Rabin Lapin makes some excellent points. There seems to be a certain paranoia among Jews about anything Christian, perhaps understandable given the horrible record of anti-semitism, even if currently unwarranted. America has been the best home the Jews have ever had, and it has often troubled me that so many seem to be enthusiastic about trashing the mainstream Judaeo - Christian culture in favor of a shallow liberal secularism. I believe it is very shortsighted, and am glad Rabbi Lapin has made the case that good interfaith relations are not well served by it.

It is a sad fact that there is animus, even if only slight, on the part of many Americans toward Jews. From what I have observed (I am not Jewish, so I probably am not as sensitive about this as a Jewish American would be), I think it is not the anti-Semitism of the Protocols or the blood libel. It is a vague unease or dislike that comes from a sense that a lot of Jews are out to subvert ordinary American society and especially are out to purge America of Christianity. It does little good to say what is true: most Jews are not doing these things and most of the people who do are not Jews. The perception is there nevertheless, reinforced by disproportionate Jewish representation among those who are doing them.

I find this doubly sad because those Jews one might plausibly characterize as people subverting American society and trying to suppress Christianity are, as far as I know, almost totally secular - their motivation is not a religious Jewish one. They do what they do because they are liberals, as do gentile liberals. Whether they are liberal because they are Jewish is a pointless question.

Observant Jews that I know do not do these things and generally have little sympathy for those who do (even if they still vote Democratic; some habits are hard to break). That is not to say that they love Christianity; they are not Christians and, as Rabbi Lapin notes, they have long memories. Still, they are not attacking Christianity or American traditions. Rabbi Lapin’s article is a welcome reminder of that, and a reminder that nobody should succumb to the temptation of thinking that people like Abraham Foxman speak for all Jews. HRS

While it may be true that many Jews who seem to be hostile to Christian culture are only expressing a secular liberalism, it should be noted that there has been a decline in religious belief, and many congregations, both Jewish and Christian, have sought to keep a hold on moral high ground in the absence of traditional faith by adopting an enthusiasm for the ostentatious benevolence of leftist ideals. There is the old joke that Reform Judaism is the left wing of the democrat party, plus holidays. Further, there is a quasi - religious intensity with which liberal views hostile to Christianity are held (not limited of course to Jews). I believe that many liberal Jews see their leftism as integral to their sense of identity as Jews, and this is why they become highly exercised over anything that tends to draw their leftism into question. I speak as someone with a deep sympathy for the Jews and their tragic history, and a great appreciation of their tremendous cultural contributions, not as someone looking for an excuse to complain about them.

I decided some weeks ago that a helpful habit to develop when speaking about Jewish people is to always include the modifier people. I feel uneasy as a non-Jewish person talking about “Jews” or “the Jews” because these unmodified expressions are so often used when venom is directed at Jews or heated discussions involving Jewish people are involved (not that I have the slightest reason to believe any of those above used or would venom). This is causing me to recast my sentences, but one great thing about English is we can say the same thing in several different ways without all that much extra effort, in most cases.

Would Mr. Murgos use “Christian people” or “Muslim people” instead of Christians or Muslims? Don’t we fall into political correctness when we start walking on eggshells about perfectly straightforward description? Nowadays the term “people of color” is approved, the older term “colored people,” itself originally adopted for euphemistic purposes, has become tainted, even though there would seem to be no rational distinction between the two. It will be easy enough to judge from comments made whether a speaker entertains a discreditable animus without resorting to circumlocuitous phraseology.

To Thucydides, I believe the difference has to do with the fact that words such as “Christian” and “Muslim” are nouns as well as adjectives. A Christian person is a Christian. But the word “Jew” only functions as a noun, not as an adjective. So the statement “He’s a Jew” might sound harsher and more “objectifying” than the statement “He’s a Christian.”

That’s actually the way I once felt. I remember many years ago correcting a friend who said “Jew.” I said I would rather be described as “Jewish” rather than as “a Jew,” as I felt the latter sounded harsh. Then, over time, I decided that “Jew” was perfectly fine. The form of the word is really just a linguistic accident. What matters is the way words are used.

Whooa!! :-o

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35245

I too have been vexed by this dilemna. However, as long as jewish persons of the jewish faith adopt “jew” and rest content with non-jewish pronouncements “jew” and “jews” I am not disinclined to too use “jew”.

