These crimes aren’t unique. Anti-Semitic hate crimes are on the rise, with 2017 seeing a 57% increase. From the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018, to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017 where participants displayed Nazi symbols and shouted “Jews will not replace us,” to the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, anti-Semitism is all too common in our society. But anti-Semitism is far from a new phenomenon. It didn’t begin suddenly with Hitler and the Holocaust. Today’s rise in anti-Semitism is the result of a long heritage of hate and violence going back thousands of years.
In the middle ages it was a common for Christians to go out to attack and even kill Jews on Good Friday, due to the mistaken belief that “Jews killed Jesus.” The Spanish Inquisition, during which heretics were sought out, charged, and executed, led to the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. Thousands of Jews who were expelled from Spain went to Portugal, where the King followed Spain’s example and began his own inquisition, leading to the deaths of many of those Jews who had been kicked out of Spain. The myth of the blood libel, that Jews used the blood of children for ritual purposes, was used to justify further violence against Jews from the middle ages all the way until the Holocaust.
But this bigotry isn’t just cultural, it is written into our scriptures. The gospel of John repeatedly refers to “the Jews” as those responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion and names them as the enemies of Jesus and his followers. The gospel of Matthew encourages the belief of supersessionism or replacement theology, that Christians replaced Jews as God’s chosen people, through the constant use of quotes from the Hebrew prophets to defend Jesus’ status as the Messiah. Even if our churches don’t explicitly affirm replacement theology, it is still deeply engrained in our beliefs. It becomes most prominent during Advent, when we read scriptures such as Isaiah 11:1-9 as proving that Jesus is the Messiah. Every time we do this we encourage the mistaken belief that Jews have lost favor with God, that Christians have replaced Jews as the Covenant people. And every time we encourage that belief, we encourage anti-Semitism. Maybe we ourselves would never shoot up a synagogue or stab people who are celebrating Hanukkah, but we provide encouragement for those who would, as they hear a message that vilifies and dehumanizes Jews.
The problem of supersessionism is one I have struggled with a lot in recent years. I didn’t grow up in a church that explicitly said Christians have replaced Jews. But I did grow up in a church that reads the prophecies of Hebrew scripture as being fulfilled by Christ, thereby erasing the intentions of the original authors. It wasn’t until seminary that I even heard the word supersessionism or began to understand how problematic it is to read the Isaiah texts in that way. It is something I still struggle with as I learn how to read the Hebrew Bible in a way that doesn’t do further harm our Jewish neighbors. It doesn’t mean that we have to stop reading the Hebrew scriptures entirely. It doesn’t mean we should cut our Bibles down to just the New Testament. Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 11 still gives us hope for a future in which God will restore justice and peace to the world. But we have to be careful that we don’t say Jesus is the only way in which God is working to bring about justice and peace, because God works in many ways that are greater than our limited understanding.
It can be difficult to come to terms with all the ways that our deeply ingrained beliefs have contributed to anti-Semitism, but it is necessary if we want to see an end to the violence that is regularly committed against our neighbors. We have a responsibility to purge our beliefs of those things that have fanned the flames of anti-Semitism for nearly 2,000 years. It’s not enough to simply say “I am not anti-Semitic,” not when we uphold beliefs that are rooted in it. The first step of fighting anti-Semitism is reflecting on the ways we have personally contributed, consciously or not, and starting there to dismantle it. Anti-Semitism is a sin, just like every other form of bigotry and hate, and it is time that Christians repented of our sin together.
Sunday – Genesis 21:8-20
Monday – Jonah 3, 4
Tuesday – Isaiah 52:7-12
Wednesday – Psalm 46
Thursday – Matthew 2:1-12
Friday – Romans 15:7-13
Saturday – Revelation 7:9-17