The rise of the new anti-Semitism

Catholics respond to growing anti-Jewish sentiments in Europe and here in the USA . . .

by Judy Roberts

Seventy years after the holocaust killed millions of Jews, some believe anti-Semitism is a relic of the past that will never be repeated.

But there are disturbing signs that hatred for Jews is increasingly rearing its ugly head around the world, including in the United States where tolerance is supposedly valued and religious liberty is enshrined in the constitution.

Attacks and intimidation

Protesters hold signs with pictures of victims during the Jan. 13, 2015, funeral of the four Jews killed in Paris. The sign says, ‘I died because I am Jewish’

Two recent studies — one by the Pew Research Center and another by the Louis B. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. — report an uptick in anti- Semitic attacks on Jews.

The Pew study found harassment of Jews in 2013 occurring in 77 countries — a seven-year high. The problem is particularly acute in Europe, where such incidents were reported in 34 of the region’s 45 countries, causing many Jews to leave.

Already this year an attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris left four dead, a Jewish guard was killed outside a Copenhagen synagogue, Jewish graves were desecrated in a cemetery near Strasbourg, France, and a London synagogue was attacked by a mob shouting, “Kill the Jews.”

In the Brandeis-Trinity 2014 National Demographic Survey of American Jewish college students, 54% reported that they had either experienced or seen anti-Semitic attacks on campus.

Steve Ray

Since the period covered by the survey, there have been reports of swastikas painted on Jewish fraternity houses at Emory, Vanderbilt, and the University of California-Davis. Last month vandals painted swastikas in Northeastern University’s International Village, and students found graffiti reading “Zionists should be sent to the gas chamber” in a campus restroom at the University of California-Berkeley.

Catholics should be concerned about these incidents, not only because anti-Semitism is an offense against the dignity of human beings, but because of the special relationship the Church has with the Jewish people, said author and evangelist Steve Ray, who leads tours to Israel.

“The Catholic Church’s root and trunk is Judaism and Israel,” he said.

Stephen Colecchi, director of the Office of International Justice and Peace for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, agreed. The Jews “are our forebears in the faith, and we believe they are chosen by God, and that choice was not revoked when Jesus came and established a new covenant.”

Stephen Colecchi

Furthermore, Colecchi said, the Jewish community in many ways is the “canary in the coal mine. They’re a smaller community and therefore more vulnerable. When you target any minority within a society, the health of the whole society is weakened and other groups will be next. It never stops there.”

Catholic reaction

The Church’s response to renewed attacks on Jews has come straight from the top with Pope Francis vigorously condemning anti-Semitism and calling for vigilance in combating it.

“It’s a contradiction that a Christian is anti-Semitic: His roots are Jewish,” the Pope said in a 2013 meeting with representatives of the Jewish community marking the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Jews from Rome under Nazi occupation. According to a Catholic News Agency report on the meeting, the Holy Father continued, “A Christian cannot be anti-Semitic! Let anti-Semitism be banished from the heart and life of every man and woman!”

Several months earlier, in a Vatican audience with members of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, Vatican Radio said Pope Francis alluded to the common roots shared by Christians and Jews. Quoting from Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s document on non-Christian religions, he said that St. Paul “firmly condemned hatred, persecution and all forms of anti-Semitism.”

John Rothmann, a Jewish author, lecturer and radio talk show host who has written about Pope St. John XXIII and the Jews for Inside the Vatican, said Pope Francis’ attitude toward Jews and condemnation of anti-Semitism is in the tradition of John XXIII and Pope St. John Paul II.

John Rothmann

Rothmann said John XXIII is known for having issued thousands of baptismal certificates to save Jewish lives from the Nazis during World War II when he was apostolic nuncio in Turkey. In doing so, he made clear that this did not make Jews Catholics, but was done to save their lives.

Likewise, John Paul was a friend and supporter of the Jewish people and called them “our elder brothers.” According to Rabbi David Dalin, writing in the journal First Things, John Paul saw the Catholic and Jewish communities as closely related and considered Jewish-Catholic dialogue as a religious obligation for Catholics.

Will it get worse?

Although anti-Semitism has increased in the last seven years, Colecchi said his understanding, based on a U.S. Senate Human Rights Caucus briefing he attended recently, is that it doesn’t suggest an imminent period of severe persecution such as the Holocaust.

The Pew study, for example, showed that Jews were more likely to be harassed by individuals or social groups than by governments.

Colecchi said the briefing indicated much of the persecution is related to attacks by extremists within Muslim communities, but it is also being perpetrated by extremists who target Muslims as well as Jews.

The good news, he said, is that the Church is equipped to deal with anti-Semitism through the teaching found in Nostra Aetate.

Catholics can seek to counter hatred against Jews, Colecchi said, by indicating their disapproval of anti-Semitic comments and by talking about their respect for the Jewish people and how the Church holds Jews in special regard.

Ray also recommended showing support for Israel, although he said this does not preclude Catholics from criticizing the country when warranted and expressing concern about the plight of Palestinian Christians.

Rothmann agreed, but he said it’s important to remember that Palestinian rights cannot come at the expense of Israel’s right to exist. Furthermore, he said, he is concerned that some of the criticism of Israel on American college campuses through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, is tinged with anti-Semitism.

Rothmann’s father Hans was a Jew who fled Germany after being expelled from Halle-Wittenberg University in 1933.

“I am a Jew who, when he sees what is happening, is not afraid to speak out,” he said. “I am not afraid to identify precisely what the issues are. That’s what Catholics must do. The time to fear is when you can’t speak out anymore.”

JUDY ROBERTS is Legatus magazine’s staff writer.