By Ron Nutter, Ph D
I wear a necklace made of silver created by a craftswoman in Carmel, IN. In my years of teaching philosophy and religion I would on occasion make a rhetorical point about Judaism and Christianity by holding up one side of the necklace, displaying the Christian Cross, and saying, “One cannot possibly understand the full meaning of this without a deep and abiding understanding of this,” whereupon I would flip my necklace and show the Star of David on the other side.
Over the years that little demonstration had greater and greater effect as I developed a course on the Shoah in which the first half of the semester was spent exploring Jewish traditions and beliefs with a guest rabbi, the anti-Jewish rhetoric of the early Church, and the anti-Jewish legislation of early Church councils and secular governments. Over time Jews were restricted in where they could live, how they might make a living, banned from owning land, ordered not to converse with Christians, prohibited from appearing in public during Christian holidays, denied education in the professions, forced to wear distinctive clothing so everyone would know them to be a Jew, and more.
All of this was long, long before Adolf Hitler came on the scene. In fact, with the exception of organized bureaucratic and technology-based extermination, there is hardly anything in the Nuremburg Laws against the Jews that was not passed in an earlier time by a Church council or a Church-influenced state government.
The course would come to the nineteenth century and discuss the progressive and scientific theories of race and eugenics, which were popular at the time. Up to then, the problem with Jews from a Christian perspective was “bad thinking” and “spiritual blindness and stubbornness” which leads to their ongoing rejection of Jesus Christ. Theories of race introduce the notion that it’s not bad thinking, but bad blood. Thus the anti-Jewish rhetoric of the past is transformed into anti-Semitism.
There is a logic – a tragic one – to hatred of Jews. The early Church essentially said, “You shall not live among us as Jews.” Thus the attempts to convert Jews to Christianity, sometimes forcibly. In the medieval period that was transformed to “You shall not live among us.” This was the period of either forced expulsions or the ghettoization of Jews. This was followed logically by the next step: “You shall not live.” Which brings us to Hitler’s attempt to exterminate Jews in the Shoah.
The second half of the course reviewed the rise of Hitler and the mechanics of the Shoah. Most students had some idea, having heard in general terms about the Holocaust, but nearly all were completely dumbfounded to learn of the anti-Jewish activity of the early Church and of the anti-Semitic views which came to influence many Western states and eventually dominate the politics of Nazi Germany.
I am now retired from teaching. I still wear that necklace, and have since the day I was married on August 21, 1982. Curiously, it is only now I am beginning to feel the weight of my necklace. Seeing the emotions unleashed recently during the conflict in Gaza I am fearful of what I once thought could never happen: Anti-Semitism again stalks the land looking for Jewish blood. What I have spent my life trying to expose so that it might never happen again seems to be back, often with a quite sinister and maniacal passion.
It is at this time of increasing anti-Semitic activity that I am compelled to write so that others might be aware of the long tradition of anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic rhetoric and activity. This is needed so that all will realize that the current rise in anti-Semitism is not exclusively caused by Gaza or the Palestinian question or by Israel. Rather, it is simply an extension of what has gone on for 2,000 years.
It was a happier time when I first had the necklace made. I was a student at a Christian seminary at the time. Among classes I had taken was one co-taught by Clark Williamson, a Christian theologian, and Jonathan Stein, a Jewish rabbi. Spending a semester in intensive study of the Jewish religion was eye-opening and led to a great respect for the roots of Jewish beliefs and traditions. That course was followed by another taught by Williamson in which the history of anti-Jewish thought within the Church was exposed. More than eye-opening, it was a shameful legacy that Christians must bear, though I dare say most have no idea of the injustice and violence heaped on Jews through the centuries. It is for good reason that this anti-Jewish sentiment is known as The Longest Hate.
What I have come to learn in subsequent years is that anti-Jewish rhetoric is repeated, and expanded, by nearly all of the Church Fathers. Melito of Sardis, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Augustine, Tertullian, Origen, Hippolytus, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyprian of Carthage, and Novatian of Rome all expressed contempt of Jews and Judaism. And this is only a partial listing of those engaged in the Adversus Judaeus preaching of the early Church.
One voice of anti-Jewish rhetoric needs to be highlighted. In 1543 a truly malevolent attack on Jews was written by Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation. The title of the pamphlet was On The Jews and Their Lies. In it, using the most risible insults imaginable, Luther lays out what he believes should be done with the Jews. It was a seven-fold plan, including
1) the destruction of synagogues and Jewish schools,
2) that Jewish homes should be razed and destroyed and the Jews forced to live in a communal barn-like structure or barracks,
3) that all prayer books and Talmudic writings should be taken from them,
4) that rabbis should henceforth be forbidden to teach on pain of death,
5) that safe conduct for Jews on the highways of the land should be ended and they should be forced to remain indoors,
6) that usury should be ended for Jews as it is for Christians and that Jewish wealth through money-lending be confiscated, and
7) a recommendation that tools be placed into the hands of Jews and that they be forced to work.
When you look at that list, it kind of looks like a Nazi concentration camp, doesn’t it? Not an extermination camp, but the typical work camp. In fact, one of the defendants at the Nuremburg war crimes trial, Julius Streicher, editor of the notoriously anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer, defended himself at trial by claiming he merely advocated and did what Martin Luther recommended be done.
Luther ended on a flourish, pleading:
[T]hat our rulers. . . . must act like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in, proceeds without mercy to cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone, and marrow. Such a procedure must also be followed in this instance. Burn down their synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work, and deal harshly with them, . . . I have done my duty. Now let everyone see to his. I am exonerated.
I have to say there is always fallout when one exposes for public view a man who is seen as a paragon of faith and virtue. Teaching my course there was a young woman who was a devout Lutheran. Learning what Luther had to say about Jews in class one day she was literally reduced to tears. There is no joy to be taken in seeing another’s ideals tarnished. I could only hope that in the wisdom of her years she is able to separate what theological wisdom Luther had to offer from his contemptuous disdain of Jews.