Before today, I was not familar with Rabbi Lapin. As a practicing Christian, I am distressed at the present anti-Christian rhetoric coming from the jewish community re Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of Christ.

Up to the present I have always been sympathetic towards the jewish people,however, I feel my attitude changing with each day and more so now with their behavior towards Mel Gibson’s movie. As a Christian I realize this isn’t the way I should feel, but I can’t help it. I see this as an attack on my Christian beliefs and am resentful.

I agree with Rabbi Lapin about the backlash towards the jewish community due to their behavior towards the movie and other anti-christian behavior.

I saw Mel gibson’s movie opening day and it IS NOT ANTI-SEMINTIC. The movie is based on the gospel of the bible and focuses on the suffering of Christ for our sins.

Thank you Rabbi Lapin for your common sense and courage to speak out.

God Bless you.

Diana,

I appreciate and understand your reaction to the attacks upon this film by certain secular Jews. The important thing to keep in mind is that Rabbi Lapin, Don Feder and others out there are fighting the good fight and standing up for what is right - often at great personal cost. The bottom line, I expect, is that real religion of Foxman and his fellow travelers is liberalism, not Judaism.

Like their liberal Protestant and Catholic counterparts such as Barry Lynn and Charles(?) Curran, they have rejected their tradtional faith and replaced it with liberalsim. At the same time, they are dishonest about their rejection of faith and lift up the false doctrines of liberalism as the true essence of faith. Nihilists one and all.

Sweet Diana does not raise a Catholic or a Protestant issue. She raises an issue about Jewish people, who are people no more or less than non-Jewish people. There are some Jewish people that are critical of the Passion, but there are huge numbers of Christians and other non-Jewish people critical of the movie. The point is that Jewish people are a distraction in this debate between secularists and Chritians. Our dear Jewish friends are numerous.

… briefly. G-d Bless Rabbi Lapin. I recently concluded that assimilation works both ways. Americans are Jewish in the way that American Jews are Christian.

My convictions were affirmed when I enrolled in Torah class at my local Jewish Community Center. On the first day I introduced myself as a “First Reform Jew”, i.e. a Christian. My original goal was to gain a better understanding of Judaism so that I could properly criticize it, its adherents and Israel.

My mission succeeded. I just finished chiding Ms. Bernard of the NY Daily News for her spiteful review of Gibson’s movie.

But my happiest moment came when I stood to cheer my very orthodox rabbi when he defined the qualities and responsibilities of being a Jew as one accounts for one’s actions on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. His definition described a G-d-Fearing, Constitution-loving, Conservative American.

We take for granted the values we share.

Frank Butash
860-232-7173

Listen, I have no problem with Christian Movies, Gibson’s are any others, I am not Christian, but a Pre-Christian “Traditionalist” believer, however, by liberal, you mean the liberal of the Founding Fathers and why the Jews selected them to be part of the new American Republic, which has housed Jewish Capitalism and other “Judeo-Communistic” wolves as they look for Judeo-Freedom.

Christians cannot be complete to you enact Jesus’s Socialist message, which you have not yet, means more persection will continue.

Is the above post written in Hebrew? I can’t seem to decipher it.

Well, all we know for sure about Evola is that she is connected with a university, since her e-mail address ends in .edu. Perhaps she teaches English at one of our better community colleges.

Evola, why don’t you send a picture? Perhaps Mr. Auster would be kind enough to post it? It’d be great to put a face on the, um, well..

I can’t quite decide whether Evola hails from the feverish swamps of Vanguard News Network or a similarly fetid place on the left side of reality.

Only a community college, Mr. Auster? Surely her outstanding command of the language would easily land her a top professorship at Cornell, Harvard, or Princeton if her melanin level is sufficient.

1) “The Passion of teh Christ” is certinaly NOT anti-Jewish. Instead it is a VERY powerful film on truth.

2) Mel Gibson’s new movie (forthcoming) will be on “the Maccabees” How much more “pro-Jewish” can he get?

3) Mel Gibson is a friend of both Jews and Chrstians. I for one, totally respect his faith, and his passion..and I deeply appreciate “the Maccabees” as he choice of a new movie.

I did not feal the Passion to be anti-jewish at all. Just read the Bible and you see how much the Jews were envolved but so was my sin as well. I can’t say I enjoyed the movie but it certainly was worth seeing. I am a Chaplain at a Christian Retirement Community.

In Christ, Carl Ramgren

“Evola” could well be a man who has taken the name of reactionary writer Julius Evola - ?