Posted on 12/01/2013 7:29:54 AM PST by hlmencken3
Many Jews are so scarred (rightfully so!) by stories of horrors perpetrated upon us in the name of Christianity, that those stories become a defining part of their reality. Christian hatred of Jews is a given, as real and permanent as gravity. They cannot imagine a world without it. If you are one of those, please stop reading. The rest is not for you.
If you have room in your world view for change in the way some people relate to us, and we to them, you might be interested in learning about salient points of the major document (officially called an apostolic exhortation) that Pope Francis released a short while ago.
Overall, the document is extremely warm and accommodating to Jews and Judaism. It speaks of friendship for a Jewish people that enjoys significance in an irrevocable covenantal relationship with G-d. It owns up to the debt owed to them, and apologizes for their past persecution when done by Christians.
The document includes language important to supporters of Israel looking to defeat the Palestinian and BDS wars against her legitimacy. As I generally eschew political commentary in these pages, I will not write here about that part of the story. BE”H, I hope to publish on it in the general media. I will bring one point, however, to the attention of our readers. I believe it presents an important compliment – and challenge – to frum Jews.
The Vatican regards itself as a sovereign state. It has conducted its own foreign affairs for centuries. Nothing gets out with the imprimatur of the Church without every word and nuance being weighed and measured. There are no haphazard or casual expressions, unless multiple people have blundered. Those people are expert in diplomacy, and assessing the impact their words will have on those who scrutinize them.
This makes it interesting to compare what the document says about Muslims (to whom the Pope also extends the olive branch) with what it says concerning Jews...
Nothing gets out with the imprimatur of the Church without every word and nuance being weighed and measured. There are no haphazard or casual expressions, unless multiple people have blundered. Those people are expert in diplomacy, and assessing the impact their words will have on those who scrutinize them.
Ping for later
Other Catholic' experiences will be different, of course, but I was never exposed to anti-Judaism in theory or in practice. Quite the contrary: I was (with 12 years of Catholic schooling in the 1950's-60's) encouraged to swim in an unquestioned philo-semitism. No true everywhere, as I said: but perhaps more true than you'd have expected.
And Pope Francis is just the guy to take this and run with it.
Yitzchok Alderstein’s statement that “Christian hatred of Jews is a given, as real and permanent as gravity”. Such blank condemnation of Christians shows that Mr. Alderstein also shares with some Jews a not hidden hatred towards Christians.
As said philosopher George Santayana, “Those who ignore History are damned to repeat its errors.”
Today, Israel is menaced with total obliteration by Islamic fanatics, as they were during the Holocaust by the evil forces of National Socialism, it is heart breaking to find some people trying to erase from History that during the most horrendous travails suffered by the chosen people, Christians were the strongest supporters of the persecuted Jews and many died trying to help them .
Without belittling the unspeakable horrors suffered by Jews, we should not ignore the fact that millions of Catholics were also victims of the Holocaust, as were gypsies, homosexuals, and in much less scale, Orthodox and Protestants. Poland had the biggest Jewish population in Europe and was the only country where there was a mandatory death penalty for those hiding Jews. Many, who were caught sheltering Jews, were killed in a gruesome manner, such as being publicly burned as a warning to others.
Although not every Catholic was a victim of the Nazis, it is certain that all the Jews were victims of Hitler’s hatred. Hitler’s “Final Solution” was targeted to the total extermination of the Jewish race-an abhorrent and unforgivable crime against humanity.
“The relationship of trust and collaboration during WW II between the Holy See, the Jewish organizations, the Allies’ intelligence services and their governments, including the anti-Nazi German Generals, is well proven and documented.”
Did the Church do enough to save the Jews? As usual those who do the less complain the most and those who do the most always think they could have done even more. When Michael O’Carroll, author of the scholar book “Pius XII: Greatness Dishonoured” related in the Foreword that in 1957 he met Dr. Isaac Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Israel, and he told him with emotion of an audience he had with the Pope and how they discussed the prophet Ezechiel. “My blessing to him” said the saintly old man, and O’Carroll promised to be the bearer of the message of his goodwill. When O’Carroll gave the message to Pius XII he added “I think Jews everywhere are grateful for what you did for them during the war.” “I wish I could have done more” was the Pope’s reply.
On February 28, 1945, the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Isaac Herzog, sent a letter of gratitude to the
Apostolic Nuncio in Rumania, Msgr. Andrea Cassulo, stating that: “The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion which form the very foundations of civilization, are doing for us unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living prove of divine Providence in this world.”
Rabbi Herzog’s heartfelt words should suffice to forever end the slanderous attacks to the memory of the great protector of the Jews, Pius XII and the Catholic Church.