Simultaneous to the ravaging of Jews verbally and theologically there was anti-Jewish legislation passed by Church councils and synods as well as secular governments. To name just one, in 1215 at the Fourth Lateran Council it was proclaimed that all Jews in all provinces must wear distinctive clothing so that all who see them in public will know them to be Jews. This comes as a shock to those who think Hitler started that policy with his ordering Jews to wear the Star of David in public. Their rights being restricted or outright denied from state to state, region to region, Jews found themselves stateless, with few ways of making a living. The church and the state appeared to be working in concert to make the lives of Jews more and more impossible.
Some felt a justification was needed to attack the Jews, and indeed justifications were found in certain popular charges against Jews. One was the “ritual murder” charge, sometimes known as “blood libel.” The charge is that Jews would kidnap a young Christian boy and drain his blood for the making of matzos for holiday meals. The charge was first made in Norwich, England, in 1144. By the end of that century the charge was being made everywhere Jews lived among Christians. The charge has been made in the twentieth century in Germany, Russia, and even in New York State. Bernard Malamud’s novel The Fixer is based on the famous 1913 trial in Kiev,
Russia, of Mendel Beiliss. He was accused of killing a young boy, and a witness for the prosecution, a Catholic priest, explained the murder in terms of the “blood libel” ritual.
Unfortunately, as chronicled by The Middle East Media Research Institute, the ritual murder charge is still with us as Islamic Imams and Muslim media incessantly claim Arab children are kidnapped and their blood drained for the making of matzos. The Associated Press recently reported a variation of the ritual murder charge when it passed along the charge that Israel’s IDF soldiers were taking body parts from Palestinians killed in the recent Gaza fighting. The AP quickly removed the story, but no doubt it is still preserved in Muslim media archives.
Another popular charge against Jews was “desecration of the Host.” Interestingly, this charge never arises until after the Church establishes its teaching of Transubstantiation, which proffers that during the Eucharist the actual body and blood of Christ are present in the bread and wine. The desecration of the Host charge essentially says Jews would steal into Catholic churches and steal the consecrated Host and then stab it repeatedly, thus killing Christ again.
A third popular charge was that Jews were “poisoning the wells” of Christians. This is associated with the Black Plague of 1347-49. No one at the time understood the epidemiology of the disease, but they did see that Christians were being affected and Jews were not. Thus it was concluded that the Jews must be doing it. There is, however, a simple explanation for why Jews were not affected: they took baths. Personal hygiene among Christians was negligible to non-existent at the time. It is for good reason writers of this period would make much of a young woman with “sweet breath” because it was quite rare.
A critical turn in attitudes toward Jews takes place with the coming of theories of race in the nineteenth century. Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau was an early nineteenth-century French aristocrat who became known for advocating white supremacy and developing a racialist theory of the “Aryan Master Race” in his book An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races. He developed the term “Semite” to refer to Arabs and Jews in the Middle East who represented to him the bottom of the racial ladder. He set the stage for what came to be known as the “Nordic Theory.”
The Nordic Theory, prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Western Europe and the United States, was a major influence on Nazi ideology. The theory claims that Nordic peoples constitute a “master race” because of their “innate racial capacity for leadership.” The chief representative of the Nordic Theory in America was Madison Grant, who lived from 1865-1937. He was a eugenicist who employed the Nordic Theory in an effort to restrict entry into the U.S. of Mediterranean peoples. He declared the mixing of the races to be “race suicide.” Unless eugenics was practiced, he claimed, the Nordic race in the U.S. will be supplanted by the “inferior” races.
Grant was very influential among government policy makers and even in popular culture. The character of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby is a clear and outspoken advocate of the racialist positions of Grant. Tom is reading a book titled The Rise of the Colored Empires “by this man Goddard.” This is a combination of Grant’s very popular Passing of the Great Race, written in 1916 and reprinted many times thereafter, and another book written by a close colleague, Lothrup Stoddard, titled The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy. Grant wrote the introduction to that book.
“Everybody ought to read it,” the character of Tom Buchanan explains in The Great Gatsby, “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be — will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.”
The Passing of the Great Race, Grant’s very popular book, detailed the “racial history” of the world and affirms the Nordic Theory. It was the first non-German book ordered to be reprinted by the Nazis when they took power in Germany. Adolf Hitler later wrote to Grant personally to say, “The book is my Bible.”
It would be worthwhile to print a little of Grant’s ideas in his own words:
[Eugenics] is a practical, merciful, and inevitable solution of the whole problem, and can be applied to an ever widening circle of social discards, beginning always with the criminal, the diseased, and the insane, and extending gradually to types which may be called weaklings rather than defectives, and perhaps ultimately to worthless race types.
This kind of thinking came to a head in the Supreme Court decision Buck v Bell in 1927. The issue before the court was whether a state had the right to compel sterilizations of those considered unfit “for the health and protection of the state.” The decision was seen as an endorsement of “negative eugenics” in that it allows the state to eliminate from the gene pool those deemed defective or otherwise unsuitable. Oliver Wendell Holmes delivered the majority decision, including the classic line of eugenics: “Three generations of imbeciles is enough.” He couched his decision as a health policy issue, declaring sterilizations were like immunizations against possible contagion.
The Nazis already had a contempt for the Jews. With eugenicist theory and putting it on the basis of health policy, the Nazis began their T4 program of killing the institutionalized feeble-minded and other “life unworthy of life” by gassing them inside compartments of trucks. Eventually, the problem of the Jews was presented by the Nazis as a massive health issue. This is why Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, would produce films comparing Jews to rats. One exterminates rats for health reasons, the argument would go, and so too should the Jews be exterminated.
One more figure in the development of race theory should be mentioned: Houston Stewart Chamberlain. In 1899 he wrote his most important work, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century. The book grouped all European peoples — Celts, Germans, Slavs, Greeks, Latins, et al. — into the “Aryan” race, with the Nordic and Germanic people at the helm. According to Chamberlain, the Germanic people are the heirs of the empires of Greece and Rome. When Germanic tribes sacked and ended the Roman Empire it was already in decline because it was controlled by Jews and other non-Europeans. Thus, according to Chamberlain, the Germanic peoples “saved” western civilization from Semitic domination. The concept of an “Aryan” race was an ideal of a racial elite. Chamberlain’s works had a marked effect upon German nationalist movements, such as the NSDAP (i.e. the Nazis). Hitler was a student of his works, and praised him as “The Prophet of the Third Reich.”
