by Laureen Moe
SUMMARY:
The word "anti-Semitism" is inadequate.
It is a misnomer. The word was coined in 1879 from the
Greek words "anti", meaning "against" and "Semite", meaning a
descendant of Shem. The word was first used by Wilhelm Marr a
German agitator, who created it to explain the current
anti-Jewish campaigns in Europe. Since the Arab peoples are also
Semitic people it is not the best expression. Anti-Jewish, and
Jew- hatred, are more descriptive. It is more than just
prejudice. The word came into general use in the past hundred
years and encompasses all forms of hostility manifested toward
Jews throughout history.
There can be economic and social or
racial anti-Semitism. It didn't reach epidemic proportions until
175 B.C. Previous uprisings against Jews were not really
anti-Semitic. It began almost exclusively in countries which
later became part of the Roman Empire. Prejudice flared it seems
because Jewish people in honouring their Jewish laws, appeared to
be in defiance of Gentile governments. The false assumption began
to emerge that Jews didn't have any respect for whatever was held
in esteem by the rest of humanity.
In the Greek Hellenistic period no
other nation denied the gods of it's neighbours; on the contrary
they recognized those gods, identifying them with their own
deities. These heathen "gods" created a social bond between
people in their domains. None of the people refrained from dining
at table with their neighbours and from partaking of the
sacrifices offered to their gods except the Jews. None of the
peoples refused to send gifts to its neighbours temples, except
the Jews. None of the peoples was unequivocally hostile to
intermarriage except the Jews.
In the eastern Mediterranean area
friction arose over the difference in occupations between Jews
and Gentiles. The Jewish population was engaged primarily in
small scale farming; the non-Jewish population occupied itself
primarily in commerce. The sea trade was almost entirely in the
hands of the trans-Jordanian cities, which connected Syria, Asia
Minor and the regions of the Euphrates with the Arabian
countries. The inhabitants of Eretz Israel had connections
abroad. Non-Jews also knew that Jews looked upon their land as
their divine inheritance.
The first serious manifestation of
anti-Semitism was in the days of the Syrian, Antiochus Epiphanes
in 175 B.C. Hellenistic rulers saw the unfriendliness of the Jews
as obstacles to the cultural scene. He undertook to destroy those
laws of the Talmud that he regarded as unacceptable to humanity.
To this end he desecrated their place of worship by sacrificing a
pig on their altar in Jerusalem, and ordered that the residual
juices be sprinkled over the Holy Books containing these Jewish
laws.
Greek authors in the first century
portrayed the Jewish people as descendants of a mob of lepers.
They further stated that because of this uncleanness Jews shunned
the flesh of pigs, since pigs were more prone to contract
disease. The Gentiles knew that their own pagan religions and
practices rendered them unclean in the eyes of the Jews.
The fact remains that even after four
thousand years the idea of a covenant between the Jews and
Jehovah is still alive; and is mentioned daily in prayers in
synagogues throughout the world. The idea of a covenant with God
has remained constant. Because Jehovah is immortal He never dies
and because He never dies He never has to be reincarnated. Thus
the Jews dispensed with the reincarnation rites of the pagans.
The Jews' God was invisible. The concept of "one God", Jehovah,
being completely withdrawn from sexuality led to a curb of
licentious impulses through inner discipline. By contrast ,the
Greek gods themselves set the pattern for the unbridled lust and
perversion which finally weakened the moral fibre of that people;
whereas the Jews, even when they later came in contact with the
Greeks, refused to indulge in the Grecian sexual excesses, which
included even temple prostitution. The Jewish religion did away
with all fertility rites.
As a consequence of the Jewish dietary
laws, intermarriage was forbidden and no real social intercourse
with gentiles was possible. Also, Jews refused to enter into
Emperor worship. It was considered to be an expression of loyalty
to the state. About their own religious practices a libel began
to circulate that Jews actually sacrificed humans on their
altars, allegedly using the blood for Passover rites. Further it
was said that the sacrificed person must be a Christian or one of
their children. This became known as the "Blood Libel" against
the Jews. It mattered not that it was a total fabrication.
Another libel circulating was that
unclean leprous people were expelled from Egypt, and that the
Jews were these people. Therefore, being foreigners, it was
stated that the Jews had no right to claim ancient Israel as
their divinely given land.
