NZFOI: A particularly relevant and timely piece, after Golriz Ghahraman’s recent allegations that Jesus was a “Palestinian refugee.”
Was Jesus a Jew? The idea shouldn’t be controversial. Yet there have been plenty of attempts to challenge his connection to Judaism. Dissociating Jesus from his Jewishness has a dark history that continues to poison discourse today.
In the early 20th century, the anti-Semitic and racist German-British philosopher Houston Stewart Chamberlain argued that while Judaism provided the religious background for Jesus, he “had not a drop of genuinely Jewish blood in his veins.” The Nazis picked up on this thread. As Hitler consolidated power, German theologians insisted that Jesus was not a Jew but an Aryan, descended from Galilean gentiles.
In the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has sought to sever Jesus’ religion from his nationality or ethnicity. In a 2014 Christmas message, Mr. Abbas called Jesus “a Palestinian messenger of love, justice and peace.” This remains a common refrain from anti-Israel activists.
Sometimes this rhetoric is aimed at erasing Judaism from the religious and moral history of Western civilization. Other times it’s an attempt to undercut Jewish appeals to a uniquely ancient relationship with the land of Israel. Either way, these objections place Jews in a complicated position.
