For The Record

Submit birth, marriage and obituary records online.

Personal Ads

Meet new friends today!

Advertising

Put your message in front of 19,000 readers.

PDF documents on this site require the free Adobe Reader:

Get Adobe Reader

2007-07-24 issue:

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Mennonites, Judaism and Israel-Palestine

A Speaking Out column

by John Kampen

Print Article

A delegation from Mennonite Church USA recently returned from a two-week fact-finding trip to Israel-Palestine and issued a letter calling for churches to become more directly involved in these issues. It speaks of providing the basis for a common conversation among various parts of Mennonite Church USA. This letter calls for the denomination and its constituent churches to engage these issues, thereby formally extending this discussion, which had formerly been confined to agencies such as MCC and Christian Peacemaker Teams, into the conference structures and congregational arenas.



I believe that we must prepare for such conversations in a very careful and deliberate manner. I would like to spell out some of the elements which need to be addressed so that a common conversation can continue in a meaningful manner. I address this question from the standpoint of someone deeply engaged with groups striving for justice and liberation for the past forty years, and who completed doctoral studies at a Jewish institution whose primary purpose is the education of rabbis for Reform Judaism.

The “Open Letter” lists under their observations a set of concerns about the present military occupation that I have witnessed first-hand and for the most part share. The present situation is good neither for Israelis or Palestinians and we must continue to find ways to support peace efforts in that portion of the world. More awareness of the conditions under which all persons in those lands live is necessary.

What appears absent from the letter, and from our church experience, is a concerted effort to come to terms with our relationship with Judaism, an integral piece of any attempt to speak words of peace within this contested portion of the world. For most of us even this statement seems rather arbitrary. What does religion have to do with land? This observation begins to illustrate the basic nature of the discussion which is required if we are to speak words of peace. Let me list a few areas which require treatment.

The holocaust is the landmark event of the twentieth century which forced knowledgeable persons in the western world to redefine the nature of evil. The cold and calculating manner in which a systematic attempt to obliterate an entire people was constructed forced us to think of evil in relationship to humanity in new ways. This recognition had an impact on both Protestant and Catholic theology throughout the second half of the twentieth century.

However within our own church conferences and study documents the question received scant attention. We know that Mennonites were part of the German army, members of the Nazi party, and supporters of the Nazi movement in other portions of the world in which we had settled. There have been individual efforts which are to be commended. One fails to find in any of our statements the kind of apologies which parallel the present Lutheran statements with regard to the persecution of the Anabaptists. As a Mennonite church we have not addressed this issue. It would be helpful to address this question if we seriously wished to speak words of peace.

Anti-semitism has hardly fared any better in our circles. It has not been a major concern in the construction of our theologies and has received no attention in our statements of faith.

While there is a considerable body of literature which raises questions about anti-Semitism, even within the New Testament, the issue has not informed our study. The manner in which anti-Semitism has shaped a good deal of western Christian theology has been noted, but this literature has not had an impact on our work and perceptions. There are now guidelines available with regard to the use of the Bible in educational curricula. These have not been significant in our own publications. When we wish to speak words of peace in Israel-Palestine we have not constructed a solid foundation upon which to stand. We don’t have a history of the condemnation of anti-semitism which would support our claims as peace makers.

Absent from our discussion and our literature is any actual discussion of the role of the land. This is a difficult subject for those of us who were raised with a deep attachment to land and whose theology had no place for such a connection. We aren’t prepared to support claims to land. However, in order to speak words of peace in this contested area we have to understand it. A number of years ago I had occasion to interview the rabbinical students whom I knew as most engaged in social issues and most interested in advancing the cause of peace with Palestinians in Israel. These were committed social progressives who were willing to address the issues in both the North American Jewish community and Israel. What was most remarkable about my interviews with them was the manner in which the wars of 1967 and 1973 had formed either their Jewish, or more specifically their rabbinic, identity. A number of them had decided to become rabbis as a result of those two events when Israel, from their perception, was under attack. We will not be able to advance words of peace if we do not understand Jews and the land.

The Christian Zionist option is singularly unhelpful in developing such a new self-understanding. While this option reflects a convenient alliance for certain segments of the political establishment in Israel, American Jews often find this connection at the minimum unhelpful and more frequently dangerous. They know that the legitimate place of Jews within North American is undercut by these same forces which ally themselves with Zionism.

Forward thinking Jews within Israel know that such forces pose an obstacle in the development of the conditions for co-existence with the Palestinians necessary for the healthy growth and survival of all.

A similar list of concerns and issues must be constructed for effective engagement with the Palestinian population. The endangered plight of the limited number of Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox, requires knowledgeable and concerted attention. We are ill-equipped to understand that religious viewpoint as well. The economic obstacles in the way of Palestinian well-being are formidable. Further understanding of the place of the Palestinians within the broader Arab and Muslim worlds requires our attention. Other persons are more qualified to compile this list of prerequisites to conversation than me.

Perhaps we have arrived at a time when the Mennonite Church must dig deeper and face significant issues overlooked in the past if it is to truly become a voice of peace in a portion of the world in such desperate need.

Kampen is the academic dean and professor of New Testament at Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Delaware, Ohio.


