Antisemitism in Christianity

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Some

Christian groups, and ordinary Christians express antisemitism towards Jews and Judaism. These expressions of antisemitism can be considered examples of antisemitism expressed by Christians or antisemitism expressed by Christian communities. However, the term Christian antisemitism has also been used in reference to anti-Jewish sentiments that arise out of Christian doctrinal or theological stances (by thinkers such as Jules Isaac, for example, especially in his book Jésus et Israël). The term is also used to suggest that to some degree, contempt for Jews and Judaism is inherent in Christianity as a religion, and as a result, the centralized institutions of Christian power (such as the Catholic Church or the Church of England), as well as governments with strong Christian influences (such as the Catholic Monarchs of Spain) have generated societal structures that have survived and perpetuate antisemitism to the present day. This usage particularly appears in discussions about Christian structures of power which exist within society, structures which are referred to as Christian hegemony or Christian privilege; these discussions are part of larger discussions about structural inequality and power dynamics
.

Antisemitic Christian rhetoric and the resulting antipathy towards Jews date back to the

expropriation, violence, and murder—measures which culminated in the Holocaust.[1]: 21 [2]: 169 [3]

Christian

theological differences which exist between these two related Abrahamic religions; the competition between church and synagogue; the Christian missionary impulse; a misunderstanding of Jewish culture, beliefs, and practice; and the perception that Judaism was hostile towards Christianity.[4] For two millennia, these attitudes were reinforced in Christian preaching, art, and popular teachings, as well as in statutes which were designed to humiliate and stigmatise Jews.[5]

Modern antisemitism has primarily been described as

hatred of Jews as a race (see Racial antisemitism) and the most recent expression of it is rooted in 18th-century racial theories. Anti-Judaism is rooted in hostility towards the religion of Judaism; in Western Christianity, anti-Judaism effectively merged with anti-Semitism during the 12th century.[1]: 16  Scholars have disagreed about the role which Christian anti-Semitism played in the rise of Nazi Germany, World War II, and the Holocaust.[6] The Holocaust forced many Christians to reflect on the role(s) Christian theology and practice played and still play in anti-Judaism and antisemitism.[7]

Early differences between Christianity and Judaism

Main article: Christianity and Judaism
Further information: Anti-Judaism in early Christianity

The legal status of Christianity and Judaism differed within the

19 AD[8] followed by Claudius' expulsion of Jews from Rome.[9] Christianity however was not restricted to one people, and because Jewish Christians were excluded from the synagogue (see Council of Jamnia), they also lost the protected status that was granted to Judaism, even though that protection still had its limits (see Titus Flavius Clemens (consul), Rabbi Akiva, and Ten Martyrs
).

From the reign of

Jews in the Roman Empire.[citation needed
]

Issues which Judaism has with the New Testament

Jesus as the Messiah

See also:
Judaism's view of Jesus, and Rejection of Jesus

In

messiah has not come, the total rejection of Jesus as either the messiah or a deity has never been a central issue in Judaism. However, it is interesting to note that the first 'Christian' church in Jerusalem was almost exclusively Jewish in its congregational makeup, with this early Christian church (through the years 40–60 AD) being made up of approximately 1,000 Jews who had decided to believe in and worship Jesus.[16]

Criticism of the Pharisees

Main article: Woes of the Pharisees

Many New Testament passages criticise the Pharisees, a Jewish social movement and school of thought which existed during the Second Temple period (516 BCE–70 CE), and it has been argued that these passages have shaped the way in which Christians viewed Jews. Like most Bible passages, however, they can be and they have been interpreted in a variety of ways.

Today, mainstream

Hillel and Shammai
).

Recent studies of anti-Semitism in the New Testament

Main article:
Anti-Semitism and the New Testament

Professor Lillian C. Freudmann, author of Antisemitism in the New Testament (University Press of America, 1994) has published a detailed study of the description of Jews in the New Testament and the historical effects that such passages have had in the Christian community throughout history. Similar studies of such verses have been made by both Christian and Jewish scholars, including Professors Clark Williamsom (Christian Theological Seminary), Hyam Maccoby (The Leo Baeck Institute), Norman A. Beck (Texas Lutheran College), and Michael Berenbaum (Georgetown University). Most rabbis feel that these verses are anti-Semitic, and many Christian scholars, in America and Europe, have reached the same conclusion. Another example is John Dominic Crossan's 1995 book, titled Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus.

