Given nearly two millenia of Jewish suffering at Christian hands, it is almost guaranteed that there will be certain tensions in relations between Christians and Jews. Of late, however, it has often been Jews who have been responsible for fanning those tensions.
At the November 3 national conference of the Anti-Defamation League, Abe Foxman, the organization’s national director called efforts by the Christian Right "to implement their Christian worldview, to Christianize America, to save us" the key domestic challenge to the American Jewish community. Foxman warned of the disappearance of the American society in which Jews have prospered. (He would have been on stronger ground warning of the disappearance of Jews within that society.)
What triggered Foxman’s fears? The Christian Right’s "opposition to the [ADL’s] policy positions on church-state separation." By that standard, Agudath Israel of America could also be accused of seeking to Christianize America.
Two weeks after Foxman’s broadside, Reform leader Eric Yoffie launched one of his own at his movement’s biennial convention. His salvos against the Christian Right were greeted with the most enthusiastic applause.
Yoffie accused leaders of the Christian Right of everything from bigotry to blasphemy. "We are appalled when ‘people of faith’ is used in such a way that it excludes most Jews, Catholics, and Muslims," said Yoffie. What could be more bigoted than to claim that . . . anyone who disagrees with you is not a person of faith?" In truth, when Christians use the term "people of faith," they do so specifically to include members of other religions. It is Reform Jews who exclude themselves from the category when they tell pollsters that G-d plays a minor role in their lives at best.
Yoffie also engaged in the tiresome conceit that repeating the words
Given nearly two millenia of Jewish suffering at Christian hands, it is almost guaranteed that there will be certain tensions in relations between Christians and Jews. Of late, however, it has often been Jews who have been responsible for fanning those tensions.
At the November 3 national conference of the Anti-Defamation League, Abe Foxman, the organization’s national director called efforts by the Christian Right "to implement their Christian worldview, to Christianize America, to save us" the key domestic challenge to the American Jewish community. Foxman warned of the disappearance of the American society in which Jews have prospered. (He would have been on stronger ground warning of the disappearance of Jews within that society.)
What triggered Foxman’s fears? The Christian Right’s "opposition to the [ADL’s] policy positions on church-state separation." By that standard, Agudath Israel of America could also be accused of seeking to Christianize America.
Two weeks after Foxman’s broadside, Reform leader Eric Yoffie launched one of his own at his movement’s biennial convention. His salvos against the Christian Right were greeted with the most enthusiastic applause.
Yoffie accused leaders of the Christian Right of everything from bigotry to blasphemy. "We are appalled when ‘people of faith’ is used in such a way that it excludes most Jews, Catholics, and Muslims," said Yoffie. What could be more bigoted than to claim that . . . anyone who disagrees with you is not a person of faith?" In truth, when Christians use the term "people of faith," they do so specifically to include members of other religions. It is Reform Jews who exclude themselves from the category when they tell pollsters that G-d plays a minor role in their lives at best.
Yoffie also engaged in the tiresome conceit that repeating the words "tikkun olam" enough makes one a good person. "When people cloak themselves in religion and forget mercy, it strikes us as blasphemy," said Yoffie. But whom would that be? As my friend Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein noted, after a recent foray to do volunteer work around New Orleans, almost all the volunteers he met attributed their presence to religious imperatives to help those in need.
Rabbi Adlerstein was not speaking of Reform Jews. A 1999 study of the charitable giving of American Jews, by political scientist Raymond Legge, came to a remarkable conclusion: 'While social justice is a concept which is stressed most heavily by the Reform denomination . . . the analyses indicate that in terms of financial contributions this group is least likely to practice it."
For good measure, Yoffie accused the Christian Right of engaging in Nazi-like persecution for its defense of the traditional definition of marriage.
To those within the Jewish community who questioned the wisdom of such sharp attacks on groups who have emerged as the staunchest defenders of Israel in recent years, Foxman and Yoffie insisted that support for Israel could not purchase their silence on matters of great concern to their constituents. Their right to express their own opinions, however, was not the issue. The issue was their demonization of those who do not share their political preferences.
The over-the-top language chosen by Foxman and Yoffie was irresponsible. Virtually every poll of American voters shows that evangelical Christians are the staunchest and more vocal supporters of Israel. And they are more than ten times more numerous than American Jews. Evangelicals consistently rate support for Israel at or near the top of their concerns when they vote. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for American Jews, for whom Israel’s security ranks behind "women’s rights" and a host of other social issues in terms of voting priorities.