During this modern period the Jew was being rhetorically ravaged on every level. If one was a defender of the capitalist economic system the enemy of all was the Jewish communist or socialist feeding the fire of revolution. If one was a member of the oppressed working class the enemy of all was the Jewish banker or capitalist oppressing the people. No matter where one stood on the political spectrum, the Jew was the universal enemy. There was no escape for Jews.
Even in popular culture Jews could not escape public contempt. Henry Adams, a Harvard historian and grandson and great-grandson of Presidents, was a leading intellectual in America. His Mont Saint Michel and Chartres as well as The Education of Henry Adams, while brilliant and insightful in many ways, also contain dyspeptic anti-Semitic references throughout. Adams felt marginalized in a world of growing industrialization, and preferred a medieval “universe” inspired by the Virgin to a “multiverse” symbolized by the Dynamo. He became particularly virulent toward Jews after the Panic of 1893, seeing the economic calamity as a result of the manipulations of Jewish bankers.
Adams wrote a very popular novel, Democracy, in which one of the main characters was named Hartbeest Schneidekoupon. He is described as familiar with “the mysteries of currency and protection, to both which subjects he was devoted.” He is described as rich, with “a reputation of turning rapid intellectual somersaults.” He is also said to be “descended from all the Kings of Israel, and … prouder than Solomon in his glory.”
Schneidekoupon’s goal is to befriend over dinner Senator Ratcliffe, expected to become the new Secretary of the Treasury, in order “to keep him straight on the currency and the tariff.” He complains when the Senator at first refuses to attend the dinner that Senators are “all like that. They never think of anyone but themselves.” The irony fairly drips from the page.
Adams then introduces what is described as “a much higher type of character” than Schneidekoupon in a Nathan Gore. Gore is then described by Adams as “abominably selfish, colossally egoistic, and not a little vain.” But, in Adams’s view, he is nonetheless “a much higher type of character” than Schneidekoupon.
Adams presents Schneidekoupon as capitalistic, materialistic, self-centered and carnal, whose “rapid intellectual somersaults” suggest a lack of steadfastness when it comes to inner spiritual or ethical principles. The not so subtle message is the anti-Semitic image that these are the intrinsic traits that indicate the nature and character of the Jew. The overall effect is to present the Jew as something less than human.
Here is an interesting little item: Can you figure out what the following list of words have in common – “usurer, extortioner, cunning, heretic, lickpenny, harpy, schemer, crafty, shifty.” They are synonyms for the word Jew listed in Roget’s Thesaurus at the turn of the twentieth century.
So why do I bring up this laundry-list of anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic activity? Because they each, in their own way, played a role in the greatest crime ever perpetrated on humanity, the Shoah. So why did I teach the course? Because I believed – still do – that exposing the truth will prevent it from ever happening again.
There are those, though, who claim the Shoah never happened. And they, unfortunately, are being heard more and more in our irrational age. I am reminded of Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming”:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer,
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
There are anti-Semitic voices currently in the land – not just in the Middle East but in Europe and the U.S. – demanding the blood of Jews. This may be as a result of a misguided support of “the oppressed” against their “oppressors” mixed with a belief in moral equivalency, or it may be the curdling voice of contempt spawned by generation after generation of hatred. Regardless, it is an anti-Semitic appeal to the bestial in the human heart.
Academia plays a role with its attempts to isolate Israel and its Jews though support of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement. George Orwell, in a 1944 letter to John Middleton Murry, wrote that the test for intellectual honesty is a willingness to criticize one’s own position. It is that lack of intellectual honesty that is bothersome with academics pushing the BDS movement. Of course, they will say they are not anti-Jewish, but anti-Zionist. Well, to quote Shirley Temple in the film Fort Apache, “Pishtosh!”
The hypocrisy can be seen in the recent move by the Presbyterian Church USA to divest from companies doing business with Israel. Leading up to the vote by its General Assembly a program was put together titled Zionism Unsettled by a group called the Israel Palestine Mission Network. This “study guide” was written in consultation with various academics and Palestinian groups. Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi, well known spokesmen for the Palestinian cause, are presented as authoritative voices in this document with no attempt to take a critical view of their positions. In fact, despite heavy criticism of Israel there is no criticism of the Palestinians. There isn’t even any condemnation of the terrorist acts against Jews. None. Thus for those Presbyterians who put this study together, as well as those who supported it, they have failed Orwell’s test for intellectual honesty.
Their unwillingness to criticize Palestinian views was replicated in the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas. No criticism of Hamas could be heard from those academics of the BDS movement despite the indiscriminate targeting of Israeli civilians with thousands of rockets and mortars. Indeed, all the criticism was directed only toward the Israelis.
This uncritical acceptance of the views and actions of Hamas while rejecting as genocidal the actions of Israel is documented in an August 31, 2014, American Thinker article by Cinnamon Stillwell. After noting various Hamas supporters among the professoriate, mostly in Middle East Studies departments, she writes that “such cheerleading for Palestinian terrorism and willful disregard of historical facts discredits the individuals who advance it and the academic culture of Middle East studies that rewards it. It is politicized rather than objective, propagandistic rather than principled. American interests at home and abroad are ill-served by these apologists for terrorists.” But what is truth, when anti-Semites are motivated and justified by centuries of hatred?
Speaking of Said, he is perhaps best known for his book Orientalism, in which he criticizes and condemns Westerners for unthinkingly adopting a “discourse” about the Middle East established by “experts” and reified in the scholarly tomes of Western libraries. According to Said, such discourse has marginalized the peoples of the Middle East, including the Palestinians, making them less than human in the eyes of Westerners. There may be something to that argument. All I would say is that there is a 2,000-year-old anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic “discourse” that has marginalized Jews through the centuries and made them something less than human. The current anti-Israel voices, whether knowingly or not, are drawing from that discourse of prejudice and hatred in their condemnation of Jews. They simply echo what has been with us from generation to generation.