Some biblical scholars have also been accused of holding anti-Semitic beliefs.

Bruce J. Malina, a founding member of The Context Group, has come under criticism for going as far as to deny the Semitic ancestry of modern Israelis. He then ties this back to his work on first-century cultural anthropology.[20]

Jewish deicide

Main article: Jewish deicide

Jewish deicide is the belief that

Christian denominations[25][26][27]
have repudiated it.

Church Fathers

Further information: Adversus Judaeos and John Chrysostom

After

Church Father John Chrysostom complained that some Christians were still attending Jewish synagogues. The Church Fathers identified Jews and Judaism with heresy
and declared the people of Israel to be extra Deum ('outside of God').

Peter of Antioch

religious images as having "Jewish minds".[29]

Marcion of Sinope

In the early second century AD, the heretic Marcion of Sinope (c. 85 – c. 160 AD) declared that the Jewish God was a different God, inferior to the Christian one,[30] and rejected the Jewish scriptures as the product of a lesser deity.[30] Marcion's teachings, which were extremely popular, rejected Judaism not only as an incomplete revelation, but as a false one as well,[30] but, at the same time, allowed less blame to be placed on the Jews personally for having not recognized Jesus,[30] since, in Marcion's worldview, Jesus was not sent by the lesser Jewish God, but by the supreme Christian God, whom the Jews had no reason to recognize.[30]

In combating Marcion, orthodox apologists conceded that Judaism was an incomplete and inferior religion to Christianity,[30] while also defending the Jewish scriptures as canonical.[30]

Tertullian

The Church Father

apocatastasis.[31] Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170 – c. 235 AD) wrote that the Jews had "been darkened in the eyes of your soul with a darkness utter and everlasting."[32]

Augustine of Hippo

Patristic bishops of the patristic era such as

Ambrose of Milan, he defined Jews as a special subset of those damned to hell. As "Witness People", he sanctified collective punishment for the Jewish deicide and enslavement of Jews to Catholics: "Not by bodily death, shall the ungodly race of carnal Jews perish [...] 'Scatter them abroad, take away their strength. And bring them down O Lord'". Augustine claimed to "love" the Jews but as a means to convert them to Christianity. Sometimes he identified all Jews with the evil of Judas Iscariot and developed the doctrine (together with Cyprian) that there was "no salvation outside the Church".[33]

John Chrysostom

disputed – discuss] "grew fit for slaughter." In citing the New Testament,[34] he claimed that Jesus was speaking about Jews when he said, "as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me."[33]

Jerome

St. Jerome identified Jews with Judas Iscariot and the immoral use of money ("Judas is cursed, that in Judas the Jews may be accursed [...] their prayers turn into sins"). Jerome's homiletical assaults, which may have served as the basis for the anti-Jewish Good Friday liturgy, contrasts Jews with the evil, and that "the ceremonies of the Jews are harmful and deadly to Christians", whoever keeps them was doomed to the devil: "My enemies are the Jews; they have conspired in hatred against Me, crucified Me, heaped evils of all kinds upon Me, blasphemed Me."[33]

Ephraim the Syrian

Ephraim the Syrian wrote polemics against Jews in the 4th century, including the repeated accusation that Satan dwells among them as a partner. The writings were directed at Christians who were being proselytized by Jews. Ephraim feared that they were slipping back into Judaism; thus, he portrayed the Jews as enemies of Christianity, like Satan, to emphasize the contrast between the two religions, namely, that Christianity was Godly and true and Judaism was Satanic and false. Like Chrysostom, his objective was to dissuade Christians from reverting to Judaism by emphasizing what he saw as the wickedness of the Jews and their religion.[35][36]

Middle Ages

Main articles: History of European Jews in the Middle Ages and Medieval antisemitism
A miniature from Grandes Chroniques de France depicting the expulsion of Jews from France in 1182

