Last Tuesday in New York City, members of the National Socialist Party, otherwise known as neo-Nazis, protested outside the first preview of the revival of the musical “Parade.” That show tells the story of Leo Frank, an early 20th-century Jewish American factory superintendent in Atlanta who was falsely accused and convicted of raping and murdering a 13-year-old female employee. After the governor of Georgia commuted his sentence in 1915, a group of armed men lynched Mr. Frank. His case would inspire both the creation of the Anti-Defamation League and the return of the Ku Klux Klan.
A dozen members of the National Socialist Party stood outside the first preview of “Parade” holding signs that said the A.D.L. protected pedophiles and passing out pamphlets with the Nazi “SS” logo displayed at the top. The group, which calls itself the “Empire State Stormers,” said in their pamphlet that their activism was about child safety, saying: “The enemies of our society and our people are busy at work….the only ones coming to our children’s rescue is us.”
This protest is the latest shocking example of the growing antisemitic talk and activity in the United States. In mid-February, two Jewish men were shot coming out of synagogues in Los Angeles. On Saturday, white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups online organized a “National Day of Hate,” in which members were encouraged to target and harass Jewish people. Police around the country were mobilized to protect synagogues, while Jewish organizations encouraged members of their community to be cautious and vigilant.
As Catholics enter into Lent, a season that we mark by acts of both repentance and service, it is worth considering how we might move from alarm at antisemitism to action.
While this might sound like the work of a small group of racist extremists, in January, the A.D.L. reported that 85 percent of Americans today believe at least one anti-Jewish trope, a jump of 24 percent from just four years ago, and 20 percent believe six tropes or more, the worst the situation has been in 30 years.
In November, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs issued a statement denouncing the rising antisemitism in the U.S. “In unequivocal terms, we condemn any and all violence directed at the Jewish people, whether motivated by religious, racial, or political grievances,” the statement says. They also reiterated the teaching of the church “that the Jewish people cannot be held responsible for the death of Christ or be depicted as rejected or accursed in theological discourse. It must always be remembered that Jesus, Mary, and his apostles were all Jewish.” The bishops called Catholics to remember Pope Francis’ 2013 words to the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations: “A true Christian cannot be an antisemite.”
As Catholics enter into Lent, a season that we mark by acts of both repentance and service, it is worth considering how we might move from alarm at antisemitism to action. Here are three suggestions of tangible ways by which we can band together and show our support for the Jewish community.
1. Attend a Friday night Shabbat service.
Every Friday night at sundown, Jewish people gather at their local synagogues for their weekly prayer. These services, known as Shabbat (or Sabbath), involve prayer, song and a sermon, much like a Catholic Sunday service. (You can find out a lot more about the services and customs of a shabbat service here.)
In many places, visitors are welcome to attend. Shiva.com has a directory of synagogues all over the country. Many synagogue websites state their customs about visitors. If not, a quick call to the synagogue can clarify their policy on this, as well as any specific policies about dress or other behavior. One thing for sure: You won’t want to wear a visible cross, and you may need to cover your head. Many synagogues offer a head covering at the door.
If you think about it, you’ll be attending the same services that Jesus and his family would have attended. What a rich spiritual experience that might be.
This is a busy season in the Jewish liturgical calendar; Purim, a feast celebrating the ancient rescue of the Jewish people from genocide in Persia, is March 6 to March 7. Passover, which celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, lasts from April 5 to April 13 (our Triduum and Easter week). While some parts of the celebration of Passover are usually reserved for members of that synagogue’s community, other services are often open to the public. Some communities, like DePaul Jewish Life at DePaul University in Chicago or Congregation Rodef Shalom in Denver, Colo., also offer an interfaith seder meal, which can be a really special experience.