I firmly believe the situation is better now than it was before World War II. Many have come to recognize how Jews have been victimized through the ages and have worked to make amends. But then I was brought up short one day by Yale professor and one-time diplomat Charles Hill. Reading about his experience in Asia during China’s Cultural Revolution it was demonstrated that whatever cultural strides are made can be undone in a generation.
That is my concern today. A new outbreak of anti-Semitism, having no knowledge of anti-Jewish thought and action through the centuries, and having no desire to know, is propagating a renewal of anti-Semitic discourse that will propel us to ever more tragic consequences if we are not mindful. One sees the evidence all around us, with reports world-wide of rising attacks on Jews and Synagogues in Europe and even in the U.S. The Guardian on August 7, 2014, published a lengthy article on the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe that is making Jews in Europe fearful of a re-play of their Nazi experience. On August 20 of this year the New York Times published a column by Deborah Lipstadt noting the acts against Jews in Europe.
The war in Gaza no doubt acts as a spark. But it also occasions a renewed use of long-time canards used against Jews, as when a Hamas spokesman again raised the specter of “ritual murder.” Even an established hoax like the pamphlet The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a forgery put out by Russian agents to support the Czar against what were perceived as Jewish revolutionaries, is a staple of booksellers in the Islamic world. In that work one “learns” how the economic and political systems of the world are manipulated by secret Jewish cabals.
So I am concerned, and I feel the weight of my necklace around my neck. I know there are places in the world where wearing my necklace could cost me my life. Is that overwrought? I recall an interview of the novelist Mary Doria Russell in which she spoke of her conversion to Judaism. In it she remarked that her conversion was such that it could get her killed. I thought that was overwrought at the time. Now I am not so sure. Because I feel the weight of my necklace.
Ben Stein in a recent American Spectator article sums it up about as well as anyone. He comments how much we’ve learned this past summer: “We learned this summer that when terrorists kill Jews, that’s legitimate anger and frustration. When Jews defend themselves, that’s genocide. We learned that Europe, which Henry Ford called ‘that slaughterhouse of nations’ or something similar, is still chock a block with anti-Semites who are wildly happy to join hands with the emerging Muslim majority in Europe to torture the Jews. We learned that the elite media, especially the New York Times, will turn on Israel and the Jews and seek to curry favor with the enemies of Jews and of America in any way they can.”
God only knows what will come. I comfort myself by saying I am old and will soon depart this world, but then I think about my son. What kind of world will he have to negotiate and still maintain his integrity and a willingness to speak out against those who would do violence against Jews? I have tried to speak out in the classes I have taught, and can only hope my students are able to take what they learned and with integrity speak out on their own against those who would do violence against Jews. And I write because I want to continue to educate and do whatever I can to prevent unjust violence against Jews. I still believe that knowledge can be a balm to hatred.
We appear to be in a kind of limbo now that a ceasefire in Gaza has taken. Reports are that the West Bank and the Golan Heights are restive, contemplating open hostilities against Israel after seeing the Gaza fighting as inconclusive. Should such fighting break out, no doubt Israel will again be subject to worldwide condemnation as it yet again fights for its very life.
Israel will be subject to the new tropes of anti-Semitism extending 2,000 years of lies and hatred of Jews. It will be claimed that Jews are the “new Nazis” and that Gaza or the West Bank is the “new Auschwitz” and that Palestinians are the “new victims.” When that happens I shall again stand with Jews and Israel against the 2,000-year-old forces of darkness and hate, all the while feeling the weight of my necklace. It is what I must do.
@ Teshuvah:
I’m sorry, but Walter Veith is a bit of a kook. Yes, he was a professor – of zoology. He was forced by his university to leave that position after he converted to Seventh Day Adventism, which subsequently led to his rejection of evolution in favor of “young earth” creationism. Obviously, that would make for a very odd zoologist. As a Christian, I am not going to pick and choose who are “real” Christians. I don’t have the hubris to do that. Yes, there are many pagan elements in Christianity. The Christmas we are celebrating has pagan roots. Religions tend to be syncretistic, some more than others. The haridim are not so much, but Reform Judaism certainly is. And, there are those who claim Reform Judaism isn’t really Judaism. That, actually, was Luther’s argument: that the Catholic Church had been corrupted and was no longer Christian, and that he was simply returning it to its purest form. To put it in a different context, Barack Obama in his bias as a former practicing Muslim, tries to argue ISIS is not Islamic. He has this Pollyannaish notion of Islam as a “religion of peace” and simply ignores the bloody face of radical Islam today. All great religions have a wide span of beliefs and practices, some of which are held in common while others are quite varied indeed. That said, you cannot avoid the Catholic Church’s rhetoric and brutality toward Jews through the centuries by simply saying, “Well, I’m not a Catholic, and the Catholic Church isn’t Christian anyway” so as to avoid the shameful, shameful legacy of guilt that all of Christendom shares in its attack on Jews and Judaism through the centuries. As M Devolin says, “If it walks like a duck and [quacks] like a duck . . .” Well, the Catholic Church walks and “quacks” like Christians. You cannot hide from it.
@ mrg3105:
I prefer if you click on “Reply to Comment” rather than Quote the whole thing.
@ dweller:
shouldnt you bloviate at chit chat page? Your voluminous mountains of garbage are taking a lot of space and just keep going in circles. why not go to chit chat for Teds sake?
M Devolin Said:
religious, ritualized, pious,…. are these actually synonymous. Many schnorers dress up in 18th century polish fashions, grow peyot and daven… wolves in sheeps clothing. there are many catholic clergy who study torah, speak and read hebrew and are well versed in judaica…
@ yamit82:
Nah; she thinks it’s because I dropped acid back then. She’s made a point of saying that many times.
Of course, she’s as liable as you to be hitting her OWN special “sauce” whenever she sits down to write — her own way of being “potted.”
Doggone it, you found me out. (Now, tell me the truth: It’s because I giggled when you kissed me — THAT’s how you knew, right? That was the tell?)
“Defeated”?
THOSE shrinks (county jail types) were bureaucrats seeking advancement thru the subjugation & augmented misery of those entrusted to their ‘care.’ Think: Nurse Ratshit. ‘Defeating’ them was a sacred duty and a source of true joy.
