By Rev. Libby Howe
Congregational Support Coordinator for Peace & Justice Ministries
On March 12, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Milwaukee released its “2022 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents,” indicating the 7th consecutive year of elevated incidents. The audit reports a 6 percent rise in incidents between 2021-22, part of a 494 percent rise since 2015. The report names incidents of many types, including the following categories: Hate group activity (83% increase), Conspiracy theories (40% increase), K-12 activity (22% increase), College activity (225% increase), and Vandalism (111% increase).
In a recent conversation I had with Andrea Bernstein, Associate Director of the JCRC, she informed me that Jews do not feel safe right now in the United States or WI. There is a general un-ease that permeates their lives because antisemitic incidents, while not new, are more frequent, more visible, and more tolerated than they have been in the past. There is a loud segment of the population that openly promotes “replacement theory” — the belief that Jews are puppeteering a movement, pulling levers of government, media, and the economy, to replace white people with immigrants and people of color.
My conversation with Andrea Bernstein came on the heels of a February 22 interview I had with author Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg. In response to a question about how Christians should resist antisemitism, she said, “Please, please, please, please, please, learn about antisemitism because it is insidious by design. It is meant to be slippery and slidey and tucked into corners where you can’t see it, so you have to learn about it so you can understand and identify it.” She reminded us that the stories we have about Jesus are a glimpse, not of a struggle between Jews and Christians (as Christianity did not yet exist), but of an intercommunal conversation among Jews. (To hear this part of the conversation, click here and track to 25:30-28:00.) Too often Christian preaching, particularly during Lent, Holy Week and Easter, does not do the important work of placing Jesus in his Jewish context and slips into something that reinforces harmful misunderstandings and stereotypes. By doing so, we continue to prop up antisemitism instead of resisting and refuting it. As a Christian preacher, I’m sure we do not want to do this, but I’m equally sure that we still do.
On Good Friday (April 7), the appointed lectionary text is John 18:1 to 19:42. It’s loooong. Millions of people will listen to it read in worship. During that reading, they will hear “chief priests” 9 times, “high priest” 5 times, and the words “Jew(s)” or “Jewish” 22 times. It is imperative for us to make sure that the way this story is written in John does not obscure the truth that Jesus died at the hands of Rome. Judea was an occupied territory of the Roman empire who ruthlessly employed tactics of fear and violence to maintain its power. Every high priest and chief priest and Jew lived under the thumb and in fear of Rome. The Jews did not kill Jesus. Greed, exploitation, corruption, and cowardice killed Jesus.
So as you continue through this season, I offer some resources I’ve found helpful as I encounter these texts and preach God’s healing, liberating, and unifying love for the whole world. It’s that Love that animates the faith of both Christians and Jews around the world and in our communities. It’s that Love that will help us continue to learn about and speak out against antisemitism. And it’s that Love that should provide a place to live where no one is afraid to be who God made them to be.
— The Wisconsin Council of Churches (WCC) is a network of Christian churches and faith-based organizations committed to working together across our many differences. The Council connects 21 Christian traditions, which have approximately 2,000 congregations and over one million church members in Wisconsin.
