Introduction
What has Auschwitz to do with Jerusalem?—or with Cambridge, Chicago, Collegeville, Downers Grove, Grand Rapids, London, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York, Oxford, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Wheaton, or any other city that hosts a major Christian or Jewish publisher? I loosely base this question on a more ancient one by Tertullian of Carthage (c. AD 155–c. 220): "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" (Prescription against Heretics 7). Auschwitz is the German name for the Polish town of Oświęcim, which began in the twelfth century and currently features a population of about 40,000. Yet, we only recall five short years (1940–1945) of its more than 700. This is because an estimated 1.5 million people died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Polish: Oświęcim-Brzezinka) concentration camp during this time—90% of them were Jews. This is about 35 times the number of residents there today. Therefore, Auschwitz is a symbol of the Holocaust (Hebrew: Shoah; H7724b; "Destruction"), or what Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) and his National Socialists (Nazis) termed the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" (German: Endlösung der Judenfrage).
Jerusalem was the undisputed center of early Christianity, which was always the most sacred place in Judaism. The disciples of Jesus evangelized most of the Mediterranean world, launching from the Jewish Christian church of Jerusalem. Most importantly, the city symbolizes where God meets us in our physical world, both in the ancient temple and in the person of Jesus. If Jerusalem proves God's faithfulness to all humankind, it follows that Auschwitz represents our most faithless rebellion against him. It is one thing for elitist Judean priests and imperialistic Roman pagans to crucify Jesus, but it is another for supposed "Christians" to destroy God's image in mass murder. Nevertheless, this article is about the good from our deep soul-searching that followed World War II.
Antisemitism in the Early Church
The picture at the beginning of this section features a bas-relief of soldiers carrying the temple's equipment and furniture through the streets of Rome. The most notable is the menorah (H4501), the seven-branched lampstand. This bas-relief is part of the Arch of Titus, which the emperor Domitian (AD 51–96) built to honor Titus' (AD 39–81) siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, including the temple's destruction. However, this was not an antisemitic hate crime but an act of war. The persecution of Jews at Roman hands should have ended as the empire grew increasingly Christian—especially with Constantine's (c. AD 280–337) edict that legalized Christianity in AD 313. Sadly, it did not. The early church leaders between the second and fifth centuries warned against the dangers of Judaizing, which requires Gentiles to follow the Law of Moses. Albeit a legitimate concern that Paul of Tarsus addressed in his letter to the Galatians (see 2:15-21), the early church fathers, however, graduated from objecting to the Jewish religion to outright hatred for the Jews as an ethnicity. For example, Justin Martyr (c. AD 100–c. 165) made religious objections in his Dialogue with Trypho:
For the circumcision according to the flesh, which is from Abraham, was given for a sign; that you may be separated from other nations, and from us; and that you alone may suffer that which you now justly suffer; and that your land may be desolate, and your cities burned with fire; and that strangers may eat your fruit in your presence, and not one of you may go up to Jerusalem (Ch. 16).
Two centuries later, John Chrysostom (AD 354–407) published a series of eight homilies titled Against the Jews (Greek: kata Ioudaiōn; G2596; G2453). This was just one of three writings in a patristic genre called adversus Judaeos, the Latin translation for "against the Jews." The other two were attributed to Tertullian and Gregory of Nyssa (c. AD 335–c. 394). Chrusostomos, a nickname given to John meaning "golden mouth" (G5552; G4750), preached these choice words:
Jews are dogs, stiff-necked, gluttonous drunkards. They are beasts unfit for work . . . the Jews had fallen into a condition lower than the vilest animals . . . the synagogue is worse than a brothel and a drinking shop; it is a den of scoundrels, a temple of demons, the cavern of devils, an unlawful assembly of the assassins of Christ. . . . I hate the Jews because they violate the law . . . it is the duty of all Christians to hate the Jews (Against the Jews, Hom. 1, 2:2, 6, 7; 3:1).
