Christian Roots of Antisemitism

In Bible study yesterday morning, the prospect of a possible antisemtic bias in Scripture was raised.

Community Vigil

I am glad I attended last Sunday’s “Vigil” at the Jewish Cemetery.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Rabbi+extends+olive+branch+cemetery+vandals/5944239/story.html

I wanted to be there to say that I abhor the hateful attack on the Jewish community. I wanted to be there to demonstrate that we stand united against violence and prejudice in any form.

Community Vigil

I am not good at estimating the size of a crowd. But there were certainly hundreds of us gathered at 1:00 yesterday afternoon in the Jewish cemetery here in Victoria.

Canada’s Shame

Lest Canadians fall prey to the illusion that our ancestors were guiltless in the atrocities perpetrated against the Jewish people in Europe between 1933 and 1945, we would do well to read this morning’s Globe and Mail article “From Daniel Libeskind, a machine of shame.” The article announces the unveiling today of a memorial in Halifax that is intended to keep alive the memory of the refugee boat the MS St. Louis that was turned away from Canadian shores in 1939.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/atlantic/from-daniel-libeskind-a-machine-of-shame/article1876375/

In an associated opinion piece Irving Abella explains the plight of the MS St. Louis.

On May 15, 1939, 907 desperate German Jews set sail from Hamburg on a luxury liner, the St. Louis. They had been stripped of all of their possessions by the Nazis, hounded out of their homes, their businesses and now their country. Their most prized possession was the Cuban entry visa each carried. Yet they considered themselves lucky – they were leaving a country where living as a Jew had become impossible.

Tragically, the ship was turned away from Cuba and when it sailed off Canadian shores, we too refused the passengers entry into our country.

Careless Language

I have been challenged recently to think carefully about the possible implications of metaphors I use. I am glad to be encouraged to look seriously at my use of language. How we use words is important. While we cannot control the way our words are received, or interpreted, those of us who speak in public as part of our professional lives, need to take responsibility for the way we address the people who listen to the words we speak.

Holocaust Thinking #2 (see Oct. 6)

Last night at the church we had our second class with Kristin Semmens on the Holocaust. Again it was an incredibly stimulating, energetic evening. The energy is certainly partly related to Kristin’s presentations. But the material itself raises so many profound and troubling issues that it engages people in a tremendously deep way.

“Defamation” and Antisemitism

Jewish documentary filmmaker Yoav Shamir in his 2009 film “Defamation,” set out to discover if antisemitism represents a serious threat to Jews today. As the narrator of the film Shamir explains that growing up in Israel he never experienced antisemitism but heard endlessly about it in the Israeli media. So, he wanted to discover for himself if antisemtism still represented a real force in the world.

Shamir is helped in his search by the New York based Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL). With a budget of over $70 million a year the ADL is the world’s biggest and most influential Jewish lobby group, tracking the slightest hint of antisemitism wherever it may appear. In Shamir’s film the ADL does not appear to be able to come up with many credible examples of antisemitism. But ADL members are shown doing a lot of wining and dining with rich and powerful leaders around the world.

Is The Holocaust Unique #2

I do not pretend to fully grasp the Jewish argument for the uniqueness of the Holocaust. But I do know that Jewish scholars are not saying that the Jewish Holocaust was worse than any other genocide. They are certainly not trying to diminish the horror and injustice of so many other terrible events that blot the story of human history by elevating the Holocaust above all other atrocities.