The destruction of the temple by Titus
in 70 AD was seen as hatred by God of the Jews, and as
punishment. Jews in Rome felt the barbs of Roman writers. Nero's
teacher was anti-Semitic. Cornelius Tacitus wrote about every
libellous fabrication against Jews that he could find in Greek
anti-Semitic literature. Juvenal wrote a poem revealing that to
him the Jews were hateful not only to man but to the gods as
well.
In the fourth century AD, when
Constantine became the Roman Emperor and supposedly converted to
Christianity, he harnessed Political power to Religion and passed
anti-Jewish laws, whereby Jews were excluded from every sphere of
political influence, and denied civic rights.
The Gospel accounts began to be the
source from which wrong teachings grew, until the word "Deicide"
meant the Jews killed God, and were labelled "Christ-killers".
Matthew 27:25 which spoke of some Jewish leaders was used instead
to apply to all Jews: "His blood be on us and on our
children...Ye are of your father the devil."
Converts to Christianity and converts
to Judaism sparked a seriously divisive rivalry. Religious
competition began between the Greek fathers of the Church, and
Jews. Church laws were passed whereby Jewish relations with
Christian women was now punishable by death. Anti-Semitism at
this time was mainly limited to the clergy, who were the educated
minority.
Islam arose in the seventh century AD,
and also attacked the Jews because the Jews did not recognize
Muhammad as a legitimate Prophet. The Koran contained their
writings; and many statements in it were hostile to Jews. In the
Middle Ages church councils legislated to prevent contact with
the Jews because Christians were saying after visiting synagogues
that the Jews were better priests.
This historical background of centuries
of anti-Semitism eventually exploded in the 20th century
"Holocaust". The hostility and hatred manifested in the holocaust
was therefore not new. As we have stated ancient writings contain
much anti-Semitism. In pre-Roman times most people did not read
or write. At times, Rome tried to eradicate Judaism and
"Jewishness". Followers were assumed to be treasonous and
subversive. This in turn led to major revolts on the part of the
Jewish community.
The following is a brief
summary of Incidents involving Jews in History...
135 B.C
Antiochus Epiphanes desecrates Second Jewish Temple; leading to
Hasmonean Revolt against Rome.
70 A.D.
Titus took Jerusalem - second revolt. Over one million Jews
killed.
136 A.D.
580,000 men destroyed, 985 towns destroyed - third revolt.
300 A.D.
Purim festival celebrating God's deliverance to Mordecai and the
Jews through Esther and the fasting. Lies spread that Jews kill
Christians for sacrifice. Emperor Severus also said the Jews
purchased 90,000 Christians to kill them.
306 A.D.
Council in Spain banned Christians & Jews meeting or
marrying.
325 A.D.
Constantine changed the celebration of Easter on the calendar so
that it did not coincide with the Jewish Passover.
379 A.D.
Vicious writing by St. John Chrysostom and St. Ambrose in Milan
who said: "The Jews are the most worthless of all men. They are
lecherous, greedy, rapacious. They are perfidious murderers of
Christ. They worship the Devil. Their religion is a sickness. The
Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there
is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon. Christians may
never cease vengeance, and the Jew must live in servitude
forever. God always hated the Jews. It is essential that all
Christians hate them." He was called the Bishop with the Golden
Tongue. St. Ambrose, Bishop of the Church offered to burn the
synagogue himself.
395 A.D.
St. Gregory of Nyssa in sermons and writings characterized Jews
as assassins of the Prophets, companions of the Devil, a race of
vipers, a Sanhedrin of Demons, enemies of all that is beautiful,
hogs and goats in their lewd grossness.
415 A.D.
Bishop Severus BURNED THE SYNAGOGUE IN THE VILLAGE OF MAGONA.
BISHOP OF
ALEXANDRIA, ST. CYRIL EXPELLED JEWS FROM ALEXANDRIA AND GAVE THE
MOB JEWISH PROPERTY.
ACCUSATION of Ritual murder by the Jews during Purim. Christians
confiscated synagogues in ANTIOCH.
These were not hooligans but Church
Fathers!
AUGUSTINE, JEROME, AMBROSE AND LESSER SAINTS AS ST. CHRYSOSTROM
AND CYRIL, added to untruths the new ones that Jews were
dishonest and prone to sexual perversions.
717 A.D.
Jews had to wear special yellow garb. Originated in Islam.
