Persecution of the Jews: Christianity's blood-stained record

Countless atrocities against the Jewish people have been committed in the name of Jesus Christ, and there is a need to heed the call for churches to hold services of repentance for Christian anti-Semitism

AS THE Millennium fast approaches, there may be those in the Church who would seek to celebrate or commemorate 2 000 years of Christianity -- but, say many, "How can we celebrate when our hands are stained?"

Over the centuries, many atrocities have been committed in the name of Jesus Christ -- and of particular burden to a growing number of Christians today is the guilt of Christianity towards the Jewish people. Right now there is call for churches to hold services of repentance for Christian anti-Semitism as we prepare to enter what promises to be a time of climax in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Most Christians probably know something about the horror of the Holocaust and are aware that Jewish people "have always been persecuted," but the extent of that persecution is generally little known.

The Christian celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem draws thousands of visitors each year. 1997 was no exception. More than 5 000 people from 100 nations gathered in Jerusalem for this event organised by the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem.

The programme included a "Repentance Night." In a heart-searching talk Sister Pista of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary (founded by Mother Basilea Schlink in Darmstadt, Germany) brought a challenging call to prayer, repentance and reconciliation in view of the guilt of Christianity towards the Jewish people in the last 2 000 years.

God moved in that gathering in Jerusalem and many came to deep repentance

A read of a booklet compiled Sister Pista makes for shocking revelation.

What follows here is extracted from that booklet, featured with permission:

After the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed, the question was raised: How could it have happened? The shocking truth is that the Holocaust was the culmination of centuries of hatred and violent persecution, often inspired by Christian theology.

How it all began:

In the early Church, Jews and Gentiles were gathered round Jesus as one body, the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile having been broken down. They were one flock with one Shepherd. Later on, the situation changed. More Gentiles entered the Christian community so that the ratio of Gentiles to Jews steadily grew. Then, by and by, the Jews who had not yet entered the Christian fold, were regarded no longer as brothers in the belief in the one revealed God, but as aliens, even enemies.

The Apostle Paul exhorts us who believe in Christ not to adopt a superior attitude towards the Jews but to remain humbly aware that the Jews are the root of the tree. They bear us, not we them, for we are only grafted in (Romans 11). But the evil one succeeded in luring the Christian Church away from this humble, brotherly attitude when, in self-glory, she appropriated all the graces and promises meant for Israel, thereby expunging Israel from God's redemptive history.

Theology and a stolen birthright:

It was after the age of the apostles that those other elements of imagined superiority crept into Christian teaching, stealing Israel's birthright. The so-called Letter of Barnabas spiritualised the Old Testament, claiming that it only prefigured Christ and the Church.

This, plus similar sentiments contained in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, gave rise to the theory that the Church is the New Israel. Later, Emperor Constantine was to declare that the land of Israel no longer belonged to the Jewish people. All this is simply Replacement Theology in embryo, which is still with us to this day.

After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (70 AD) and the Bar Kokba Revolt (132-135 AD), Judaism did not disappear but regained its vitality and influence.

But, as the struggle between Christians and Jews to win converts among the pagans intensified, Judaism was seen as a threat to the Church. To counter this threat, Christian theology tried to create a non-Jewish Jesus.

Next, the Jews were accused of deicide (the crime of killing God).

Chrysostom (344-407) denounced Jews in the strongest language and developed the theology that the fate of the Jews was a result of their deicide.

Chrysostom's contemporary, Augustine (354-430), though more restrained, was ambivalent. From the latter, came the theory that the Jews were a witness people, destined to live as testimony to both evil and Christian truth, but who were not to be killed, for like Cain they bore a sign.

From theology to law:

After Christianity became officially recognised under Constantine in the fourth century, theology was translated into government policy, and the Synagogue came under repressive measures.

Later, in the seventh century, for political purposes, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius imposed forced baptism upon the Jews in order to ensure unity within his realm.

The Middle Ages:

In medieval society, the close link between Church and State meant that the seeds of Christian anti-Semitism, already sown, yielded terrible fruits.

The Crusades:

The year 1096 ushered in a period of viciously cruel harassment unique in Jewish history in terms of duration: the Crusades.

