Rami, you are right that Christians invented antisemitism, but why did they do it?
The best explanation I have heard came from a brilliant woman who grew up Jewish, considered becoming a rabbi, converted, went to seminary, became a Unitarian minister, and has a creative view that transcends religions. It was Palm Sunday, and I was visiting her church. She asked the congregation if any of them had been divorced or knew anyone who was divorced. Almost everyone raised their hand. “How do people talk about their spouses in a divorce?” she asked. “Do they speak of them with love and respect?” “No!” people answered, and some even laughed. “Exactly,” the minister said, “they’re angry, and their language reflects it. The early Christians,” she said, “could not understand how the Jews could pray for generations for a messiah, and then when he arrives, deny him! Meanwhile Jews couldn’t understand how these people had been hoodwinked into thinking this carpenter was the messiah. They both felt betrayed. Separation was inevitable. Anger and hatred against the Jews who would not join them was the cultural assumption of the Christian men who many decades later wrote the folk stories of a long-dead Jesus, called the “Gospels” – a word even today meaning absolute truth to many Christians.
This metaphor of divorce I think explains a lot about the split-off of Christianity from Judaism. Maybe the Jews would have written mean things about the Christians too, but their scriptures were already written. Negativity toward Jews got embedded in Christianity’s foundational scripture, and then was built upon. So Christian antisemitism is buried under a lot of other beliefs that may have to change first before antisemitism can be severed from its roots and die. I believe this could happen, even though at the moment we are going in the opposite direction, because the future is undetermined and highly unlikely events do occur.
Rami-
Interesting view-
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidrothkopf/p/the-catastrophe-of-us-support-for?r=8i3t4&utm_medium=ios
Thoughts…
You are so wise. I’m not a religious Jew, but I think of you and Sharon Brous as my rabbis - this is such a great set of responses. 🙏
Rami, you are right that Christians invented antisemitism, but why did they do it?
The best explanation I have heard came from a brilliant woman who grew up Jewish, considered becoming a rabbi, converted, went to seminary, became a Unitarian minister, and has a creative view that transcends religions. It was Palm Sunday, and I was visiting her church. She asked the congregation if any of them had been divorced or knew anyone who was divorced. Almost everyone raised their hand. “How do people talk about their spouses in a divorce?” she asked. “Do they speak of them with love and respect?” “No!” people answered, and some even laughed. “Exactly,” the minister said, “they’re angry, and their language reflects it. The early Christians,” she said, “could not understand how the Jews could pray for generations for a messiah, and then when he arrives, deny him! Meanwhile Jews couldn’t understand how these people had been hoodwinked into thinking this carpenter was the messiah. They both felt betrayed. Separation was inevitable. Anger and hatred against the Jews who would not join them was the cultural assumption of the Christian men who many decades later wrote the folk stories of a long-dead Jesus, called the “Gospels” – a word even today meaning absolute truth to many Christians.
This metaphor of divorce I think explains a lot about the split-off of Christianity from Judaism. Maybe the Jews would have written mean things about the Christians too, but their scriptures were already written. Negativity toward Jews got embedded in Christianity’s foundational scripture, and then was built upon. So Christian antisemitism is buried under a lot of other beliefs that may have to change first before antisemitism can be severed from its roots and die. I believe this could happen, even though at the moment we are going in the opposite direction, because the future is undetermined and highly unlikely events do occur.