1012 A.D.
Emperor Henry II of Germany expels Jews from Mainz, the beginning
of persecutions against Jews in Germany.
1096 A.D.
First Crusade. Crusaders massacre the Jews of the Rhineland.
1144 A.D.
First recorded blood libel. In Norwich it was alleged that the
Jews had "bought a Christian child before Easter, tortured him
with all the tortures wherewith our Lord was tortured and on
Friday hanged him on a rood in hatred of our Lord."
(England)
This notorious allegation that Jews murder non-Jews,
especially Christians, in order to obtain blood for the Passover
or other rituals is a complex of deliberate lies, trumped up
accusations, and popular beliefs about the murder-lust of the
Jews and their blood-thirstiness, based on the conception that
Jews hate Christianity and mankind in general. It is combined
with the delusion that Jews are in some way not human and must
have recourse to special remedies and subterfuges in order to
appear at least outwardly, like other men. The blood libel led to
trials and massacres of Jews. Its origin is rooted in ancient
almost primordial, concepts concerning the potency and energies
of blood. It is one of the most terrible expressions of human
cruelty and credulity. These blood rituals are expressly
forbidden in Judaism. (See Leviticus 17;11 etc.)
1190 A.D.
Massacre of Jews in England.
1215 A.D.
The Jewish badge introduced.
1240 A.D.
Talmud burned in France.
1290 A.D.
Jews expelled from England.
1298 A.D.
Massacre of thousands in Germany, in 146 localities.
1306 A.D.
Expulsion from France.
1348 A.D.
JEWS blamed for the BLACK DEATH. Charge laid to the Jews that
they POISONED the wells to kill CHRISTIANS.
1389 A.D.
MASSACRES in Bohemia, Spain.
1421 A.D.
270 JEWS BURNED AT THE STAKE. In the 14th and 15th centuries the
Inquisition was more intense because the Church and State joined
forces. Just being Jewish guaranteed persecution
1480 A.D.
Inquisition in Spain - Jews and Christians burned at the
stake.
1483 A.D.
EXPULSIONS from Warsaw, Sicily, Lithuania, Portugal.
1492 A.D.
ALL JEWS EXPELLED FROM SPAIN.
1506 A.D.
Murders in Lisbon - 4000, "conversos", men, women, and children
thrown from windows to street mobs below, due to preaching by
Dominicans against the Jews.
1510 A.D.
EXPELLED from Brandenburg, Germany.
1516 A.D.
Venice initiates the ghetto, the first in Christian Europe.
1544 A.D.
The Reformation. At the end of Martin Luther's life the German
reformer vilified the Jews in violent pamphlets which could not
fail to exert their influence. But because Calvinists were
steeped in Old Testament theology, the Dutch people respected the
Jews as "the Chosen" people; and were not anti-Semitic in their
faith. The reformation was a time of turmoil as the Roman Church
and feudalism lost their supremacy. There was a rising up of
Nationhood and Luther was a German nationalist. The Talmud was
seized and burned everywhere by Papal authority. Jews in Catholic
countries and Polish Jews suffered greatly. Luther's anti-Semitic
writings were later used in anti-Semitic literature.
1553 A.D.
Rome seized and burned the Talmud by order of the POPE.
1559 A.D.
12,000 copies of Talmud burned in Milan.
1569 A.D.
POPE PIUS V ordered all Jews out of the Papal states.
1593 A.D.
EXPULSIONS from Italy and Bavaria.
1598 A.D.
Ritual murder charge that sent three Jews to their deaths.
Execution of the supposed guilty was done by QUARTERING. (In his
book the "Birth of the Prison" Michel Foucault describes at
length the quartering of a condemned man in 1757. It was done
eventually by six horses instead of the four original ones and
other means had to come in to play due to the failure even of six
horses as the prisoners limbs were tied to ropes harnessed to the
horses. Each horse pulled in a different direction. One horse
fell to the ground unsuccessfully. Knives had to be used for
severing...)
1614 A.D.
JEWS attacked and driven out of Frankfurt, Germany.
1624 A.D.
GHETTO established in Ferrara, Italy.
1648 A.D.
Leader of the Cossacks, in the Ukraine massacres 100,000 Jews and
destroyed 300 communities.
1655 A.D.
Massacres of Jews in war against Sweden & Russia by
Poland.
1715 A.D.
POPE PIUS VI issues edict against Jews.
