In an effort to join the fight against antisemitism, the USCCB’s Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, in cooperation with the American Jewish Committee, released “Translate Hate: The Catholic Edition.” The document was meant to “equip Catholics with the tools to recognize antisemitism” and insofar as the description of the terms in the glossary goes, it is especially helpful. What is not helpful however is the commentary at the beginning by Bishop Bambera in which he condemns as equally “insidious” both antisemitism and anti-Judaism. It is, according to His Excellency, a denial of “the spiritual patrimony that Catholics share with the Jewish people.” Unfortunately, the Bishop is merely reflecting the attitude of many Catholics since the Second Vatican Council and helps to explain the reason why many Catholics think evangelization of the Jews is unnecessary.
While the Bishop never really explicitly defines what he means by anti-Judaism, it seems to be implicit in his comment that “Anti-Judaism compares the faith of Israel to other religions as defective, inferior, and/or rejected by God.” Combined with the fact that he makes a distinction between it and antisemitism, one could assume that he means it in the sense of treating modern-day Judaism as a false religion. While it is true that Judaism is unique among the false religions because of its connection to the Old Testament, it is nevertheless a false religion in that it openly rejects Christ.
Modern-Day Judaism
At the heart of the issue is an ignorance of what exactly modern-day Judaism is and its relationship to the Judaism of Christ and the Apostles. Christ came to fulfill all that was in Judaism at His time. Israel was simply the Church in its larval state and once Christ emerged from the tomb, the chrysalis was torn open and the butterfly that was the Church emerged. Those practitioners of Judaism did not merely stand still, waiting for the Messiah. Their religion was also transformed into something else. In other words, the religion of Christ and the Apostles no longer exists.
Although the transformation took many years, Judaism slowly became, not the religion of Moses, but a religion that opposes Christ. Rabbinic Judaism was born in the early first century and the Talmud (the sayings of the Rabbis) eventually replaced the Torah as the authoritative source of Jewish teachings. Erubin 21b says “be more careful in the observance of the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Torah.” If the Talmud allows something that the Torah forbids, then it is the Talmud that is to be obeyed.
The Talmud also established Rabbinic Judaism as anti-Christ. Christ is presented as the bastard son of a Roman soldier after his mother strayed from her husband (Shabbat 104b:5), a practitioner of sorcery (Sanhedrin 43a:20) and residing in hell in boiling feces (Gittin 57a).
Rabbinic Judaism then is not merely the religion of the Old Testament whose practitioners are simply waiting for the Second Coming because they missed the first. It is a false religion that is anti-Christ. Therefore, anti-Judaism is a necessary consequence of being Christian. To oppose the blasphemies of modern Judaism is not anti-Judaism but anti-Christian. Anti-Judaism is not, as the Bishop insists, a rejection of the spiritual patrimony that we share with the Jews, it is an acknowledgment that they have rejected that spiritual patrimony.
Antisemitism is always wrong, but it is especially grave for a Christian because Christ, His Mother and all the Patriarchs of the Old Testament were ethnically Jewish. It is for the sake of these men and women that we ought to always hold them in special regard. They are “are beloved for the sake of their forefathers” (Romans 11:28). But only by being anti-Judaism can we acknowledge that modern day Jews are outside of God’s covenant.
The New Covenant?
This is a second source of confusion. There is no such thing as the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. There are multiple covenants in the Old Testament (c.f. Ex 20, Deut 6-7, Numbers 14:7-23; Dt 29:1) and not simply a single Old Covenant. In each case a previous covenant is either modified or nullified by God in favor of a newer one that depends on the historical conditions. The newer proscriptions themselves can replace the former ones. The point is that God does not change, but the conditions under which men come to him in a covenantal relationship do (or at least did). He makes a covenant with each person such that he may become a member of His People by fulfilling the conditions of the covenant that is active during the particular historical setting. He does not make a covenant with a people in the generic sense; a mistake that often leads Christians to consider Jews as “God’s chosen people.” Those Jews schooled in the Scriptures would be well aware of this fact and would be expecting a definitive and everlasting covenant with God (c.f. Ez 37:26-28; Jeremiah 31:31-34). The promised covenant was to be rooted in Baptism (c.f. Ez 36:24-28).
There really is then only a single covenant operative at a given time by which a person is incorporated into God’s People. Baptism, rather than circumcision, is the way in which a person in our day enters into covenant with God. The “gift and the call of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:30) so that the offer of a covenant is still open to the Jews but they must enter into covenant with Him through the new Circumcision (c.f. Col 2:11-12). Christians should be anti-Judaism in order to invite those in Rabbinic Judaism into God’s covenant. There is no other means by which they can be saved.