Transcription
It's both a pleasure and a privilege, uh, to be able to thank Bishop Yunan for a talk that was, first of all, informative, um, and a model of intellectual honesty, um, and more significantly for me, also a a talk that engenders a degree of hope, uh, after years in which those of us who have for many years, uh, hoped for, uh, peace in the Middle East and reconciliation, um, among children of Abraham, um, have largely lost hope. Uh, so it's a pleasure and privilege, first of all, to thank you. Um, and I think I I've been asked to say a few words, probably not so much in my role as a, um, as a scholar of Hebrew Bible, uh, but also, I think, in my role as a person who's been involved in recent years in some Jewish-Christian dialogue, uh, here in Chicago in particular, and separately, actually, uh, in dialogue between Jews and liberal Protestants, and also dialogue between Jews and Catholics. Um, and as I listened to the, a very fine presentation of Luther's views on the Jews and also contemporary Lutheran movements' statements on anti-Semitism, I was led to reflect on some experiences that I've had in the those dialogues. And I must say, in particular, in dialogues between Jews and liberal Protestants, my remarks won't be, uh, as relevant to dialogue between Jews and Catholics. Um, Bishop Yunan reviewed the many clear, um, condemnations of anti-Semitism that have come out of the Lutheran Churches worldwide, uh, since the 1940s. Uh, and Bishop Yunan, uh, gave us a sense, I think, of the, the very honest searching, um, and very, very difficult work of self-criticism that the Lutheran Churches, like the Catholic Church and like several other Protestant denominations, have carried out, uh, in the last half a century. That self-critical work, I think, is truly, uh, this is a word that is thrown around all the time, and as a Bible scholar, I I find it very frustrating, um, but but but here, I think the use is apt. That self-critical work, um, performed by the Lutheran Church and other churches, is truly, in in in the deepest sense of the term, prophetic. That is, the essence of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, I think, is the searing self-criticism with which the prophets describe their own people. At the same time, as I've listened to, um, not only this time, but but all the all the more so in in the past few years, as I've listened to Christians, uh, insist that they condemn anti-Semitism, I find myself recalling an interesting debate about 20 years ago, back when I was a graduate student at Brandeis University. I wonder if I might just share an experience there and how that experience has affected me, and then bring that to bear on some current issues.
Back when I was a graduate student at Brandeis, I remember in the school newspaper, which I didn't pay that much attention to, it it was really more a newspaper for the undergrads, but there was a debate raging at one point in the school newspaper. I think I can't remember what the name of the newspaper even was at Brandeis, the Judge or something, I think. Um, there was a a debate raging between African-American students and white students. Um, African-American students, in some op-eds, had accused, uh, the white community at Brandeis of racism. And a great many letters to the editor and op-eds written by various undergraduates indignantly rejected that charge. And there were sort of there sort of a a a sort of name-calling back and forth, a debate that was producing much more heat than light, until a graduate student at the University, a grad student, if I recall, in sociology, uh, who was African-American, wrote a spectacular article that I think finally contributed some light, um, to to the issue at hand. It was an article that began with the memorable words, "I am an anti-Semite, and I'm working on it." And then he went on to explain what he meant by this. He explained that he had grown up in the United United States in an African-American community in which anti-Semitism was part of the air one breathed, not murderous, violent anti-Semitism, but anti-Semitism all the same. Certain kinds of attitudes, certain kind of phrases to draw a person down, um, certain stereotypes were part of what he grew up with. Eventually, he got to college, he actually met Jews, he became more politically aware than he had been previously, and he rejected anti-Semitism. But somehow, I don't remember what caused him to come to this insight, he also realized that just because he had rejected anti-Semitism, it did not follow that he was no longer an anti-Semite. What he realized, and this is I think a profound insight about oneself, was that he had imbibed anti-Semitism as a child, and that he would be an anti-Semite until the day he died. And that's what he meant when he said, "I am an anti-Semite, and I'm working on it." He was working on it. Um, he knew that these attitudes were wrong. When he heard relatives or friends back home say certain things, things he was appalled, but he also knew that that had become a part of him, and he would spend the rest of his life fighting it. And he went on to explain, um, that the white students at Brandeis who were so insulted by the accusation of racism have to understand that accusation in this kind of a context. I think he made the, uh, the very fine point that racism, attitudes about black people, negative attitudes about black people, all sorts of attitudes, some of them perhaps even positive, but nonetheless stereotypical, are part and parcel of American culture. And that white people who condemn racism, who reject the label racist, nevertheless have imbibed those attitudes since they were very, very little, and those attitudes would would always be a part of them. I don't remember if he used this actual, uh, this actual simile, but what he was saying, in a sense, was that racism, um, anti-black racism for white people in America, is a lot like alcoholism. You can beat it, but you beat it one day at a time, and you may beat it every single day until the day you die. But you can only beat it, you can only really beat it, if you acknowledge that it's a problem. And and for myself, I was profoundly affected by this, uh, by this article, and I realized in all sorts of ways that this applied to me. That yes, I was also a racist, and probably always would be. I had heard certain attitudes, I watch TV, I I go to movies, um, as an American, in white, I was certainly a racist. And the fact that I can, that I reject racism, the fact that my voting patterns reflect the fact that I reject racism, so forth and so on, don't change that fact. Don't change the fact that yes, to paraphrase what he said, I am a racist, and I'm working on it. And I can only work on it successfully if I begin the work with that sentence.
