← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Stigmata
Thread ID: 18033 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-04-30
2005-04-30 05:38 | User Profile
| [center]**[font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][img]http://www.archden.org/dcr/images/dcr_flag_sm.jpg[/img][/font]** **[font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]`Salvation is from the Jews': A reflection on anti-Semitism [/font]** [/center] **[font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Christians, Jews share common commitment to human dignity, religious freedom [/font]** [font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Last year, a European agency responsible for tracking racism ââ¬â the European Union Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) ââ¬â commissioned a report on anti-Semitism. The agency acted in response to a surge in anti-Jewish violence in France and other European nations. [/font] [font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Last month, the EUMC received the results of that study and promptly rejected them. The agency based its action on what it described as "the poor quality of the (report's) data" and "generalizations about (European Union) member states and residents that weren't backed up by the evidence." [/font] [font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Researchers who did the report had a different view. They claimed that the EUMC was alarmed by some of the findings. According to the study, young Muslims carried out much of the anti-Semitic violence in the countries surveyed. [/font] [font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]France has 5 million Muslim residents and about 600,000 Jews. For the French Jewish community, the firebombing of a Jewish school in Paris last month was just the latest example of on-going religious and ethnic tensions made worse by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On the same day, suicide bombers also attacked two synagogues in Turkey, a European Union candidate country, killing 25. [/font] [font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]With or without the report, anti-Semitism remains a very serious issue in Europe 60 years after the worst genocide in history. And while American culture may have a milder form of the problem, we need to be alert to it here as well. The Second Vatican Council repudiated anti-Semitism as a grave sin. It reaffirmed respect for the Jewish people as a priority for Catholics. [/font] [font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]But bigotry toward Jews has a long pedigree, not only among too many Christians, but in modern right-wing and left-wing political extremism, and in Islam as well. [/font] [font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Later this month, Jews around the world will celebrate Hannukah, the eight-day Feast of Lights. Each year at this time, Jews recall the struggle of the Maccabees, the band of Jewish fighters who waged a three-year guerrilla war to liberate Israel from Syrian Greek invaders and to reclaim the Temple from the pagan occupiers who had defiled it. Hannukah is a feast of Jewish life and identity in the face of oppression. As such, it has continuing relevance today. [/font] [font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Hannukah begins on Dec. 20 this year and runs into the first days of the Christmas season. It's a good time for Catholics to remember the Jewish roots of our own faith, the dignity of the Jewish people and the ugliness of religious prejudice. Jews and Christians may not always agree on what constitutes prejudice. Our views may honestly differ on a film like Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ." But despite these differences, we have a common commitment to the dignity of the human person and to religious freedom, which has its base in the Scriptures we share. [/font] [font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]In preparing for the birth of Jesus this year, and every year, Catholics would do well to remember the words of the Gospel, "salvation is from the Jews" (Jn 4:22). Anti-Semitism is a sin, and supporting the Jewish people in their work to eliminate it serves both God and neighbor. [/font] | ||
[url="http://www.archden.org/dcr/news.php?e=58&s=2&a=1374"]http://www.archden.org/dcr/news.php?e=58&s=2&a=1374[/url]