Date: Fri Oct 03 11:06:59 1997
To: Frank Grose
From: Rob Weinberg
Subject: Re: Happy Rosh Hashana
At 11:43 PM 10/2/97 0500, you wrote:
Please tell me about the service you attended.
Lessee... (pretty sure I went, huh?). They didn't blow the shofar. Evidently that's on the first night, which would've been Wednesday. The rabbi is new, about my age I'd say. He takes a "spiritual guide" approach, at one point suggesting to the congregation to reflect on the meaning of a particular passage being read. Generally in Jewish services there's not much "preaching" with sermons. There are a set of prayers that are routinely done at all services, shabbat (Sabbath) or holy days, with some additional prayers for the particular holy day, most of which is in Hebrew. Although I've never really known what the words mean, I've always liked more Hebrew in the services I attend.
They had a cantor...lessee...how to describe.... He sings many of the prayers, with a trained voice, operatic I'd say. So you have this magnificent voice doing certain of the prayers. Rent "The Jazz Singer" with Neil Diamond and Lawrence Olivier to get an idea of what a cantor does. This guy has been coming to Montgomery from New York, it was his 13th year. Now, most of the Hebrew prayers have a singsong lilt to the way they're said to begin with. If you ever catch movies like "The Chosen" or "The Enemy Within" (I think with Melanie Griffith as a N.Y. cop who lives with an orthodox Jewish family to investigate a murder in the diamond district), where there's a lot of Jewish prayer, it's very much like that, or I'd say the way the prayers are done is pretty typical wherever you go. All three movies can give you a flavor, but for authenticity only "The Chosen" is on target. "Enemy" is very good, but it takes some liberties for plot device purposes that make the story line a little implausible. Still the Jewish homelife scenes are pretty realistic.
Hey, giving sporadic attention to our God is a family tradition that needs to be broken.
Looked at another way, giving ANY attention to God is a tradition that's never too late to start, eh?
A Christian friend at work went to a synagogue in Huntsville last evening for the blowing of the shofar. He said the message that followed was rather disturbing. It was about how to live in an anti-Semitic world. Is anti-Semitism that prevalent?
Anti-Semitism, like any kind of racism, takes many forms. When direct or overt discrimination is outlawed, it just takes on more subtle and invidious forms or goes underground. Failing to include someone because their religious beliefs differ is not much different than intentionally excluding them. Having a legislative Christian prayer breakfast isn't exactly an open invitation to people of my persuasion. And yet, there in the halls of power, the deals are made. The theory is that Christ is there and blessing what is done, yet I'm excluded. The same is true in many other areas of state government, the corporate boardroom, and private clubs. There are a lot of places you go to, that people wouldn't go out of their way to invite me to. And I can come and go in many places like that because I'm not that semitic looking and I've learned how to walk the walk and talk the talk.
I know the neo nazi and KKK groups supposedly are, but I've never met a member of one of those organizations (as I know of). The very concept seems so absurd to me. The rabbi also said one of the greatest enemies in the U.S. is the "Christian Right." Is this perception widely held in the Jewish community? I've never encountered an attitude of anti-Semitism in any Christian that I've known!
Tough Love Time. The "Christian right" is a threat, and a big one. It may pay lip service, but it does not promote tolerance of different faiths. Instead, it insists on one way toward salvation, THEIR way. And everyone else is wrong, and therefore going to hell. That approach automatically builds in racial intolerance because it assumes moral superiority. Now, if everyone else is wrong (and therefore morally inferior), and yet they SEEM to be doing better than you, that contradiction turns to resentment which turns to animosity, and when you direct that animosity toward an identifiable group, it's racism. It need not take the form of Jew baiting or cross burning to be anti-Semitism, but it manifests itself nonetheless.
