Bigotry toward Jews: Not just history
I am currently reading a book about "Anti-Semitism in America." The author is Leonard Dinnerstein. It is a comprehensive work detailing anti-semitism from the founding of the nation to the present time, precisely, the latter part of the 20th century.
When World War ll ended and people became fully informed about the Nazi atrocities against the Jews, a far greater era of toleration and acceptance began from the period of the latter 1940s through the 1960s. In fact, it was an era when religious diversity was greatly more accepted in all areas inclusive of education, all types of employment, and representation in government. However, in the many letters to the editor that have followed this period of toleration and acceptance where, from the 1980s onward of people who complain about "atheists" who took God out of school, or "secular humanists" who do not push "Christian values," of the removal of "Christmas celebrations" and replacing them with "Winter celebrations," of desiring again both Bible reading and the displays of the 10 commandments within a public school setting. Would these people have the historical cognizance necessary to recognize that the precise elimination of "Christmas festivities," Bible reading, prayers, etc. was because it was offensive to non-Christians, very specifically of the Jews?
These are the letters that your paper has published over a period of many years. The history of Christianity has been one of bigotry toward those unlike them in belief. Of having an utter abhorrence toward a specific religion deemed by their predecessors as "Christ killers." Who brought their "troubles" upon themselves. And yet, these same "Christ killers" provided them with the Old Testament that they make much use of when expressing their distaste toward other segments of American society. And the same "Christ killers" also produced Christ and were his initial followers. That is the one problem of bigotry after all, just how hypocritical it can be. While Dinnerstein is of the opinion that anti-semitism overall has declined greatly, he still understands that given the 2,000 plus years of the Christian tradition of bigotry, it will never really end.
Oh, and in the book, some particularly ignorant high school student circa 1940s and 1950s thought that Henry Ford was a "Jew" because he was a millionaire. Actually, Henry Ford was a virulent anti-Semite prior to World War ll. And a Senator Borah, whom Borah Elementary was named after, was also a virulent anti-Semite prior to World War ll and also during the war itself. Let's ask these people when their Jewish Christ called on them to love their neighbors, just how possible is it that bigotry could be deemed a moral value?
Joan E. Harman is a resident of Dalton Gardens.