The Jewish people, some Jewish people say, have suffered so much over the years that it appears that God Himself may be antisemitic. Richard Cullen examines a curious debate.
THE SHRILL ESCALATION in claims of antisemitism since October 7, 2023, explained by David Dixon, former Dean of Law at the University of New South Wales in Australia (link) prompted me to consider where this may be leading and then made me wonder: could it be that even God is antisemitic?
Next, I discovered that an American-Jewish Rabbi addressed this very question in July last year in an article for the Jewish Standard entitled: “Is God an antisemite?” (link.)
Thoughts on antisemitism
Shmuley Boteach, an orthodox, American Jewish Rabbi is a widely published author who has also hosted a popular reality TV show. His books include, “Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy.” Newsweek ranked him as the 7th most influential Rabbi in the US in 2009 (link).
In the article pondering God’s possible antisemitism, Rabbi Boteach, aptly includes graphic summaries of terrible persecutions suffered by Jewish people over millennia that reached a an exceptionally wicked nadir in the Holocaust. He also poses two linked rhetorical questions: “What proves that Europe is antisemitic? Why, they have been murdering Jews for 2,000 years, right?” Later he notes how intense antisemitism remains, evidenced by the way that some, like “the maggot mullahs of Iran,” actively choose to hate Jews.
Rabbi Boteach also reveals that that: “There is no nation on earth so faithful [to God] as the Jews”; and “there is no more courageous nation [than Israel] on earth.” In this article, perhaps understandably, he shows scant interest in the suffering of any non-Jewish people, who, as it happens, make up around 99.8% of the total global population of approximately 8 billion (link).
Rabbi Boteach stresses how profound the global antisemitism problem is and how – at least apparently – God is allowing it to intensify:
I don’t understand why the world hates Jews. But it makes no difference. My job is not to understand but to fight, to explain, to debate, and to win. I don’t understand why God is not keeping His promises to the Jews unconditionally and ushering in a Messianic age filled with brotherhood, fraternity, and peace. … My role is to keep the Sabbath whenever God seemingly allows it to be violated, as He did on October 7. My job, even when God seemingly extinguishes hope, as He did on October 7, is to fight, fight, fight for Israel and to do everything to support and protect the brave soldiers of the IDF, even when God seemingly allows them to slip through His fingers.
An alternative perspective
Meanwhile, another penetrating commentator recently produced a checklist of those lately accused of antisemitism by globally active Zionists, highlighting the intensity of the denunciation-escalation problem stressed by David Dixon. Caitlin Johnstone argued that the following things are now antisemitic (link).
Opposing war with Iran;
Viewing Palestinians as human;
Opposing genocide;
Greta Thunberg;
Peace;
Journalism;
Children’s entertainer, Ms Rachel;
Truth;
Critical thinking;
The UN;
Tucker Carlson;
Amnesty International;
Human Rights Watch; and
Equal rights.
Should, however, God now be added to this worksheet?
Closing observations
Rabbi Boteach first says that: “My role is not to answer that question [is God and antisemite] but to pray to Him defiantly that He cease giving any party even a hint that this may be so,” later concluding that: “No, God is not an antisemite. The very fact that the Jewish people — alone among nations of antiquity — still exists proves it. But it’s high time that He started showing His love rather than just talking about it.” (Traditional residents of a number of nations, including Australia, China, Egypt, Greece and Iran, may find a central aspect of this claim curious.)
Earlier, Rabbi Boteach interrogated his own primary theme in this way: “[This] brings me back to my original question. Is God an antisemite? Since there is no good reason not to like us, is God’s disfavor toward something akin to the United Nations or the European Union, which just dislike irrationally, with no good reason?”
Still, here is a profound, alternative Jewish perspective offered by the distinguished British-Australian actress, Miriam Margolyes (link).
During an interview with The Big Issue, the star was asked what she felt the “big issue” of the day was, to which she replied: “Gaza.” Margolyes said: “I feel it particularly because I am Jewish – because I know how much wickedness and cruelty were meted out to Jews in my lifetime. I was born in ‘41 at the height of the Holocaust and I cannot bear to think that my people are doing exactly the same thing to another nation – and the nation they are doing it, to the Palestinian nation, were not responsible for the Holocaust and nothing to do with it. That was a purely European pleasure; and so, my heart is broken and the terrible thing I have to face is that Hitler won, he changed us. He made us like him.”
Although God, evidently, has yet to be openly added to that escalating index of censured antisemitic transgressors, Miriam Margolyes certainly has. The Jewish Chronicle explained how: “The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) has called for the Harry Potter star to be stripped of her OBE and Bafta after she accused Israel of ‘doing exactly the same thing’ the Nazis did during the Holocaust.” Adding that the CAA called her remarks “racist bilge”, which “must be the end of the road for Miriam Margolyes. The fact that she was born Jewish does not give her a licence to use her immense platform to spread anti-Jewish venom” (link).
Richard Cullen is an adjunct law professor at the University of Hong Kong and a popular writer on current affairs.
To see a list of articles he has written for this outlet, click this phrase.