Listen Carefully for the Echoes of Antisemitism

By Rev. Peter Houston
CMJ South Africa

In the words of a former President of South Africa, “listen carefully!”

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (of blessed memory) recognized the new face of antisemitism years ago. In a speech to the European Union parliament in 2016 he said the following:

Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else. It takes different forms in different ages. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, the state of Israel. It takes different forms but it remains the same thing: the view that Jews have no right to exist as free and equal human beings.

He likened antisemitism to a mutating virus, and this was before the 2020 Covid pandemic that made us all armchair experts overnight. Rabbi Sacks said:

Throughout history, when people have sought to justify antisemitism, they have done so by recourse to the highest source of authority available within the culture. In the Middle Ages, it was religion. So we had religious anti-Judaism. In post-Enlightenment Europe it was science. So we had the twin foundations of Nazi ideology, Social Darwinism and the so-called Scientific Study of Race. Today the highest source of authority worldwide is human rights. That is why Israel—the only fully functioning democracy in the Middle East with a free press and independent judiciary—is regularly accused of the five cardinal sins against human rights: racism, apartheid, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide.

The recent massacre of Jews by Hamas in Israel has revealed to us the face of this antisemitism in our government leaders and many church leaders, both in what they have said, justifying the actions of Hamas as a liberation struggle, and by what has been left unsaid, the silences. This was to be expected from a ruling government who themselves supported an armed liberation struggle that targeted not only security forces but also ended up killing civilians. According to a TRC report published in 2003, “the majority of casualties of MK operations were civilians."

But what about the response of church leaders?

A central tenet of the Christian faith is that one new man (or one new humanity) has been achieved in Jesus Christ, that the old creation has gone, and all things have become new. That’s the claim, anyway. In the name of this new humanity, and in the name of human rights, the Church has been outspoken, and taken a vocal public stand against the rape of women, the murder of children, and the abuse of the elderly. The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, in particular, calls its members to observe Thursdays in Black, arguing that (and I quote from the Thursdays in Black movement) “we all have a responsibility to speak out against violence, to ensure that women and men, boys and girls, are safe from rape and violence in homes, schools, work, streets – in all places in our societies.” Furthermore, the Anglican church has gone out of its way to set up safeguarding policies, protocols, and commissions to ensure that its own members are safe and secure.

Yet what was the response when Hamas raped Jewish women, murdered Jewish children, and abused Jewish elders? Mostly silence, a few vigils for the Palestinian cause, some generalized prayers for peace, and plenty of qualified fence-sitting statements that never mentioned Hamas, let alone condemned Hamas. The Anglican Church of Southern Africa was not alone. In effect, what many Church leaders seem to be saying, by what they’re not saying:

The rape of women is wrong, except if you’re a Jewish woman.
The murder of children is wrong, except if you’re a Jewish child.
The abuse of the elderly is wrong, except if you’re a Jewish elder.

The blaming of the victims for the crimes perpetrated against them would not be tolerated by the #MeToo movement or by Thursdays in Black advocacy, or by a Safe Church Commission. This is exceptionalism. This exceptionalism has a name. It is called antisemitism.

Throughout history prominent church leaders have been the incarnation of the antisemitism of that age, preaching it in the Middle Ages, theologizing away Jesus’ Jewishness under Nazism, and ignoring Hamas in their liberation struggle narratives while also remaining silent about the rise of blatant antisemitism around the world. Since the Sukkot massacre in Israel on 7 October, Jews have been subject to a marked and sudden rise in antisemitic incidents on the streets of London, Manchester, Berlin, New York, and elsewhere. The number of antisemitic posts online has surged by 1,200 percent. Jews are being subject to horrendous verbal abuse, vandalism of property, and even physical attack.

Each new epoch of antisemitism builds on the old. We hear echoes of 20th-century antisemitism when a “race” narrative is advanced to explain the conflict in Israel as being a liberation struggle against white colonial oppressors, only this time Jews are not the antipathy of a particular form of whiteness (which Nazis believed) but have come to embody whiteness. But even older echoes are heard. The Blood Libel accusation is one of the most ancient and enduring forms of antisemitism. The accusation first arose in the 12th century, alleging that Jews murdered Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals. Despite these allegations being baseless, Jews were killed in retaliatory riots.

When the Black Death swept Europe in the 14th century, killing an estimated 25-50 million people, Jews were accused of poisoning wells to kill Christians. The reality was that the bubonic plague killed people irrespective of their religion, including Jews. Nevertheless, Jews were killed in retaliation. In the 19th century, Jews in Damascus were accused of murdering a Christian monk and his Muslim servant to use their blood for rituals. Both Christians and Muslims in Damascus responded with violence against Jews. Eventually Sultan Abdülmecid I issued a firmān (edict) denouncing the blood libel.

Fast forward, when Hamas fired rockets at Israel in 2021 and 2022, later studies indicated that between 15-20 percent of their rockets misfired and fell on the Gaza Strip, adding to the civilian death toll. A similar trend is being observed with these 2023 attacks, with Hamas rockets killing civilians in Gaza. Israel is blamed and by extension Jews everywhere. The yet unfounded accusation becomes a modern form of blood libel as ordinary Jews become potential targets of violent retaliation, as has been the witness of history in every age.

To end where I began with the words of Rabbi Sacks:

Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else. It takes different forms in different ages. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, the state of Israel. It takes different forms but it remains the same thing: the view that Jews have no right to exist as free and equal human beings.

His words remain as pertinent as ever. Listen carefully.

The Rev. Canon Peter Houston is a senior Anglican Priest and Canon Theologian in the Diocese of Natal. He has an academic interest in Church History, especially as it pertains to Christian antisemitism.