The Longest Hatred-Part 1: The Holocaust
How can one race be hated for so long? This question came to mind when evaluating the PBS broadcast television series on anti-Semitism, The Longest Hatred. Not understanding and having never experienced racism in my life and witnessing the testimonies of real-life survivors of Holocaust and the people who study anti-Semitism was ludicrous to my eyes and ears. The drawings of Jews being forced to eat animal excrement and the murdering of their people is hard to believe and hard to comprehend. Watching this film, I now understand that hatred has been around for a long time and is going to be around for a long time to come. Richard Rubenstein, Professor of Religion at Florida State discussed that the Jews were the murderers of God, who was a Jew himself, and a people who decided not to follow the Christian faith (Rubenstein, quoted in film). People believe that the killing of Christ has caused the world to have plenty of evil and total damnation and so "they" blame the Jews for all the evil in the world. John Rothe, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, also stated that the "Christian anti-Jewish tradition was a "necessary condition" for the Holocaust to occur, but it did not cause the Holocaust"
After watching the film, I also went over Professor Gordon Thomas' notes about the history of Anti-Semitism and why it so controversial. He discusses the fact that people do not actually know who killed Christ because the passages that Thomas took from the Bible are from Mathew 27:24-26, Mark 15:6-15, Luke 23:13-25. He states that most Christians today would not say that these texts mean that the Jews per se killed Christ; the Jews may be taken to be "the people" in general, from whom all Christians and Jews are descended (Thomas, 1). Abbe Laguerie, a conservative Catholic, obviously disagrees when he stated that "The guilt of the Jewish people is quoted in Mathew, Mark, and Luke." He said to be a "good catholic", the person must agree with St. Paul and that the Jews are to be persecuted (Laguerie, quoted in film). I believe that the hatred has gone on so long, that many people today, do not know the real reason the Jews are hated and scolded, but that it's a given, and they are hypothetically supposed to be shunned. Even today, Jews are still persecuted. I live near town where it is predominantly white republicans. There was a small Jewish family living in a quiet area, a single mother with two young kids. The family never bothered anybody and minded their own business.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Paul Jews, , Jewish Nation, God Hosea, Frank Chalk, God Jew, Archbishop York, Holocaust Rothe, Bible Mathew, Gordon Thomas', killed jesus, quoted film, question people, jews persecuted, question killed, killed christ, lack knowledge, watching film, question killed jesus, killing jews,
Approximate Word count = 865
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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