Stirring Plea for a Just Interfaith Society Human Reconciliation' Between Jews, Christians Urged in Eckardt Excoriation of Anti-Semitic Guilt Reckoning of Christianity's behalf of Jews under perse- of the English word lacks guilt for the persecution of cution. Indeed, much of the preciseness. In the Random Jews has always been tem- incentive behind his opposi- House Dictionary, the sole pered by recognition of the tion to Nazism and his ef- definition of `antisemitic' is nobility of the hasidei umot forts to bring about Ameri- `a person who is hostile to ha-olam — the saintly among can intervention in the war Jews.' I would only suggest the nations of the world. with Germany was his con- adding to the qualifying Prof. A. Roy Eckardt and cern for the plight of the words, 'because they are his wife Alice are major in Jews of Europe. If, as I have Jews.' That Arabs are re- that category. Their services long held, Niebuhr underesti- putedly a Semitic people les- in defense of Jewish rights, mated the unique force of sens in no way the power of in opposing anti-Semitism, as Christianity in making pos- antisemitism among them. leaders in non-Jewish ranks sible the metastasis of anti- A German word that is not in behalf of Israel, mark a semitism in the Western readily subject to semantic chapter of unmatched dedi- world (and, from there, to gameplaying is Judenfein- cation to assure justice for the Middle East), neverthe- fschaft, enmity toward Jews." the Jew. less he remained from start Emphasizing that he is not Not only are the Eckardt's to finish a stalwart foe of alone "in writing and speak- leaders in the ranks of the antisemitism, as of other ing of Christian guilt," Dr. Christian ha sidim: they, forms of human prejudice Eckardt appended this foot- themselves, take pride in and exploitation. note: those who labor as defenders "One peculiarity I can "Niebuhr's sympathy for of freedom for Israel and the collective integrity and claim is, perhaps, unfortun- fairness to Jewry, as evi- well-being of the Jewish ate: My repeated emphasis denced in Dr. Eckardt's hav- people was bolstered by a upon the fact of Christian ing dedicated his new book, general principle within his guilt and my manners of "Your People, My People — overall theological-moral pos- presentation sometimes seem The Meeting of Jews and ition: In our less-than-perfect to prompt hearers (as in a Christian s" (Quadrangle world, individual peoples — recent instance in Detroit) to Press), to two fellow-hasidei and small peoples especially accuse me of self-flaggela- umot, Dorothy and James — require political sover- tion, rather than to take ser- Parkes. eignty as protection against iously the requirement of More: while deploring that those who would harass, op- penitence." "such 'liberal Christian' his- press, or destroy them, just The "Christian guilt" is de- torians as Kenneth Scott Lat- as they need freedom if they fined extensively, and the ourette managed almost tot- are to attain fullness of life. Eckardt "penitence" includes ally to avoid the truth," Dr. Of equal relevance here was the following: Eckardt welcomes to the Niebuhr's unrelenting opposi- "Every instance of Chris- ranks of the fair-minded a tion to the kind of Christian tian antisemitism in postbib- group of friends, noting: pacifism that leaves Jews, Heal history is directly or in- "Now, thankfully, we have among others, the victims of directly traveable to the the formidable work of Alan tyrants and other oppressors. events or reputed events re- T. Davies, Willehad P. Eck- It was entirely logical that, corded in the New Testa- ert, Edward H. Flannery, early in his career, Reinhold ment. The foundation of Eva Fleischner, Franklin H. Niebuhr became a Christian Christian anti-Semitism and Littell, John M. Oessterreich- Zionist — defined strictly as the church's contribution to er, James Parkes, John T. a Christian who supports the the Nazi Holocaust were laid Pawlikowski, Frederick M. political freedom of Jews. 1900 years ago; the line from Schweitzer, Karl Thieme and Niebuhr was an ardent cham- the New Testament through other Christian scholars." pion of a Jewish state in the centuries of Christian Sadly, it was necessary for Palistine and later of the contempt for Jews to the gas Eckardt to add: "But, of State of Israel. To him, Zion- ovens and crematoria is un- course, these efforts have ism constituted one respon- broken." come only subsequent to sible and viable answer to in- The lengthy analyses serve Christendom's long historical justices against Jews within preparation for the Holo- and beyond Christendom, a to substantiate the Eckart caust of the Jews. The Nazis concrete implementation of position. simply gave practical appli- the survival rights of any In his review of the recent cation to the theological and people (for all its tempta- ecumenical discussions on moral findings of the church, tions, the collective will-to- deicide and the vatical Dec- with the aid of technology not survive is an authentic value laration on the Jes, Eckardt