In a world full of Anti-Semitism, the greatest expression of Anti-Semitism is the one expressed by those within the religious community against fellow Jews who do not meet their standards of what they think constitutes Judaism or Jewishness and what defines it. The first Jewish believers in Yeshua as Moschiach encountered it, and every Jewish believer since has continued to encounter it, even those wanting to make Alyah to Eretz Yisrael as Jews, and especially those with Jewish fathers or paternal ancestry which the rabbinate do not consider “Jewish” because their mother was not Jewish. This is the greatest form of Anti-Semitism – exclusion for religious reasons. But the controversy that currently surrounds the Jewish believer in Jesus as Messiah is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There is much more and there has always been much more.
Little known to the non-Jewish World is the schisms which exist within Judaism between Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union with Sephardic Jews from Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Latin America, as well as Mizrachi Jews from Arab speaking nations about how they should practice their Judaism. The differences in customs, language, liturgy, etc. are so great, and in all these things, the parties forget that this is precisely the by-product of centuries of exile. And to those who fear assimilation, they forget that every group listed above is a product of much assimilation from the lands they all hail from. Not one has not been affected by the native countries of their origin. Not one..
The Falashas; Jews from Ethiopia, who date back to the time of King Solomon, and Samaritans who never left the land of Israel, have long encountered this kind of narrow-mindedness; because the Rabbinate from European Judaism, mostly from Ashkenazi circles – have deemed the Judaism practiced by these two groups and Jews who practice Messianic Judaism as not approved practices of the Jewish faith; that is, they do not meet their Halachic requirements. Modern Rabbinic Judaism comes in many permutations. Like Christendom, it is religious fractured into many types, each with its own bylaws and interpretations. But what is most reprehensible is to find Orthodox Judaism having a chokehold on every facet of Jewish life, especially in Israel. Mati Wagner’s article on this is most cogent, because it serves to illustrate just how pervasive this has become, and how this has done more harm than good in the region’s only true democracy. Perhaps, it serves to illustrate that like all democracies, Israel’s blend still has some bumps which it is trying to work out. This is especially true with Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in the land.
And perhaps there is not greater form of Anti-Semitism expressed than when one gives the greetings and the blessings to another for the coming year, and the other party for any of the reasons listed above, and a good many more, does not return the greeting. This is especially a very sad thing, especially at this time of introspection. That I would not bless a Falasha, or someone who does not practice my brand of Messianic Judaism must be most displeasing to Ha Shem. In fact, it must be intolerable to Him to see such divisions within His people, especially during the Days of Awe, when we all commit to be better, to strive to do what is right in G-d’s eyes, and to be a light unto the world.
Some years ago while working in Ft. Lee, I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman by the name of Norbert Strauss, one of two Holocaust survivors with the same name who were on the same ill-fated ship, the St. Louis, out of Germany – both from Germany – who sought asylum in every port of call they came to and were not given it, but returned to Hitler’s Germany to face their fate at the and hands of the rabid Anti-Semites of the Third Reich. These two gentlemen, both of them survivors from the same ill fated ocean liner, both from Germany, told me their story. The first Mr. Strauss recommended I read the story of what they went through in the book about the St. Louis, and I did. Mr. Strauss, changed my perception about Jewishness.
In fact, the book about the ill-fated crew and passengers of the St. Louis changed my entire perception about what being a Jew is, and how these proud and patriotic Germans were persecuted and excluded, and finally killed for being Jewish. There was no mercy shown even to those on the ship who were part-Jews, and those whom Rabbinical Judaism consider non-Jews because their father was Jewish but not their mother. The Anti-Semite hates anyone and everyone with even the smallest tint of Jewish blood. I had seen this to one extent or another expressed by people speaking under their breath when referring to Jews overall. But, I have never understood how one Jew could do this to another because of religious or ethnic reasons until I saw it for myself during the High Holy Days. My encounter with the two Mr. Strausses awakened in me an appreciation about Anti-Semitism and Pre-Castro Cuba I had never had before, having been born and raised in the United States by parents who were from Cuba. Pre-Castro Cuban Society had some religious ignorance, but not Anti-Semitism, so it was unknown to me, because it did not exist within Cuban Society as it does in many others in Latin America. Perhaps the worst expression of Anti-Semitism I’ve heard amongst Cubans has been to believe that Jesus was a Roman Catholic and not a Jew, and of course on occasion one would hear someone quip the canard of calling a Jew greedy, but because Cubans have always in the majority been nominal Roman Catholics – they call it, “ “Catolico a mi manera – Catholic my way” – they have always been an extremely tolerant society.
My encounter with Mr. Strauss (the first one) provided me with an appreciation and understanding which I lacked years ago about Jewishness, which has lifted from me the veil of ignorance. But it is evident in so many others, even some of the most observant of both Jews and Christians, usually due to ignorance and isolation more than anything else. Human beings usually fear and by extension, often loath what they do not know or are capable of understanding, again – out of fear and out of ignorance.
If there is one lesson the persecution and death of six million Jews during the Holocaust should have taught, and that is that in a world filled with Anti-Jewish hatred, every descendant of Abraham is a member of the commonwealth of the people of Israel, and no religious committee – either in this country or Israel, or any other land – has the right to deny a Jew – any Jew – his/her right to his/her identity and by this, his/her birthright to live as a Jew wherever he/she may dwell on the grounds of ethnicity, nationality, or even the type of Judaism he/she practices before his/her G-d, or his or her right to return to the land of his or her forebears – the land long ago promised to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob and their descendants forever. Two thousand years of exile, mistreatment, isolation, persecution, and death should have made that quite clear by now. If Judaism has welcomed Ruth who was not Jewish, but a woman from the people and land of the Moabites, why will it not welcome the rest of Abraham’s offspring who wait in the wings to enter in, but through the vagaries of religious convention, are kept from entering therein and live amongst their people as Jews?
B’shem Yeshua Adoneinu,
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