Anna Sapir Abulafia, most scholars agree that Jews and Christians in Latin Christendom lived in relative peace with one another until the 13th century.[38][39]

In 7th century Spain, Visigoth Christian rulers and the Spanish Church's Councils of Toledo implemented policies of forced conversions and expulsions of Jews. In the 11th century European Jews faced violent attacks, massacres and forced conversions, which continued to occur throughout the Middle Ages.[40] Notable examples included the Rhineland massacres as part of the First Crusade, as well as massacres in England (1198–1190), Franconia (1298), and in France in 1320 as part of the Shepherds' Crusade.[40] The 1391 massacres of Jews in Spain proved particularly deadly, forcing many Jews to convert. In 1290, King Edward I expelled all Jews from England, which was followed by similar actions in France in 1306, Switzerland in 1348 and Germany in 1394.[41] Jews were not permitted to return to England until 1656. Other countries and towns allowed Jews to return, only to expel them again a few years later. The most common reasons given for these banishments were the need for religious purity, protection of Christian citizens from Jewish money lending, or pressure from other citizens who hoped to profit from the Jews' absence.[41]

Jews were subjected to a wide range of legal disabilities and restrictions in medieval Europe. Jews were excluded from many trades, the occupations varying with place and time, and determined by the influence of various non-Jewish competing interests. Often Jews were barred from all occupations but money-lending and peddling, with even these at times forbidden. Jews' association to money lending would carry on throughout history in the stereotype of Jews being greedy and perpetuating capitalism. Another stereotype that appeared in the 12th century was the blood libel, which alleged that the Jews killed Christian boys and used their blood to make unleavened bread.[42] Such accusations led to persecutions and killing of Jews.

In the later medieval period, the number of Jews who were permitted to reside in certain places was limited; they were concentrated in ghettos, and they were also not allowed to own land; they were forced to pay discriminatory taxes whenever they entered cities or districts other than their own.[43] The Oath More Judaico, the form of oath required from Jewish witnesses, developed bizarre or humiliating forms in some places, e.g. in the Swabian law of the 13th century, the Jew would be required to stand on the hide of a sow or a bloody lamb.[44]

The

Fourth Lateran Council which was held in 1215 was the first council to proclaim that Jews were required to wear something that distinguished them as Jews (the same requirement was also imposed on Muslims). On many occasions, Jews were accused of blood libels, the supposed drinking of the blood of Christian children in mockery of the Christian Eucharist.[45]

Sicut Judaeis

Calixtus II, intended to protect Jews who suffered during the First Crusade
, and was reaffirmed by many popes, even until the 15th century although they were not always strictly upheld.

The bull forbade, besides other things, Christians from coercing Jews to convert, or to harm them, or to take their property, or to disturb the celebration of their festivals, or to interfere with their cemeteries, on pain of excommunication:[47]

We decree that no Christian shall use violence to force them to be baptized, so long as they are unwilling and refuse. [...] Without the judgment of the political authority of the land, no Christian shall presume to wound them or kill them or rob them of their money or change the good customs that they have thus far enjoyed in the place where they live.[48]

Papal restrictions and persecution of Jews

Pope Paul IV, the author of Cum nimis absurdum

While some popes offered protection to Jews, others implemented restrictive policies and actions that contributed to their marginalization and persecution:

Devaluing testimony of Jews: The Third Lateran Council, convened by Pope Alexander III in 1179, declared the testimony of Christians should be always accepted over the testimony of Jews, that those who believe the testimony of Jews should be anathemized, and that Jews should be subject to Christians.[49] It forbade Christians serving Jews and Muslims in their homes, calling for the excommunication of those who do.

Prohibitions on holding public office. The

Fourth Lateran Council, of 1215, convened by Pope Innocent III, declared: "Since it is absurd that a blasphemer of Christ exercise authority over Christians, we ... renew in this general council what the Synod of Toledo (589) wisely enacted in this matter, prohibiting Jews from being given preference in the matter of public offices, since in such capacity they are most troublesome to the Christians"[50] These prohibitions remained in effect for centuries.[51][52][53]

Distinctive clothing and badges: The

Jewish Emancipation following the Enlightenment,
but the Nazis revived it. The Council also forbade Jews and Muslims from appearing in public during the last three days of Easter.

