The Jewish People & Jesus Christ After Auschwitz
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THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND JESUS CHRIST AFTER AUSCHWITZ A Study in the Controversy Between Church and Synagogue By Jakób Jocz First Published 1981 by BAKER BOOK HOUSE Grand Rapids, Michigan Digital edition 2019 !1 of !185 About this digital edition This book has been reformatted for digital publishing. It differs from the original printed text in the following areas: - Page numbering (page references to Dr Jocz’s own works refer to the original published versions) - No index of names or subjects (but it is word searchable) - Positioning of notes after each chapter - Minor editing of the text (punctuation, etc.) - Document scanning may have introduced undiscovered errors !2 of !185 This volume is dedicated to my colleagues and students at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, in gratitude for happy years of friendship. Acknowledgements The author wants to express his gratitude to his friend and colleague, the Rev. Norman Green, formerly of the McLaughlin Planetarium, Toronto, for his invaluable help in proofreading; to his wife Joan Alice and his daughter Elisabeth Anne for preparing the indices; and last but not least to Mr. Ray Wiersma, project editor of Baker Book House, for his painstaking care in the production of the book—todah rabbah—many thanks. !3 of !185 CONTENTS About this digital edition 2 Acknowledgements 3 CONTENTS 4 INTRODUCTION 6 Notes To Introduction 9 I. AUSCHWITZ 10 Notes To Chapter I 17 II. WHERE WAS GOD 19 Notes To Chapter II 26 III. WHERE WAS THE CHURCH 29 Notes To Chapter III 40 IV. THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS 43 Notes To Chapter IV 50 V. THE WAY TO RECONCILIATION 53 Notes To Chapter V 63 VI. QUEST FOR A NEW IMAGE OF JEWS AND JUDAISM 66 Notes To Chapter VI 81 VII. WHO IS JESUS? 85 Notes To Chapter VII 94 VIII. WHAT IS JUDAISM 96 Notes To Chapter VIII 103 IX. WHO IS A JEW? 105 Notes To Chapter IX 113 X. JEWS AND JEWISH CHRISTIANS 115 Notes To Chapter X 122 XI. CONVERSION AND MISSIONS 124 Notes To Chapter XI 134 XII. THE DIALOGUE 137 Notes To Chapter XII 149 XIII. PERSISTENT ISSUES 152 1. Anti-Semitism 152 !4 of !185 2. Auschwitz and God 156 3. Who Was Jesus? 159 4. Jews and Christians 161 5. The Individual and the Nation 164 6. The Christian Witness 166 Notes To Chapter XIII 168 EPILOGUE 171 Notes To Epilogue 175 BIBLIOGRAPHY 176 !5 of !185 INTRODUCTION The intended purpose of the present work is to bring the convoluted story of Jewish- Christian relationships after World War II up-to-date. It is meant to serve as a sequel to an earlier book published in 1949—The Jewish People and Jesus Christ. "After Auschwitz" is deliberately chosen as part of the title to indicate the end of a period in history. Auschwitz is a landmark ranking high in the scale of tragic events in the history of the Jewish people, equal to, if not surpassing, the tragedy of the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. But Auschwitz is not only a tragedy for Jews; it is a tragedy for mankind. Hitler's political victory in 1933 brought to an end the dream of German Romanticism. The intellectual life of nineteenth-century Germany had been dominated by the Romantic movement, which was founded upon. the premise of man's basic incorruptibility. The glorification of man was the dominating theme of the arts and sciences. Swinburne spelled it out with touching naiveté: "Glory to Man in the highest: for Man is master of all things." After Auschwitz, Swinburne's "Hymn to Man" reads like mockery. The German extermination camps are a visible demonstration of the hollowness of the idealistic dream and of the brittleness of pseudo-Christianity. Between Goethe and Hitler stands the cynical mirage of Nietzsche's superman with his contempt for the weak and the humble. It was Nietzsche's achievement to provide the justification for a transition from Romanticism to the philosophy of power. The descent from the mastery of nature to the mastery of man reached its ultimate fulfilment in the gas ovens of the extermination camps. The process of the degradation was mightily accelerated by the domineering role of the physical sciences and technology. By being chained to the machine man was reduced to an animated tool and thus became dispensable. C. G. Jung's warning came too late: "It is dangerous to tell man of his low nature, without telling him of his greatness at the same time." The problem for contemporary man is the recovery of his God-intended dignity. The moral crisis of our age stems largely from a misinterpretation of man's position in the world. We either overestimate ourselves and become tyrants, or we underestimate ourselves and wallow in the gutter. Auschwitz became possible