Those testimonies aforementioned, as powerful as they might be, are just a few samples of the hundreds of messages of gratitude sent to Pius XII by Jews from around the world. There are at least 4 to 5 million descendants of those 860,000 Jews around the world whose lives were saved by Pius XII and the Catholic Church. They should be able to bring to light much more valuable documentation if they were to delve into their family’s historical records, the Israeli’s archives, and so many other serious, unbiased, Jewish scholarly researches in this matter.
To those seeking the truth, what a better witness than the testimony of Albert Einstein, the great Jewish physicist, who had firsthand experience of the horrors of Nazism? In 1944 he said: “Being a lover of freedom, when the Nazi revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, but the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of newspapers, but they, like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Then I looked to individual writers…they too were mute. Only the Church,” Einstein concluded, “stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth…I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel great affection and admiration…and am forced thus to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly.”
The Founders of the State of Israel expressed their condolences at the death of Pius XII. Among those who mourned the death of Pius XII pronouncing heartfelt tributes were the President of Israel Ben-Zevi, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress and the World Zionist Organization, and many Rabbis including Dr. Israel Goldstein of New York.
Rabbi Elio Toaff, Chief Rabbi of Rome, said: “More than anyone else, we have had the opportunity to appreciate the great kindness, filled with compassion and magnanimity, that the Pope displayed during the terrible years of persecution and terror, when it seemed that there was no hope left for us.” Rabbi Israel Zolli stated: “What the Vatican did will indelibly and eternally engraved in our hearts…Priests and even high prelates did things that will forever be an honor to Catholicism.”
The Israeli’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs.Golda Meir’s cablegram to the Vatican read; “We share in the grief of humanity at the passing away of His Holiness Pope Pius XII. In a generation afflicted by wars and discords, he upheld the highest ideals of peace and compassion. When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace.”
In 1928 the Holy Office had already condemned anti-Semitism. On September 6, 1938, Pius XI told a group of Belgian pilgrims: “Through Christ and in Christ, we are spiritual descendants of Abraham.” Incontrovertible facts prove the extraordinary efforts that Pius XI, Pius XII, and the Catholic Church made in saving the Jews during the Holocaust. I hope Aldersteins unjust indictment of all Christians is not shared by most of our Jewish brothers.
Just as the evils of the Holocaust must never be forgotten, neither should the kindness of those spiritual brothers from another faith who tried to help the Jews, at the risk of their own lives, under the most enormously dangerous travails be forgotten. The truth will prevail and with it, a greater understanding and brotherhood among Jews and Catholics.
I know the Fundamentalist Protestants here don't have a high opinion of me because I'm always attacking their religious views and begging them to consider abandoning them. But that doesn't change the fact that ethno-culturally I am one of them and that I defend them from their critics when I consider the criticism to be unfair or hypocritical.
One of the areas in which I defend them is the Jewish pursuit of cooperation with Catholicism while completely and utterly ignoring historically philo-Semitic Fundamentalist Protestants. Everything Jews have sought from the Vatican Fundamentalists already give--certainly with regard to the State of Israel, which is regarded by Fundamentalists as a genuine fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. No Catholic, no matter how philo-Semitic, has ever conceded this. What are the reasons for this boycotting of Fundamentalists and relentless pursuit of the Vatican?
There are probably several reasons. One is simply that Jews and Catholics are familiar with each other, having a (very torturous) shared history, whereas Fundamentalist Protestantism is an American phenomenon of recent vintage with whom Jews have little contact. Another is that the friendship of the Vatican promises more results than friendship with John Hagee. Another is probably the shared urban immigrant minority experience, along with traditional Democrat party political alliances.
However, I believe the main reason is that Catholic philo-Semitism, unlike that of Fundamentalist Protestants, is of a liberal nature. I must confess to eternal bafflement as to why liberal philo-Semitism is more desirable than a philo-Semitism based on Biblical interpretations, but apparently this is so. Catholic philo-Semitism is of the traditional enlightenment doctrines of religious subjectivism and secular pluralism. Fundamentalists, on the other hand, have never been anything but upfront in their belief in J*sus as "messiah" and savior and (unfortunately) show no signs of changing this. Jews sense in Catholic liberalism a willingness to compromise on this issue, or at least to syncretize to an extent so that J*sus is the "messiah" of chrstians but not for Jews. Meanwhile Fundamentalist Judaeo-chrstian syncretism is not only not encouraged but excoriated as a villainous plot to ensnare Jewish souls. Perhaps Jewish ecumenicists are unaware that the Vatican informs conservative Catholics that it engages with dialogue with Jews in order to convert them.
