Jews and Crucifixion of Jesus

One justification for anti-Jewish sentiments is the claim that Jews have crucified Jesus. No they did not. None of the Jews now alive were alive at the time of Jesus; and it is wrong that they be blamed for something that they did not do.

As for the Jews contemporary with Jesus, they were only following the Ten Commandments law. According to Ten Commandments, the first commandment is “Thou shalt have no god before me.” Jesus, in claiming to be God, committed the worst sin in the book: The sin of blasphemy. That is the reason why Jesus's contemporaries let off a murderer while insisting on crucifying him. They were not operating from the position of wickedness – any kind of wickedness. They were operating from the position of the law of Moses; and their actions can not be called wicked unless the law of Moses is to be seen as such.

What would happen if Jesus came to America now and said that he was God? Most likely he would be pumped full of risperidal. If Jesus appeared before the Jews today, he likewise would not have gotten crucified. I certainly wouldn't have crucified him, and I am a Jew. It is important that people are to be seen for what they are than for what their ancestors have been; otherwise the Germans are to be forever branded as Nazis, Americans as slave traders, and the English as colonialists. And all these sins are far more recent than was the crucifixion of Jesus.

I consider it wrong to blame people for something that they had nothing to do with and that they, had they been there at the time, would not have done. I wouldn't have crucified Jesus; my family wouldn't have crucified Jesus; most Jews I know would not have crucified Jesus. In the same way as, say, most today's Germans, if they had been alive at the time of the Second World War, would not have supported Hitler; in the same way as most today's Americans would not have taken part in the slave trade; in the same way as most today's English would not have taken part in colonialism.

People – whether Jewish or German – should not be blamed for the sins of their ancestors; and the sins of the Germans, the Americans and the English are much more recent and much greater than the sins of the Jews. Today's Jews have not crucified anyone, nor would they. The Israelis were only following the Biblical law. And they cannot be considered wicked for it unless the Biblical law is to itself be seen as wicked.