Great, ill-organised hordes of nobles, knights, monks, and peasants with "God wills it" on their lips as they set off to free the Holy Land from the Muslim infidel -- suddenly turned on the Jews.

Approximately a quarter to one-third of the entire Jewish population in Germany and northern France was murdered during the First Crusade.

In Jerusalem the Jews fled from the Crusaders, locking themselves in the main synagogue, where all 969 were burnt to death. Outside, the Crusaders, who believed they were avenging the death of Christ, sang, "Christ, We Adore Thee," holding their Crusader crosses aloft.

Doomed to perpetual servitude:

During the first two Crusades German Jews appealed to the crown for help. In return for royal protection they were made "serfs of the Imperial Chamber." The custom spread to other countries.

Other factors, too, contributed to the demeaning of the Jews. Barred from most professions and the guilds which permitted only Christian membership, Jews were virtually forced into money-lending as outsiders in feudal society. Rather like a sponge, they would soak up the floating capital in the country, only to be periodically squeezed by the exchequer.

Though frowning on Christians practising usury, the Church would borrow money from Jews to build cathedrals and churches. The negative image of the Jewish money-lender was later immortalised in Shakespeare's Shylock and Dickens' Fagin.

At the time of the Third Crusade one of the most tragic anti-Jewish riots in England occurred in York.

There, Crusaders, before setting out to follow their King, plundered the possessions of the Jews, who fled into the royal castle where they were besieged by the warriors -- many of whom were deeply in debt to their quarry. The climax was reached when a stone, thrown from the castle, killed a monk whose custom it was to celebrate Mass outside the castle every morning and urge the people to "destroy the enemies of Christ." When the Jews saw the fury of the besiegers and felt their fate to be sealed they took their own lives, cutting one another's throats.

Vilification:

Though opposed to mass murder of Jews, France's Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) declared that they were "a race who had not God for their father, but were of the devil."

Scapegoat:

An early example of the scapegoat theory occurred in 1021 when Pope Benedict VIII had Jews executed, blaming them for a hurricane and an earthquake.

When the Black Death (1347-1350) broke out in Europe, the Jews were held responsible: they had poisoned the wells. In southern France, northern Spain, Switzerland, Bavaria, Rhineland, eastern Germany, Belgium, Poland and Austria the charge was believed -- and over 200 Jewish communities throughout Europe were destroyed.

Ritual Murder:

The charge of ritual murder was first levelled against Jews by Christians in 12th century England. Jews were said to kill Christian children, often before Easter, for ritual purposes. These fabrications, known as the Blood Libel, which made a cult of the supposed victims, were to take a toll of thousands of lives throughout Europe. The Nazi newspaper <I>Der Sturmer<I> regularly featured rabbis sucking the blood of German children.

The host-desecration:

A similar accusation was that the Jews desecrated the sacred elements in Holy Communion in an attempt to crucify Jesus anew.

In 1298 the host-desecration accusation caused Rottingen's entire Jewish community to be burned at the stake. Their attackers went on to massacre Jews elsewhere in Germany and also in Austria. According to estimates, 100 000 were murdered and some 140 Jewish communities decimated.

In Prague, in 1389, a priest carrying a wafer host was accidentally sprayed with sand by Jewish children at play. As a result 3 000 Jews were massacred.

The badge of shame:

In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council, called by Pope Innocent 111, decreed that, on the basis of Numbers 15:37-41, Jews should wear distinctive dress. In addition, a distinctive mark was imposed on their clothing. The badge of shame made Jews social outcasts, exposing them to both physical and verbal abuse.

Forced baptism:

In medieval Spain, forced baptism was chosen as an alternative to death or exile. In 1391, some 50 000 Jews died in riots instigated by the preaching of Ferrand Martinez, an archdeacon in Seville; several times that number were baptised, including many rabbis. Forced baptism, however, created a problem, since many of the converts still practised their former faith secretly, while others compromised for personal advantage; both groups were called "marranos," meaning "swine."

Obsession with purity of blood:

In Spain anti-Semitism as well as anti-marranism grew alarmingly. The notion arose that hereditary Jewishness or "mala sangre" (bad blood) was the problem, a problem which not even baptism could alter. Spanish racism, the obsession with pure blood, was born.

