Comunicado del ICCJ, nuestra Institución “Paraguas”

Habida cuenta la ola de antisemitismo que ha invadido el mundo,  el ICCJ exhorta a sus 40 instituciones miembros,  que hagan conocer el comunicado que nos ha sido enviado con la esperanza de  no bajar los brazos y  seguir el camino de la Paz y la Concordia  Nuestra Institución ha cumplido con lo solicitado por su secretaria  ejecutiva,  Anette Adelman, porque adherimos en todos sus términos a lo expresado por nuestro “ board”  internacional.

Publicamos el mensaje en idioma ingles, pero  podrá ser traducido al español al abrir nuestro blog, colocando el idioma que prefieran utilizar

COMUNICADO DEL ICCJ  

THE DEMANDS OF OUR TIME: A STATEMENT ON ANTISEMITISM

Blatant  and shameless  displays  of  antisemitism are  on the  rise in Europe, the  Americas, and elsewhere, becoming more and more frequent in public life. Attacks or vandalism against property, buildings, or people – and even murder – have occurred in several countries. Jews in many places testify to a growing sense of fear and insecurity.

History shows that the scourge of antisemitism has the pernicious ability to transform itself into a seemingly   endless   variety   of   manifestations   according   to   context.   In   the   pre-Christian Mediterranean world, Jews were sometimes assaulted for rejecting pagan social and religious norms. Jews were marginalized in European Christendom because they did not accept the Christian Gospel,  thus  becoming  easy  scapegoats  in  times  of  crisis.  In  the  Enlightenment,  supposedly secularized society was offended by Jewish religious and cultural resistance to assimilation, but later suspected Jews who did assimilate of plotting various schemes. These conspiracy theories were sometimes contradictory, such as when Jews were accused of masterminding capitalism while simultaneously championing communism.   Pseudo-science branded Jews as genetic menaces to allegedly  superior  races.  More  recently,  Jewish  longing  for  the  security  of  political  self- determination, something seen as a human right of other peoples, has been tarred as racist.

The  International  Council  of  Christians  and  Jews  (ICCJ)  looks  upon  the  current  resurgence  of antisemitism  with  alarm  and  revulsion.  The  ICCJ  was  founded  in  1947,  following  a  pivotal “Emergency  Conference  on  Antisemitism”  at  Seelisberg,  Switzerland.  That  conference  was  a Christian and Jewish response to the antisemitism that led to and still persisted after the Shoah (Holocaust). In the wake of Seelisberg, numerous Christian churches repudiated past teachings of contempt and labelled antisemitism as a sin against God and humanity. They embarked on an unprecedented effort to dismantle the religious antagonism that had fuelled hostility to Jews for so long  and  to  replace  it  with  theologies  promoting  interreligious  friendship  and  collaboration. Frustratingly, this revolutionary reform occurs at a time when religious communities have limited power to reverse the antipathy they helped embed in Western culture.

It has been said that renewed antisemitism is a warning sign of societal breakdown. Indeed, we see today in many places the widespread growth of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, intolerance, and an absence of basic human respect for people who are in some way “different.” Humanity can and must be better than this. Although our voices can sometimes seem feeble and ineffectual, the times call upon us all – as individuals, organizations, and societies – to redouble our opposition to all forms of bigotry and prejudice, to insist that leaders promote the common good of everyone, and to recommit ourselves to be practitioners of dialogue on all levels.

SIDNED BY

THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS (ICCJ)

MARTIN-BUBER-HOUSE HEPPENHEIM, 

FEBRUARY 28,  019