The Nazis had a problem with Jesus. Though their movement was more pagan than Christian, many of the Germans it wished to attract were believing Christians, not to mention the many Christian cultural roots that fed into Nazism, most notably in some of its Jew hatred. Unsurprisingly, therefore, some Nazi apologists claimed that Jesus had been a blond Aryan, persecuted by the Jews of his day just as modern Germans were suffering from Jewish machinations.
That was then. The Nazis, fortunately, are gone. Yet the motivation to identify with Jesus even while hating the Jews and denying Jewish history is very much alive. So on this December 24th, as the Christians of the world prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, Palestine Media Watch documents how the Palestinians are busy turning Jesus into the earliest Palestinian shahid.
I wrote about a soft version of this trend, much acclaimed in Western literary circles, here.
Anyway, here's wishing a good Christmas to all my Christian readers.
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13 comments:
Christmas happens to mark winter solstice the time when days are finally finally finally going to get longer again
Thus I feel free to adjust your good wishes to my needs also
That's a good one. The same people that desecrated the Church of Nativity during the Second Intifada claim Jesus was one of them.
The same fanatics that persecute/harass Christians everywhere in muslim Middleeast.
As for the Nazis: everything was censored according to their ideology not only religion.
Even the stories of Karl May. Disgusting, to say the least.
Huxley wrote a handbook how to sustain a successful totalitarian dictatorship: "1984"
You need a "Thought Police", a "Ministry of Truth" and of course a Jew as the eternal scapegoat and an external enemy.
Did I hear Iran?
Kind regards, André
PS
Happy Christmas to everyone who's celebrating!
André
happy holidays to you
but please as much as I hate to correct you and I apologize sincerely but love of Orwell forces me to: 1984 is Orwell, by Huxley I've read a do-gooder's dream of total government called "Island"
- in its more subdued way it is just as frightening - if I remember it correctly Huxley genuinely believed that he had succeeded to imagine benign utopia with that book.
And to all the Jews, remember not to learn Talmud tonight! ;-)
Silke, Island is actually Huxley's answer to his own, more famous, dystopian novel, Brave New World. (It was required reading when I was in school, actually.)
It's been a while since I read Island, but I remember Pala as a sort of decentralized democracy, not a totalitarian state of any stripe. Dr. Robert even explains at one point that their political institutions are so structured as to prevent any strongman from arising.
RK
I read it without the guidance of a tutor and thus kept imagining how real life would be under the conditions. I didn't cherish the thought.
Robert Graves btw made a similar experiment in 7 days in New Crete and concluded that he as much as he liked certain things he was glad to be back in his familiar world full of imperfections and little sins.
This isn't really that new. Non-Jews have been making Jesus into a non-Jew or at least down playing his Jewishness since the time the Gospels were put in written form. It gets rid of the dissonance of loving or at least respecting Jesus but hating Jews for them. Even philo-Semitic and/or pro-Israel Christians don't really see Jesus as a Jew, they see him as God in human flesh. Since many Jews are ambivalent towards Jesus at best, many Jews are at ease with Jesus as a non-Jew, making the entire thing more complicated.
Quick Jewish minutiae question: If Jews are not supposed to read the Torah on Christmas Eve, what happens when Shabbat or some other Jewish event that requires Torah reading falls on Christmas eve?
According to Islam Jesus was a Muslim prophet, along with all of the Jewish patriarchs and Old Testament prophets. The denial of Jewish history is built into the very essense of Islam. OTOH Christianity as such never had a problem--certainly never outright denied--that Jesus is Jewish, although individual Christian Jew-haters could ignore it or deny it. And contrary to the poster above, plenty of Christian Judeophiles (I hate the word "philosemite") and supporters of Israel, emphasize Jesus's Jewishness and Jews as God's people.
"Though their movement was more pagan than Christian"
So what does that mean? That Christians are pagans?
@ Silke,
of course Orwell. h/t
@ anonymous 12:10 AM
The Nazis did not rectify their murderous rampage by citing the Bible.
Hitler's treatment of Jews followed closely Martin Luther's recommendations, though.
Kind regards, André
and here are Season’s Greetings probably more suitable for those on this blog who inhabit more Southern regions – enjoy!!!
“Mele Kalikimaka”
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2862
About not learning Torah on Christmas eve - that is not a mainstream custom. Most of us learn as much or more (to make up for those who don't!). Nothing changes.
Torah in Motion had a lecture on the topic from Prof. Marc Shapiro, but I haven't had time to hear it. In general, he is worth attending to IMO.
With Peace on Earth!!
And Good Will to all personkind!!
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/_tis_the_season_for_bds
Well, maybe not quite all....
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