Perhaps another reason is that Catholicism and Judaism each have a very deep intellectual tradition, while Fundamentalist Protestants are considered anti-intellectual. The fact that Catholicism has never lacked its own anti-intellectual bumpkins (most of whom were illiterate) seems to have faded from memory, and those anti-intellectual and anti-Semitic Catholic peasants somehow identified with Fundamentalist Protestants in the Jewish imagination. What many forget is that the Protestant Reformation, like Judaism and unlike Catholicism, stressed literacy and education. The American public school is of Puritan origin, and the totalitarian secular ideology with which students are brainwashed, and which is called "secularized Judaism" by anti-Semites, could just as well be called "secularized Protestantism." And even Rev. Billy Bob reads his bible and commentaries--something no illiterate Catholic peasant has ever been able to do. (I note here with interest the Jewish identification with the old New England Puritans, whose religion was actually very like that of Bible Belt Fundamentalism today. Perhaps the New England Puritans are being credited with contemporary New England liberalism?)
Another reason (and yes, here I go again) is that Catholics regard the early chapters of Genesis to be a myth. While Orthodox Jews do not consider it mythology, they have never taken part in the "battle of the bible" that has broken the chrstian world in two. As with Catholics, the identification of belief in the historicity of those early chapters with "rednecks" has made this a "redneck belief," and it isn't publicized even when it is shared. Rabbi Adlerstein is himself a very enthusiastic and pronounced theistic evolutionist (he's also affiliated with the left wing Wiesenthal Center, a disgraceful organization that actually has a "Museum of Tolerance" in Jerusalem--of which I'm sure Yehoshu`a Bin Nun and the Chashmonaim would be very proud [/sarcasm]). This is a sociological prejudice which seems to be invulnerable to any argument whatsoever, of any nature.
At any rate, the purpose of this screed has been to address the issues raised by the Adlerstein article, which just so happen to be the issues I have been posting on for some fourteen years. In all my clumsiness, in all my errors of enthusiasm, I have tried my best during that time to make the point that Judaism isn't merely an enclosed minority group but the True Religion with objective universal truth claims on everyone. This has required the rejection of traditional philosophies of quietism, subjectivism, and even the basic American ideology of "can't we all just get along-ism." I attack chrstianity just as a Protestant attacks Catholicism or a Catholic attacks Protestantism, or a Baptist attacks Pentecostalism for that matter, because I'm trying to get this idea out there. The Jewish G-d does care about non-Jews and about what they believe and what they worship and what they do. He doesn't merely want them to leave the Jews alone and then they can do whatever the blazes they want to. To get this completely unregarded message across has led me to crudity and narrowness, but it was supposed to be crudity and narrowness with a point. I am sorry that point has never come through.
For what it is worth, I want all FReepers to know that I acknowledge that I have failed utterly in my self-imposed mission here. I'm not going anywhere, and I'll still continue to be the skunk-on-the-ark because it's my nature, but I realize now it's not going to have any results.
Thanks to Jim Rob and the mods for putting up with me for all these years.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
Francisco Franco, himself a practical practicing Catholic did more, in my estimation, than any leader or pope in regards to helping Jews escape genocidal madmen.
The reason there was so much conflict in the Rotten Apple between Catholic immigrants and Jews was due to the closeness of their respective ghettos and the fact that most of the potatoe famine Irish were completely ignorant of Jewry. They believed they invented corned beef.
As Jews finally ventured forth and followed Horace Greeley’s advice they found acceptance in the west and even the south. The CSA’s secretary of the treasury, Judah Benjamin, was Jewish.
Maybe too much is being read into this.
Protestants and Evangelicals don’t have a supposed hierarchy or leader that can supposedly backtrack on historical Jew-hate. Certainly the leadership of mainstream Protestant denominations have not proven friendly to the State of Israel
I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Rabbi Alderstein was just grasping at straws.
“Rabbi Alderstein cannot be taken lightly.”
I’ll take him lightly.
Pope Pius XII is credited - by Jewish historians - with saving as many as 800 or even 860,000 Jews. Franco, who I admire, didn’t come remotely close to that.
Perhaps. Though I welcomed the excuse to get that out of my system. I've been shooting myself in the foot a lot lately, and am currently greatly depressed and discouraged not only because of these religious matters but because of personal issues as well.
Protestants and Evangelicals don’t have a supposed hierarchy or leader that can supposedly backtrack on historical Jew-hate.
Historical Jew-hate originates from false religious beliefs and can only be addressed by addressing those beliefs, not by spreading enlightenment secularism (which is what all these religious dialogues are about).
Certainly the leadership of mainstream Protestant denominations have not proven friendly to the State of Israel
Surely you know that Mainline Protestantism and Fundamentalist Protestantism are very different. The Mainline denominations were fundamentalist originally, true; but Fundamentalism as a movement developed to retain the beliefs the Mainline churches compromised on. And its philo-Semitism is original with itself and far to be preferred to liberal/tolerant philo-Semitism, in my foolish opinion.