only when man was reduced to animal status. As one slaughters cattle so one slaughters man. Blaise Pascal showed remarkable insight when he placed man under the law of contradiction—man is always two things: "the offscouring of the universe" and the image of God. At Auschwitz he revealed himself as a spectre and a monstrosity. After Auschwitz the world can never be the same. It marks the collapse of all facile idealism. It is not good enough for Goethe to sing, "Edel sei der Mensch, hilfreich und gut" ("Man should be noble, helpful and good"), without telling us how to achieve this. The characteristic mark of humanistic philosophy is to camouflage the demonic forces which tear at the human psyche. Godless man is a danger to himself and to society. Godlessness is a destructive force and ultimately self-defeating. Man cannot survive nor can he recover his dignity without faith in God. Auschwitz stands as an ominous warning we cannot afford to neglect. "After Auschwitz" marks the possibility of a new beginning for the Jewish people, for the Church, for the world. In regard to Jewish-Christian relationships two events are of !6 of !185 outstanding importance: the creation of the State of Israel and Vatican II. Both these events will have far-reaching consequences for the future. In the annals of Jewish history the date May 14, 1948 is of momentous significance: Israel became a sovereign nation. Though the struggle for survival is far from over, the cry "Yisrael hai!" ("Israel lives!") has brought new hope and a new dignity to millions of Jews the world over. But as is usual in human affairs, new solutions bring new problems. A political answer to the Jewish problem can never satisfy Israel's aspirations. Many Jews now realize that a political solution is insufficient to solve human needs. National renaissance cannot be separated from spiritual revival. The problem is that traditional Diaspora Judaism is ill-equipped to cope with the demands of an independent State under modern conditions.1 The political compromise achieved by the inclusion of the orthodox minority in the Israeli Knesset can be only a tentative measure. The majority of the population will not permanently accept the straitjacket of rabbinic rule. Jews, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, are in search of a new spirituality more in tune with the requirements of democracy and freedom. There is gradually evolving a new kind of Judaism, more tolerant, better adjusted to modern life and less introverted. The question of what is "normative" for Jewish faith is repeatedly raised both in Israel and in the Diaspora. An increasing number of Jewish writers object to making Zionism the quintessence of Jewish faith. Men of the stature of Yehezkel Kaufman, Hans Kohn, David Riesmun, Simon Dubnow, and Philip Roth have come to question the political interpretation of the Jewish destiny.2 Arthur A. Cohen refuses to regard the political rebirth of Israel as "theologically significant".3 He interprets the exile as the God-given opportunity for the Jewish mission to the world. Cohen sees Jewish life in the Diaspora as a necessary condition for Israel's calling as the People of God. It would seem that the present Kulturkampf involving world Jewry is turning on the question of whether the Israeli State is a cultural or a spiritual solution, or both. Traditionally, culture and religion were never separable in Jewish experience, but under modern conditions of secularized society the shift of emphasis becomes important. In the quest for spiritual values a person may decide against Judaism without ceasing to be a Jew. This is the prevailing situation both in and outside Israel today.4 Under such conditions the Hebrew Christian has a chance to follow his conscience without compromising his loyalty to his people. The most remarkable development in Jewish culture is the increasing acceptance of Jesus the Jew. There is a genuine effort made to incorporate the Nazarene into the history of Jewish spirituality, not as the Christ of the Church but as a teacher in Israel. Therefore, the question, "Who is Jesus?" is repeatedly asked and answered in a variety of ways. The question regarding Jesus raises the problem of the "normalcy" of rabbinic Judaism. The discovery of the Qumran literature in the Dead Sea caves opened new insights into the structure of religious life at the time of Jesus. Until that discovery it was taken for granted that Pharisaic Judaism was the normative religion in Israel. The Church therefore was seen as an offspring of the Synagogue. Jewish (and even Christian) writers frequently speak of Christianity as the daughter of Judaism, meaning rabbinic Judaism. But the recently recovered facts contradict such a position. Judaism at the time of Jesus was by no means a homogeneous entity.