28—Friday, March 24, 1972
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
New Testament Laid Basis
for Anti-Semitism—Eckardt
BY STEVE RAPHAEL
"Indiscriminate, unqualified state-
A noted Protestant theologian, ments are racist." He argued that
dedicating his paper to those Chris- "the term Hebrew and Jew were
tians who had risked their lives used differently; a Hebrew was a
for their Jewish brethren, said good person, a Jew was an evil
Monday that the foundation of anti- person."
Dr. Eckardt noted that eventual.
Semitism was laid in the New Test-
ament.
ly the burden of blame for the
Dr. Roy A. Eckardt, chairman crucifixon was shifted from the
and professor of religion at Lehigh Romans to the Jews.
Moving on to the period . of the
University, Bethlehem, Pa., was
among the speakers at the third Protestant Reformation, he said
"it
(Reformation) was not a bless-
annual "Scholars Conference on
the German Church Struggle and ing for Jews." Martin Luther at
the Holocaust," convened this week first had castigated the Popes for
on the campus of Wayne State Uni- their maltreatment of Jews. But
versity. Twenty-five scholars from when Luther broke with Rome
several countries, joined by inter- and when the Jews refused to con-
ested laymen, were present to hear vert to Protestantism, he called
for the destruction of the syna-
eight papers.
The Walker and Gertrude Cisler gogues.
"Thus," Eckardt said. "Jews
Library sponsored the four-day
parley. Dr. Franklin Littell of had three alternatives in Christian
Europe:
conversion, expulsion or
Temple University, Philadelphia,
and Dr. Max Kapustin, director death. The German Nazis built
of the Hillel Foundation at Wayne upon the past and completed it
by using the third alternative.
State, served as co-chairmen.
"The Nazis put the theologi-
Dr. Eckardt opened the Monday
session with a historical review of cal and moral findings of the
"The Churches. Anti-Semitism and church into effect. Hitler promis-
the Holocaust." He dedicated his ed to do to Jews what the Church
paper to "those Christians who had been promising for 2,000
dedicated their lives or reputations years."
for their Jewish brethren."
Eckardt concluded his disser-
Prof. Eckardt stated that tation with an analysis of anti-
"Christians are ambivalent to- Semitism. In Eckardt's view, it is
ward Jews," explaining that they not a revenge- against Jews for
love them for their gift (of killing Jesus, but "a compulsive
Jesus), but hate them for their reenactment of the murder of
Jesus—a Jew.
"repudiation of the gift."
"To end anti-Semitism." Eckardt
Eckardt argued that the founda-
tion of anti-Semitism was laid in said, "Christians must deplore
the New Testament and quoted Christianity in the name of Chris-
passages from Paul, Matthew and tianity . . . and denounce the
name of the resurrected Christ in
John to augment his argument.
Dr. Eckardt referred to the fre- the name of the Christ who one
quent mention of "the Jews" in day may come."
Following the lecture, critics took
the New Testament and said the
term was used indiscriminately. Eckardt to task for what they felt
was a strictly one-sided view of the
problem of anti-Semitism. The
critics
that philo-Semitism,
COIN LAUNDRY as well argued
as anti-Semitism, could be
Pleasant - Surroundings
found
in
most
of the sources that
Parking in Rear
Eckardt quoted, and argued that a
3257 W. 12 Mile Rd.
completely one-sided presentation
Bahvom Greenfield a Coolidge
"could turn people off" to the prob-
lem of anti-Semitism.
One Eckardt statement, that
ImmaNammuirfmmasuluasel
Hitler died "a good Catholic," was
PRE-PASSOVER SPKIAU
strongly
opposed by colleagues.
3 DAYS ONLYI
They said the Catholic Church does
not ex-communicate; rather only
an individual's actions in life
could bring about ex-communica-
tion.
Eckardt conceded to the
critics, but added that his as-
signment was to deal strictly
with anti-Semitism.
Dr. Uriel Tal, of Tel Aviv Uni-
versity, opened the afternoon ses-
sion with a paper on "The Last
Chapter in the Pre-Holocaust His-
tory of Germany."
Prof. Tal argued that the des-
pair and disillusionment of both
Christians
and Jews during the
Asstd. Colors
opening years of the 20th Century
Misses
ultimately led to the rise of Hit-
I
and
ler. Dr. Tal said that eventually in-
Ladies
tellectuals turned to anti-intellec-
I
tualism and that the anti-intellec-
tual bent in Nazism was rooted in
disillusionment.
1
Beate Ruhm von Oppen of St.
1
j
ohns College in Annapolis, con-
1
1 c luded the Monday session with a
1
1 p aper on "The Case of the White
1
1 R ose," dealing with the ecumeni-
I C al aspects of student resistance
in Munich in 1943.
I
With this Ad 1
Other scholars who presented
Thru Mar. 27 only I p
apers at the conference were Dr.
Kapustin, Dr. Littell, Dr. Manfred
a
Wolfson of the University of Bonn,
r. Eva Fleisc.her from the Grail
n Loveland, 0., and Dr. Hans
iefel from the College of Idaho
in Caldwell, Ida.
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