Essay Example on Jews & Christians: A New Dialogue

Introduction

The relations between Jews and Christians were characterized by mutual distrust in the past two thousand years ago, where there was violence against the Jews and, at the same time, Christian discrimination. However, a new spirit of dialogue emerged in recent decades, which marked the beginning of awakening among the Jews and Christian relations were the scholars of both religions started working together. The history of the emergence and exploration of the themes and writings of Jews-Christian relations illustrates the ongoing interfaith relations, and it sheds light on significant events of the modern times from the context of Jews concerning the New Testament. The modern times under consideration are the rise of the horrors of the Holocaust, ecumenism, and the creation of the state of Israel. The paper examines the Jews-Christian relations in the early centuries, in the 19th and 20th centuries, and today. It also examines the emergence of positive relations between Christians and Jews.

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Relations in the Early Centuries

The early days when schism prevailed was marked by debate and questioning, which is illustrated in the accounts of the writings made by the church fathers and the rabbinic literature. The debate and questioning were being carried out by the Christians and Jews who hold discussions as they try to interpret the authority of their traditions and the Hebrew Bible.

In the fourth century, there was Christianization of the empire, where Christians started to approach their neighbors who were Jews with a higher intensity of antagonism, particularly in Byzantine Palestine. Physical attacks on Jews through the destruction of their worship places were unknown in this century. There were harmony and coexistence between the two religious groups. Still, in the fifth century, various anti-Jews legislation was enacted, and the legislations instituted a racial aspect to a hostility that was absent in the ancient world. Jews were then forbidden from establishing any synagogues, and they were blocked in the study of the oral law. Jews were described at that period as Christ-killers, and several believers in the Christian churches who were Jews-Christian suffered from persecution.

However, Christians by the end of the Talmudic period began to take up the views of the old anti-Jews, which were to define the relation between Christians and the Jews in the Middle Ages. During the anti-Jews practices, the Jews were able to resist the hostility by believing to be on the correct path, and the messianic redemption will assist them in ending the suffering they encounter.

The Relations in the 19th and 20th Centuries

The relations of the Jews and Christians in the 19th century were stressed at best, and the relations mostly broke during open conflicts. The creation of the Christian churches, specifically Roman Catholicism, were loyal supporters of the old order as they identified the Jews as French Revolution beneficiaries. They also categorized Jews as the carriers of anticlerical, liberal, revolutionary doctrines, and secular. The clerical anti-Jews joined together with the anti-Jews traditional right in France. Both of them contended with the arrangements that supported the outcomes of the French Revolution, as indicated in the significant tremor of the Dreyfus Affair that occurred in the last years of the 19th century. In Russia in the same 19th century, there was a conflict between the Orthodox Church and Jews, and the actions released the most virulent and open illustration of anti-Jews in religion. The Orthodox Church holds that the Jews undermine both the church and the tsar who is the foundation of the Russian society. Both the tsarist authorities and the church from 188 to 1882 and in 1905 encouraged and condoned violent programs against the Jews.

The Russian Orthodox Church was active in the spread of what was known to be a blood libel, which was an irrational belief in the ritual of Jews that was believed to be killing Christian children and utilize their blood to make Passover unleavened bread. It was in the 12th century that the blood libel emerged for the first time, and it was believed by Christians to be carried out by Jews; the belief resulted in the persecution of Jews in large numbers. In the 19th century, the act emerged again in 1840 in Damascus and again in 1882 in Tiszaeszlar, Hungary. In those years, the Jews were tortured to provide false confessions, and the accused individuals were finally cleared. The new blood occurred in the 20th century when the tsarist government in 1911 accused Jews bookkeeper of ritual murder. The name of that Jews is Mendel Beilis, who lived in Odera, and he received two years imprisonment and later acquitted jury who were all Christians. In the same 20th century, the Russian Orthodox, through what was known to be protocols of learned elders of Zion, documented an international allegation concerning the conspiracy of Jews to conquer the world through freemasonry, liberalism, and other modern governments. The claim was then proved in 1921 to be a forgery and false documentation that was created by the Russian orthodox to fight the Jews. Despite the proof that the documentation was a forgery, it was widely utilized at the start of the 21st century in propagandas that were anti-Jews in the United States, Europe, and the Arab world.

The Jews-Christian Relations Today

Though Christians and Jews have had a hard, tense, and complicated relations in the past centuries, in the current century, the relationship is better. The journey started in half of the 20th century, where there was a wholesale reevaluation of attitudes that Christians had on Jews, which revolutionized the Jews-Christians relations. While the differences between the two religious groups still exist, Jews today for the first time in history and Jews now have a reasonable expectation of hope that the differences between them and Christians will be fully addressed via dialogues that are interfaith instead of using violence like it was done in the past.

Today, Christians and Jews, particularly in the United States, have increasingly intermarried, and most families are gaining better knowledge of religion in which their relatives' belief as the intermarriage brought about learning opportunities. When some Christians are married to the Jews, they will get to know the Jews' religion in a more personal way, which assists to shatter the feelings of anti-Jews, and they realize that the Jews have similar experiences as Christians.

Jews have put in place an effort to recognize the changes in Christianity, as illustrated by a trans-denominational group of academic leaders of Jews religion together with Jews rabbinic who, in the year 2000, issued a statement that advocated for speaking the truth. They acknowledged the Christian efforts to enhance interfaith relations. The statement outlined some points that will bring Christians together with Jews. Some ways recommended are that both religions should worship the same God, and when a new relationship between them will not weaken the practice of the Jews.

The Emergence of Positive Jews-Christian Relations

In the 20th century, Christians and Jews moved towards a sense of mutual understanding. Although a large number of Christians in the same century continued to hold hostile and irrational attitudes toward Jews, the voices of liberal Christians were raised, and they advocated for the abolishment of anti-Jews or anti-Semitism. An example is the formation of the national conference of Christians and Jews in the United States in 1928, which was founded in response to the virulent anti-Jews movements that were spread by the Dearborn Independent newspaper that belonged to Henry Ford.

In the 1930s, during the Jews persecution by Nazi, some Christian leaders were against the act, and they spoke out. Towards half of the century, there was an improvement in the relations, as in 1946, the world council of churches condemned anti-Semitism or anti-Jews, and it was followed by the Vatican council of the Roman Catholic Church which in 1965 the council adopted two schemas, one for Jews and another for other non-Christian religions. The schema revised the traditional attitudes of the Catholic Church toward Jews as Christian hold that they are the killers of Christ. A feeling of ecumenism was shared in growing intensity between Christians and Jews. Pope John Paul II strengthened the relations between Jews and the Catholic Christians as he made a hallmark of his papacy, the act of creating a close bond between the Catholic Christians and Jews.

Conclusion

The Jews-Christian relations in two thousand years ago have been characterized by mutual distrust where there was violence against the Jews. With a new spirit of dialogue emerging in the recent decades, relations have somehow improved especially from the half of 20th century onwards up to today as the century marked the beginning of awakening among the Jews and Christians relations were the scholars of both religions started working together resulting to the current ongoing interfaith ties. The two religions since the second through the fifth century was marked with bad relationships where Jews and Christians never interacted together. In the 19th century, Christian churches like the Roman Catholicism and the Orthodox Church, specifically the Russian Orthodox, emerged, and they were against Jews. The same century is when some acts like the blood libel also appeared, which made Jews be hated and discriminated in no small extent by Christians. In the current century, Jews have put in place an effort to recognize the changes in Christianity, and both of them moved towards a sense of mutual understanding.

Bibliography

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