The shrinks in the JOINT, however, appreciated me. They knew that the only reason they were on the other side of the bars from me was that they had accepted their appointment as Alternative Service to military induction, and that I wouldn’t accept it. When I was being removed from the prison (per order of the US Supreme Court), they came into my cell to personally thank me for helping to “maintain morale” — and they weren’t talking about the prisoners’ morale; they left no doubt that they meant their OWN.
“Bragged”? — you call it bragging ONLY because I always landed on my feet; always came out of those places with both my sanity AND my humor intact. If I hadn’t, you’d have had ANOTHER name for it, and it wouldn’t have been “bragging.”
M Devolin Said:
there is an “appearance” of being “religious”, the naturei Karta also give that appearance, according to them they are “torah true” while they dance with Jew killers.
mrg3105 Said:
the “evidence and argument” you submitted, in bold above, in support of your assertion that “…the Law need not be followed…..” seems to me to be more of an opinion, or your feeling, or your observations rather than an argument for not following the commandments. Is this what you rely on for drawing your conclusion?
“I didn’t slander anyone…”
Yes you did; you accused him of being foolish. But you’re unwilling to admit it, so the argument is already over. Your problem is, you’re far more religious than you are kind, and so unkind that you fail to properly regard the humanity of others. I view this phenomenon as a mental weakness, but that’s just me. My parents taught me that it’s always the better man who apologizes first.
@ yamit82:
No. I said that using an epithet for somebody is no INSULT if it’s true. (The case-in-point was HB, who, altho a grown woman, DOES still play girlie games. Therefore to address her as Twink or Twinkie is no insult.)
A smear, OTOH, is a smear, whether it’s true or not.
I also showed you what a smear consists of:
— conflating, by way of proximity, two (or more) unrelated comments or photos or documents, etc, to imply, w/o actually stating, something negative, nasty, or embarrassing about somebody. Politicians are NOTORIOUS for it, esp in re their opponents during election campaigns.
Don’t put words in my mouth. I’ve never said anything about standing by any ‘analysis’ of anybody. I have NEVER engaged in analysis — pseudo or any other sort — of anybody (here or anywhere else). My observations are not based in an ‘analytical’ process or faculty of any sort. (If they WERE, I could not rely on them — as, in fact, I do.)
Show me a concrete example of my ‘smearing’ someone — anyone — on this blogsite. Produce the actual post — not just your summation of it, but my actual verbatim text.
Then tell me HOW what I wrote constitutes a ‘smear.’ Over the past 7 or 8 yrs, there are probably something in excess of 20, 000 posts of mine on this forum, so you should have no problem producing just one suitable candidate — if what you say about me ‘smearing’ ANYONE (let alone, ‘everyone’) is true.
There have been very few women commenters on the site, and of those who’ve remained on-board for more than a few months I’ve had exchanges with no more than half of them. In any case, any objective observer (man OR woman) will readily agree that I’m MUCH tougher on the men than on the women — but I defy you to show me a single serious example of my ‘smearing’ ANYBODY, ever. Produce the post.
Don’t need to. I haven’t accused anybody of an act of moral turpitude. (If I had, and failed to offer probative evidence in support of the allegation, I’d be guilty of slander.)
OTOH, if you think any of my observations in re motivation or character are mistaken, show me where I’m wrong; make your case. Just keep a civil tongue in your head when you do it, and we’ll get on fine.
mrg3105 Said:
Why be so petty and judgmental when you haven’t made any quotes at all?
“It has intensive detail how pagan religions became Catholicism, formed many secret societies and organizations including Freemasonry and Marxism and are taking over and controlling the world today.”
“choose to remain ignorant”?? Fuck you. Read all the above shit (read: shit just like it) ages ago. Lots of it. I’m sixty. Been there, done that. I don’t need your advice on anything, and especially not on Christianity. And I don’t need your help, you unctuous ass. Veith is a fucking Seventh Day Adventist. End of discussion for me. And you accuse me of choosing to remain ignorant. I’m so far ahead of you, you can’t even follow my shit trail.
mrg3105 Said:
any evidence in fact or are you relying on their declarations for that conclusion. They repudiate sabbat and circumcision so please explain your assumption.
mrg3105 Said:
not a logical argument, first there is no evidence of his existence. second, if something is not mentioned there is no logic to assuming from that fact anything beyond the fact that it is not mentioned. Was it mentioned that they did not eat ham?
mrg3105 Said:
that stretch defies logic: assuming that if something wasn’t mentioned then it did not exist. What literature are you referring to when you say “quoted”? Is it the new testament?
Teshuvah
Thank you. Refuah Sheleimah. What you are doing about it?
bernard ross
Bernard, I mean every word, but not every argument should be pursued in public forms.
And not every message needs to be heard.
There is a right time for everything.
Make of that what you will.
Galut is on the inside. Someone can live in Israel, be ‘orthodox’ and have no hope of leaving galut without changing. That change is very hard. Some will never change.
You didn’t read the links I provided and choose to remain ignorant so I can’t help you. I do not have the health to get into extensive arguments and I’m not going to do it.
I recommend this 36 DVD (72 hour) lecture series by Prof. Walter Veith of S. Africa called Total Onslaught (view here). It has intensive detail how pagan religions became Catholicism, formed many secret societies and organizations including Freemasonry and Marxism and are taking over and controlling the world today.
It is a SDA site but it lectures to believers so there is no proselytizing. The importance of Prof. Veith’s research is that he quotes from Catholic and Freemasonic writings in their own words on overhead slides wherein they describe what they have done, how they did it and what they intend to do. The Office of Inquisitor still exists. Prof. Veith also explains Catholic links to Islam. It is the best series on the New World Order we have ever seen. Watch it and you will never think the same way again.
M Devolin Said:
Don’t be silly Yamit.
M Devolin is insulted because he is lacking in understanding the context.
And for your information to save a life, even your own, urine is permitted to drink. If I was hot and thirsty enough, I would say thank you.