1768 A.D.
20,000 Jews in Poland killed.
1805 A.D.
MASSACRE of Jews in Algeria.
1840 A.D.
BLOOD LIBEL in DAMASCUS.
1853 A.D.
BLOOD LIBEL in RUSSIA.
1858 A.D.
THE MORTARA CASE: Catholics abduct a 7 yr. old Jewish child. A
Catholic servant baptized a Jewish child when the child was
seriously ill and the church of Rome seized the child. Outcry had
no effect on the POPE.
1879 A.D.
Word anti-Semitism comes into existence.
1881 A.D.
POGROMS BEGAN. The word is of Russian origin. It designates
attack, accompanied by destruction, looting of property, murder,
rape. There were three major outbreaks in Russia. The word
designates more particularly the attacks carried out by the
Christian population. Each pogrom surpassed the other in
savagery.
KIEV, ODESSA; Here murder of whole families was a common
occurrence. Partial data are available for 530 communities in
which 887 major pogroms and 349 minor pogroms occurred. There
were 60,000 dead and several times that many were wounded.
1882 A.D.
FIRST ANTI-JEWISH CONGRESS HELD. In Dresden, Germany.
1894 A.D.
ALFRED DREYFUS TRIAL in France. Details follow further on in this
summary.
1903 A.D.
APPEARANCE of a new issue of the PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION.
In Russia.
This spectre of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy aiming at reducing
the Gentiles to slavery or extermination loomed up in the
medieval Christian imagination and grew out of legends about well
poisonings and plague spreading. It was concocted in Paris by an
unknown author working for the Russian secret police. It was an
alleged conference of the leaders of World Jewry. It was
translated into all the world languages. In 1963 a Spanish
edition was published. During World War II, the Protocols of the
elders of Zion became an implicit justification for the GENOCIDE
of the Jews and Nazi propaganda relied on them until the last
days of the Third Reich. Smaller pamphlets of it have been
distributed in B.C. 1983 published in California... Required
reading in most Arab countries, in schools, to this day.
1905 A.D.
Russian pogroms continue. Also in Morocco, Ukraine, 300 dead.
1919 A.D.
3000 Jews killed in Hungarian pogroms.
1920 A.D.
Appearance of ADOLPH HITLER. Also Henry Ford the 1st believes the
Protocols; and publishes anti-Jewish articles in his newspaper,
the Dearborn Independent.
1925 A.D.
MEIN KAMPH appears. Hitler's Plan published in Germany.
1933 A.D.
HITLER appointed chancellor in Germany.
1935 A.D.
Hitler writes his Nuremberg Laws which lead to his Final
Solution.
1938 A.D.
Burning in AUSTRIA & GERMANY of Synagogues. Jews sent to
concentration camps. Beginnings of the Holocaust.
1939 A.D.
Germany overruns Poland.
1940 A.D.
Gassing, shootings in Polish Ghettos (Jewish).
1941 A.D.
EXPULSION of Jews from the German Reich to Poland. Riots against
Jews in Iraq.
1942 A.D.
Mass transports of Jews from Belgium & Holland.
1944 A.D.
EXTERMINATION OF HUNGARIAN JEWS.
1945 A.D.
HOLOCAUST Final Count: 6,000,000 Jews
slaughtered.
1946 A.D.
Pogroms in Poland - 42 Jews murdered.
1948 A.D.
BIRTH OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL. Also Jewish intellectuals shot in
Russia.
1952 A.D.
Jews murdered byCommunists, and others disappear. Prague trials.
Murder of Yiddish intellectuals in Russia and many sent to work
camps..
1956 A.D.
Jews expelled out of EGYPT.
1967 A.D.
SIX DAY WAR. Also new publication of Elders of Zion in
Arabic.
1968 A.D.
Emigration of last remaining Jews in Poland.
1969 A.D.
JEWS EXECUTED IN IRAQ.
1970 A.D.
Beginning of imprisonment in Russia of PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE.
("Refuseniks")
1980 A.D.
Russian imprisonments carry on throughout the 70's to the
80's.
1982 A.D.
War in Lebanon begins after many years of terrorist attacks
against the Jews in the Upper Galilee area from the vantage point
of Beaufort Castle. Many Lebanese killed over long period of
time, but was ignored by the News Media. War in Lebanon gets
slanted coverage.
