The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-05-23
WHY'S tho Jew Hated.

Whyiis the Jew Hated.
In making an attempt to explain the
existence of prejudices against the
Jews, of hate, open or couert, brutal
or perfdiously insinuating, will en-
deavor to do so in spirit of calmness,
without anger of bitterness, dealing
with the matter as fit were no more
nor no less than any other question in
sociology. As the chiefest, the most
mischievous and the most abiding OF
all the causes of prejudice against the
Jews we must consider the pernicious
influence which the preaching of most
Christian ministers regarding Jews
and Judaism has had on the mind and
heart Of young and old. Jew-hating
and Jew-baiting are mainly the effects
of seventeen hundred years of what is
miscalled Christian preaching against
the Jews. AS long as the religion of
holiness, of justice, of merc7- as long
as the Gospel of the Prophet Of Cali
lee was preached by the Jews and a
few Gentiles of superior moral excel
lence, Christianity was, indeed, a
religion of universal brotherhood and
love. But as soon as large masses of
Romans and Greeks were converted
they inoculated the religion of love, OF
infinite pity for every human being, as
taught by the lowly and holy Rabbi of
Nazareth, with their own cruel pagan
spirit, with the virus of their inhuman
Jew-hatred. From the time that Chris
tianity was made the State religion by
the murderer Constantine there was no
peace for the Jew in the Roman world.
That year there began carnival of
hate, calumny and persecution against
the Jews which has not ceased to this
day. The ministers of the religion of
love and broad humanity prevailed
upon the emperors to rob the Jews,
first, of all their political rights, and
soon, also, of all civil, of all human
rights. They seemed to consider the
persecution and degradation of the
Jews the main task imposed upon
them by the religion of Christ. Wor-
ship of Jesus Christ and hatred of the
Jews came to be interchangeable ideas
with the priests Of the Church. The
direful influence of the clergy succeed
ed in making the ignorant people be-
lieve that to oppress the Jews was the
first duty of good Christian; to heap
insults on him was as meritorious as
aims giving or church-going to make
him wretched in body and soul was the
dearest service one could render the
Holy Trinity.
The sight of Jews marked by yellow
spots on their garments; the sight of
Jews moving in fear and trembling
through the streets !; the sight of Jews
Gagged in narrow and filthy ghettos !;
the sight of Jews hooted and pelted
by the rabble the sight of Jewish
women, with their innocent babes in
their arms, hunted like wild beasts;
the sight of whole Jewish congrega:
tions driven into their synagogues and
burned like rats-was, to believing
Christians, an irrefutable demonstra-
ton that God abominates the fallen
race. And the noble work of alienat-
| ing the heart of the Christian from
his brother, the Israelite; Of making
the Gentle look upon the Jew as a
social Phariah, so successfully carried
on by the priests of the past ages, is
being valiantly continued by our mod
ern preachers, in the name of religion,
for the greater glory of Jesus Christ
I do not hesitate to declare that but
for the uncharitable and perverted
views regarding Jews and Judaism,
expressed Sunday after Sunday, year
in and year out, by the great majority
of Christian divines, there would not
exist in the world, and least of all in
America, one-tenth of the inherited
prejudice against, and of the tradi-
tional dislike Of, the Jews. There
are, to be sure, numerous exceptions
among the Christian clergy. know
goodly number of clergymen, whose
sermons breathe the spirit OF true
religion, and, therefore, of true Chris
tianity who try to glorify Jesus
without vilifying Judaism and the
Jews. But the great majority oi
Christian ministers are guilty Of the
wrong we complain Of, and under
which we suffer so grievously. They
sow, probably without being aware Of
it, the dragons teeth Of Anti-Jewisf
preiudices.
| You, ministers of religion, sit ir
T the seats of the prophets. 1t is your
Office to spread peace and goodwill
among men, to teach the brotherhood
Of all morals, the divine sonship of al
, human beings. In the name of th'
: prophets and holy singers Of Israel, OF
| whose spiritual mama Christians ant
, Jews alike are feeding; in the NAM
{ of the heroic Maccabee, who lived ant
= died for you as well as for US; in tn
E name of the great Master of Nazareth
) I implore you to teach with fiery ton
l CUES that the Jew is brother to tn
0 Christian, and that he is crowned witt
: the attributes of God-like humanit
a like the Christian.-Rab6i Adolp
9 Noses in the american Journal Of Pol'
l.. tics,