SHALOM

Poisoned words, like arrows
It is only to be expected that Christians who are moved to express feelings of antiSemitism nowadays do so in the form of arguments against the politics of the State of Israel. After all, following the horrors of the Jewish holocaust and with the stench of extermination camps still in our European nostrils we cannot afford to see ourselves as anti-Semitic. That is a dirty word, whereas to be anti-Israeli is easily justified as concern for the underprivileged Arabs.
Israel has been fighting for her life in the war that has just ended, and for the right of every Jew to a homeland. The State of Israel was created so that never again could a country do what Hitler's Germany did to my people. But the Jews, from their long experience, expect that they will have to endure continuing persecution and misunderstanding somewhere in the world at any given time.
As a child I grew up hearing every year in the Haggadah — the Passover Liturgy — the words: "In every generation oppressors attempt to destroy us, but praised be God, He saves us from their hands." This truth has indeed been borne out in history by countless examples, from blood-libels and forced baptisms to the anti-Semitic literature distributed to the bishops at the Second Vatican Council.
When my grandfather was a child in Russia, it was necessary. for the Jews to lock their doors and draw their curtains during Holy Week for fear of being massacred by mobs of the faithful running wild in pursuit of the hated Jews who had killed their Lord and Saviour.
The Declaration on NonChristian Religions, incorporating the statement on Judaism, took two years of discussion and was revised three times before it was finally passed. It was by the express wish of Pope John XXIII that this long-overdue document had been put before the Council.
Pope John was anxious that the accusation of "deicide," which taught the continuing responsibility of the Jewish people for the death of Christ should be finally and completely banished from any association with the teaching of the Church. Even so, Arab, and some other bishops tried to prevent such a statement, cloaking their objections as concern for the political implications of the Church recognising the State of Israel.
Finally Pope John Intervened personally, and it is to him and to Cardinal Bea — the champion of Christian Unity — that we owe the acceptance of this Declaration. This removes once and for all any' justification 'for Christian antiSemitism.
There are injustices in every war and no one can be other than sad for the Arab refugees in their plight. Nevertheless, truth demands that the burden of guilt for this situation rests with the Arab leaders who in 1948 urged the peasants to leave Palestine until the Jews had been "driven into the sea," terrifying them with descriptions of horrifying tortures they could expect from the _hands of the Jews.
We Catholics have to bc sure that our anti-Israel feelings are justified by the facts and are not unchristian anti-Semitic prejudices in another guise.
This morning at Mass I prayed for the Arab peoples that they may find peace, and for many of my Catholic brothers and sisters who, in hating the Israelis, hate the Jews much more than they are willing or able to admit. I also prayed with my people the Jews in the words of Psalm 63 which begins: 0 God, listen to my prayer when I call for aid, save me from the threats of my mortal foe.
Thine to defend me from this conspiracy of malice, the thronging enemies that are bent on my hurt; The tongues that wound like a sharpened sword, the poisoned words aimed at me, like arrows.
To all: Shalom.
Dr. David S. Rosenberg _