previously a v a i l a b l e to within the divine "order of analyzes through the state- Christendom." creation"), and a compelling ments by Cardinal Bea. He is The names just quoted are recognition of the historic critical. He states: not the only ones recorded and moral claims of Jews to "At the point where Bea by Eckardt as philo-Semites. their homeland. Niebuhr con- opposes 'presumed collective Discussing the detrimental tended that binationalism for guilt,' he is prepared to fos- work of the Unitarian-Univer- Palistine was impractical. It ter the age-old accusation of salist Fred Gladstone Brat- must be emphasized, how- continuing Jewish 'cultability ever, that his insistence upon ton, Eckardt comments: because of the 'rejection' of "There is no insinuation the collective integrity of the gospel. What, after all, is here that Unitarian-Univer- peoples extended fully to the the moral difference between salists must be anti-Zionists; rights of the Palestinian the idea of collective guilt we think of such great sym- Arabs." and the reputed "guilt" of pathizers for Israel as John An introductory statement unnumbered indivdual Jews? Haynes Holmes and Carl by Dr. Eckardt must be A final rebuke •to the Jewish Hermann Voss." people is masked in the best And there is one other quoted for a clarification of intentions: "Even after the name: that of the very great his approach to anti-Semi- condemnation of Jesus, God theologian, the late, one-time tism. He explains his spell- did not in any way reject the Detroiter, Reinhold Niebuhr. ing: people he had chosen. On the Dr. Eckardt's reference to contrary, he continued to of- Niebuhr is so vital to the dis- "The usage `antisemitism' fer them the Gospel of salva- cussion of Christian-Jewish appears throughout this book. tion." relations that it merits the I agree with James Parkes "Could there be a more following quotation: that 'anti-Semitism' is in- "Among Jews Reinhold correct and misleading; it formidable instance than that Niebuhr will always be re- wrongly implies a movement recounted above of a consti- membered for his courageous against an implied 'Semi- tutional incapacity among battle against Nazism and tism.' On the meaning of the great numbers of Christians for his untiring endeavors in term `antisemitism,' the root to achieve empathy with Jews? Even in these years 56 Friday, August 2, 1974 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS after the Holocaust, few , , — Christians seem able to grasp — even in intellectual terms, not to mention the spiritual — moral aspects — how all the church's preachments about the Christian gospel of salvation can only be an act of effrontery against the Jewish people. As J. Coert Rylaarsdam points out, the Christian world has never really overcome its assump- tion that the only "good Jews" are either dead ones or Christians. Apparently, God can only love Jews eith- er "for the sake of the Fathers" (Vatican Declara- tion, following. Saint Paul) or somehow "through the Son." The largest single body of the church — in company, of course, with many other Christian bodies — still dog- matically refuses to allow, in 'Professor Rylaarsdam's apt phrasing, "that God loves the Jew for what he is now," for himself." This repudia- tion is among the most fright- ening evils in contemporary Christendom. Here is an in- ner spiritual disease that rots away current Christian en- deavors to be brotherly. For we are confronted here with more than an attack upon humanity or even upon Jews. The ultimate sin is to 'circum- scribe, and thereby to blas- pheme against, the divine sovereignty. "For illustrative purposes we may return to Augustin Cardinal Bea's study, 'The C h u r c h and the Jewish People.' What does it mean to attest, as the Cardinal does, that Scripture is 'in- spired by God' and is ac- cordingly 'the Word of God'? What does it mean to speak of 'God's revelation handed down to us by the Jewish people in the writings of the Old Testament'? At this point, Bea turns to the Vati- can Council's Dogmatic Con- stitution on Divine Revela- tion. The effect can only be disastrous, simply because that Constitution also tries to have things both ways: namely, to vindicate revela- tionality and yet to transcend christologically the so-called Christian tour de force that seeks refuge in propaedeu- tics, the notion of the 'Old Testament' as purely pre- liminary and preparatory. As the Dogmatic Constitution has it, the principal pur- pose to which the plan of the Old Covenant was directed was to prepare for the corn- ing both of Christ, the univer- sal Redeemer, and of the messianic kingdom . . . ' Apart from the oblique in- sult to the integrity of the divine Covenant with Israel and to the sacred Scripture of the Jewish people, we are met here by a flagrant denial of major dimensions of that Scripture, a flouting of bibli- cal authority, and a refuta- tion of the Constitution's tes- timony elsewhere hat "the books of both the Old and New Testament in their en- tirey . . . have God as their author" • and