I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Rabbi Alderstein was just grasping at straws.
As you can tell from my post, I'm not a big fan of Rabbi Adlerstein or the Wiesenthal Center.
Let me close by doing my absolute best to get you and others to understand something. The rural Southeast where I live is full of people who are grasping at straws trying to find The Truth. They know that chrstianity is a jumble of mutually-exclusive claims, based on Biblical interpretations that are nothing but opinions. They eagerly seek out and learn from any weird new movement that claims that they have found "the" correct interpretation and the real truth. I live with these people, and while Jewish ecumaniacs are engaging in secular talks with liberal chrstians these people are hurting. And the only people who actually know and could give them the Truth they so desperately seek don't seem to know or care that they exist and that they're searching.
You are perfectly welcome to tell me that Jews have problems of their own and that their primary duty is to observe the mitzvot rather than helping anyone else's religious crises. But that doesn't change the fact that I live with it, and it's torture to watch.
“Rabbi Alderstein cannot be taken lightly.”
I’ll take him lightly.
You and I actually agree on something (that you're willing to post about)!
There are groups of Noachides around Cleveland, Tennessee and Atlanta. I can e-mail the contacts.
Ha! Touche!
Unfortunately, many of the so-called "Noachide" groups aren't kosher. The Tennessee group, at least, seems to actually be a chrstian restorationist organization. Noachism draws chrstian restorationists like a light draws moths. I'm not so sure about the Georgia or Texas groups, but one has to be careful, and I've become cynical and cautious.
There is an elderly lady of my mother's acquaintance who has considered just about everything, including Seventh Day Adventism and some other new group that may or may not be eventually rooted in the Russellite movement. She seems to regard me as some sort of authority because she knows I can read the Bible in the original Hebrew, and I have explained to her that I reject the "new testament" in toto, but chrstianity is so ingrained in her and others in this part of the country that I don't know if they can process what this means. I have promised her to one day sit with her and explain as best I can, but I'm nervous. What if her giving up the "new testament" makes the Torah and Hebrew Bible meaningless to her? What if it so destroys everything she has ever known that it leaves her with nothing? Having been in that position before, I don't want to put anyone else through it.
The really hard part is explaining that the TaNa"KH really was never given to non-Jews but to Jews only. She's looking for correct practice, and she knows no other source than her bible, where the Noachide Laws are not explicitly stated. She is in her 80's and very simple in her religious instincts, as am I and everyone else in this part of the country. Will I in a sense be taking the Bible away from her?
This is a very heavy burden and I quite frankly don't feel competent to do the job. Yet there's no one else around here.
A previous exchange upthread:
“Certainly the leadership of mainstream Protestant denominations have not proven friendly to the State of Israel.”
“Surely you know that Mainline Protestantism and Fundamentalist Protestantism are very different. The Mainline denominations were fundamentalist originally, true; but Fundamentalism as a movement developed to retain the beliefs the Mainline churches compromised on. And its philo-Semitism is original with itself and far to be preferred to liberal/tolerant philo-Semitism, in my foolish opinion.”
Something that I would like to point out about “Mainstream” Protestant organizations is that beginning in the late 40’s and early 50’s they became overrun with Marxism with the formation of the UN World Council of Churches. Ever so subtly and slowly the WCC traduced them and took them over from within. [Parenthetically, we are seeing the same pattern in our local communities with the UN Agenda 21 grassroots efforts.]
I have a family member who was a mover and shaker in the inaugural meetings and formation of the UN World Council. This was an extremely Godly and devout Christian who, it is my opinion, was mislead by the idealistic tones put forward at that time in the days following WWII.
You still have Godly and devout lovers of God and of Christ in those Churches, but their energies have been blunted and misdirected from the top. This is just my opinion, but based on some insights I have had over the years.
I personally know several of the Tennessee participants and their consulting rabbis. While individuals might try to reconcile Christianity with Judaism (at least in the beginning), the group as whole does not. You’ve discussed this with group’s leader?
I have sat in on a few of their classes, and while I confess the English phraseology and Christian style of learning is something I can’t get used to, there really isn’t much wrong with the actual content.
You are right about Christian Restorationists being attracted to such groups. Where else would one start?
Yes.
And I recall that some Protestants in the UK proposed support for Jews returning to the Land of Israel more than 200 years ago.
Christian hatred of Jews is a given....
(((
As a lifelong Christian, I take exception to that blanket characterization.
Like another poster, you’ve misunderstood the sentence.
“...those stories become a defining part of their reality. Christian hatred of Jews is a given, as real and permanent as gravity. They cannot imagine a world without it...”
It’s about what some believe, not an assertion of fact.
As a Catholic who is about to head out to the range with my close friend who is an Orthodox Jew, I also take exception to that.
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