The Portrayal of Judaism - Essay Example

The Portrayal of Judaism The Politics and Gender Order No: 210595 No. of Pages: 10 Premium 6530 Many centuries before the Hellenistic period, the well known apocalyptic genre had its influence on Judaism. The Jews had several enemies such as the Persians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. According to the early writings of the Hellenistic period, the Greeks were known to be the “eschatological enemies of the people of God.” (Hengel, Martin, 1980, pg. 110) The reason for the unfavorable position of the Greeks was due to the fact of the great suffering they inflicted on the Jews during the Hellenistic period because of their opposition of the Hellenistic culture. Nevertheless the Greek culture had a great influence on the religious beliefs of the Jews. Due to the massive armies of Ptolemy and Seleucids, the Jews of Judea always remained subordinate to them and hence their powerful cultures had a great impact on the Jews and slowly they were forced to imbibe some of their concepts which were forced upon them. Jewish Beliefs: The Jews faithfully believed in life after death, stellar immortality and the immortality of ones soul after death. Prior to the Hellenistic period, the concept of afterlife the Jews had was a dark existence they referred to as “Sheol”. As it states in psalm 6 - “Turn, O Lord, save my life...For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who can give you praise?”. (Psalm 6: 4-5) But the modern Jews believed in Both Heaven and Hell. They believed that after death God would judge the actions of a person – by rewarding the good and punishing the evil. What Triggered the War: The Daily Express of London written on 24th of March, 1933 carried these headlines –“ "Judea Declares War on Germany - Jews of All the World Unite - Boycott of German Goods - Mass Demonstrations." The Express also said that Germany was “now confronted with an international boycott of its trade, its finances, and its industry……In London, New York, Paris, and Warsaw, Jewish businessmen are united to go on an economic crusade.” (The Daily Express, 1933) This could be described as the first fatal turn of events towards the war. Another Jewish newspaper called Natscha Retsch had this to say in one of its columns - “The war against Germany will be waged by all Jewish communities, conferences, congresses... by every individual Jew. Thereby the war against Germany will ideologically enliven and promote our interests, which require that Germany be wholly destroyed.” (Natscha Retsch, 1933) Another primary factor that played a pivotal role in the war was the desire to set up a National Socialist ideology in Germany. As was written in Journal of Palestine Studies ("The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941"; JPS v. 3/4, spring/summer 1976), claims that “the moderate attitude of the Zionists was due to their vested interest in seeing the financial victory of National Socialism to force immigration to Palestine.” (Klaus Polkehn, 1976) All these tensions led to the Hitler Government going on a quest to put an end to the whole Jewish community. The persecution of the Jews: The Holocaust: In the Book of Daniel we find that during the reign of Antiochus IV, an order was issued whereby the Jews were ordered by the soldiers who were asked to “force the Jews to forsake the laws of their forefathers and cease to live according to the laws of God.” (II Maccabees 6:1)  When Adolf Hitler rose to become the chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Jews underwent even worse persecution since then and it went on until the state of Israel was created in 1948. During the period of Anti- Semitism, the hatred towards the Jews was rampant. The Jews were not considered as having a homeland and were viewed as intruders. During the 4th century Christianity was growing in popularity and according to Christian beliefs, Jews were viewed as “devil- worshippers” and “Jesus killers”. During the Middle ages the Jews were looked down upon as tax collectors and slave barterers. They were blatantly accused of spreading the Black Plague and poisoning wells. During World War II, there was great financial and social pressure exerted on the Jews by the Nazi’s and most of the Jewish companies could not cope with the strain and had to either sell out to the Germans or just collapse. The Nazi’s wanted to bring the Jewish chapter to a close and in the first of its attempts called the “Kristallnacht” (Gilbert Martin, 2006, pg. 30) Jewish homes and shops were burnt down, ransacked or broken down with sledge hammers. Thousands of Jews were dragged away to concentration camps and beaten to death. Most of the Jewish synagogues were ransacked and burnt down. The Holocaust itself was the most horrifying thing that could happen to any human being. During the rule of the Nazis, the Jews were treated as scapegoats and more than 6 million Jews were persecuted and murdered in cold blood by being stuffed into huge chambers where they were gassed to death. Some of the Jews died of starvation and some died as typhus broke out. Those who tried to escape were shot in