are "without error." By subjecting the so- called Old Testament to christocentrism, C a r d i n a l Bea violates the revelational- historical integrity of that lit- erature." Then there is this supple- mentary firm assertion in the context of the discussion re- lating to Bea: "For Christians committed to the essential authenticity of the biblical witness, the one alternative to the demon- izing of God is to attest that it has not been God's re- vealed will or purpose to bring the greater part of or- iginal Israel to acclaim Jesus as the Christ. Israel's per- sistance in faith, its alleg- iance to Torah and Covenant, is accepted and supported within the providence of God, in entire independence of the Christian faith. As a pastor from, the Netherlands has said, 'The Lord goes his own way with his own people.' " Of major significance in the Eckardt volume is the sec- ond part, devoted to "Chris- tians, Israel and the Middle East Conflict." Alice Eck- ardt is quoted: "Israel as a nation is treated much the same as the Jewish people have been treated throughout history." And Dr. Eckardt proceeds to state: "This re- minds us that those contem- porary Christian attitudes toward Israel which are hos- tile must be understood in continuity with the long tra- dition of Christendom's anti- paty toward Jews and perse- cution of Jews." Again, quoting Alice Eck- ardt: "The vehemence with which many Christians deny the need for a Jewish state due to antisemitism reflects a refusal to admit the moral indirection of Christian civil- ization that is thereby im- plied." But the firmness of Father Flannery's position, the views of Dr. Littell, are given full credit, while Dr. Eckardt calls attention to the • men- acing attitudes of the Uni- tarian John Nicholls Booth, whose anti-semitic and anti- Israel articles were featured when the Wayne State Uni- versity's South End was con- ducting its anti-Semitic cam- paign. Dr. Eckardt condemns the venomous anti-Israel pos- itions of Rev. Edward L. R. Elson (President Eisenhow- er's religious guide) and Rev. Francis B. Sayre, both of Washington, for their preju- dicial sermons against Israel (quoting The Detroit Jewish News April 7, 1972, and May 12, 1972). The Zionist position formu- lated by Dr. Eckardt is con- tained, among other emphses, in the following: "Insofar as Christian de- nigration of Israel cannot be divorced from the influences of Christian dogma and from historic Christian hostilities to Jews, the responsibility of Israeli Jews, of the Jewish world, and of Christians con- cerned for Israel may be- come clear. Responsible ac tion will be determined IT2 judgements, findings, and in- tuitions concerning the changeability or nonchange- ability of Christian ideology and Christian behavior. It was entirely predictable that Christian denigration and per- secution of Jews over so long a history would be revivified in adverse Christian policies and behavior toward the Zionist ideal and the reestab- lishment of the State of Is- rael. The anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli stance of so many nations and people appears simply inexplicable apart from the age-old influence of anti-Judaism and anti-Semi- tism within Western and Eastern Christendom. There is little in the story of dom- inant Christian attitudes to- ward Israel since 1948, and especially during and since 1967, to warrant any hope that the Christian world, and the American church in par- ticular, will change. "We are met by the saddest truth of all: It was terrible enough when the Christian world betrayed the Jewish people in the Nazi Holocaust. That we should give our con- sent to efforts to produce a second Holocaust is an act beyond redemption, an un- qualifiedly devilish act. Pre- Holocaust Christianity holds as full reign as ever. "Some one must redress the evil," is Dr. Eckardt's basic plea. He calls for "hum- an reconciliation." "The ultimate issue," he declares, "is whether the confession that all our right- eous deeds are like a politi- cal garment' ,(Isaiah 64:7) can be accompanied by an openness to the grace that transforms hum an lives. Where the confession is hon- est, the grace of God is al- ready making its way. In- deed, that grace moves to purge away any lingering dishonesty. It is exactly here that human love and divine love meet. Love penetrates with the light of redemption into the dark world of hum depravity. Through deed: vicarious suffering — neceb- sarily cleansed and sustained at every moment by the for- giving grace of God — the fateful power of guilt is at last broken." A much vaster area than has been indicated is covered in the Eckardt thesis. It de- serves an immense audience — Jewish readers who will better learn from their own position; and if the book is accepted as a textbook in Christian ranks the condem- nations of anti-Semitism will sink in and the lessons taught will be learned. A vast amount of good in achieving true understanding between the faiths will thereby be at- tained genuinely so that the guilt may be reduced. —P.S.