Dear Dr. Elcott:
I was deeply saddened and outraged listening to your yesterday’s presentation at the Interreligious Dialog Program held at the St. Gregory the Great Church. Being actively involved in interfaith activities nationwide, I feel qualified to criticize your “politically correct” position. I cannot accept your philosophical standpoint that Jews have to be casually accused of misdeeds real or imaginary in order to maintain “moral equality” with misdeeds of non-Jews, Muslims in particular.
To be more specific, you stated that Israeli Jews kill Muslims because they are Muslims. In your talk you referred several times to Baruch Goldstein’s despicable deed in Hebron in 1994, killing 28 Muslims during their prayer, implying that Jews are morally equivalent to Muslims who murdered thousands of Jews in the same ten years, following sermons of Muslim clergy about the obligation of Muslim to murder Jews wherever they encounter them. These sermons are broadcast every Friday all over the Islamic world. Following your logic, if the Jewish people are “guilty” of Goldstein’s outrage, all Americans, including yourself, are morally equivalent to Charles Manson and Timothy McVeigh. Consequently, the American victims of the 9/11 atrocities are equally “justifiable” casualties of interfaith and inter-cultural “undesirable” hate crimes.
True, there are certain Jews, especially refugees from Arab oppression who hate Muslims. By the same token there are many Arab Christians who hate Muslims for the same reason. And there are survivors of the Holocaust who have not forgiven the Germans. And, believe it or not, there are certain Americans who hate blacks, and … Jews, for no justifiable reason whatsoever. But what does this have to do with the Jewish people, or Judaism. What does this have to do with the ethics of the American nation? Do current Judaism or modern Christianity advocate killing of people of other faiths just because of their beliefs, as Islam does up to date? Are Christians and Jews morally equivalent to Muslims? To hear such demagogical arguments from the US Interreligious Affairs Director of the AJC is outrageous.
I could point out many additional anti-Jewish allegations that you dug out to “prove” the culpability of the Jews; allegations that you can readily find on neo-Nazi and Muslim Websites. Let me bring up just one example that we discussed personally after your talk. Using outstanding theatrics, you claimed, that “Shpokh Khamtkha…” “Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you…” in the Passover Hagadah is a manifestation of Jewish hatred toward Christians following pogrom in the middleages. A Jewish scholar with your credentials should have known that this verse from Pslam 79:6 stated despair following the destruction of the First Temple (the existence of which is being denied by Muslims) rather than hatred. The preceding verses are: “O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple, they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble. They have given the dead bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth. They have poured out blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead. We are objects of reproach to our neighbors, of scorn and derision to those around us. How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?” Now, Verse 6 was included in the Hagadah by Rabbi Amram Gaon in the middle of the 9th Century in reaction to Islamic (not Christian) oppression of Jews in Mesopotamia. Rabbi Saadiah Gaon, who succeeded Rabbi Amram, omitted this verse for political reasons (not to annoy the Muslim rulers) but it was preserved in other versions of the Hagadah.
It is hard to believe that you, Dr. Elcott, preparing your talk, could not find these historical facts, which took me just 15 minutes to retrieve. It seems that you, like some other Jewish contemporary academic Islamophils, have tried to “amend” history to fit your “politically correct” notions, pointing out Jewish hatred of Christians (which then “justified” Christian pogroms as morally equivalent), while covering up well-documented Islamic oppression. By the way, Verse 6 “Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you…” could not refer to Christians who believe in the same god, whereas there was a controversy in the 9th Century, as there is also today, whether Allah is indeed the Jewish god.
Maybe you should be reminded of the ancient Mishnaic saying: “Ha’Hamim Hizaharu b’divreikhem...” (scholars, be careful with what you say).
It is absolutely not clear to me how you expect such falsehoods and distortions of the truth about the Jewish people (and I referred here just to few of them) to improve the relationship between Christians and Jews. I will be glad to receive your response.
Sincerely,
Michael Anbar Ph.D.
Reply:
Dear Michael
I am grateful for your responding in writing after our brief conversation and, while certainly unhappy that you found me to be anti-Jewish and self hating,
appreciate that your thrust reflects a serious critique. We disagree, but I learn from disagreement more than I learn from those who applaud and walk
away.