1983 A.D.
Word from Christians in Israel that the PLO planned their next
battleground to be Canada via Quebec. Documented proof that
Russia planned in 1982 to attack Israel.
CONCLUSION:
The above catalogue is only the tip of the iceberg! One would
think that anti-Jewish atrocities would have ended with the
nightmare of the Holocaust. One-third of the world's Jews were
murdered by an ungodly German conspiracy that had accused the
Jews of "conspiracy". It is not often emphasized that two-thirds
of the world's Jews survived; and that due to the faithfulness of
their G-d. God has again, as in times past, protected them from
total extermination, as He promised. (the Book of Esther, and
Jeremiah 31:35-37)
The Holocaust was the final catalyst
which led to the re-creation of the State of Israel in 1948. But
we have to go back at the very least to the DREYFUS CASE to
understand the long range process.
Alfred Dreyfus was the son of a wealthy
Alsatian family in France. He entered the French Army in 1892 and
became a Captain, and the only Jew. He was framed by a fellow
officer for allegedly giving secrets to the enemy, arrested and
tried for treason. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Eventually Emile Zola took up the fight proclaiming the man's
innocence and published an open letter to the President of France
titled "I ACCUSE." Dreyfus was eventually declared unjustly
convicted by the Parliament of France. The injustice was totally
motivated by Jew-hatred.
During the course of the trumped-up
trial a Jewish journalist became involved; and he was the man
that was to lead the Jews back to their Land. His name was
THEODORE HERZL (1860 - 1904 A.D.) and he called European Jewry
together in Basle, Switzerland in 1897 at the now famous "First
World Zionist Congress". There in 1897 he publicly predicted to
friend and foe alike that the Jews would be back in "the Land" of
Palestine "within 50 years". In 1947, exactly fifty years later
the United Nations passed the "Resolution For the Partition of
Palestine", which lead to the declaration of Statehood on May
14,1948.
With the shouts of "death" to the Jews
still ringing in his ears from the Dreyfus Trial, Herzl became
convinced that the only solution was the mass exodus of the Jews
from their present places of residence to a territory of their
own... So out of the suffering of the Dreyfus family came the
State of Israel. Herzl became the father of Political Zionism and
founder of the World Zionist organization.
Herzl was born in Budapest. He left a
German students society in 1883 in protest against his first
encounter with anti-Semitism. He came across this "Jewish
problem" again and again in his life. Although he graduated in
1884 with a doctorate of law he left the legal profession and
became a famous writer. He wrote many literary works, some of
them plays.
In 1891 he became the Paris
correspondent of a Vienna newspaper. He pursued politics and
organized the first Zionist Congress is Basle in 1897. (In 1960,
Israel issued a centenary stamp with a well known painting of
Herzl on the bridge at Basle.) The World Zionist organization was
formed. He was chairman and remained so for the next five
congresses. He knew Great Britain would be the deciding factor in
the realization of Zionist aims. In 1917 the Balfour Declaration
became the launching-pad for the founding of the modern Jewish
state.
Herzl did not have an easy task. Even
his own people were difficult on this issue. His heart failed in
1904. He did not live to see the creation of Israel in 1948. But
in 1949 he was laid to rest, reinterred in a place that was named
in his honour Mount Herzl, in Jerusalem. A Herzl monument stands
nearby. The anniversary of his death on the 20th of Tammuz was
declared a National Memorial Day in Israel. In the April 1983
issue of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, following a report on Jerusalem
there is a picture that could be titled: "The sorrow of the
Jewish People". There are three young Israeli ladies, soldiers,
who happen to be very beautiful standing or kneeling at the Herzl
Tomb site where there are three new graves...the first soldiers
to die in the 1982 conflict in Lebanon.
1983 was the 50th anniversary of
Hitler's rise to power; since he was made chancellor in 1933.
There was an extensive report on this subject in the April 1983
issue of the Jerusalem Post. Their man in Bonn stated: "There
has been no substantial break with the past. Therefore West
German Democracy must continue to be subject to question by
Germans more than by anyone else." The Post also offered
these words which are worth contemplating. Perhaps you never
considered this. I had not...
"The destruction that Hitler brought on his own
people ranks only after the mass murder he committed on the Jews
and the destruction and death rained upon the Soviet Union. He
left Germany not only physically ruined, but stripped of its'
self respect, ashamed of its' place in human history, uncertain
of its' identity, seeking refuge in the compulsive reconstruction
of material damage."