The Spanish Inquisition:

In 1480 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain established a tribunal to purge the Church of those who clandestinely clung to their Jewish faith. Over the years an estimated 30 000 marranos were consigned to the flames.

Expulsions:

Jews have been expelled from nearly every country in which they have resided.

In 1290 the Jews were expelled from England. Sixteen thousand left for France and Belgium, some to meet with death on the way.

There were repeated expulsions of Jews from France and Germany.

Ferdinand and Isabella expelled all Jews from Spain in 1492. Many fled to Portugal where they were permitted to stay, but at a price.

Carnivals:

Jewish sufferings were often a highlight of pre-Lenten carnivals.

In medieval Rome, the weakest member of the Jewish community would be thrust naked into a nail-spiked barrel and rolled down the hill to his death, his fellow-Jews were forced to watch his martyrdom.

The Reformation:

Martin Luther (1483-1546) orignally favoured the Jews in the hope that they would accept his form of the faith, even praising their contribution to Christianity. However, when he did not succeed in converting the Jews, his attitude changed dramatically.

The following words are attributed to Luther:

"All the blood kindred of Christ burn in hell, and they are rightly served, even according to their own words they spoke to Pilate...

"Verily a hopeless, wicked, venomous and devilish thing is the existence of these Jews, who for 1 400 years have been, and still are, our pest, torment and misfortune. They are just devils and nothing more."

In the tract "Concerning the Jews and Their Lies" (published in 1542) Luther wrote:

"Firstly, their synagogues should be set on fire... Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed... Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer-books and Talmuds... Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more... Fifthly, passport and travelling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews... Sixthly, they ought to be stopped from usury... Seventhly, let the young and strong Jews and Jewesses be given the flail, the axe, the hoe, the spade, the distaff, and spindle, and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their noses... We ought to drive the rascally lazy bones out of our system... Therefore away with them...

"To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden -- the Jews."

In a sermon shortly before his death he called for the immediate expulsion of all Jews from Germany.

Later, Luther's anti-Semitic teachings were to be applied literally in the Third Reich.

Ghettos:

In the second half of the 16th century ghettos were introduced, firstly in Italy and then in the Austrian Empire. The ghetto was considered an additional demonstration of the error of Judaism.

The modern era:

By the modern era, Christian anti-Semitism was so deeply entrenched that it shaped the attitudes of ordinary people, regardless of Christian tradition or political persuasion.

Caught in the middle:

Poland was once a haven for fleeing Jews, but then the situation was complicated by Polish-Ukrainian relationships. As Eastern Orthodox Christians oppressed by Polish Catholics, the Ukrainians came to resent particularly the Jewish middlemen acting on behalf of the hated Poles. When in 1648 Eastern orthodox Cossacks from the Ukraine devastated Poland, the Jews were singled out for special cruelties.

An eye-witness reported:

"Some were flayed alive and their skins were tossed to the dogs as meat. Others were severely wounded and then thrown onto the streets... Others were buried alive. Babes in their mothers' arms were stabbed to death... Large numbers of Jewish children were thrown into the water in order to made the fords more level."

Other atrocities were unmentionable.

During the Swedish invasion of 1655-1658, Polish Jews were again caught in the crossfire.

In Poland, from 1648-1658, some 100 000 to 500 000 Jews ere murdered, and 700 Jewish communities destroyed.

In Russia, during the civil war between the White and Red Armies (1918-1920), Jews were attacked by both sides.

Assimilation:

In the wake of Jewish emancipation in the late 18th and 19th centuries, the Jews' new status was not welcomed by all. In Germany anti-Semitism took on racist features in reaction to the move towards Jewish assimilation.

The Dreyfus affair:

When in France, in 1894, a French Jewish officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was accused of spying, a wave of extreme anti-Semitism was unleashed. In the end Dreyfus was exonerated, but not before the affair scandalised the world and rocked the French government, leaving behind much bitterness towards Jews.

Oppression:

With the partition of Poland in the late 18th century, Russia became governor of the largest body of Jews in the world. Catherine II restricted Jews to the newly won provinces. At the same time she invited foreigners, excluding Jews, to settle in central Russia. Under Nicholas I (1825-1855) the situation for the Jews worsened. Military conscription began at age 12 for Jewish youths and could be extended up to 25 years. They were sent to remote areas. Every method was employed, including torture and verbal abuse, to make them renounce their faith and accept Christianity.