After Foxman’s speech, at least one prominent evangelical leader warned, "The more [Foxman] says that ‘you people are destroying this country,’ [the more] some people are going to begin to get fed up with this and say, ‘Well, all right then. If that’s the way you feel, then we just won’t support Israel anymore." That threat, however, is likely to prove idle, at least in the short run. First, those provoking the bitterness of the Christian Right, as we have seen, do not care enough about Israel’s security to be deterred by such threats. And more important, most evangelical groups are too eager to support Israel to be easily put off. As Gary Bauer, president of the American Values organization, told the Forward, "Our support for Israel relies on our understanding of biblical truth and that’s a strong foundation that can’t be shaken by Abe Foxman’s fantasies."
While Yoffie and Foxman’s sharp words may have been irresponsible, they were not without a logic or malice aforethought. As Mendel Zilberberg writes in the January 22 Jerusalem Post, "Tensions between Christians and Jews in the United States are often generated by the internal dynamics of the Jewish community, such as the fundraising needs of organizations that depend on raising the spectre of anti-Semitism and the political identification of most Jews with the Democratic Party."
Foxman has an unerring sense of how to get headlines in the service of ADL fundraising. Foxman makes a handsome living scaring American Jews about the next outbreak of anti-Semitism. And they want to be scared. "If I am hated, therefore I exist as a Jew," is American Jewry’s Cartesian formulation.
Foxman does not seem to care if he arouses precisely the anti-Semitism he fears, as long as the ADL’s coffers continue to overflow. Thus he took the lead in protesting against Mel Gibson’s The Passion, rather than leave it to Christian scholars to point out that Gibson’s screenplay was a distortion of the Christian texts themselves. (Incidentally, there has still not been, as far as I know, one anti-Semitic incident in the United States, attributed to viewing Gibson’s movie.) Even when Foxman appears to be showing sensitivity to Christian concerns, he succeeds only in creating tensions. He loudly protested, for instance, the failure of Israel’s chief rabbis to attend Pope John Paul II’s funeral, as "a sad, missed opportunity," thereby creating a religious issue with the Catholic Church where none had existed.
And it is hard to gainsay conservative activist Jeff Ballabon’s dismissal of Yoffie’s remarks as an effort to "beef up the numbers for a movement that has very little to offer American Jews." The resolutions passed at the Reform convention read pretty much like the platform for the Democratic Party: opposition to the war in Iraq, opposition to appointment of Samuel Alito, Jr. to the Supreme Court, and resolutions in favor of ending global poverty, voting rights for citizens of Washington D.C. and worker’s rights to organize. Yoffie’s attacks on the Christian Right, then, come off as part of an attack on the Republican Party.
Criticism of the irresponsibility of Foxman and Yoffie does not mean, however, that the Christian Right should receive carte blanche from American Jews to do what it wants. Jews are right to protest the hazing of Jewish cadets at the United Air Force Academy and efforts to force them to participate in Christian activities. Christian chaplains have no business encouraging cadets to proselytize among their Jewish classmates.
Similarly, if Christian support for Israel is used as a cover for missionary activities in Israel, it is not worth the price. As Rabbi Moshe Sherer once told a group of Mormon elders, who were intent on building a Mormon Center in Jerusalem, "A people that lost one million Jewish children in the Holocaust is entitled to be hysterical at the prospect of even one more lost to missionaries." There is far too much missionary activity being tolerated by the Israeli government at present.
But demonizing the Christian Right, or lumping all its members together, is not the most effective way to combat proselytizing either at the Air Force Academy or in Israel.
Here the Orthodox Jewish community is uniquely positioned to play a key role strengthening Jewish-Christian understanding, even as we avoid all hints of ecumenical dialogue. Orthodox Jews are neither intimidated nor put-off by the religious faith of evangelicals, and thus are best suited to establish relationships with them, while explaining the limits of the relationship as well.
It is also important to remember that the Five Books of Moses is, by far, the crucial religious text for Christian evangelicals. By reminding those evangelicals that Jews adhering to the commandments of the Torah still exist, Torah Jews remain the best ambassadors for Israel and the Jewish people to the Christian evangelicals.
tikkun olam" enough makes one a good person. "When people cloak themselves in religion and forget mercy, it strikes us as blasphemy," said Yoffie. But whom would that be? As my friend Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein noted, after a recent foray to do volunteer work around New Orleans, almost all the volunteers he met attributed their presence to religious imperatives to help those in need.
Rabbi Adlerstein was not speaking of Reform Jews. A 1999 study of the charitable giving of American Jews, by political scientist Raymond Legge, came to a remarkable conclusion: 'While social justice is a concept which is stressed most heavily by the Reform denomination . . . the analyses indicate that in terms of financial contributions this group is least likely to practice it."
For good measure, Yoffie accused the Christian Right of engaging in Nazi-like persecution for its defense of the traditional definition of marriage.