Condemnations and burning of the Talmund: In 1239, Pope Gregory IX sent a letter to priest in France with accusations against the Talmund by a Franciscan. He ordered the confiscation of Jewish books while Jews were gathered in synagogue, and that all such books be "burned at the stake.” Similar instructions were conveyed to the kings of France, England, Spain, and Portugal. 24 wagons of Jewish books were burned in Paris. Additional condemnations of the Talmud were issued by Popes Innocent IV in his bull of 1244, Alexander IV, John XXII in 1320, and Alexander V in 1409. Pope Eugenius IV issued a bull prohibiting Jews from studying the Talmud following the Council of Basle, 1431–43.[56]

Spanish Inquisition: In 1478 Pope Sixtus IV issued a bull which authorized the Spanish Inquisition.[57] This institutionalized the persecution of Jews who had converted to Christianity (conversos), due to mass violence against Jews by Catholics (e.g. the Massacre of 1391). The Inquisition employed torture and property confiscation, thousands were burned at the stake. In 1492 Jews were given the choice of either baptism or expulsion, as a result more than 160,000 Jews were expelled.[57]

Portuguese Inquisition: In 1536

Catholicism, who were suspected of secretly practicing Judaism. Many of these were originally Spanish Jews who had left Spain for Portugal, when Spain forced Jews to convert to Christianity or leave. The number of these victims (between 1540 and 1765) is estimated at around 40,000.[58]

Ghettos: In 1555, Pope Paul IV issued the papal bull Cum nimis absurdum, which forced Jews in the Papal States to live in ghettos. It declared "absurd" that Jews, condemned by God to slavery for their faults, had "invaded" the Papal States and were living freely among Christians. It justified restrictions by asserting that Jews were "slaves" for their deeds, while Christians were "freed" by Jesus, and that Jews should see "the true light" and convert to Catholicism. This policy was later adopted in other parts of Europe. The Roman Ghetto, established in 1555, was one of the best-known Jewish ghettos, existing until the Papal States were abolished in 1870, and Jews were no longer restricted[59]

Forced conversions and expulsions: Some popes supported or initiated forced conversions and expulsions of Jews. For example, Pope Pius V expelled Jews from the Papal States in 1569, with the exception of Rome and Ancona. In 1593 Pope Clement VIII expelled the Jews from the Papal States with the bull, Caeca et Obdurata Hebraeorum perfidia (meaning The blind and obdurate perfidy of the Hebrews[60]) Pope Innocent III in 1201 authorized the forced baptism of Jews in southern France, declaring that those who had been forcibly baptized must remain Christian.[61]

Restrictions on Jewish economic activities: Various popes imposed restrictions on Jewish economic activities, limiting their professions and ability to own property. In 1555 Pope Paul IV, in his bull Cum nimis absurdum, prohibited Jews from engaging in most professions, restricting them primarily to moneylending and selling second-hand goods. This bull also forbade Jews from owning real estate and limited them to one synagogue per city. Previously the Fourth Lateran Council, sought "to protect the Christians against cruel oppression by the Jews", who extort Christians with "oppressive and immoderate" interest rates.[49]

anti-Semitism

Jews burned alive for the alleged host desecration in Deggendorf, Bavaria, in 1337

Anti-Semitism in popular European Christian culture escalated beginning in the 13th century.

Ecclesia et Synagoga recurred in Christian art and architecture. Anti-Jewish Easter holiday customs such as the Burning of Judas continue to the present time.[63]

In Iceland, one of the hymns repeated in the days leading up to Easter includes the lines:[64]

The righteous Law of Moses
The Jews here misapplied,
Which their deceit exposes,
Their hatred and their pride.
The judgement is the Lord's.
When by falsification
The foe makes accusation,
It's His to make awards.

Persecutions and expulsions

Lisbon Massacre
in 1506
Expulsions of Jews in Europe from 1100 to 1600

During the

Emperor Maximilian I to expel its 500 Jews.[67]

"Officially, the medieval Catholic church never advocated the expulsion of all of the Jews from Christendom nor did it repudiate Augustine's doctrine of Jewish witness... Still, late medieval Christendom frequently ignored its mandates".[68]

Expulsion of Jews from Spain

Main article: Alhambra Decree

The largest expulsion of Jews followed the

persecution
.

