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September 15, 2000/15 Elul 5760, Vol. 52, No.53
Jews publish view of Christianity
NEIL RUBIN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
BALTIMORE - Finalizing the text of what is being billed as the first document on the Jewish view of Christianity was, not surprisingly, filled with tension and controversy.
"This is the first major statement by a group of Jewish scholars, congregational rabbis, leaders of national organizations, which acknowledges the changes that have come about in Christian theology of Jews and the Jewish people," said Rabbi Michael Signer, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame and one of four drafters of the statement.
"There's never been a kind of over-arching statement saying that it's not the same Christianity that existed in the 19th century," Signer said.
The statement, published in The New York Times, the Baltimore Sun and other publications, is titled "Dabru Emet," Hebrew for "Speak Truth" - a reference to Zachariah, chapter 8, verse 16, that reads, in part, "Speak each person the truth to his neighbors."
More than 150 Jewish thinkers affixed their name to the text.
Not surprisingly, who signed and who didn't is creating a buzz. Many leading Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative thinkers endorsed it, as did a handful of Orthodox rabbis.
But there are noticeable absences, including Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Conservative movement's Theological Seminary, and veteran interfaith activist Rabbi A. James Rudin, recently retired as head of the American Jewish Committee's interfaith office.
For Rudin, a section on Nazism was problematic.
In one section, Dabru Emet declares: "Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon." It goes on to say, "Too many Christians participated in, or were sympathetic to Nazi atrocities against Jews. But Nazism itself was not an inevitable outcome of Christianity."
Rudin said such wording is a problem.
"There's a direct correlation between modern anti-Semi-tism and what I call the seedbed that created the poisonous weeds of anti-Semitism," he said.
Several Valley leaders signed the declaration, including: Rabbi Barton Lee of the Hillel Student Center at Arizona State University; Rabbi Michael Wasserman of Beth El Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in Phoenix; Rabbi Kenneth Segel of Temple Beth Israel, a Reform synagogue in Scottsdale; and Dr. Norbert Samuelson of Arizona State University.
Samuelson remarked that the world of Jewish-Christian relations has changed and that Christianity is no longer a threat to Jewish existence.
"The real force that threatens Judaism is secularism," said Samuelson, "which to a real extent is paganism."
"Yesterday's enemies become today's allies," he added.
Wasserman noted how Christianity has truly struggled to move beyond anti-Semitism.
Dabru Emet is "a response in kind to attempts in the Christian world ... to articulate a (Jewish) theology ... that is true to our faith and inclusive of others," he said.
Neil Rubin writes for the Baltimore Jewish Times. Community editor Barry Cohen contributed to this story.
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