Confronting Antisemitism in Christianity, Islam and Judaism

352 Pages·2020·2.101 MB·English

by  Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat, Lawrence H Schiffman

Confronting Antisemitism from the Perspectives
of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism
An End to Antisemitism!
Edited by
Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat,
and Lawrence H. Schiffman
Volume 2
Confronting Antisemitism
from the Perspectives
of Christianity, Islam,
and Judaism
Edited by
Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat,
and Lawrence H. Schiffman
ISBN 978-3-11-058242-0
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-067177-3
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-067188-9
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives
4.0 International Licence. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020911267
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2020 Armin Lange, Kerstin Mayerhofer, Dina Porat, Lawrence H. Schiffman,
published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Cover image: Illustration by Tayler Culligan (https://dribbble.com/taylerculligan).
With friendly permission of Chicago Booth Review.
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements IX
Armin Lange and Kerstin Mayerhofer
Introduction 1
I Confronting Ancient and Medieval Religious Traditions of
Antisemitism
Karin Finsterbusch
Antisemitic Positions in Christian Holy Scriptures: The Idea of Israel’s
Election and its Challenge for New Testament Authors and for their
Readership 25
Adele Reinhartz
“Children of the Devil”: John 8:44 and its Early Reception 43
Agnethe Siquans
Anti-Jewish Polemic and Jewish Bible Interpretation: Two Examples from
Origen and Ephrem the Syrian 55
David Berger
Scholarship and the Blood Libel: Past and Present 71
Reuven Firestone
Is the Qur’an “Antisemitic”? 87
Amir Mazor
The Position of the Jews in Egypt and Syria in the Late Middle Ages 109
VI TableofContents
II Confronting Antisemitism in the Study of Holy Scriptures
and Related Writings in the Modern Period
Bernard M. Levinson
The Impact of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Discovery of the “Original”
Version of the Ten Commandments upon Biblical Scholarship: The Myth of
Jewish Particularism and German Universalism 123
Konrad Schmid
The Interpretation of Second Temple Judaism as “Spätjudentum” in Christian
Biblical Scholarship 141
Anders Gerdmar
The National Socialist Bible: “Die Botschaft Gottes”: Theological Legitimation
of Antisemitism 155
Russell E. Fuller
Christian Antisemitism in Biblical Studies: Two Examples 185
Israel Shrenzel
Against the Mainstream: Muhammad Abduh’s Reading of Q1:7 and its
Implications for Current Muslim-Jewish Relations 209
Eileen M. Schuller
The Dead Sea Scrolls and Antisemitism: Past Results and Future
Possibilities 223
III Confronting Antisemitic Traditions in Contemporary
Christianity and Islam
Wolfgang Treitler
Antisemitism, Christianity, and the Churches in Europe 241
Petra Heldt
Antisemitism and Protestant Churches: A Quest for Reform 253
Yaakov Ariel
American Christianity, Jews and Israel: Antisemitism and Faith 263
TableofContents VII
Raimund Fastenbauer
Islamic Antisemitism: Jews in the Qur’an, Reflections of European
Antisemitism, Political Anti-Zionism: Common Codes and Differences 279
Meir Litvak
Modern Antisemitism in Iran: Old Themes and New Trends 301
Nesya Rubinstein-Shemer
“If the Scorpion Comes back, We will Wait for it with a Shoe”: Sheikh Yūsuf
al-Qaraḍāwī’s Theo-Political Response to Trump’s Jerusalem
Declaration 321
Editorial Board 335
List of Contributors 337
Acknowledgements 339