From the Renaissance to the 17th century

Cum Nimis Absurdum

On 14 July 1555, Pope Paul IV issued papal bull Cum nimis absurdum which revoked all the rights of the Jewish community and placed religious and economic restrictions on Jews in the Papal States, renewed anti-Jewish legislation and subjected Jews to various degradations and restrictions on their freedom.

The bull established the Roman Ghetto and required Jews of Rome, which had existed as a community since before Christian times and which numbered about 2,000 at the time, to live in it. The Ghetto was a walled quarter with three gates that were locked at night. Jews were also restricted to one synagogue per city.

Paul IV's successor, Pope Pius IV, enforced the creation of other ghettos in most Italian towns, and his successor, Pope Pius V, recommended them to other bordering states.

Protestant Reformation

On the Jews and Their Lies
See also:
Luther and anti-Semitism

Martin Luther at first made overtures towards the Jews, believing that the "evils" of Catholicism had prevented their conversion to Christianity. When his call to convert to his version of Christianity was unsuccessful, he became hostile to them.[69][70][71]

In his book On the Jews and Their Lies, Luther excoriates them as "venomous beasts, vipers, disgusting scum, canders,[clarification needed] devils incarnate." He provided detailed recommendations for a pogrom against them, calling for their permanent oppression and expulsion, writing "Their private houses must be destroyed and devastated, they could be lodged in stables. Let the magistrates burn their synagogues and let whatever escapes be covered with sand and mud. Let them be forced to work, and if this avails nothing, we will be compelled to expel them like dogs in order not to expose ourselves to incurring divine wrath and eternal damnation from the Jews and their lies." At one point he wrote: "...we are at fault in not slaying them..." a passage that "may be termed the first work of modern anti-Semitism, and a giant step forward on the road to the Holocaust."[72]

Luther's harsh comments about the Jews are seen by many as a continuation of medieval Christian anti-Semitism. In his final sermon shortly before his death, however, Luther preached: "We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord," but also in the same sermon stated that Jews were "our public enemy" and if they refused conversion were "malicious," guilty of blasphemy and would work to kill gentile believers in Christ.[73]

18th century

Painting in Sandomierz Cathedral, Poland, depicts Jews murdering Christian children for their blood, ~ 1750.

In accordance with the anti-Jewish precepts of the

shtetls and forbade them from returning to the towns that they occupied before the partition of Poland.[75]

19th century

See also:
Relations between Catholicism and Judaism

Throughout the 19th century and into the 20th, the Roman Catholic Church still incorporated strong anti-Semitic elements, despite increasing attempts to separate anti-Judaism (opposition to the Jewish religion on religious grounds) and racial anti-Semitism. Brown University historian

Weekly Standard for using evidence selectively.[citation needed
]

Opposition to the French Revolution

The

Napoleon's decision to limit the civil rights of Alsatian Jews.[78][79][80][81] Bonald's article Sur les juifs (1806) was one of the most venomous screeds of its era and furnished a paradigm which combined anti-liberalism, a defense of a rural society, traditional Christian anti-Semitism, and the identification of Jews with bankers and finance capital, which would in turn influence many subsequent right-wing reactionaries such as Roger Gougenot des Mousseaux, Charles Maurras, and Édouard Drumont, nationalists such as Maurice Barrès and Paolo Orano, and anti-Semitic socialists such as Alphonse Toussenel.[76][82][83] Bonald furthermore declared that the Jews were an "alien" people, a "state within a state", and should be forced to wear a distinctive mark to more easily identify and discriminate against them.[76][84]

In the 1840s, the popular counter-revolutionary Catholic journalist Louis Veuillot propagated Bonald's arguments against the Jewish "financial aristocracy" along with vicious attacks against the Talmud and the Jews as a "deicidal people" driven by hatred to "enslave" Christians.[85][84] Gougenot des Mousseaux's Le Juif, le judaïsme et la judaïsation des peuples chrétiens (1869) has been called a "Bible of modern anti-Semitism" and was translated into German by Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg.[84] Between 1882 and 1886 alone, French priests published twenty anti-Semitic books blaming France's ills on the Jews and urging the government to consign them back to the ghettos, expel them, or hang them from the gallows.[84]