Indeed in war, even a Kohen can eat pork, which is what one of my uncles did during the Second World War because the Red Army was on starvation diets. The saving grace here was that the pork was parve because it was captured from Germans who fed the pigs on fish so it smelled like fish 🙂 This uncle had some yeshiva time before USSR, so he figured a) I am at war, b) I am starving, and c) if I close my eyes I’m eating FISH! Yes, the last wasn’t very ‘kosher’, but he was right.
Teshuvah, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck…
I’ve heard it said that the Ukrainian camp guards at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen were not “real Christians” because of their egregious behaviour and their virulent Jew-hatred, but they were Christians. You can’t pick everything good from the Christian masses and label it Christian and simultaneously point out everything bad in the Christian masses and deny the fact that they’re real Christians. “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” -Aldous Huxley
Whether you accept it or not, Catholicism is a segmental part of Christianity, past, present and future.
mrg3105 Said:
What is your evidence or support for this assertion?mrg3105 Said:
If you are afraid or unable to offer support for your assertions that rabbis, posters or anyone are wrong or incorrect, perhaps it would be better not to make the assertion in the first place. If you are afraid to divulge the bases of your opinions to unobservant jews or afraid of christian persecution then why mention it at all and possibly draw attention to yourself? It sounds as if you have no support for the assertions you make and cover that fact by trying to appear cryptic. You have made a number of assertions here including declaring people wrong without any evidence, support or reasonable argument for your declarations. This is a forum not a soapbox, or a lecture hall; did you come to share or to pontificate?.
you, yourself declared:
mrg3105 Said:
and yet there appears to be a dearth of argument or evidence for a number of assertions and declarations you have made here.
such as this:
mrg3105 Said:
and this:
mrg3105 Said:
or this as a rebuttal to Yamits messiah assertions:
mrg3105 Said:
and this:
mrg3105 Said:
or this:
mrg3105 Said:
Perhaps you should eleborate as many Jews believe differently.
and this:
mrg3105 Said:
were you seriously offering this statement as an argument rebutting his assertions regarding the messiah?
mrg3105 Said:
did you also offer this as an argument of rebuttal or as an irrelevant aside?
mrg3105 Said:
care to elaborate… evidence, argument, explanation?
mrg3105 Said:
explain, many think of kaballah as a type of mysticism.
mrg3105 Said:
not much evidence or argument there but there is a hint of ad hominem.
mrg3105 Said:
Yamit made aliyah decades ago and in my observation of his writings he does not love the galut.
Do you reside in Israel? From your statement I assume you have left the galut.
M Devolin Said:
I didn’t slander anyone, and a Cohen by definition is not a ‘Jew’ any way one looks at it.
There is a plethora of halakha that deals with this, and as a first-born I am very aware of the fact that Leviim are different.
To call a Cohen not Jewish is not an insult, on the contrary.
At no time did I insult anyone, or even had the intention to. You just misunderstood.
http://www.torah.org/learning/ravfrand/5771/shoftim.html
Perhaps you have never experienced a minyan without a Cohen, or perhaps your friend didn’t
Unfortunately the author has not distinguished between the crimes of the Catholic Church, which is NOT Christian, and those other people who were its victims, true Christians. Consider the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. “In one week, almost 100,100 Protestants perished. ”
Catholicism on a “if you can’t lick ’em, replace ’em” basis has pretty much replaced true Biblical Christianity and hardly anyone has noticed. Around the world today Christians are being persecuted as well as Jews.
Timeline of Bloody History of Papal Rome | Oppression of Protestants
M Devolin Said:
That’s unfortunate.
Was too late for taking initiative. Your son should have punched him out well before this was allowed to happen.
There was an uncle in my family who was a paratrooper in the Soviet Army. I never met him. A sergeant called him something like that once. The sergeant didn’t survive the one punch my uncle threw. My uncle didn’t survive the firing squad. However, it is said that he was killed by one bullet, allegedly fired from the officer’s sidearm.
M Devolin Said:
Cohanim are from the tribe of Levi, so NOT ‘Jewish’. Jewish is what non-Jews call us, but there are not a few families that still trace their tribal roots. One of the greatest Australians ever was General Sir Yona Monash, from the Menashe tribe, so not ‘Jewish’, i.e. Yehudah tribe. Don’t make Moshiakh’s job more difficult than it has to be. 🙂
Just a history lesson.
When the tribes of Israel were exiled, a) it didn’t happen all at once, and b) not everyone was exiled.
People from all tribes for various reasons lived and worked in the Kindom of Yehuda, and when this was conquered by Romans they applied the ‘shorthand’ Yehudim to the entire population.
Technically we are not ‘Yehudim’, but Yisrael, Levi and Kohen, the minimum requirement to recommence the service in the bet haMikdash.
The only one who needs to be a Yehudi is Moshiakh.
Before the creation of the Ashkenazi communities the common term were Ivri, after Avraham haIvri, and the script was also called Ivri, hence HaIvri -> Hebrews
Don’t think the Wikipedia etymology is the right one. ‘Jew’ comes from a common insult flung at Hebrews to remind them of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus, and to remind them that a Christian should never trust a ‘Jew’.
I was much happier with anti-semitic Russians calling me Yevrei (Ivri) than friendly Americans calling me a Jew, though neither realised why.
Joke: Why are so few Hassidim living in Canada? Fun vanent kumstu? KeeNIDAH! (NOTE for the uninitiated: Hassidim take pleasure in changing most of the vowels in most words in most languages they encounter, Ivrit including)
“It matters little how you receive the message. It was meant as a slur and insult and that’s what matters. You would call someone pissing on your head rain because you were hot and thirsty at the time???”
I’m copying this down, Yamit. Exactly what I was trying to say.
Thanks for the kind words, Yamit. Sure made my day! Thank you.
The Cohen kid’s father is a member of the JDL with me. He is my brother. I respect you, mrg3105, but please don’t speak ill of my friend. He’s seen his share of antisemitism too.
“Look Mr. Devolin. If your son is a “fucking Jew”, you are guaranteed to be a grandfather. Mazal tov!”
