FEATURED JOBS
A new Anti-Defamation League national survey finds that 31 percent of Americans still agree that “Jews were responsible for the death of Christ.” (See more on the report here: http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/6154_12.htm )
On the one hand – sadly – this is progress. After all, until 1965 the Roman Catholic Church (whose policy still sets the pace for a huge swathe of the Christian world) still technically blamed “the Jews” for the death of Jesus.
Of course, then and now the notion was indefensible by any logic. That is because Jesus and his disciples were all Jews and to them, the world was divided into Jews and non-Jews (albeit on the one side “good Jews” and “bad Jews”). They always saw themselves as Jews. Period—albeit ones who followed the teachings of Yeshu ben-Yosef – a.k.a. Jesus, son of Joseph, whom we call Jesus of Nazareth (Christ deriving from the Greek word for messiah, or anointed one).
Semantics aside, today this is a deep failure not only of American Christians, but of interfaith dialogue groups of which both many Jews and Christians have invested great energy.
If there is a silver lining to the gray cloud, it is this: “only” 15 percent of Americans hold “deeply anti-Semitic views.” And as disturbing as that is, it’s an improvement from past generations (albeit a marginal increase over the past few years, which – again sadly – is not a surprise in these miserable economic times).
Upon learning such information, I reflect on what Rabbi Tarfon said in the Talmud – and what I think is a metaphor for the long march of Jewish life “Yours is not to finish from the process of creation, neither is it to desist from it.” In this case, the task of normalizing Christian-Jewish relations is massive and will not be completed any time soon (if ever), but it cannot be forsaken. Chief among the reasons why is we know that working on it can literally saves lives – particularly our own.
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