In Italy, the Jesuit priest Antonio Bresciani's highly popular novel 1850 novel L'Ebreo di Verona (The Jew of Verona) shaped religious anti-Semitism for decades, as did his work for La Civiltà Cattolica, which he helped launch.[86][87]

Pope Pius VII (1800–1823) had the walls of the Jewish ghetto in Rome rebuilt after the Jews were emancipated by Napoleon, and Jews were restricted to the ghetto through the end of the Papal States in 1870. Official Catholic organizations, such as the Jesuits, banned candidates "who are descended from the Jewish race unless it is clear that their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have belonged to the Catholic Church" until 1946.

20th century

In Russia, under the Tsarist regime, anti-Semitism intensified in the early years of the 20th century and was given official favor when the secret police forged the

global domination.[88] Violence against the Jews in the Kishinev pogrom in 1903 was continued after the 1905 revolution by the activities of the Black Hundreds.[89] The Beilis Trial
of 1913 showed that it was possible to revive the blood libel accusation in Russia.

Catholic writers such as Ernest Jouin, who published the Protocols in French, seamlessly blended racial and religious anti-Semitism, as in his statement that "from the triple viewpoint of race, of nationality, and of religion, the Jew has become the enemy of humanity."[90] Pope Pius XI praised Jouin for "combating our mortal [Jewish] enemy" and appointed him to high papal office as a protonotary apostolic.[91][90]

From WWI to the eve of WWII

Main article: Pope Benedict XV and Judaism
An anti-Semitic campaign placard used by the Christian Social Party during the 1920 elections in Austria

In 1916, in the midst of the First World War, American Jews petitioned Pope Benedict XV on behalf of the Polish Jews.

Nazi anti-Semitism

Further information: Pope Pius XI and Judaism, Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust, and The Holocaust

During a meeting with Roman Catholic Bishop Wilhelm Berning of Osnabrück On April 26, 1933, Hitler declared:

I have been attacked because of my handling of the Jewish question. The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc., because it recognized the Jews for what they were. In the epoch of liberalism, the danger was no longer recognized. I am moving back toward the time in which a fifteen-hundred-year-long tradition was implemented. I do not set race over religion, but I recognize the representatives of this race as pestilent for the state and for the Church, and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions.

The transcript of the discussion does not contain any response by Bishop Berning. Martin Rhonheimer does not consider this unusual because in his opinion, for a Catholic Bishop in 1933, there was nothing particularly objectionable "in this historically correct reminder".[92]

The Nazis used

justify their claim that their ideology was morally righteous. Luther seems to advocate the murder of Jews who refused to convert to Christianity by writing that "we are at fault in not slaying them."[93]

Archbishop Robert Runcie asserted that: "Without centuries of Christian anti-Semitism, Hitler's passionate hatred would never have been so fervently echoed... because for centuries Christians have held Jews collectively responsible for the death of Jesus. On Good Friday in times past, Jews have cowered behind locked doors with fear of a Christian mob seeking 'revenge' for deicide. Without the poisoning of Christian minds through the centuries, the Holocaust is unthinkable."[1]: 21  The dissident Catholic priest Hans Küng has written that "Nazi anti-Judaism was the work of godless, anti-Christian criminals. But it would not have been possible without the almost two thousand years' pre-history of 'Christian' anti-Judaism..."[2]: 169  The consensus among historians is that Nazism as a whole was either unrelated or actively opposed to Christianity,[6] and Hitler was strongly critical of it,[94] although Germany remained mostly Christian during the Nazi era.

The document Dabru Emet was issued by over 220 rabbis and intellectuals from all branches of Judaism in 2000 as a statement about Jewish-Christian relations. This document states,

Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon. Without the long history of Christian anti-Judaism and Christian violence against Jews, Nazi ideology could not have taken hold nor could it have been carried out. Too many Christians participated in, or were sympathetic to, Nazi atrocities against Jews. Other Christians did not protest sufficiently against these atrocities. But Nazism itself was not an inevitable outcome of Christianity.