I understand what you’re saying. Believe me, I do. There’s not a day goes by that I don’t wish I was Jewish. I understand what you meant when you said it was a compliment. I get that. What I was trying to convey is that the “un-fucking Christian” deserved the beating and there was no escaping the situation. “The fool sleeps in the time of harvest.”
mrg3105 Said:
Sophistry??? It matters little how you receive the message. It was meant as a slur and insult and that’s what matters. You would call someone pissing on your head rain because you were hot and thirsty at the time???
“A Cohen should not put himself into a situation where he would possibly come into contact with human blood which would render him tamei.”
He’s a Cohen, and just as much a Jew as you, maybe even a little better behaved than you since he doesn’t slander his fellow Jews (Jews you’ve never met and no nothing about) in public forums. Is this how you example your observance to strangers?
mrg3105 Said:
I didn’t quote from any Xtian site or source.
There are no Halchicly ritually pure Cohens today so what you said in non applicable. I know Devolin is not Jewish but he is damn close. He has my total respect as a good man and a friend.
But you were paraphrasing Sun Tzu and Zen concepts which I also respect in place and circumstances. That’s tactical and I was citing Jewish principles. You knew that as well as I so cut the bull.
Cheers to you as well. 😉
M Devolin Said:
Look Mr. Devolin. If your son is a “fucking Jew”, you are guaranteed to be a grandfather. Mazal tov!
On the other hand if the other kid is a non-fucking Christian, its the end of the line for his DNA.
The idiot was just stating the obvious, but thinking its an insult because his paedophile ‘celibate’ priest probably told him ‘fornication’ is a sin.
“A fighter, never mind a warrior that can’t control his emotions is already dead, but doesn’t know it yet.”
I am formerly a middleweight fighter, my sons are all of them boxing since they were 8 or 9 years of age. Trust me, my son did not get emotional, he got even…without the emotion. It’s called “a fighter’s cool.”
“surrendering initiative”?? What the hell are you talking about? Like you’re parenting statement, you know nothing of this situation but you talk like you were observing events from above (no pun intended). These kids were backed into a corner of the school yard with a wire fence behind them. “Better to live on your feet than to die on your knees.”
The Cohen kid is absolutely Jewish. Why are you being so unctuous? You are insulting my Jewish friends. We are out in the middle of nowhere Canada, not anywhere near Israel or a Jewish community. I feel privileged to be corresponding with someone so holy. Wow.
“Christian: one who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbour.” -Ambrose Bierce
yamit82 Said:
It sounds to me like you didn’t read the M Devolin is not Jewish, and neither was his son’s friend the Cohen. A Cohen should not put himself into a situation where he would possibly come into contact with human blood which would render him tamei.
However, I think if Mr Devolin’s son walked around with a two-edged sword, a) no one would call him anything except ‘Sir’, and b) the police may want to find out why he is so armed 🙂
All the rest is not applicable.
And stop quoting from Xtian sites. Not interested.
Knowledge of warfare is also knowing when to pick the time and place. Letting the opposition do it is surrendering initiative to your emotions. A fighter, never mind a warrior that can’t control his emotions is already dead, but doesn’t know it yet.
Cheers
“Since you are a Noachide, you abide by the ‘be fruitful and multiply’ mitzvah.”
This one’s over my head. How is the mitzvah to be fruitful and multiply connected to the “complement”? I’m not being sarcastic, I simply don’t know what you mean (and just when I was boasting about my intelligence!!).
dweller Said:
the mountain of obsessive garbage you just posted begs to differ. 😛
M Devolin Said:
I lived your son’t story in two different host cultures, and sort of living it now as an adult, so I know the ending.
I still see it as a complement 🙂 Since you are a Noachide, you abide by the ‘be fruitful and multiply’ mitzvah
There is more than one way to look at situations.
I have no comment on your skills
Ever heard of Torah miTzion? Mission is the lazy Ashkenazi pronunciation from the post-Hellenization period. You see, in German there is no way to start a word with a Tz, which is why there are Zionists 🙂
“Any christian who supports Israel on one side but advocates Jewish conversion to christianity and devoted billions of dollars to that end is an enemy of Israel and every Jew.”
I agree, Yamit. I know where their theology takes its pupils. That’s why I repudiated Christianity and became a Noachide. Also, you won’t have to worry about my family sending millions in support of Jewish conversion to Christianity’s missionaries. We’re all so poor up here in the sticks we can’t even pay attention.
“Now if you can’t according to christianity destroy Judaism then you need to destroy Jews.”
Yes, it certainly boils down to that. But so many don’t see it. And those who do haven’t the balls to acknowledge HaShem. They’re afraid of their idol and his threats.
@ M Devolin:
I like many christians too. I hate christianity.
christianity is a negation of Judaism and by extension Jews.
Now if you can’t according to chritianity destroy Judaism then you need to destroy Jews. Simplistic but it all boils down to that. Few christians intellectualize this truism but the theologians and intellectuals understand. They will not say it in public but between them they do.
Any christian who supports Israel on one side but advocates Jewish conversion to christianity and devoted billions of dollars to that end is an enemy of Israel and every Jew.
dweller Said:
Translation: He (YoursTruly) is simply too clever for you.
The AH is really hysterical, losing it in spades like calling a spade a spade!!! 😛 I stand by my comment 4 square too. You are truly the king of psychobbble and Petulance. Why don’t you crawl back in your dusty cave I hear your poor wife calling all the way over here to keep you she can’t stand you either. Tired of supporting a bum like you too. Forgot you don’t have a real wife do ya fegele unless she is maybe a he??? 😛
dweller Said:
(
Bozo??? Like the clown? What are you Claribel? Feminine clown ) Fegele guy impersonating a female clown??? What an AH!!!!
dweller Said:
Admits to what he was accused and or to lying about it? Looks like both to me. AH
Exactly, Yamit.
