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Martin Luther's Anti-Semitism

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Preface...........................................................ixAbbreviations.....................................................xiv1. The Riddle of Anti-Semitism....................................1An Etymological Plethora..........................................1The Racist Factor.................................................4Scapegoat Mentality...............................................9Christian Manifestations..........................................14Working Definition................................................282. The Luther Evidence............................................33A "Christian" Old Testament and Judaism...........................33Traditional Polemics (1513-21)....................................47An Interlude of Pastoral Evangelism (1521-37).....................59A Tragic Conclusion (1538)........................................70Demonizing Attacks (1539-46)......................................773. After-Effects..................................................97Incentive for Mission.............................................97Embodiment of German Nationalism..................................111Stimulus for Critical Hindsight...................................120Unbounded Hermeneutics............................................128Conclusion........................................................138Bibliography......................................................143Index.............................................................151

Chapter One

Efforts to define anti-Semitism have been so numerous and inconclusive as to invite ridicule.

An Etymological Plethora

"Semite" or "Semitic" refers to people who speak Semitic languages, such as Arabs and Assyrians, or to descendants of Shem, one of the three sons of Noah (Gen. 9:18). But "anti-Semitism" always refers to Jews.

The word "anti-Semitic" (antisemitisch in German) appeared first in 1860 when the Austrian Jewish scholar Moritz Steinschneider spoke of "anti-Semitic prejudices" (antisemitische Vorurteile) in comments about the sensational Life of Jesus (La Vie de Jésus, 1863) from the pen of the French philosopher and historian Ernst Renan (1823-1892), who contended that "Semitic" races were inferior to "Aryan" races. The designation "anti-Semitism" became popular in 1880 through a pamphlet by the German journalist Wilhelm Marr (1819-1904), "The Way to Victory of Germanicism over Judaism" (Der Weg zum Sieg des Germanentums über das Judentum). He used the word "anti-Semitism" (Antisemitismus) to define the alleged threat to Germany posed by "Semitism" (Semitismus) embodied in Jewish commercialism. A "League of Anti-Semites" (Antisemiten-Liga) was to organize actions against Jews. In 1895, an international alliance of anti-Semites was organized in Bucharest, Alliance Anti-Semitique Universelle; it made agitation against Jews popular during and after World War I.

The well-known mayor of Vienna, Karl Lüger, increased the popularity of anti-Semitism as "Chairman of the Christian Social Union of the Parliament and of the Anti-Semitic Union of the Diet of Lower Austria." When he died in 1910, the obituary in The New York Times (March 11, 1910) mentioned his anti-Semitic leadership. German Nazi propaganda under Hitler identified "German" with "anti-Semitic." As the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, put it: "The German people is anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its rights restricted or to be provoked in the future by parasites of the Jewish race." The Roman Catholic historian Edward H. Flannery identifies four aspects of anti-Semitism: (1) political and economic, exemplified by the Roman statesman, orator, and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.E.) and the American aviator Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974); (2) theological or religious, also known as "anti-Judaism"; (3) nationalistic, exemplified by the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire (1694-1778); and (4) racial, exemplified by the Nazi Holocaust.

The U.S. Department of State, in its 2005 Report on Global Anti-Semitism, defines it as a "hatred toward Jews — individually or as a group — that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and or ethnicity." The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), a body of the European Union, offers an exhaustive description of anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities. In addition, such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. Anti-Semitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity; it is often used to blame Jews for "why things go wrong."

The EUMC then lists "contemporary examples of anti-Semitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere." They include:

Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews; accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group; denying the Holocaust; and accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to their own nations.

The EUMC also discussed ways in which attacking Israel could be anti-Semitic:

Denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination, e.g. by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor; applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation; using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism (for example, claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel [killing children to use their blood in matzos at Passover]) to characterize Israel or Israelis; drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis; holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

The EUMC added that criticism of Israel cannot be regarded as anti-Semitism so long as it is "similar to that leveled against any other country." Moreover, anti-Semitism also includes "anti-Zionism — rejection of Zionism, a political movement among Jews, which holds that the Jews are a nation and as such are entitled to a national homeland."

In recent years, the term "new anti-Semitism" has been introduced. It focuses attention on opposition to the creation of a Jewish state. In this sense, it broadens the attitude of anti-Semitism. Sometimes the "new anti-Semitism" includes bans on kosher slaughter, for example in Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden, even though the ban was motivated by cruelty to animals that should be stunned rather than slaughtered. The critical study of anti-Semitism has become part of academic curricula, such as the "Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism," part of Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. The Director of the study, Charles Small, said that the increase of anti-Semitism generated...