They also mentioned...
"The war Hitler unleashed and the organized mass
murder that was a central part of his design cost the lives of 40
million human beings in Europe alone. Among them 6,000,000 Jews -
two-thirds of the Jews in Europe. More than 6,000,000 of his own
people also died and others were left hungry."
God promised Abraham: "I will bless those who bless you (and
your descendants); and I will curse those who curse you"
(Genesis 12:1-3) We can see that the Germans have paid an awful
price for allowing this man to lead them down a path contrary to
Scripture, by declaring them to be a super race. The man who
wanted to obtain the whole world, gained nothing but eternal
damnation. He and those who followed him lost everything.
What about
Canada?
Most of us would be quick to say that our hands are clean. A
truly shocking indictment of our role in the Holocaust can be
found in the book "None is Too Many". This title was taken from a
statement made by an immigration official when a delegation of
Jews went to Ottawa in 1939 to ask: "How many Jews will Canada
take in?" The Immigration Minister answered "None is too
many".
The authors, Irving Abella and Harold
Troper, published this book in 1982 and was on the Canadian Best
Sellers List. They received an award early in 1983 for it. It is
thoroughly researched and documented proof that our top
bureaucrat in the Immigration Department, Fred Blair, a
professing Christian, wanted no Jews in Canada and did everything
he could in the way of roadblocks to prevent it. In studying it I
find I want to scream with the agony of our shame.
MacKenzie King didn't want them.
Perhaps he was too busy talking to his dead mother and his dead
dog as he gazed into his crystal ball (all told in his published
diaries). The authors record that Canada's Prime Minister thought
Hitler had a good face and that he was sweet. King was deathly
afraid of what Quebec would do if he gave in and allowed in
refugees. The French -Canadian press was very hostile to Jews (Le
Devoir). There was also a very vocal fascist Party in Quebec;
headed by Adrianne Arcand.
Blair had the opportunity to rescue
thousands, but wouldn't budge on his restrictive policy. He just
didn't want any Jewish immigrants.
Lester Pearson said that we didn't have
a boat. Ottawa would not listen either to the pleas of George
Vanier; even though he was Canadian Ambassador to France and was
there on the scene.
Conservative Robert Manion didn't want
any either. In the midst of all of the obstruction the Toronto
Globe & Mail asked at one point "Does Canada stand
for anything?" Manion wanted no Jews as long as
Canadians were unemployed. Ernest LaPointe of Quebec and the Le
Devoir newspaper and Vincent Massey of External Affairs wanted
Jews kept out of Canada. Massey was a fringe member of the
Pro-German anti-Semitic Cliveden set centred around Lord and Lady
Astor in London; where Vincent was Canadian High
Commissioner.
We had one social worker on the scene
and her name was Charlotte Whitton, outspoken Mayor of Ottawa.
She fiercely fought not to have Jewish children here as she
favoured British children. She led a movement to evacuate
endangered British mothers and children. The Canadian Jewish
Congress saw her as an enemy of Jewish immigration. Oscar Cohen
said she "almost broke up the inaugural meeting of the
congress on Refugees by her insistent opposition and very
apparent anti-Semitism."
The saddest story I have ever read in
my life is the whole chapter from the Abella book titled "The
children that never came." It takes care of any pride we may have
in being Canadians. It is documented evidence 25 pages in length
of continuous pleading on behalf of officials in places like
France and Poland to take children whose lives were in immediate
danger. Blair's hard hearted efforts lead to the declaration in
the end of that chapter that reads: "There were no more
schemes to help...save the refugee children. None were
needed." By the time of the allied invasion of France in June
1944 most of these children had been murdered. NOT ONE of them
had made it to Canada! They had been talking at times about as
many as 5000.
I am happy to report that good has come
out of the publishing of this book. The authors report that Lloyd
Axworthy, current Minister of Immigration, apologized for the
behaviour of predecessors and promised that it would never happen
again. But also having read some papers by these authors prior to
publication, Ron Atkey, former Conservative Minister of
Immigration, took the responsibility and opened the doors to the
BOAT PEOPLE because he did not want to be known as another
Frederick Blair.
In "Bridges for Peace", the
1983 issue from Tulsa, Oklahoma we read about the state of
anti-Semitism as in this day, media coverage is slanted.