Pogroms:

During the reign of Czar Alexander 111, Russia's first major pogrom began at Easter 1881 and spread to a hundred Jewish communities. Pogroms and accompanying mass emigrations continued under Czar Nicholas II who regarded the Jews as Christ-killers...

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

First appearing in 1905 in czarist Russia, this anti-Semitic propaganda charged the Jews with conspiring to conquer the world. Three editions were given wide circulation in America due to the efforts of Henry Ford, the influential industrialist. In 1922 the Jewish foreign minister of Germany's Weimar republic was murdered by two fanatics imagining him to be one of the "Elders of Zion."

Nazism:

Although Nazism was anti-Christian, Christian anti-Semitism made the Holocaust possible.

Hitler and the Nazis found in medieval Catholic anti-Jewish legislation a model for their own, and they read and reprinted Martin Luther's virulently anti-Semitic writings.

"Kristellnacht" in November 1938, the night the synagogues were burnt in Germany, was chosen in honour of the anniversary of Luther's birthday. Hitler claimed, as he chronicled his 16 steps to Nazi policy, "I am only doing the work of the Catholic Church."

Although individual Christians assisted the Jews, the official Church generally did not.

World War II:

Even in the face of the horrors of full-blown Nazism, many failed the Jews in their hour of need. Centuries of anti-Semitism took their toll in various countries.

At a war crimes trial in 1958, a former Lithuanian minister was asked why he remained silent in the face of the terrible shootings he witnessed. His reply was that he believed the scripture verse was being fulfilled for the Jews: "His blood be on us and our children." Horrific though it is that this Scripture could be used to justify such callousness, similar views have been expressed by Christians of other nationalities.

Callous indifference:

Sadly, after 2 000 years of Christianity, this is the charge to be laid at the door of virtually all. In fact, had it not been for the abject passivity of almost the entire world community on the eve of World War II, Hitler could not have gone ahead with his mass extermination of the Jews. At the Evian-les-Bains conference in France, specifically convened by President Roosevelt in July, 1938 to discuss the lot of European Jewry, only three of more than 30 nations volunteered to take in a few thousand Jews. Nazi informers reported back to Hitler: "You can do what you like with the Jews, nobody wants them."

A call to repentance:

The Catholic priest and historian Edward Flannery, reflecting on Christian anti-Semitism, observes:

"It is a tragedy in which Jesus participates, crucified again in the person of His people at the hand of many baptised in His name. The sin of anti-Semitism contains many sins, but in the end it is a denial of Christian faith, a failure of Christian hope, and a malady of Christian love. And was not this Christianity's supreme defection: that the Christian people to whom persecution was promised by its Master (John 16:2-4) was not the most persecuted people in Christendom, but rather was it the people for whom He came? And the ultimate scandal: that in carrying the burden of God in history the Jewish people did not find in the Christian churches an ally and defender but one of their most zealous detractors and oppressors? It is a story that calls for repentance."

In the same spirit Mother Basilea Schlink writes:

"Today let us take our place at Jesus' side and look upon His People with His eyes, full of love and mercy. Then our hearts would ache to see this chosen people of God wandering through the centuries, wretched, despised, shunned, ostracised and afflicted with pain like the suffering Servant of God in Isaiah 53. Then, looking on them, we would be reminded of Him."

Since Sister Pista gave the talk in Jerusalem Christian leaders in several countries have taken up the call to organise services of repentance for our guilt against God's chosen people. A special meeting to plan such services nationally and regionally in South Africa is planned for September, 1999 in co-operation with the "Network for United Prayer in Southern Africa" (NUPSA). For more information or copies of the free information leaflet as well as suggestions for a service of repentance, please phone Mahyeno Mission in Dundee at phone: +27 (341) 244-45, fax: (341) 817-71 and e-mail: [email protected] or write to Box 503, Dundee, 3000, South Africa for more details.

A documentary video of Sister Pista's talk is produced by courtesy of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. Suggested price is R50,00. According to their way of faith, the Sisters have no set charge for their items. It is left to the individual how much he/she wishes to contribute by way of donation towards the cost and postage. Videos can be ordered from: Box 23815, Gezina, 0031, South Africa.