According to American

Roman Catholic Church and "upon which Luther built."[3]

Collaborating Christians

A symbol used by the German Christians.

Opposition to the Holocaust

The Confessing Church was, in 1934, the first Christian opposition group. The Catholic Church officially condemned the Nazi theory of racism in Germany in 1937 with the encyclical "Mit brennender Sorge", signed by Pope Pius XI, and Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber led the Catholic opposition, preaching against racism.

Many individual Christian clergy and laypeople of all denominations had to pay for their opposition with their lives, including:

By the 1940s, few Christians were willing to publicly oppose Nazi policy, but many Christians secretly helped save the lives of Jews. There are many sections of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Museum, Yad Vashem, which are dedicated to honoring these "Righteous Among the Nations".

Pope Pius XII

Further information: Pope Pius XII and Judaism and Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust

Before he became Pope, Cardinal Pacelli addressed the

International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest on 25–30 May 1938 during which he referred to the Jews "whose lips curse [Christ] and whose hearts reject him even today"; at this time anti-Semitic laws were in the process of being formulated in Hungary.[95]

The 1937 encyclical Mit brennender Sorge was issued by Pope Pius XI,[96] but it was drafted by the future Pope Pius XII[97] and it was also read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches, it condemned Nazi ideology and scholars have characterized it as the "first great official public document to dare to confront and criticize Nazism" and "one of the greatest such condemnations ever issued by the Vatican."[98]

In the summer of 1942, in the presence of his college of Cardinals, Pius explained the reasons for the great gulf that existed between Jews and Christians at the theological level: "Jerusalem has responded to His call and to His grace with the same rigid blindness and stubborn ingratitude that has led it along the path of guilt to the murder of God." Historian Guido Knopp describes these comments of Pius as being "incomprehensible" at a time when "Jerusalem was being murdered by the million".

John XXIII.[100]

Prominent members of the Jewish community have contradicted the criticisms of Pius and they have also spoken highly about his efforts to protect Jews.[101] The Israeli historian Pinchas Lapide interviewed war survivors and concluded that Pius XII "was instrumental in saving at least 700,000, but probably as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands". Some historians dispute this estimate.[102]

"White Power" movement

Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, New Jersey
.

The

alternative history doctrine concerning the descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. In some of its forms, this doctrine absolutely denies the view that modern Jews have any ethnic connection to the Israel of the Bible. Instead, according to extreme forms of this doctrine, the true Israelites and the true humans are the members of the Adamic (white) race. These groups are often rejected and they are not even considered Christian groups by mainstream Christian denominations and the vast majority of Christians around the world.[103][104]

Post World War II anti-Semitism

it also exists in many other nations, including Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and tensions between some Muslim immigrants and Jews have increased across Europe.[105][106] The US State Department reports that anti-Semitism has increased dramatically in Europe and Eurasia since 2000.[107]

While

fight against anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, reported 1432 acts of anti-Semitism in the United States that year. The figure included 877 acts of harassment, including verbal intimidation, threats, and physical assaults.[111] Many Christian Zionists are also accused of espousing anti-Semitism, such as John Hagee, who argued that the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by angering God.[112]

Relations between Jews and Christians have dramatically improved since the 20th century. According to a global poll which was conducted in 2014 by the ADL, data was collected from 102 countries concerning their population's attitudes towards Jews and it revealed that only 24% of the world's Christians held views that were considered anti-Semitic according to the ADL's index, compared to 49% of the world's Muslims.[113]

Anti-Judaism

Main article: Anti-Judaism

Many Christians do not consider

anti-Semitism.[according to whom?] They regard anti-Judaism as a disagreement with the tenets of Judaism by religiously sincere people, while they regard anti-Semitism as an emotional bias or hatred which does not specifically target the religion of Judaism. Under this approach, anti-Judaism is not regarded as anti-Semitism because it does not involve actual hostility towards the Jewish people, instead, anti-Judaism only rejects the religious beliefs of Judaism.[citation needed
]