To bring this all back home, being involved, especially in in Jewish liberal Protestant dialogue, in in recent years, I've often found myself recalling, uh, that op-ed piece by that graduate student at Brandeis some two decades ago. Um, in discussing, um, especially in discussing issues relating to Zionism and Israel, but not only in in that connection, uh, again and again, I've heard my Christian interlocutors insist, sometimes indignantly, that they are not anti-Semites. Sometimes they might even bring some artifact to the table. I remember once, you know, somebody talking about how he owns a tallis, um, and this apparently proved that he's not an anti-Semite. Um, or people would quote a a statement that had been, um, adopted by their church, or in one case, a statement that had not been adopted by their church, but it had been written nevertheless, even though it was never adopted by the plenum of of the church's meeting, condemning anti-Semitism, as if though this proved that anti-Semitism was not affecting their views of the issues at hand. And yet, as I listened to to these people, it was very clear that their their perceptions were in fact profoundly influenced by classical, ancient, and medieval Christian attitudes towards Jud, towards Judaism. Um, their insistence on condemning the state of Israel for refusing to acknowledge things that the state of Israel had acknowledged, their insistence on condemning the state of Israel for refusing to agree to things that the state of Israel had already agreed to do, their inability, ability, or refusal to perceive certain things that were there to be perceived, I think reflected this anti-Semitism of which they were aware, even as they insistently condemned anti-Semitism. I remember one particular event, um, in which a very, very prominent, uh, American Lutheran leader, um, in in a very small group, uh, meeting, quoted me as having said something about hating my enemies, which I actually never said. And I I remember looking at this very, very famous individual, who is not an anti-Semite, who condemns anti-Semitism, who has accepted many invitations to speak to Jewish groups and to synagogues, and yet, sitting about five feet away from him, he, five feet away from me, he looked at me, and he did not see me. He saw the Jew of Matthew 5:42 and 43, or of Luke 6, I can't remember the verse number. Um, in looking at me, he was not seeing a modern American Jew, nor was he seeing an actual ancient Jew. He was seeing the the, um, the caricature of a Jew that appears in, uh, in Jesus' words in Luke 5 and in in Luke 6 and in Matthew 5. And so, um, as I think about the the the issues at hand, um, not only in my role as an academic, but more in my role as a person who has been involved again, in particular, I have to say in this regard, in liberal Protestant, uh, Jewish dialogue, my remarks, um, my my critical remarks, um, do not reflect any experiences in Catholic Jewish dialogue. This issue, just in my limited experience, this issue has never come up in Catholic Jewish dialogue. But in dialogues between Jews and liberal Protestants, I have very often heard, um, condemnations of anti-Semitism from people who had not yet come to the realization that they were anti-Semites and they needed to work on it, in the same way that I am, as an American white, um, I am surely a racist, and I hope that I'm able to try to work on it. Um, that's, uh, one thing I'd like to throw out there for for thought and for discussion, um, as we, um, as we think about the the really wonderful, searingly honest, um, and hopeful talk that we have just heard. Thank you very much. [Applause]