cold blood. A huge pit of quicklime served as a grave for scores of Jews who were thrown in one on top of the other. When World War II came to an end the Jews had the task of giving a name to the unthinkable happenings of such great magnitude because the vocabulary to describe it was insufficient. In 1950’s the term “Holocaust” was coined borrowing from terms in Greek and Hebrew which meant “offering” or “sacrifice to God”. (Monte Mitchell, 2007)    The Germans had no respect for human life at all. The Holocaust is the worst ever event of humankind that was ever recorded in the pages of History. According to the ideology of the Nazi’s the Jews were of an “inferior race” (Alex Bandy, 1997) and so did not mind using them in medical experiments and brutalizing them and treating them like cattle. Nietzsche: The 19th century saw one of the world’s greatest philosophers – Friedrich Nietzsche who challenged the very foundations of morality. He believed in the present life with all its realities, health and man’s creativities. One of Nietzsche’s most significant and famous works was Thus Spoke Zarathustra, A Book for All and None (Also Sprach Zarathustra, Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen, 1883-85). This well known book serves as a kind of guidebook and manifesto directed towards over- coming of one’s personal self. Much after its initial publication which was thirty years later the German Government printed and published 150,000 copies of Nietzsche’s work which was made available to the soldiers during the period of the World War I and which served as inspirational reading. This book has allusions of both the Old and New Testament and is antagonistic towards the world view of the Judeo – Christian. According to Nietzsche’s philosophy, there is something beyond good and evil and injury to those who are weak, exploitation, destruction and wealth appropriation are all universally considered to be objectionable behavior. (Friedrich Nietzsche) Jews after the war: The persecution of the Jews by the Nazi’s is still vividly etched in people’s minds as one of the most ghastly atrocities to be carried out on humankind by humankind. The aftermath of the war and the common mindset among the Jews that justice should be pursued was depicted in the August 1914 issue of LUnivers Israélite (Emmanuel Le Roux) where the Jews were fired with patriotic zeal and enthusiasm and which said ‘"The Jews gave of their best for the fatherlands in that war.” Being so closely associated and attached to the republic who had helped them gain emancipation, scores of Jews had lost or forgotten their Jewish faith. A good number of Jewish immigrants joined the French army. Jewish intellectuals living in France and Germany vied with each other in displaying their patriotism. Hundreds of thousands of survivors of the Holocaust were rendered homeless and it became the duty of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitating Administration (UNRRA). Later on this job was continued by the IRO or International Refugee Organization. This was by no means an easy job and this posed a huge problem for the IRO. Many of the Jews who tried to return to Poland were murdered while other countries banned the entry of survivors. The British did not relish the idea of Jewish survivors migrating to Palestine till the time Israel gained its independence in 1948. During this difficult period, President Harry Truman put forward a petition requesting the government to relax the rules of immigration for the Jews. On 22nd, 1945 he passed the Truman Directive which asked to give preferential consideration to people who were displaced, but he was unable to carry out this policy effectively. Some of the countries that offered shelter to the Jews were Israel, Great Britain, France and Canada with the highest numbers going to countries like Israel and the United States. In his book Leonard Dinnerstein states this fact about the refugees - "In sum, strong national prejudices, procrastination in Congress, and some less than dynamic leadership from the White House combined to prolong the miseries of those Jews who survived the Holocaust." (Leonard Dinnerstein, 1982) Jews in the Modern Age: Though Zionism was widespread much before the Holocaust, yet it became universally accepted and popular among the Jews over a period of time. The Jews who migrated to Israel and other places lived a hard life which was below the poverty line. Many theologians examined and analyzed their theological views “on God’s goodness and actions in the world”. (Sherbok Dan) Some of them even questioned the fact if people still had faith in God after such a massive incident like the Holocaust. Jewish Culture: Judaism is one of the very strict and orthodox religions that is rich in culture but is exceptionally difficult to follow. But many believe that it is worth transmitting to the current generations and hence could be refashioned to suit the present times. But Jewish catalog writers found it difficult to resolve to this idea and therefore made it a point to project the problems, give suggestions and tried to help in forming resolutions for the