The larger issue -- that I am anti-Jewish, undermine us and claim a moral equivalency between 2,000 years of Christian anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic
attacks to the isolated case I offered with Baruch Goldstein confused me. As an observant Jew whose children all attended Orthodox day schools,
dedicating my life to building and defending the Jewish people and Israel, I only hope that you recognize disagreement does not mean we are on
different sides of the table -- we only approach our love of God, Torah and Israel differently. And given that I repeated and stressed that there is no
moral equivalency at all, I am sad that I was unable to convey that clearly enough.
My point was very different -- as we expect and receive not only Christian renunciations of their past, but actually ask them to change their liturgy,
their textbooks and their preaching, we must do the same. We stand for a pluralism of respect, and to participate, we cannot only be victims. If this
was not clear, I apologize.
I realize you are angry that I am not scholarly enough to check out my sources, yet I gave you the most authoritative source for how the Haggadah
reached us in the 21st century. The text I offered as an example of one that is problematic was, in fact, codified in our Ashkenazi haggadot in the
Medieval period as I explained and for the reasons I explained. Check out the reference I gave you which I researched once again when I came
home. And note that the Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative movements have taken out these words --a point I made at the session --
because they no longer reflect the ways we see the Christian world.
The AJC is a multi-voiced institution. There are many here who would share your sensitivities as there are others who are quite comfortable with
mine. We are a healthier community as a result.
Thank you again for your open letter.
Bivracha uv'shalom -- with blessings and peace,
David
Reply to reply:
Dear David:
Thanks for your prompt response. It seems that I, as well as others who listened to your presentation, misunderstood your message. Any lecturer must remember that the “customer is always right,” and so are your listeners. I learned this by being a university professor for 50 years before retiring.
If your point was, as you stated in your letter that Jewish liturgy (not the scriptures!!!) calls for reform to weed out perceived denunciations of other currently living religions, I will go along with you, as long you do not suggest to follow Kaplan’s ideology and weed out the “choseness,” Messianism and resurrection at the end of days, which are affirmed in our daily liturgy. Kaplan’s “liberal” “scientific” approach also considers the miracles associated with God’s covenant with the Jewish people as unbelievable myths. All this would make Jews less acceptable to mainstream Christianity. I understand that this very acceptance is your main mission as Interreligious Affairs Director of the AJC.
On the other hand, this apologetic approach would not make Jews more acceptable to atheistic Marxist “liberals”, as can be seen from the experience of the Reconstructionists movement. In your presentation you brought up “Shelo asanu kegioiey ha’arazont” as a negative attribute of Judaism – here I strongly disagree with you. Judaism survived thanks to its spiritual and ethical uniqueness (not thanks to its unique theology), part of which have been adopted by Christianity but not by Islam. (see “It is all about Ethics” essay #21 in my “Israel and Its Future,” a copy is enclosed).
Moreover, even if you advocate Kaplan’s philosophy, which as I said makes you a poor ambassador to main stream Christians, I still have a hard time to understand your pointing out to your mostly Christian audience that Jews (unlike most of your most of your audience) are materialistic and not spiritual, that they make insensitive racist remarks about the gentiles like; “Shikor like a goy”, Sheigitz, shikse, that mean – crawling vermin…. What brownie points did you gain here? Was this self-flagellation in public, just like emphasizing and reemphasizing the Baruch Goldstein atrocity? What did your false statement that Israeli Jews kill Arabs because they are Muslims (by the way Goldstein was a deranged American Jew who lived in Israel for a few years) have to do with Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ”, which was supposed to be the topic of your talk (let me enclose my “God Move in Mysterious Ways…”)? I still did not get your answer on this critical point.
Coming back to the Hagadah, I happen to be a bibliophile and have some 10 monographs on the origins and development of the Hagadah. If you wish, I will send you some references (most of them are in Hebrew). I agree that “Shfoch hamtkha..” has been canonized in the Ashkenazi Hagadoth in the middle ages, and it might have been perceived as referring to Christians, but it was part of the Hagadah many centuries earlier as a reaction to Muslims. At second thought, the European Hagadah exhibits a strong awareness of Christianity by omitting any reference to Moses in order to avoid resemblance to the Christian redeemer (I could tell you much more about this point when we meet), so the inclusion of “Shfoch hamtkha..” at the beginning of the Hallel!, is most probably not anti Christian, even if it can be perceived as such today. I am telling you this for future reference.
As an academician I do like to debate (this again is a Jewish attribute; but since it is not downbeat, you did not include it in you litany of Jewish “faults”), so I am glad to have had the opportunity to respond to your letter and give you some more material for thought.
All the best,
Michael