“Now the only moral value is courage, which is useful here for judging the puppets and chatterboxes who pretend to speak in the name of the people.” -Albert Camus
I was wrong in #50 to equate Islam with Christianity. Christians, although I disagree vehemently with their theology and their NT’s denigration of the Jews, I have to admit that there are today many good Christian human beings coming out in support of the Jews and Israel (I know, too bad there seems to be just as many coming out against the Jews and Israel). At least there are so many speaking up in defense of Israel. Not so Islam and the Muslims. And there are not Christians beheading Jews on YouTube or murdering Jews at prayer in synagogues in Israel. I have to catch myself lately from saying things I regret, and I regret equating Christianity with Islam in post #50. I do not like the NT, as anyone here who knows me can verify. But there are many good Christians out there. Every singe member of my huge family are good Christians and pro-Israel. I recently had 3/4 of my winter’s wood supply stolen. After hearing of this, some of my nephews and cousins dumped loads of firewood off at my house when I wasn’t home. “Do onto others…” This is the same family who welcomed an Israeli soldier, a Jew (a friend of mine whom I named my youngest son after, the son who beat up the antisemite), and drank all weekend with him a long time ago. He told me afterward his face hurt from laughing. My point was that I do not need Christianity to be a better person (no one does): they need only the 7 laws of Noach. But since I have to live with them, I would rather live with Christians than Muslims, let’s put it that way. It will always be my view that Christianity precipitated the Holocaust, but I believe many Christians are becoming aware of this tragedy and its horrible connection to their religion. Although this tragedy will remain irremediable forever, Christians are doing well trying to make things better, ronnutter’s article in example.
dweller Said:
Petulance again????
@ bernard ross:
But I see that you’re AGAIN misrepresenting what I said. (You’re not only a smear artist and a bigot; you’re ALSO a lying sack of snot.)
I’ve not said that I never try to respond before a thread closes. (Why would I not?) Who doesn’t want to be last man standing?
What I HAVE said — and I’ve corrected your deliberate misrepresentations of my remarks in this regard SEVERAL times) — is that my time constraints prevent me from having assurance of always getting in the last word — time constraints that you do NOT have. So when YOU fail to get in the last word, it’s not because you didn’t WANT to; only because you calculated amiss, despite your having ample time. (Poor baby.)
If you ARE ‘laughing out loud,’ then it’s forced laughter.
But I don’t think you’re even doing that.
Now, there’s the true psychobabble. Notice the source.
Unlike yourself, right?
Translation: He (YoursTruly) is simply too clever for you.
ROFLMSS. Of the three of us — you, me & Huff’n’puff — I’m the ONLY one who isn’t compulsive.
And I’ll tell you something else too, Bozo:
— If you weren’t compulsive, you’d be smarter (a LOT smarter) — but to stop being compulsive, you’d have to give up your maliciousness. And that’s one thing you simply CAN’T do; your ego enjoys it too much — you’re addicted to the emotional pleasure of judgment (which lies at the core of malice)
— in a very real sense, your compulsiveness is your just punishment.
So I can tell that I was wrong about you. (So, you see? — I acknowledge my errors; aren’t you glad?)
Yes, it’s quite clear (embarrassingly clear) that it was wrong of me to say — as I did — that you had “all the brains of a dime-store dildo (and less of the utility).” I admit that I was wrong, and I humbly appreciate the opportunity to correct my mistake.
The inescapable truth of the matter — which I now shamefacedly admit — is that you DON’T have the brains of a dime-store dildo.
There.
It was a titanic struggle, but I feel SO much better when I forthrightly own-up to my errors and rectify them!
mrg3105 Said:
What are you talking about??
What does that sound like to you???
“let the high praises of G-d be in their throat and a two edged sword in their hand – to execute vengeance upon the nations…” (Psalms 58).
Our sages comment (Sotah 46b), “Would we ever think that the city’s elders were murderers? Yet, perhaps he approached them and they sent him off without feeding him, or they saw him and let him go without escorting him.”
Our sages teach us a great lesson here regarding love for one’s fellow Jew and the duty one bears to him: it is not enough for a Jew not to murder. Surely, “Turn away from evil” (Ps. 34:15) applies here, but a much weightier duty applies too: he must do all he can to save his fellow Jew from danger, to eradicate every danger and mishap, to defeat every foe who imperils the Jewish people before he can harm them.
You said you prefer Rashi:
The same holds for an individual Jew.
“I think Jews should study all about Christianity and Islam. This comes from a survival perspective.”
I strongly disagree. A “survival perspective” should show you abundant proof that debating Christians and Muslims about their faith is a waste of time. This perspective should also show you (I speak as a gentile) that to survive as a Jew you need a country of your own and a powerful military, and you have both in the State of Israel and its armed forces. Christianity and Islam would never have given you these. But, if you’re interested, their respective mountains of bullshit still exist if you’re interested in reading up on them. Personally, I need to be rid of them (especially Islam)not only to survive, but also to be a better human being and acceptable to HaShem and HIS people. I think that an odd bit of advice on your part, if you don’t mind me saying so.
You’ve only heard the tiniest bit of this story, mrg3105. These kids were giving both the Cohen kid and my kid a hard time before this fight happened, at one time mocking the photo of a flag of Israel. There was much leading up to this physical confrontation.
And no, I didn’t reprimand my son. I praised him for standing up for Israel and the Jewish people. I don’t know where you’re from, but when an antisemite calls you a “fucking Jew,” such a remark does not “unknowingly” and inadvertently become a compliment, especially in the presence of screaming onlookers. Please, don’t insult my intelligence.
As for parenting skills, I will leave it up to Jewish friends I know personally (not a total stranger on the internet with a name like R2D2) to advise me on parenting my children, thank you very much.
The term “missionaries,” as used in its present context, refers to Christian “evangelists” seeking converts to their “faith.” I’ve never heard of the Jews and the nation of Israel, in their divine role as a “light unto the nations,” ever referred to in the Tanach as “missionaries” as the word is used in the contemporary context.
M Devolin Said:
I hope you reprimanded your son. The other kid, unknowingly, was paying a compliment.
I think Jews should study all about Christianity and Islam. This comes from a survival perspective.
Jews were the original missionaries. That’s what the word means
M Devolin Said:
So? Everyone needs education
This is why king David taught Am Yisrael how to use the bow 🙂
Think about it
And why did you SHOUT ‘the land’?
The soil of Israel is no different to many others. What would make it different are those that use it, but the majority (see ‘rov’) in Israel want to be just like everyone else, ‘Yamit’ here can’t even be bothered to give Jewish names to the Torah quotes he provides.