To those within the Jewish community who questioned the wisdom of such sharp attacks on groups who have emerged as the staunchest defenders of Israel in recent years, Foxman and Yoffie insisted that support for Israel could not purchase their silence on matters of great concern to their constituents. Their right to express their own opinions, however, was not the issue. The issue was their demonization of those who do not share their political preferences.
The over-the-top language chosen by Foxman and Yoffie was irresponsible. Virtually every poll of American voters shows that evangelical Christians are the staunchest and more vocal supporters of Israel. And they are more than ten times more numerous than American Jews. Evangelicals consistently rate support for Israel at or near the top of their concerns when they vote. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for American Jews, for whom Israel’s security ranks behind "women’s rights" and a host of other social issues in terms of voting priorities.
After Foxman’s speech, at least one prominent evangelical leader warned, "The more [Foxman] says that ‘you people are destroying this country,’ [the more] some people are going to begin to get fed up with this and say, ‘Well, all right then. If that’s the way you feel, then we just won’t support Israel anymore." That threat, however, is likely to prove idle, at least in the short run. First, those provoking the bitterness of the Christian Right, as we have seen, do not care enough about Israel’s security to be deterred by such threats. And more important, most evangelical groups are too eager to support Israel to be easily put off. As Gary Bauer, president of the American Values organization, told the Forward, "Our support for Israel relies on our understanding of biblical truth and that’s a strong foundation that can’t be shaken by Abe Foxman’s fantasies."
While Yoffie and Foxman’s sharp words may have been irresponsible, they were not without a logic or malice aforethought. As Mendel Zilberberg writes in the January 22 Jerusalem Post, "Tensions between Christians and Jews in the United States are often generated by the internal dynamics of the Jewish community, such as the fundraising needs of organizations that depend on raising the spectre of anti-Semitism and the political identification of most Jews with the Democratic Party."
Foxman has an unerring sense of how to get headlines in the service of ADL fundraising. Foxman makes a handsome living scaring American Jews about the next outbreak of anti-Semitism. And they want to be scared. "If I am hated, therefore I exist as a Jew," is American Jewry’s Cartesian formulation.
Foxman does not seem to care if he arouses precisely the anti-Semitism he fears, as long as the ADL’s coffers continue to overflow. Thus he took the lead in protesting against Mel Gibson’s The Passion, rather than leave it to Christian scholars to point out that Gibson’s screenplay was a distortion of the Christian texts themselves. (Incidentally, there has still not been, as far as I know, one anti-Semitic incident in the United States, attributed to viewing Gibson’s movie.) Even when Foxman appears to be showing sensitivity to Christian concerns, he succeeds only in creating tensions. He loudly protested, for instance, the failure of Israel’s chief rabbis to attend Pope John Paul II’s funeral, as "a sad, missed opportunity," thereby creating a religious issue with the Catholic Church where none had existed.
And it is hard to gainsay conservative activist Jeff Ballabon’s dismissal of Yoffie’s remarks as an effort to "beef up the numbers for a movement that has very little to offer American Jews." The resolutions passed at the Reform convention read pretty much like the platform for the Democratic Party: opposition to the war in Iraq, opposition to appointment of Samuel Alito, Jr. to the Supreme Court, and resolutions in favor of ending global poverty, voting rights for citizens of Washington D.C. and worker’s rights to organize. Yoffie’s attacks on the Christian Right, then, come off as part of an attack on the Republican Party.
Criticism of the irresponsibility of Foxman and Yoffie does not mean, however, that the Christian Right should receive carte blanche from American Jews to do what it wants. Jews are right to protest the hazing of Jewish cadets at the United Air Force Academy and efforts to force them to participate in Christian activities. Christian chaplains have no business encouraging cadets to proselytize among their Jewish classmates.
Similarly, if Christian support for Israel is used as a cover for missionary activities in Israel, it is not worth the price. As Rabbi Moshe Sherer once told a group of Mormon elders, who were intent on building a Mormon Center in Jerusalem, "A people that lost one million Jewish children in the Holocaust is entitled to be hysterical at the prospect of even one more lost to missionaries." There is far too much missionary activity being tolerated by the Israeli government at present.
But demonizing the Christian Right, or lumping all its members together, is not the most effective way to combat proselytizing either at the Air Force Academy or in Israel.
Here the Orthodox Jewish community is uniquely positioned to play a key role strengthening Jewish-Christian understanding, even as we avoid all hints of ecumenical dialogue. Orthodox Jews are neither intimidated nor put-off by the religious faith of evangelicals, and thus are best suited to establish relationships with them, while explaining the limits of the relationship as well.
It is also important to remember that the Five Books of Moses is, by far, the crucial religious text for Christian evangelicals. By reminding those evangelicals that Jews adhering to the commandments of the Torah still exist, Torah Jews remain the best ambassadors for Israel and the Jewish people to the Christian evangelicals.
Related Topics: Pluralism, World Jewry
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