56 December 12, 1975
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Notable Christian Repudiation of Anti- Semitism is Reissued;
•
•
Publisher Acclaims 1950 Expose of Religious Hatred, Persecution
Today's media rings with
the news that the United
Nations has passed a resolu-
tion branding Zionism as
racism. Given the power of
the oil bloc, this develop-
ment is not at all startling.
What is so very shocking is
the woeful dearth of protest
from the greater part of the
churches of Christendom.
Dismaying as it is, this
callousness should occasion
no surprise. Ecclesiastical
officials have always re-
garded the Jews with indif-
ference or, often enough,
blatant hostility. In the
depths of even the most en-
lightened Christian minds,
clerical or lay, the Jews re-
main a pariah. Though this
is not true of many Chris-
tians, it is nevertheless the
rule, Why? Because hatred
of the Jew has been a princi-
ple of church doctrine for al-
most two millenia.
In 1950, Malcolm Hay, a
Scottish Catholic, recorded
the shocking evidence in a
book which he titled "The
Foot of Pride: The Pressure
of Christendom upon the
Jews During the Last 1900
Years." The book could find
no publisher in the British
Isles. Through the interces-
sion of Thomas Sugrue, the
book was published in the
United States by the Beacon
Press of Boston.
I remember my experi-
ence at the time. I had
heard about the book and
tried to secure a copy in
some of the local books-
tores. No one had it. I then
tried Macy's which, in
that era, was the greatest
bookseller in the city of
New York, with a huge
first-floor book depart-
ment that boasted that it
carried every current
worthwhile book. When I
asked for "The Foot of
Editor's Note: In 1950, a truly great book, a Chris-
Pride," the clerk told me tian scholar's expose of the roots of anti-Semitism,
that they didn't have the challenged the bigots and called for action in erasing
title. In fact, she had never the sins of the ,generations. Malcolm Hay then wrote a
heard of it. When I insisted notable work under the title "The Foot of Pride: The
that they must have it — Pressure of Christendom Upon the Jews During the
since it was a new book — Last 1900 Years."
I was referred to the de-
Hay was a Scottish Catholic historian who had ac-
partment buyer, who then
cess
to previously untapped ecclesiastical archives. The
casually told the clerk,
"Yes, Mamie, look over Nazi Holocaust of World War II impelled Hay to study
there under the counter, at Hebrew and to search for the origins of anti-Semitism.
the far end, and you'll find He died in 1962 at age 71.
a copy."
"The Foot of Pride" was reviewed in these columns
Not knowing whether this and the editor undertook to distribute scores of copies
was a fluke or a fact of life, I of the document which then was called to the attention
went to Brooklyn to try to of the unknowing by such men as Dr. Carl Hermann
obtain the title at Abraham Foss, a leader in the American Christian Palestine
and Straus. There, I met Committee and otherli.
with the same experience.
This great work has been reissued by Hart Publish-
Vainly did I look for reviews
of this book in the usual ing Co. under the title "Thy Brother's Blood: The
channels; only here and Roots of Christian Anti-Semitism." The book is avail-
there was it mentioned. For able as a hard cover and paperback.
The significance of the new work is explained in the
the most part, Malcolm
Hay's great work was given accompanying article by Harold H. Hart, president of
Hart Publishing Co.
the silent treatment.
I have no concrete evi-
* * *
dence to sustain my suspi-
cion that this trenchant
If Hay soft-pedaled the circulated among his col-
book grated too harshly title, he did no such thing leagues, quite a number of
against the Christian con- with his text. He was not a his most cherished friends
science, both Catholic and professional churchman, would thereafter have
Protestant, but I cannot but but he was steeped in eccle- nothing to do with him.
help conclude that neglect siastical history, and was Because Hay sought to
was not accidental. Since regarded as one of the fore- reveal the disturbing
Hay's statements could not most champions of the facts, his friends consid-
be refuted, there remained Catholic church.
ered him a traitor to his
no better course than to ig-
Having access to original church.
nore -them.
Hay's thesis was nothing
Ten years later, the Bea- documents, he had written a
con Press issued "The Foot number of books rectifying more nor less than that the
of Pride" in paperback un- "the chain of error" in church itself sought to con-
der an equally innocuous church history. Therefore, vince its adherents that
title, "Europe and the when he embarked upon a Jews were less than human
study of why hatred of the and ought to be held in sub-
Jews."
