tomato-bird:

In light of the news about the latest horrific white supremacist shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, as well as the multiple antisemitic acts of violence that have escalated the past couple years,  it’s important for those of us who are Christian, or raised Christian, to be in solidarity with Jews.

In that vein I would like to remind my fellow Christians to be mindful of how we talk about and portray Judaism and Jewish people, both in everyday life and when discussing theology. A lot of Christians, when trying to defend Jews, do it by talking about how “Jesus (or Peter, or Paul, or any other Gospel/Epistle Martyr) was Jewish,” and while yes its bad to erase the Jewishness of said figures, it’s an argument that falsely equates the specific nature of historical and modern antisemitic violence with 1st century Christian martyrs.

This is oversimplified at best and dangerously hurtful at worst, considering that much of the centuries of antisemitic violence and ideas that persist today weaponized by bigots of various backgrounds (see blood libel and the weaponized use of the Passion Play and claiming that “the Jews killed Jesus”) has origins directly from the Church, and Christian bigoted fears. Even progressive Christians can end up perpetuating harmful ideas about Judaism (see the  “Cruel Old Testament God overcome by Loving Jesus” idea )  Our defense of Jewish people should not be a because of the misleading and patronizing idea that Judaism is an “incomplete” version of Christianity, but because it is a distinct religion, culture, and ethnicity that is very much alive despite the worst people’s efforts to the contrary. We have to confront and resist antisemitism in both its overt and subtle forms within ourselves and our churches.

Some links to support the Tree of Life/L’Simcha Congregation

Facebook donate page / Direct website 

Other Jewish organization support: JVP IfNotNow

Thanks @seph-cosmopolitan for providing info and asking me to write this post. If anyone else has useful resources feel free to reblog and add