Nazi Attacks on the Talmud: Anti-Semitic Readings of Jewish Texts
How Nazi propaganda in the 1920s and 1930s distorted passages from the Talmud to vilify Jews and Judaism.
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| Topics: | Jewish History, Antisemitism, Talmud | |
Dr. Asaf Yedidya is lecturer in Jewish History at the Center for Jewish Studies at Bar-Ilan University; Kennedy Leigh Fellow at the Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies; former Fellow at the Center for Holocaust Studies, Washington, DC; and former Fellow at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He is author of Criticized Criticism: Orthodox Alternatives to Wissenschaft des Judentums 1873-1956, and Jerusalem: Bialik Institute (forthcoming).
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I am a Christian pastor and one of my chief goals is end anti-semitism. It's one thing for a person to say they support the Jewish people. That's great. But anti-semitism takes on even more insidious forms when we fail to appreciate the rich heritage of the Jewish faith as found in the Talmud. So many lies have been told about this wonderful collection of wisdom, halacka and ethics. Its existence and its passing on from generation to generation has enabled the Jewish people to hang on during hard times, and flourish when given the opportunity. No other religious writings or group of writings encourages debate, discussion and critical thinking like the Talmud.
In many ways, Judaism is the more highly-cultivated and refined form of faith in G-d and Christianity has much to learn from it. The first thing it needs to learn is the surpassing value of Jewish tradition and sacred Jewish writings.