"While some would have you believe the world is
becoming a better place and anti-Semitism is on the wane, I
believe that careful observation will prove otherwise. In the
last two years, we have seen a growing double standard used by
the media in reporting events concerning Israel. And as we saw
this past summer in Greece, Italy, and France, this very
distorted, even false media reporting about Israel's involvement
in Lebanon resulted in attacks against local Jewish communities
solely because they were Jewish; regardless of their affiliation
with Israel. For example: In France a video tape of a Palestinian
boy holding his bleeding, dying sister was repeatedly shown as
the result of an aggressive Jewish attack on civilians in
Lebanon. Local Frenchmen, incensed by this news, staged an
anti-Israel, anti-Jewish march which culminated in the bombing of
synagogues and Jewish owned businesses killing many. It was later
proven that this video tape was six years old and showing the
destruction of the Tel-Zatar refugee camp by the SYRIANS in 1976.
Jews were NOT even involved but the ugly head of Anti-Semitism
had already shown itself."
AND SO IT NEVER SEEMS TO END.
But it will. One day the Bible says we shall take the hem of the
Jews' skirt and go with them to Zion because we know God is with
them. Zechariah tells us that the Lord will come and place His
feet on the Mount of Olives. He will fight for His people Israel
against all the nations of the world. All the land of Israel will
dwell in safety and peace when the Messiah comes. He will rule
and reign from Jerusalem, the Son of David, sitting on David's
throne. (Read 2 Samuel 7:11-16; and Psalm 2:6-8;and
89:20-37)
Regardless of Israel's sins of the past the Lord will forgive,
cleanse, and restore (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
Christians throughout the world are
awakening to a call to stand by the side of the Jewish people.
Beginning in 1979 Christians in Jerusalem rallied to her side
when the governments of the World began to pull their embassies
out of Jerusalem in fear because of the Arab oil power. The
"International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem" was established.
With people like Jan Willem Van Der Hoeven and the Comfort Zion
ministry of Merv and Merla Watson, Jews are beginning to be
provoked to jealousy. They are watching Christian love in action;
and hope is being reborn when they see 5000 Christians
celebrating during the Jewish "Feast of Tabernacles", dancing
with joy on Mount Zion and supporting them in their hour of
need.
If Canada's Joe Clark had kept his
promise to move our embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, he would
have done better. Six months after breaking his promise he ceased
to be Prime Minister; and twelve months later he was removed as
Leader of the Progressive-Conservative Party.
Coincidence? God hears our promises; even
"election promises". The Scripture says God will bless those who
bless Israel and curse those who curse her. Every nation that has
persecuted the Jews has, in the long run, inherited the negative
side of God's promise to Abram: "and I will curse those who
curse you (and your descendants)."
SO IN
CONCLUSION:
Anti-Semitism is a venomous condition of the heart of man and not
just prejudice, hatred or discrimination. Jealousy and envy of
the Jew more than anything else seems to be the main root of this
condition. It is a spiritual problem. But Jeremiah said it best
and it is truth from God's Word... "The heart is deceitful,
and desperately wicked; who can know it?".
Anti-Semitism engages man in a conduct
that is: inconceivable, unbelievable, shocking, grotesque,
incomprehensible, unthinkable, inhumane and intolerable.
This information has been gleaned from a course on anti-Semitism given at Fraserview
Assembly, January, February and March 1983 by the Canadian Friends of the International Christian Embassy,
Jerusalem.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
- Bridges for Peace-current news direct from Christians in
Israel through Tulsa.
- The Jerusalem Post - current news direct from Jews in
Israel.
- The ISRAEL POCKET LIBRARY BOOK ON ANTI-SEMITISM.
- Canadian Book "None is Too Many", Irving Abella and Harold
Troper.
- Jews' God and History; by Max I. Dimont. A Signet Book.
The information from this course was a shock to most of us; it was an eye opener in many ways,
especially regarding the Christians persecution of the Jew; which contributed to the Nazi attempt to totally exterminate them. This
essay was written as a requirement of taking seriously Alan's attempt to put the course together. He did his part as teacher
excellently. God has chosen well. I was eager to learn. This essay is to cement my own vow before God to bridge the gap and make amends
to the Jew for the way Christians, the Canadian Government and others have failed them.
I dedicate this to the children
that never came; and to my brother who died trying to stop a mad
man that was on the loose in Germany.