If Jews seem hypersensitive, it is because they have been taught repeatedly to never forget that history does and will repeat itself unless they are vigilant. Moses led his people out of Egypt and we've been sent from pillar to post ever since. With the possible exception of Denmark during WWII there has never been a country in the world that has protected Jews from the aggression of others who claimed moral superiority. From the crusades to the Spanish Inquisition to the pogroms in tsarist Russia, so many people, Jews especially, have died in the name of Christ that we'd be fools to believe it can't happen again. The nazi concentration camps had barely stopped smoldering by the time you were born. That's not that long ago. It doesn't have to be something as overt as an attack by the neo nazis or the KKK, although enough of those events have happened in my lifetime. It can be as benign as a school teacher telling a Jewish girl that she is going to hell if she doesn't pray to Jesus. Now, I wouldn't call that benign, but there's a lawsuit about that incident and others in the Pike County School system that was filed only a few MONTHS ago. I'll send you a scan of some articles about it, it you'd like.
And how does anti-Semitism start? With a person carrying a Bible under his arm offering to lead the way in the name of God. Every single time.
I and those Christians I know pray for Israel and Peace in Jerusalem. We love the Jewish people. Our Saviour is Jewish. You are God's chosen people. While an officer in the Army, I paid particular attention to our national policy regarding Israel. I would have resigned before being on opposite sides of a conflict with Israel.
Tough Love Time, Part II: All of that is well and good. Now, Friend, you brought this up, so I'm going to invite you to examine those beliefs a little closer. In one of our first emails you said "I don't have an anti-Semitic bone in my body," something to that effect. I found it interesting that you would have volunteered that and I would have replied in jest, "yeah, some of my best friends are Jews," except you'd already said you didn't known many on a personal level. To say that we are "God's chosen people," or (and you've not said this, but do you think it?) to say Jews are smart, they're naturals at whatever they set their minds to, is to segregate them on the basis of race alone. If I were more of a cynic, or believed you to be less sincere, I'd say you "damn me with faint praise" with compliments like that. It's not a far step from "blacks sure play the blues (or basketball) well," or "the Japanese sure are good with electronics." To say "we love the Jewish people" is (tough love time) paternalistic. What do you love about us? What do you know about us? What is there to love? Good intentioned generalities are nonetheless generalities.
I emphasize that YOUR good intentions are not questioned, my friend. I believe you to be honorable and sincere in your beliefs. But there are some underlying assumptions you make that may be worth examining. Because it's part of the answer to your next question.
How can we Christians (not to be confused with non-believing Gentiles) turn this attitude around?
It is said that good intentions pave the road to hell. Part of the problem (and I don't have the answer) is that you (many Christians) are given the mission, as part of YOUR creed and faith, to spread the word of God as its been given to you. Jews, Catholics, and many others, on the other hand, don't proselytize as part of their own salvation. How readily can you accept the idea that if there is a heaven, we may both see each other there, but we'll arrive by different means? Answer that without replying that I'm already one of God's chosen people. If I were a Hindu or a Moslem, can I not arrive in God's graces too? The history of every overt act of anti-Semitism begins with the answer "no." And "no" is the message the Christian right teaches.
How to turn the attitude around? Whose attitude? Despite their platitudes, the Christian right is an intolerant lot. Actions speak louder than words. How willingly could you avoid (or the Christian right stop) proselytizing? That would go a long way. But I'm not sure I could ask you to do that, as it is an important tenet of your faith.
Men are basically inferior creatures, looking to understand life by the lowest common denominator, good or bad, black or white, if you're not with me you're agin' me. The Christian right often portrays life that way and, unlike you, many people who follow the "right" do so at the expense of those who don't believe as they do. That is the danger of men like Moore. Men who led the crusades, the pogroms, the inquisitions, who invented the concentration camps, who became grand dragons in the KKK, and so on and so on, all, ALL, had their humble beginnings gathering people to them in the name of God.
Whew! That's a lot. Enough for now, eh? But they're very good questions, and your willingness to ask and probe and grapple with the "answers" I reply with is what makes our dialog very worthwhile from where I sit. We must constantly examine ourselves and question our underlying assumptions if we're going to arrive at real communication and hopefully get closer to the truth.
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