With antisemites worldwide still gleefully sharing news of a handful of Jews spitting on the ground near Christian worshipers (most falsely claiming they spat on the worshipers), I would like to share this piece on the incident by my friend Rabbi Pesach Wolicki. Excerpt:
This despicable spitting attack comes after a series of incidents in recent months in which Jewish activists have attacked Christian worshippers and holy sites. To make matters worse, one prominent anti-Christian political activist in Israel even took to social media to praise the spitters, citing a long-standing tradition of Jews spitting on the cross.
Let’s first address this so-called “tradition.” During the First (1096-1099) and Second (1145-1149) Crusades, Jews suffered terribly at the hands of murderous Christian crusaders. Synagogues were burned. Jewish towns were attacked. Many Jews were gruesomely murdered. These atrocities were committed by Christians who wore the cross emblazoned on their chests.
In his 2021 article, “Jews and Abuse of the Cross in the Middle Ages,” Prof. Irving Resnick, cites many examples of spitting and other forms of disrespect by Jews towards the cross during this period.
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As Prof. Resnick’s excellent article illustrates, medieval Jews showed disrespect to the cross as an expression of defiance in the face of the murderous Crusaders and their attempts to forcibly convert Jews.
To sum up this point. In a context in which the church was truly the enemy of the Jewish people, Jewish derision and disrespect for Christians and their symbols was certainly praiseworthy. From the perspective of the Jews of that time, the cross represented murderous brutality aimed at eradicating Jews and Judaism.
And this is what makes the spitting incident of this past week so disturbing and despicable. In the greatest turnabout in history, the Christian world, which took an adversarial position vis a vis the Jews for so long, has now become the greatest friend we have. From the official Catholic Church to the growing millions of Protestant Evangelicals, more and more Christians have rejected the anti-Jewish “replacement theology,” also known as “supersessionism,” which asserts that the church has replaced Israel.
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It goes without saying that great damage is done by those who attack and spit at Christians in the name of Judaism. Those remaining anti-Jewish voices in the Christian world are strengthened by such incidents.
Read the entire thing.
Meanwhile, if you want a better idea as to how Christians are treated here, you can see these posts by Israel advocate Hananya Naftali:
who hopefully has realized how much damage he caused with his other posts claiming Christians have been persecuted here.
