On the night of Passover, during the dinner celebrated in commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt, a cup of wine is set on the table for Elijah – the herald of the messianic age – to drink when he stops in to join the gathering. The door is left unlocked.

If you ask me, it’s about time he showed up. Here’s evidence. A familiar feature of nondenominational meetings of theologians that I’ve attended – here the most recent one looked to be just a bit of an exception – is the absence of Jews and Judaism from discussions of world religions! Jews seem to be “present” mainly in the form of absence – as the empty chair at the table. I have no way of knowing how typical this is. Here I only report what I have noticed.

It’s pretty odd, when you come to think of it. Theologians who would rather be crucified-near-an-anthill than disparage any heretofore marginalized group show no qualm at leaving unmentioned the one group known to have suffered nearly two thousand years of calumny, which culminated in what may be the greatest single crime against humanity in recorded history: the Holocaust.

Calumny? False accusations? What calumnies? Thank you for asking. I’ll be happy to list them. Whatever the spirit of the age – Jews are projected as its antithesis. Like a photo negative of the Zeitgeist.

1. In the Christian era, God was universally held to have taken on human form (incarnated) as Jesus, the Jewish carpenter from Nazareth. He attracted a significant popular following as the messiah at a time when that title was associated with an anticipated figure who would overthrow Roman rule in Roman-occupied Judea. The four records we have of the life of Jesus have the Jewish authorities fearing Roman reprisal and turning him over to Roman authorities for crucifixion, a method that had already blackened the Judean hills with crosses.

     1a. The calumny: all Jews, morning, noon and night, crucify Jesus.

Crazy, no?

2. Enlightened Europeans, emerging from the combats between Christian denominations that had wracked Europe, welcomed the triumph of Newtonian Laws of Nature presided over by an impartial, universal Providence. 

      2a. The calumny: Jews are merely particularistic, without concern for the universal – only for other Jews. Suggestion:

Give Jews the same opportunities,

and see how they do,

on charity, shared social concerns,

and universal human rights.

3. Romanticism privileges passionate intensity, reacts against Enlightenment rationalism, and stresses native lands and native spirit.

       3a. The calumny: Jews are rootless, homeless cosmopolitans, never at home, always wandering.

Jews don’t “wander.”

They are forced out!

Once again – whatever the currently accepted worldview is – Jews are imagined as its antithesis.

4. Darwinian principles view all of life, including human life, as a struggle for survival, where only the fittest prevail. 

      4a. The Nazi calumny: Jews are a “race” unlike any other, in that it’s the only toxic race.

Jews are a people, not a race. 

They are not defined biologically but covenantally.

One can join this people and then be understood 

to have stood with them at Mt Sinai and 

with them accepted their covenant with God.

5. Post-colonialism: Each people has its own traditions – to be respected on its own terms – without subordinating its way of seeing, saying and being to any purported “universalism” that actually masks Western hegemony.

       5a. The calumny: The nation of Israel is regarded as a colonial imposition even though it’s the ancient homeland of the Jews. It’s accorded no right to exist, much less prevail in battle against enemies unashamedly determined to destroy it utterly, from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea.

When I first saw the Land of Israel

looking down from the El Al plane

circling for a landing –

what came to mind unbidden was –

‘There it is again. How nice!

They’ve put cities down this time.’

*. *. *

In the Hebrew Bible, the human story begins with a fratricide. One brother fears that the other brother has the inside track with God. So Cain kills Abel in the somewhat doltish belief that God will then transfer the divine affection to Cain. Why? Because God will then have no alternative. 

However, Cain’s calculation fails. It seems God is not so easily fooled.

Here’s an idea! How about people, inclined to blame Jews alone – uniquely and repetitively from age to age – try this alternative: thanking the Jews for making the Creator better known to humankind! The Jews did this by conscientiously keeping the historical record of their own relationship with God – even when it did not flatter them!

Just a simple “thanks” would do.

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