewish deicide, have been determinative in the creation and perpetuation of what we now know as anti-Semitism. I’m not going to argue with you about the presence of other causal factors. Of course, there are many, but, in my judgment, not determinative nor a root cause.
But you might say, not so fast there… The church in those times was the Catholic Church. Why should all of Christianity get the blame for causing anti-Semitism after the Reformation? I’m glad you asked. You’ve heard of Martin Luther (no not Martin Luther King). Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism. The nailer of the so-called 95 Theses on the door of the church. That Martin Luther (1483-1546). He even got a church faith named after him. Let me tell you what you don’t know about this iconic, much beloved figure of the protestant reformation. He was a raging, virulent anti-Semite. Let me quote from his book The Jews and their Lies, “…the Jews are a base, whoring people, that is no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth. They are full of the devil’s feces which they wallow in like swig.” Wow! He ups both Matthew and Paul by a wide margin. I don’t know what swig is, but it doesn’t sound good. Also in his book, he answers his own rhetorical question of “What should we do about the Jews?” by listing seven imperatives. I won’t list them all, but here is a sampling:
- First, set fire to their synagogues and schools…
- Second, I advise that their homes be razed and destroyed.
- …I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach… on pain of loss of life and limb
- …All cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them.
This from the father of Protestantism almost 1500 years after the death of Jesus and the initial acrimony of Paul and Matthew. It’s not surprising that much of the anti-Jewish literature of the Third Reich refers to these writings. Thankfully, Luther’s writings did not have the sanctification of a Nicean Council.
To be fair, the Lutheran church in in the form of the Missouri Synod denounced Luther’s “hostile attitude” toward the Jews in 1983. Let’s see, 1983 is how many years from 1546? My calculator is out of reach, but let’s just say it’s a long, long time. This mild rejection of Luther’s outrageous anti-Semitic ramblings were followed by other back-peddling statements. The most recent being in 2004 when a Consultative Panel on Lutheran-Jewish Relations stated, “The New Testament must not be used as justification for hostility towards present day Jews, and that blame for the death of Jesus should not be attributed to Judaism or the Jewish people.” No kidding.
The Catholics have also have offered their mea culpa as well, although until 1962 the Catholic Good Friday Prayer made reference (in Latin) to “perfidis judaeis” which translates into “treacherous Jews.” Finally, one of the outcomes of Vatican II under the aegis of Pope John XIII was that the church must “withdraw the allegation that all Jews, or even all Jews living at the time, were guilty of deicide.” Again no kidding. It only took the Catholic church, the progenitor of Christianity, approximately 2000 years to formally walk back the idea that the death of Jesus was the responsibility of all Jews now and then.
So draw your own conclusion. It seems pretty straightforward to me. Not only did Christianity blame Jews for the death of Jesus, they blamed all Jews for all time. Not surprisingly, this began a journey through centuries of antipathy toward Jewish culture, ethnicity, and religious dogma. It caused Jews to be falsely blamed for everything from high interest rates, to the Black Plague and Jewish killing of Christian children to make matzo for Passover.
I dunno how this all ends, but at least we know how it started. Perhaps that knowledge can help us bring this insanity to an end some day.