Others believe that anti-Judaism is the rejection of Judaism as a religion or opposition to Judaism's beliefs and practices essentially because of their source in Judaism or because a belief or practice is associated with the Jewish people. (But see supersessionism)

Several scholars, including Susannah Heschel,

Shoah,' and the Jewish declaration on Christianity, Dabru Emet opinionated the position that "Christian theological anti-Judaism is a phenomenon which is distinct from modern anti-Semitism, which is rooted in economic and racial thought, so that Christian teachings should not be held responsible for anti-Semitism".[7]

Although some Christians did consider anti-Judaism to be contrary to Christian teaching in the past, this view was not widely expressed by Christian leaders and lay people. In many cases, the practical tolerance towards the Jewish religion and Jews prevailed. Some Christian groups condemned verbal anti-Judaism, particularly in their early years.[citation needed]

Conversion of Jews

See also: Catholic Church and Judaism, Hebrew Catholics, Hebrew Roots, Judaism and Mormonism, Judaizers, Messianic Judaism, Philosemitism, and Protestantism and Judaism

Some Jewish organizations have denounced evangelistic and missionary activities that specifically target Jews by labeling them anti-Semitic.[115][116][117]

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the U.S., has explicitly rejected suggestions that it should back away from seeking to convert Jews, a position which critics have called anti-Semitic, but a position which Baptists believe is consistent with their view that salvation is solely found through faith in Christ. In 1996 the SBC approved a resolution calling for efforts to seek the conversion of Jews "as well as the salvation of 'every kindred and tongue and people and nation.'"

Most Evangelicals agree with the SBC's position, and some of them also support efforts that specifically seek the Jews' conversion. Additionally, these Evangelical groups are among the most pro-Israel groups. (For more information, see Christian Zionism.) One controversial group which has received a considerable amount of support from some Evangelical churches is Jews for Jesus, which claims that Jews can "complete" their Jewish faith by accepting Jesus as the Messiah.

The

Anglicans do not, as a rule, seek converts from other Christian denominations,[118] the General Synod has affirmed that "the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ is for all and must be shared with all including people from other faiths or of no faith and that to do anything else would be to institutionalize discrimination".[119]

The

Society of St. Pius X
which has notable Jewish converts among its faithful, many of whom have become traditionalist priests).

The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) is one of the ten official mission agencies of the Church of England. The Society for Distributing Hebrew Scriptures is another organization, but it is not affiliated with the established Church.

There are several prophecies concerning the conversion of the Jewish people to Christianity in the scriptures of

Doctrine & Covenants teaches that the Jewish people will be converted to Christianity during the second coming when Jesus appears to them and shows them his wounds.[121][122] It teaches that if the Jewish people do not convert to Christianity, then the world would be cursed.[123] Early LDS prophets, such as Brigham Young[124]: 144  and Wildord Woodruff,[122] taught that Jewish people could not be truly converted because of the curse which resulted from Jewish deicide.[125]: 205–206  However, after the establishment of the state of Israel, many LDS members felt that it was time for the Jewish people to start converting to Mormonism. During the 1950s, the LDS Church established several missions that specifically targeted Jewish people in several cities in the United States.[124]: 149  After the LDS church began to give the priesthood to all males regardless of race in 1978, it also started to deemphasize the importance of race concerning conversion.[124]: 151  This led to a void of doctrinal teachings that resulted in a spectrum of views on how LDS members interpret scripture and previous teachings.[124]: 154  According to research which was conducted by Armand Mauss, most LDS members believe that the Jewish people will need to be converted to Christianity to be forgiven for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.[24]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also been criticized for baptizing deceased Jewish Holocaust victims. In 1995, in part as a result of public pressure, church leaders promised to put new policies into place that would help the church to end the practice, unless it was specifically requested or approved by the surviving spouses, children or parents of the victims.[126] However, the practice has continued, including the baptism of the parents of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal.[127]

Reconciliation between Judaism and Christian groups

Main article: Christian–Jewish reconciliation

In recent years, there has been much to note in the way of reconciliation between some Christian groups and the Jews.

See also

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Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Christianity and antisemitism.
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