Antisemitism in the Medieval Church
The antisemitism of the early church leaders from the second to the fourth centuries (i.e., the ante-Nicene period) heavily influenced their successors well into the sixteenth century and on into the twentieth. Even today, we refer to men such as Justin Martyr and John Chrysostom as "early church fathers" and label their theological writings as "patristic," i.e., fatherly. While this tradition honors the ante-Nicene clergy and theologians for their works on Jesus' identity, the definition of the Trinity, and the canonization of the New Testament—their antisemitism cannot be ignored. Whereas these men did well to defend the apostolic teaching of the first century into later generations, they developed a heretical doctrine called replacement theology or supersessionism. Both descriptions refer to the mistaken belief that the Christian church replaces or supersedes the Jewish people as God's chosen. In a medieval sub-genre of Christian art known as Ecclesia et Synagoga, Latin for "Church and Synagogue," two women represent the supersession of Christianity over Judaism. Ecclesia wears a crown and holds a processional cross with a chalice, alluding to the church's ordained leadership under the new covenant. At the same time, a blindfolded Synagoga clutches a broken lance symbolizing the Jews as "Christ-killers" (ironically, it was a Roman soldier who pierced Jesus with a spear [see John 19:34]). In his letter to the Roman church, Paul addressed this erroneous view among the Christian Gentiles even in his own time (see Rom. 11). However, rather than heeding Paul's warning; many early church leaders formed toxic relationships with the Jews.
However, the antisemitism of the medieval church was not limited to theological concepts. During the First Crusade (1095–1096), over five thousand Jews were murdered. About 1120, this prompted the Roman bishop Calixtus II (c. 1065–1124) to issue a charter known as sicut Judaeis (i.e., "Thus to the Jews") to forbid Christians from harming Jews and their property. Nonetheless, this document could not protect the Jews from the Christians for long. In the early Middle Ages, most European nations kept their citizens from charging interest based on a scriptural ban in Deuteronomy (23:19-20). Ironically, this command was for the Israelites not to demand interest from other Israelites but only from Gentiles. Therefore, the Jews found that their money lending and collection of interest did not contradict their scriptures. What began as an economic restriction would ironically become one of the most widespread stereotypes of Jews as greedy for money.
The following two mentions of antisemitism in the medieval church are ones that influenced the hate crimes of Nazi Germany on Kristallnacht—the "crystal night" when SA (Sturmabteilung, i.e., "Storm Detachment") paramilitants destroyed Jewish shops and shipped 30,000 Jews to concentration camps from November 9–10, 1938. Centuries before, the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 established canons 68 and 69, which forced Jews to wear distinctive clothing from the Christian population and banned them from holding public office. These decrees very quickly escalated antisemitic policies throughout Europe, with Jews eventually having to wear a unique yellow or white badge of Jewish identity and their clothes. This council, of which the warlike Roman bishop Innocent III (c. 1160–1216) presided, caused so much antisemitic fear among Europeans that claims of ritualistic child murder (i.e., "blood libel") against Jews were commonplace. They also blamed their Jewish neighbors for desecrating communion wafers believed to be Christ's transubstantiated body—a perceived crime against divinity. However, all of these accusations were baseless.
About 300 years later, the Christian church had an excellent opportunity to change its position on Judaism when it sought to reform many other false doctrines taught by Roman Catholic leaders for centuries. Men such as the German pastor Martin Luther (1483–1546) began the Protestant Reformation (1517–1648) at the Castle Church in Wittenberg to oppose the heresies of Vatican dogma. At first, he welcomed the Jews into his new church family. However, when Luther saw they did not want to convert to Christianity under new leadership, he despised them. Luther was nine years old when Spanish monarchs Ferdinand II (1452–1516) and Isabella I (1451–1504)—the same ones who dispatched Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) to the Americas in 1492—began to expel the Jews from Spain that same year during the Inquisition (1478–1834). The "Lutheran" church would dominate Germany, inheriting much of Luther's antisemitism. In 1543, he published On Jews and Their Lies (German: Von den Juden und ihren Lügen). Here is one excerpt to illustrate Luther's view of the Jewish people:
And so, dear Christian, beware of the Jews . . . you can see how God's wrath has consigned them to the devil, who has robbed them not only of a proper understanding of the scriptures, but also of common human reason, modesty, and sense. . . . Thus, when you see a genuine Jew you may come with a good conscience cross yourself, and boldly say, "There goes the devil incarnate."
From Wittenberg to Nuremberg
The connection between Luther and Kristallnacht is neither a literary device nor sensational rhetoric for the sake of this article. In parts 11–13 of On Jews and Their Lies, he wrote some chilling advice to German believers, foreshadowing Kristallnacht and almost every detail of the Holocaust to a T. In closing this section, consider this 1946 testimony by Julius Streicher (1885–1946)—who founded the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer (i.e., "The Stormer")—at his Nuremberg trial for genocide:
I did not intend to agitate or inflame but to enlighten. Antisemitic publications have existed in Germany for centuries. . . . In the book On the Jews and Their Lies, Dr. Martin Luther writes that the Jews are a serpent's brood and one should burn down their synagogues and destroy them. Dr. Martin Luther would probably sit in my place in the defendants' dock today if his book had been considered by the prosecution [i.e., the International Military Tribunal].