Preface and Acknowledgements
Antisemitism,the “longest hatred,”¹ still flourishes in our societies.It is not re-
strictedtoextremeright-wingmovementsandsocialgroups,butitalsoflourish-
esinthepoliticalcenterandontheleft.Political,religious,andlaygroupsalike
continueatraditionofdiscriminationagainstJews,insults,andantisemitichate
crimeseveryday.Giventhisunacceptablereality,inFebruary2018,approximate-
ly one thousand scholars, activists, decision makers, and influencers met in
Viennaattheconference“AnEndtoAntisemitism!”Theconferencewasjointly
organized by the European Jewish Congress, New York University,Tel Aviv Uni-
versity,andtheUniversityofViennatostudyantisemitismwithanunprecedent-
ed interdisciplinary breadth and historical depth. Over 150 presenters from all
overtheworldengagedwithallformsofantisemitismfromavarietyofperspec-
tives.Thepresentseries,“AnEndtoAntisemitism!,”documentstheconference’s
output and research results from various fields. Leading experts in Religious
Studies, History, Political Studies, Social Sciences, Philosophy, Psychology,
Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies shed light onto antisemitic traditions from all
their respective viewpoints.Together, they help to shape a discourse of under-
standing, knowing, and recognizing various forms of antisemitism in order to
confront and combat them.
Oneoftheaimsoftheconference“AnEndtoAntisemitism!”was,therefore,
to create concrete policy recommendations regardinghow to effectivelycombat
antisemitism.These have been collected and published in a separate Catalogue
of Policies,² a documentof practical impact.They also form one of the bases of
thefirstvolumeofthepresentseries.³Allsubsequentvolumesareaddressedto
anacademic audience.Theydocument theresearch leadingto these policyrec-
ommendations.
Thepresentvolumeisconcernedwithmethodsofconfrontingantisemitism
inChristianityandIslam.Asoneofthepillarsofculturalmemory,religionshave
been contributing to and shaping images of “the Jew” from ancient and pre-
modern into contemporary times. Fortunately, especially since the modern
age,voices from inside these religions have been raised against these discrimi-
 R.S.Wistrich,Antisemitism:TheLongestHatred(London:Methuen,1991).
 A.Lange,A. Muzicant, D. Porat,L.H. Schiffman, M.Weitzman,AnEndto Antisemitism!A
CatalogueofPoliciestoCombatAntisemitism(Brussels:EuropeanJewishCongress,2018).
 A.Lange,K.Mayerhofer,D.Porat,andL.H.Schiffman,eds.,ComprehendingandConfronting
Antisemitism:AMulti-FacetedApproach,vol.1ofAnEndtoAntisemitism!(Berlin:DeGruyter,
2019).
OpenAccess.©2020,publishedbyDeGruyter. ThisworkislicensedundertheCreative
CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives4.0License.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110671773-001
X PrefaceandAcknowledgements
natory images and age-old stereotypes that have served as justification for an-
tisemitichatecrimesoverandoveragain.InmodernChristianityandIslam,im-
portant voices call for the tolerance, acceptance, and diversityof identities and
opinions.Thepresentvolumenotonlyrespondstothesecallsbutcanalsohelp
strengthen the continuous effort to combat and eradicate antisemitism in both
religions.
Unfortunately, as with most collective volumes, the present one does not
document all the lectures in the field of Religious Studies that were delivered
at the conference in February 2018. Not all colleagues were able to contribute
due to a multitude of other obligations. However, the volume also includes
some contributions from an earlier conference focusing on antisemitism in
Islam. The conference “Islam and Antisemitism” was organized jointly by the
University of Vienna and Tel Aviv University and held in Vienna, November
2016.We are grateful for the willingness of the participants in this conference
to share their research results for publication in this volume.
The present volume consists of three parts.The first confronts Ancient and
MedievalReligiousTraditionsofAntisemitism.ThesecondpartshedslightonAn-
tisemitism intheStudyofHolyScripturesandRelatedWritingsintheModernPe-
riod. The third and final part confronts Antisemitic Traditions in Contemporary
ChristianityandIslam.Thearticleswithinthethreesectionsfollowachronolog-
icalorderwithregardtothetimeperiodwithwhichtheyareconcerned.Adiffer-
entsequenceofarticleswaschosenwhenevernecessarytoservetheoverarching
themeofthevolumeanditsaudiencewithregardtoreadabilityandaccessibility.
Ageneralintroductiontothevolumetriestoestablishthenotionofantisemitism
asreligionperse,asanintegralcomponentofself-definitionforeveryreligious
and social group.
Aprojectlikethisvolume,andthewholeseries,surelycannotbecompleted
without the assistance of other individuals.Therefore,we would like toexpress
ourdeepestgratitude to a listofpeople whohave supportedus in shaping this
volume and bringing it to life.
First,wewouldliketogiveawordofthankstoallourcolleagueswhohave
contributedtothepresentvolume.Theirresearchdocumentsavastinterdiscipli-
narityoffieldswhichmakesnotonlythepresentvolumebutthecompleteseries
“An End to Antisemitism!” an unparalleled publication.
WearegratefultoDeGruyterPublishersforacceptingourfive-volumeseries
of conference proceedings for publication. The support that Albrecht Döhnert,
Sophie Wagenhofer,and AliceMerozgaveusin preparingthesemammothpro-
ceedingsforpublicationhasbeenexemplary.ThesamegratitudeisduetoAnna
Cwikla.Aswithvolumeone,shehasmadeanenormouseffortinproof-reading,
copyediting,andEnglishstylizing.Herworkwasparticularlyimportantinterms