It was the conviction of Jew had been so virulent for jugation. Hay relentlessly
Hay, as I learned later so many centuries, and con- dug out the facts. He re-
cluded that the roots of vealed that some of the most
from his widow, Mrs. Al-
Christian anti-Semitism lay honored names in Church
ice Ivy Hay, that if the
book had been endowed in official church doctrine, history were among the
no one could question his most immoderate Jew-bai-
with a more meaningful
ters.
authority.
title, it would have engen-
dered such resentment
"When," wrote_ Hay, "St.
Mrs. Hay has told me
that it wouldn't have been
that when her husband's Ambrose told his congrega-
read at all.
manuscript was privately tions that the Jewish syn-
.
agogue was 'a house of im-
piety, a receptacle of folly,
which God himself has con-
demned,' no one was sur-
prised when the people went
off and set fire to one."
St. John Chrysostom, the
Golden-Mouthed, thundered
to his hordes of followers:
"The synagogue is a place of
meeting for the assassins of
Christ . . . a house of ill
fame, a dwelling of iniquity,
the refuge of devils, a gulf
and abyss of perdition."
This great lover of mankind
proclaimed that "it was un-
fit for Christians to asso-
ciate with a people who had
fallen into a condition lower
than the vilest animals."
Hay points out that "the
clear implication in all
this rhetoric is not that
some Jews were living on
the level of goats and pigs,
but that all Jews lived
thus because they were
Jews.
Today, Israel is but a tiny
snippet of land in a huge
Arab sea of 41/2 million
snuare miles.
The land, but recently
barren and arid and
largely a wasteland, has
been built up by the toil
and the perseverance of its
settlers, and the contribu-
tions of Jews from all over
the world. Israel became a
polity, not by conquest,
but by fiat of the assem-
bled nations of the world.
But the Arabs, with end-
less land and countless
wealth, can't abide this
democratic, modern state in
their midst. Zionism, they
cry, is racism. By this defi-
nition, racism is a deep con-
cern for one's brothers.
The countries that raise
this libel are precisely the
countries in which no posi-
tion of trust or power or
honor is occupied by anyone
other than an Arab.
Perhaps the most cogent
reply to Arab slanders was
stated by Abba Eban, for-
mer foreign minister of Is-
rael, in the New York Times
of Monday, Nov. 3, 1975:
"Zionism is nothing
more — but also nothing
less — than the Jewish
people's sense of origin
and destination in the land
linked eternally with its
name.
"The issue . . . is not
whether the world will co
to terms with Arab natio n .
alism. The question is at
what point Arab national-
ism, with its prodigious glut
of advantage, wealth, and
opportunity, will come to
terms with the modest but
equal right of another Mid
dle Eastern nation to pursue
its life in peace.
"There are many ways in
which Zionism can be de-
fined. I hold in memory a
concise formulation made
28 years ago: When Arab ar-
mies had attacked Israel on
the day of its birth, Andrei
Gromyko said in the Secu-
rity Council on May 21,
1948, that Arab military
operations were 'aimed at
the suppression of a na-
tional liberation move-
ment.' It is as simple as
that. Truth does not change
just because those who pro-
claim it get tired of their
own veracity."
In 1971, 10 years after
Hay died, Prof. Leslie Mac-
farlane of Kings College,
Aberdeen, wrote ringing
words about the man:
"People saw him and were
glad. He knew, more than
anybody, that in this world
we are not meant to see the
truth triumph, but only to
fight for it."
U.S. Jewry in 2053: A Vision for the Future
Man survived the loathsome and offensive
elements in life. In our land, the traditions
of freedom and democracy triumphed over
Speculations about the future, inspired the threats that came from bigots. The
by the American Revolution Bicentennial, genius of America emerged as the guide
have become part of the current historic for the world.
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
(Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.)
celebration.
What is the future of American and
world Jewry?
This writer was asked by the University
of Iowa School of Journalism, in 1953, as
president of the American Jewish Press As-
sociation (then functioning. as the American
Association of English-Jewish Newspapers)
for an augury to be placed in a time capsule,
sealed in the university's then new Commun-
ications Center Building, to be opened in 100
years.
These are this writer's auguries now
capsuled at the University of Iowa:
Shalom ! Peace!