Reader Comments

Add Comments
  • Posted by tmadmin at Thursday, August 16, 2007 at 10:40 AM

    From Raymond McKown, posted by admin: Concerning your article, " Mennonites, Jews and Antisemitism": We can say all we want to about being enlightened and not antisemitic as a church but the members are still human and may fall back to their old ways without even being aware of it. I give this story as an example. There was a small Mennonite church that had gone by the name of "Shalom" for many years without a second thought until a new member, not from a Mennonite background, started complaining about the Jewishness of the church's name. He was dismissed until he started to talk to his neighbors about that Jewish church in town called "Shalom". This started a rumor that Jews were moving into our small town. When this rumor came to the ears of the pastoral team, they approached the members of the church about changing the church's name so it would not appear so Jewish. Needless to say that the member who started this rumor denied any knowledge of where this rumor came from but wholeheartedly voted that the church's name should be changed. Which happened. This man is a closet Antisemitic and brought out the Antisemitism of others in the town and the church. The church was definitely not anti-Jew but the humans in it were and that is my point.

  • Posted by csiemens at Friday, October 31, 2008 at 09:16 AM

    This is helpful to me in terms of understanding another discussion I've had in recent weeks. My family were Mennonite Brethren from central California, although we are scattered around the country and attend churches of other denominations these days. However, having attended Fresno Pacific and having kept in touch to some degree with Mennonite and peace-church activities, I have felt that I had a good familiarity with the church and how it's regarded in the world. A couple of weeks ago I responded to an article posted to a friend's Facebook account, an article about Dennis Ross in which his willingness to meet with Arafat as part of a diplomatic effort rankled many Jews. I posted a comment saying that it was in the tradition of my own family-church tradition to meet with anyone as part of an attempt at reconciliation, and noted the recent meetings between American peace-church representatives and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I could not believe the firestorm that resulted in the comments section of this Facebook profiles in the next couple of days. What shocked me most was hearing a journalist in the group claim that members of MCC working with Palestinians were anti-Semitic. I attempted to engage in discussion about this with them and to do some research to find out why this assertion could even be made, but the challenges came so fast and furious that I had to submit a URL to the MCC white paper on Palestine and beg off further discussion so that I could return to work. Can anyone help me understand how this "anti-Semitic" assertion could conceivably be made about MCC, an organization that is committed to justice for everyone? Have I simply been naive? I recognize that the state of Israel has been responsible for some genuine atrocities, which are always held out as retaliation for PLO and Hamas terrorism. But there's a great deal that I don't know and I would welcome additional reading or comment from Mennonites. Thank you.

  • Posted by kiko at Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 11:49 AM

    Jesus told us to love our enemies, not to "understand" them. The challenge, I think, is always to live up to the principle as best we can, without fear. Sometimes it will mean working to understand our enemies in order to love them (as in discussion with folks who consider Israel to be "above" all criticism). Sometimes it will mean sticking to our principles (and our chosen names and their meaning) in the face of anger, denial, and hatred. I am now a member of the Corvallis (OR) Mennonite Fellowship, but was raised completely outside any church or religion. I did visit Israel in the 80s, and spent quite a few years studying Judaism. As a pretty clueless 20-something, what struck me most then was the reality of geography: Israel is tiny; about the same size as the state of Massachusetts, where I lived at the time. Yet it was at the center of world politics, and in many ways, at the center of western history. I wanted to understand something about that, so I started doing some reading, which led me to a (somewhat haphazard) study of Judaism. Some of the titles that I learned from were This is My God, by Herman Wouk, Godwrestling, by Arthur Waskow, The Sabbath, by Heschel, Shoah (Claude Lanzman’s documentary of the Holocaust), and others. I also had a number of Jewish friends, one of whom was studying to be a Rabbi. His religiosity impressed me (as did the seriousness with which my non-religious Jewish friends would debate the meaning and impact of “their Jewishness.”) I particularly wondered at the religious or spiritual discipline and practice of gratitude, in prayer and in life. I visited with an Israeli family, and traveled a bit with the mother, a social worker who practiced in the occupied territories (she and her family got mad at me when I called them by that name – as tho Jews didn’t have the “right” to live on land that they saw as “theirs). When I got home, I attended a passover Seder, and started hosting informal passovers of my own. It offered a way to observe, celebrate, and study freedom that I’d never experienced. It was a combination of culture and inquiry that I hungered for: a familial way to learn, to share, and to grow – physically, spiritually, emotionally. I’ve never experienced a similar combination in any “Christian” context, and from the outside, that lack strikes me as a singular sacrifice of our common Judaic heritage. Not that “Christians” should necessarily celebrate Passover, but that we all need to integrate our material and spiritual lives in simple, direct ways – like combining food with ministry, discussion (and argument) with fellowship – and not as “extracurricular” activities, but as part of our daily life as members of one body… We make Israel and related “questions” about land and love into “topics” rather than seeing them as central to our daily lives. Most Americans are living in “occupied territories” – yet that isn’t much of a “topic” for discussion in our churches. Perhaps the issue isn’t so much the occupation, but our own individual relationships to the land we live on and from and by. By allowing ourselves to be caught up in the material aspects of life, we sacrifice the meaning of our every act. Every mouthful of food tells the story of who we are; every ounce of fossil fuel we consume tells the story of our “occupation” of the planet. But we do not live by bread (or oil) alone…. Jesus was a Jew. The words of god that he lived by were old testament words. The first communion was a passover seder. Why not deepen our understanding of communion (and Judaism) by attending (or hosting?) a community seder? Invite everyone. Discuss freedom and share food. Consider the land we occupy, and how....