** 29-Mar-2023 World View: Anti-Semitism In The Russian Orthodox Church.
The following wikipedia article goes
into the historical justification for
the Christian view of "Jewish Deicide"
-- blaming the Jews as a people as
collectively responsible for the killing
of Jesus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_deicide
--
Next, we have an article entitled,
"ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX
CHURCH."
http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0443/_P1.HTM
This article is very long, but I
encourage everyone to read the entire
article. It provides a very detailed
history of the relationship of the
Russian Orthodox Church and Jews,
Judaism, and Israel. It addresses the
issue that many Orthodox Chrisians still
believe that Jews are "the killers of
God."
Gregory Benevitch - Jewish question in Russian Orthodox Church
ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH.
...
What scandalises me as an Orthodox
Christian is that there is such a
phenomenon as anti-Semitism in the
Russian Orthodox Church at all, even if
it is not so widespread as it may seem.
Moreover, one can find some very
dangerous signs of anti-Semitism not so
much among the so to speak simpler
Christians than among the Russian
Orthodox intelligensia both clergy and
laity. The Protocols of the Elders of
Zion which were born in the depths of
the tsarist police and then played there
evil part in Nazi Germany appeared in
our Church's shops amidst a whole
variety of new Black Hundred
literature. Not only some dreadful
pamphlets about Jewish sacrifices of
Christian babies can be easily found in
St Petersburg, Moscow or Sergiev Posad
but, what is more dangerous, some
literature written by priests or monks
containing a simple answer to the
question, who is to blame for all the
misfortunes of Russian history is also
widespread.
Now I would like to draw your attention
to quite a different problem. Yes, it is
a matter of fact that maybe no where in
the world is anti-Semitism so openly
aggressive as in modern Russian
Orthodoxy. However, one may easily find
another striking tendency. I do not know
if any Christian body in the world can
boast of so great a number of Jews
becoming Christians than the Russian
Orthodox Church.
...
What it means to keep the heritage of
the Fathers in the modern world can be
clearly shown by the example of the so
called problem of 'the killers of God'
. It is well known that since the time
of the Nestorian controversy when the
notion of the Theotokos was in question
and was finally approved by the Church,
it became common to call the Jews "the
killers of God". Can we after Auschwitz
still keep this awful word? The Theology
after Auschwitz and Vatican II clearly
answer, "no". But that means to reject
the authority of the Church Fathers, for
whom this term was quite usual.
However, there is another solution to
this problem, a problem which is really
serious, I think, because according to
Borzenko's surveys a lot of Orthodox
Christians still believe in Jewish
responsibility for the crucifixion of
Christ. But there are two different
questions in fact. One is: who killed
Christ? the other one: who is guilty?
yes, speaking historically about Jewish
guilt and Christian guilt we inevitably
come to the fact of Christ's Cross. The
fact that Jews killed Christ and failed
to believe in Him was the source for
Christian hatred towards Judaism. The
Theology after Auschwitz (the Protestant
one) often tries to solve this problem
on the basis that not Jews but Romans,
especially Pontius Pilate, are guilty of
killing Christ. This theology does not
agree with all those Church Fathers who
clearly said that Jews were the killers
of God.
...
It is a paradox of Judaism that until
the Jews accept Christ's divinity, that
they crucified God on Golgotha (God,
against whom it is impossible to
perpetrate an act of violence) they will
remain unreconciled with God.
...
I know, yet, another approach to the
issue of "the killing of God", a
Catholic approach, which is also popular
among some Jews in Russia. This solution
to the problem presupposes that those,
maybe a few hundred, Jews who forced
Pontius Pilate to kill Christ are indeed
the killers of Christ, but not the whole
nation, even less so those Jews who live
today. This idea seems to be quite
reasonable. But may I ask, do modern
Jews "are still beloved by God for the
sake of the fathers"?(Rom.11.28) With
Apostle Paul I believe they do. If "the
gifts and the calling of God"(Rom.11.29)
are transmitted from generation to
generation, that is some event in the
past has its effect in the future, than
what is the reason to think that the
event of the Cross does not have its
effect even up till now.