Reconciliation after Auschwitz
World War II and the Holocaust could have widened the rift between Jews and Christians well into the twentieth century. However, beauty arose from the ashes. This is not to downplay the horrors of Auschwitz and the millennia of antisemitism that led to it. God, as he is inclined to do, took what the Nazis intended for evil and turned it into good to preserve a great nation: Israel (see Gen. 50:20). In 1948—three years after the Allies defeated Nazi Germany—the Jewish people transitioned from living in fear to establish a newly independent State of Israel boldly. "Holocaust guilt" inspired all Western civilization to support this country, whether culturally, financially, militarily, politically, or religiously.
"Holocaust guilt" also changed the course of biblical studies among Western universities. Before World War II, most of the research into the Bible and its context reflected a supersessionist bias. For example, Jesus was given Gentile labels as "cynic" or "philosopher." This is not unlike medieval Christian art, which consistently portrayed Jesus as a European king with a pale complexion. After World War II, biblical scholars realized that Jewish sources gave more context to the Old and New Testaments. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls starting in 1946—just one year after the war ended—suddenly presented a Jewish setting of the gospels that scholars once considered Hellenistic. Likewise, theologians explored the "Jewishness of Jesus" and offered a "new perspective on Paul," redefining both men as discerning leaders of their communities rather than outside critics. The most surprising phenomenon is the rise of Messianic Judaism: Torah-observant Jews who acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah. In the latter half of the twentieth century, Christians realized how Jewish commentaries like the Talmud could shed light on obscure verses and resolve apparent contradictions. They also understood how the Jewish feasts correspond with Jesus' life and teaching (see "Calendar of the Church").
In the fall of 2015, Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia unveiled a new statue called "Ecclesia and Synagoga in Our Time" (pictured above). Francis (b. 1936), the Catholic bishop of Rome, and the Orthodox Jewish rabbi Abraham Skorka (b. 1950), a professor at Saint Joseph's University who worked with its Institute for Jewish–Catholic Relations from 2018 to 2020, attended the event. Unlike the medieval art tradition, both women have crowns and sit beside each other. They learn together, sharing the scrolls of Judaism alongside the bound scriptures of Christianity. Today, we are seeing a reversal of what biblical scholars call the "parting of ways," or the time when the early church made a clean break from its Jewish forebears (see "Jew & Gentile: Parting Ways"). Theologians and parishioners use the historical-grammatical method to consider the history of first-century Judea and the authors' intents. Christians are discovering the Mishnah while Jews reflect on the four gospels. This is to fulfill what God told us through the prophet Zechariah:
In those days, ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, "Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you" (8:23).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the juxtaposition of Auschwitz and Jerusalem serves as a poignant reminder of the extremes of human experience and the complexities of faith. Auschwitz, with its harrowing history as a site of unimaginable suffering and genocide during the Holocaust, stands as a stark symbol of humanity's capacity for cruelty and moral failure. In contrast, Jerusalem, steeped in religious significance for both Jews and Christians, represents the hope for divine redemption and the possibility of reconciliation and renewal. The question "What has Auschwitz to do with Jerusalem?" challenges us to confront the darkest aspects of human nature while also seeking meaning and redemption in the face of tragedy.
While Auschwitz may represent humanity's most faithless rebellion against God, Jerusalem embodies the promise of divine grace and the potential for spiritual awakening and healing. Through deep soul-searching and reflection, we can glean valuable lessons from the atrocities of Auschwitz and the enduring faith of Jerusalem. By acknowledging the depths of human depravity and the heights of divine love and mercy, we are compelled to strive for a world where such atrocities can never happen again, and where the values of compassion, justice, and reconciliation prevail. In this way, we honor the memory of those who perished in Auschwitz and affirm the enduring significance of Jerusalem as a symbol of hope and redemption for all humanity.
Prayer
Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the universe; you created us in your image: Grant us grace to contend fearlessly against evil and to make no peace with oppression, and help us to use our freedom rightly in the establishment of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus the Messiah our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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