The conservative English-Jewish press,
now 200 years old, looks back serenely to its
birth. Some instruments of our age are
hoary. But our beard hasn't even begun to
sprout. There is indestructibility in age:
hasn't the Psalmist proclaimed, 'for a thou-
sand years in thy sight are but as yesterday
. . .' It is no wonder, then, that what we ex-
perience today we have already experienced;
that our trials and tribulations also were the
challenges of yesteryears; that history re-
peats itself.
It is proper to think of these things as
we observe the 200th anniversary of a press,
published for Jews, in the spirt of our Pro-
phets and of America, and to look back a
hundred years to the days when men and
women everywhere were in jitters. With our
neighbors, we have survived many things.
We have seen the rise and fall of the Know-
Nothing movement, the Ku Klux Klan, the
Fascists, the America Firsters, the extre-
mists in bigotry.
In truth, we see them rise again. Only
the other day, another such movement at-
tempted to revive hoary myths, to create
hatred, to inspire prejudice against people of
differing religions and tinted skins. We
chuckled as we read about them. And we
said to them: 'Brothers, (aren't we all broth-
ers?) turn back the pages of history! There is
a lesson in store for you! Iniquity can not
survive! Look at the movements akin to
yours: Coughlin and Ford retired into soli-
tude, and Ford apologized to the Jews. The
Ku Klux Klan tarred some people and shed
some blood, but they always had to hide be-
hind hoods; they should have known their
own shame. McCarthyism had a short life.
Yet, this is a good age. It is an age in No, Brothers, you can't survive wrong and
which we can look back, calmly, upon re- injustice.
faith the triumphing element in Man's faith and to righteousness that Man's fears
existence.
were unnecessary and unjustified.
This is an interesting day for the Ameri-
can Jew. It is reflected in our press. When we
first began, there were newspapers for Jews
in Yiddish, and in Ladino, and in Hebrew.
Ladino, the dialect of Spanish Jewry, was
the first to disappear. Yiddish had a slower
exit. Its decline is a tragedy. Its rich litera-
ture was best understood in the original. To-
day, most of its gems are either lost or
forgotten.
Of the non-English instruments of pub-
lic opinion, only Hebrew survived. This is the
indestructible language. It is the language of
the Bible and of the Prophets. It is no won-
der that it can not and will not die. It re-
mains undying also for another reason: It is
the language of Israel. Which leads us to an-
other cause for reminiscing on this interest-
ing day of April 19, 2053: One hundred years
ago Israel was barely five years old. That lit-
tle land struggled against great odds, but
survived attacks. Today she is a beacon light
unto the nations, as her forerunner in the
Holy Land was more than 2,000 years ago.
Israel's rise and survival is proof of
the indestructibility of an ideal, of the su-
periority of right over wrong. True, Israel
needed the help of America. The acquisi-
tion of such help is indication of the justice
of the cause.
And because right triumphs over wrong,
all the fears of yesteryears, especially of
1953, over an impending destruction of the
peating events, upon plagues that were
Thus, the battle continues, ever for world by the atomic bomb, have vanished.
overcome by mankind. The basic ideals of the right, with dangers ahead, but with Right is might. What a glorious testament to
Blessed be this day of Peace!
If it is true, as has been said, that "no
man is a prophet in his own country," it may
be stated with equal truth that no man is
prophet in his own time. It also has been said
that "the best reply to a prophecy is another
forecast." There is a Yiddish saying that a
Novi is a naar, — "a prophet is a fool." We
mention these not only in our own defense
but also as an evaluation of augury.
We have drawn upon faith in evaluat-
ing the future, and in faith we believe that
right will conquer might that justice must
prevail in the world. We have many exam-
ples in history to point to the contrary, but
all of the ugly seasons, all of the cruel ex-
periences, were passing phases in man'
existence. The aftermath of each declint
era has witnessed the resurgence of better
days. So it will be in. 2053 — and so it will
be a thousand years after that — in spite
of threats from atomic or other outbursts.
Our own time is the best proof of our
confidence. It is a tough age; perhaps it even
will toughen our children against all im-
pending dangers. But it is a most interesting
age to live in — especially for one who is
given a chance to be a prophet in his own
country and in his own time.
N. B. 1975: And now?
Does this augury apply? Will
the years ahead justify the crav-
ing for peace, for an internation-
alization of Shalom?