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Secrets of Jewish Survival |
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Written by Ben Volman
Why are the Jewish people persecuted, and why do we always survive?
The secret of Jewish survival is buried among many secrets and many questions. Let me begin with a secret that took me more than thirty years to uncover.
After our son was born, my aunt, a Holocaust survivor, came to visit. Seeing the little boy reminded her of another child, the infant son of an older brother, Carchi. The child and his mother had been with her in Auschwitz. They had not survived, and she could only speak about them briefly because it was too painful to recall. I had never even heard of this child before.
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Antisemitism: God's Response and Ours |
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Written by Olivier Melnick
Psalm 83:1-5 says in part:
O God!...Your enemies make a tumult....They have said, "Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more".... For they have consulted together with one consent; they form a confederacy against You...
Thus, the Bible draws an unmistakable parallel between hatred of Israel and hatred of the God of Israel.
In the Scroll of Esther, we find the most detailed, dramatic picture of an antisemitic attack in all of Scripture. The villain Haman hated the Jewish people because they were different-an example of ludicrous antisemitism that would be repeated endless times in history:
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Five must-read books about anti-Semitism |
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Our Hands Are Stained With Blood by Michael Brown
(Shippensburg: Destiny Image, 2002)
 This is a well-documented overview of the painful history of the Jewish people and the institution of the Church. From the early strains of anti-Semitism in the writings of the "Church Fathers" through the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust and even into current attitudes, Dr. Brown sets down the heartbreaking tale of Jewish maltreatment at the hands of the Church. Alongside of this, he builds a case, primarily based on Romans chapters 9-11, of the stance the Church should take toward the Jewish people.
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How we can pray in light of anti-Semitism |
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The Scripture cannot state it more unambiguously than God's promise to Abraham and his descendents in Genesis 12:3 - "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
In the final analysis, anti-Semitism is more destructive to those who practice it than to those who bear the brunt of it. Hard as it may be to contemplate the anguish of Jewish people who have suffered such cruelty at the hands of their enemies throughout the centuries, it is even more frightening to consider the eternal judgment courted by those who are determined to hate what God Himself loves. As the character Yakov Bok in Bernard Malamud's award-winning novel The Fixer observes as he reads the New Testament his guards have given him, "If you want to be an anti-Semite, you must first hate Jesus Christ."
As believers in Messiah, we have a vital part to play to stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Starting at home, we are charged with the task of praying for the Jewish people and demonstrating our support by coming alongside our Jewish neighbors with affirmation as well as the encouraging words of the Gospel.
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Review of the Passion Play |
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The Gospel accounts of Jesus' arrest, trial, torture, execution and resurrection have gripped the souls of countless millions throughout the centuries. It is understandable that they have been remembered and dramatized by the Church. One of the most famous of these "reenactments" has been the Passion Play at the Bavarian village of Oberammergau.
Just as every drama must have its hero, so too every drama must have its villain. The obvious hero of the Gospels is Jesus. Who are the foremost villains of the Passion Play? For centuries, the villains have been the Jewish people.
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