future. Looking at the traditions and ceremonies of both the Jewish Weddings and weddings of Eastern Cultures, the impression is that their ceremonies and rituals are very long drawn and a bit tedious. Many of their customs are rather interesting but at the same time they don’t suit the Modern times. Cultural participation helped them create and strengthen social bonds and form a sort of social network. Such alternate communities were much more flexible in the sense that it did not essentially depend only on the Jewish culture or rituals but it had a wider cultural arena involving people of other cultures like the blacks, whites etc…It is now more an amalgamation of cultures having a much wider scope of broadmindedness. This cultural hybridity not only facilitates contemporary entertainment but also serves as a platform for multiculturalism. Social networks provide a thriving platform for reinforcing friendships which may not necessarily be Jewish but on the other hand may be intercultural. These groups also provide job referrals, a wider circle of friends which eventually leads to dating and intercultural marriages because most of them feel that their culture is highly conservative. Therefore Jewish culture could be described as a sort of a shared culture because in addition to its culture, it draws from other cultures because of its flexibility. In other words we could even call it a global culture. Political Structure: In a broad sense the Jews have faced and endured many political and societal anti – Semitism for many difficult years and by the turn of the 1960’s it had by then almost lost its rich political stance and a lot of its own cultural heritage. We could say that the Jews have experienced an “internal migration”. The Jews currently enjoy their own cultural and political identity. The Nazi genocide, the Zionist and the Anti – Semitism conflicts put an end to the rich cultural and political existence of Jewish traditional norms. They had control over nothing but in fact but were put under the daily surveillance of commissioners for religious affairs in the state. This resulted in the formation of illegal groups and organizations of the Jews which were represented by activist groups fighting for their national as well as their civil rights. This Jewish activist group was split into two factions – one was called the “emigrationists” (politicians) while the other was called “culturalists.” (legalists) While the emigrationists” underwent a political struggle for Jews to immigrate to Israel; the culturalists strived to develop a national identity among the surviving Jews. By December 1989, there was a major split that led to the developing of a repatriation committee that wanted the Soviet Jews to migrate to Israel. During early 1994, the infrastructure of institutional organizations such as Lishkat Ha – keshar, Sochnut, the Israel Jewish Agency and the American - Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and also other foreign religious movements and institutions quickened their activity and took charge of primary spheres of the Jewish community. They established educational institutions, charitable funds, community service organizations and religious schools and also conducted youth and veteran clubs, leadership training seminars, and Jewish summer camps.” (Gidwitz, Post-Soviet Jewry, pp. 27-52.) Therefore Jews have traveled a long way and currently they have a high degree of involvement in the political scene. They are no longer threatened but on the other hand enjoy the freedom and equality they so much deserve. They have excelled in the field of Science, business, trade and commerce, arts, literature and politics. References: Aftermath: Newsclips – Exhibition Honors Jewish Soldiers… www.aftermathww1.com/parisexpo.asp Alex Bandy, Budapest chief of The Associated Press.” The Forgotten Holocaust”. © The Hungary Report, No. 3.05, July 28, 1997. www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/forgotten.htm Cultural Events and Jewish Identities. www.jewishculture.org/publications/.../culturestudy/JewishCultureStudy.pdf Friedrich Nietzsche/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. www.plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche For details about the current situation regarding the activities of these organizations in the CIS, see Gidwitz, Post-Soviet Jewry, pp. 27-52. Gilbert Martin. Kristallnacht Prelude to destruction. Harper Collins, 2006, pg. 30. Hengel, Martin. Jews, Greeks and Barbarians. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980. Pg. 110. in Cohn-Sherbok, Dan: Holocaust Theology: A Reader. New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-1619-9.  Investigating the Holocaust www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=416 Leonard Dinnerstein, America and Survivors of the Holocaust, Columbia University Press (1982) Psalms 6:4-5. II Maccabees 6:1  The Jewish Declaration of War on Nazi Germany. www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/.../archives/articles/jdecwar.html Winston Salem Journal/ Teachers revisit Holocaust. www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle Read More