Expert: Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner - 4/24/2005

Question
Hello, I have a question that I don't know exactly how to ask.  It is meant with full respect and courtesy, not the way it sounds.  So please forgive me ahead of time.

I grew up LDS, and have decided that it wasn't for me.  I was searching for something else, something that fit me.  In my search, feeble as it was, I kept coming across historical references and citings about Jewish persecution.  

I am wondering why Jews are hated so much?  I watch the news and see young kids blowing themselves up on buses in Tel Aviv.  No one ever seems to say what the Jews allegedly did to cause this level of hatred.  It seems that even in the time of the Romans, the Jews were targets.  

I was never taught in school anything about he history of your religion.  I was hoping you could direct me to any books where I could read up on this matter.  All of this makes no sense to me.    

I'd be appreciative of any guidance you could give.  Thank you for your time.
Damon Brown

Answer
Dear Damon,

Thanks for writing and I do apologize for a little tardiness because of the Passover holiday demands.

Secondly, you've been most polite and phrased the issue in a most respectful.

The challenge is to try and explain an issue that has baffled so many people, especially Jews who just can't figure out what we as individuals or as a heritage or even as a people or State have done to merit such hatred.

I would suggest that you reads "Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism" by Dennis Pragerand Joseph Telushkin. The more classic work is by Trachtenberg on "The Devil and the Jews."

Personally, I have some suggestions and this time I hope I don't offend you:

1. The New Testament contains many references upon which Christianity and to a lesser extent Islam based their view that Judaism was an inferior religion and was superceded by the later religious interpretations. And, when priests and imams didn't restrain the people but in fact encouraged the animosity, most anything could and did happen to Jews.

2. The message of Judaism imposed strictures, moral as well as beliefs that were difficult for the general population to observe, and it didn't promise rewards such as enternal life until very late in its development. Resentment is a powerful source of dislike if not hatred.

3. Too often there were literary pieces composed against Jews - either posed as revelation, eg the "visions" on which Mel Gibson based his film from Sister Emmereich of the 17th century, not the NT, or the "protocols of the elders of zion" - still printed and distributed by the Islamic countries of the Middle East pointing against the State of Israel. They were successful in being accepted as "truth" and through the present it is almost impossible to disprove them.

4. With this tradition, it is easy to use Jews as a scapegoat even when one doesn't know Jews, eg. Japan that points to Jews for financial misdealings although there are virutally no Jews in Japan and similarly in Poland after they were virtually annhilated by Hitler: they are still being blamed!

5. Why there are suicide murderers - and several of my friends are among the victims who died in Jerusalem - is also interesting. They are not the poor, down-trodden, ignorant, etc. Rather, they are either ideologically driven, financially driven for the rewards to the family, political pressures from the terrorist organizations who DON'T send their own children, etc.

They are murders dedicated to the destruction of the STate of Israel because it is an Islamic principle that once a land has been under the sovereignity of Islman, it must ultimately be regained for Islamic rule. Israel falls into this category and it will take almost a miracle for Israel to ever truly have peace from her neighbors, all the way with them selling oil to this country at almost three times the rate it was no more than 4 years ago! We are funding terrorism.

Israel is a pioneer in alternative energy sources, including fusion - not fission, hydrogen batteries, wind, wave energy and above all solar energy in panels - greenhouses - water heaters. Israel is a Silicon Valley and a powerhouse in agriculture and the use of drip irrigation. The Islamic countries alternatively have spent their funds on luxury for the royals and military equipment.

6. Israel is an ally of the US which makes them and by default all Jews who are believed to be Zionists hated. In addition, the prospect of democracy in the Middle East terrofies the Arab countries, all of whom are dictatorships and sponsors of terror. Political fear may be the greatest fear of all, more than economic, social, education, etc.

I hope that this is a beginning.

Best wishes

Rabbi Dov