2. Volunteer with a Jewish-sponsored organization.
Lent is a time in which many Catholics choose to do some kind of service work. Usually, we look to our own parishes or local Catholic organizations for volunteer opportunities, but there are plenty of Jewish-sponsored soup kitchens, shelters and other charities out there. Jewish Family Services, for instance, offers options all over the country: in Dallas, you can do everything from helping with mailing to going shopping with a J.F.S. client; in Milwaukee, you can volunteer as a family doing things like putting together holiday or emergency food boxes or making a craft item for someone living in J.F.S. housing; in Utah, you can clean out refrigerators at the food pantry or volunteer to be an accompanist to a choir of dementia clients and their caregivers.
In most cities, there are many other Jewish organizations to choose from, too. Here in New York City, one such group, Masbia, runs a network of food pantries, soup kitchens and home food distribution programs. And the advantage of doing volunteer work over attending a Jewish liturgical service is that you actually get to interact with people. Prejudice and antisemitism creep into our lives in large part through ignorance. In friendship and shared service, we make connections and break down hidden stereotypes.
3. Priests and bishops: Preach explicitly and positively about Jesus’ Jewish roots.
If Advent is a season in which we focus very explicitly on the events leading up to Jesus’ birth and preach about things like expectation and opening our hearts to the coming of Christ, in Lent we tend to focus on much harder things. Jesus is on the journey to Jerusalem, where he will be betrayed by his friends and then crucified.
But if you look at the Sunday readings for Lent, they’re not at all about the cross or Jesus’ coming death. In fact, they are much more like a summary of his greatest hits: so this week’s Gospel has the revelation of the Transfiguration; next week, we have Jesus refusing to abide by the social conventions of his people and reaching out to the Samaritan woman at the well; the following weeks have him performing extraordinary miracles—the healing of the man born blind and the resurrection of Lazarus.
Many of these stories make for a natural entry way into talking about Jesus’ Jewish roots and love for the Jewish people. At the Transfiguration, two of the Jewish people’s most important figures, Moses and Elijah, appear to Jesus, their presence helping to indicate just how important he is. Or in the Gospel of the Fifth Sunday of Lent, while the disciples warn Jesus not to return to Judea to visit Lazarus, because “the Jews were just trying to stone you,” Jesus resurrects Lazarus in front of not only Mary and Martha but “many of the Jews,” who had come to mourn with them. In the end, it turns out they are the focus of the story: “Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.”
In this season where we’re called both to repentance and service, can we cast our eyes toward the Jewish members of our communities and let them into our hearts as teachers, people of faith and friends.
Some of our Lenten Sunday readings also provide chances to correct problematic and incorrect scriptural interpretations of the Jewish people. In the Gospel of the third Sunday of Lent, for example, Jesus ignores the Jewish practice of shunning Samaritans but does not dismiss Judaism. In fact, he tells the Samaritan woman, “Salvation is from the Jews.”
The Gospel of the fourth week, which has “the Jews” refusing over and over to believe the blind man’s account of his healing and eventually driving him from the Temple, is by far the most unsympathetic portrayal of the Jewish people that we’ll hear in Lent. Outside of the Passion of St. John which we’ll hear on Good Friday, it’s the clearest example this Lent of just how problematic the term “the Jews” is. My own inclination as a preacher is to use the shortened version of the text, which removes that entire section and offers a much more nuanced debate amongst the Pharisees about how to view Jesus.
But it could also be that reading the longer text is an opportunity that we as preachers should take to talk about the harm that readings like this have done to the Jewish people for millennia, and provided justifications for expulsions, pogroms and the Holocaust. Even as we look upon the crucifixion of Jesus as an act of gross injustice and scapegoating, too often in our history we have been guilty of exactly the same behavior to the Jewish community. The reading and the history that has come from it are an invitation to exactly the kind of honest, self-critical repentance that we’re called to in this season.
Homilies are always a delicate dance. Any time you start to sound like you’re on your own soapbox, you’re in danger of losing your congregation, even those who agree with you. Our preaching has to come from the readings and the Spirit. But whether our approach is to celebrate Jesus’ Jewishness or to take a steely eyed look at our own history of antisemitism, there is much good here that we can do.
And there is so much need. In this season where we’re called both to repentance and service, can we cast our eyes toward the Jewish members of our communities and let them into our hearts as teachers, people of faith and friends.
