Jews And Colonialism

A frequent justification for the anti-Jewish stance is that the Jews killed Jesus. When it is pointed out that this was almost 2000 years ago, and that the Jews living now had nothing to do with it, the usual response is that the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons.

So then does the fact that the ancestors of these people took part in colonialism and slave trade mean that these people should suffer for these sins? Jesus was one person, and he resurrected anyway. Whereas 100 million people who died during Spanish and English colonialism in Americas did not.

One thing I see as a political researcher is arguments made about how the slave trade and colonialism happened not against people living now but against people living then. Fair enough. But decide what course you are going to pursue. Are you going to keep attacking the Jews – and thus logically leave yourself open to being attacked for colonialism and slave trade? Or are you going to recognize that Adam Sandler and Herod are not the same person, and one should not be blamed for the actions of the other?

As for myself, my mind on this is clear. There is absolutely no justification for attacking people now living for something that they did not do and what they would not have done. I did not crucify Jesus. I follow Jesus. And I refuse to be blamed for something that I had nothing to do with.

Whereas with colonialism and slave trade, there are any number of arguments to attack people now living. One argument I have heard is that white people living today benefit from a system that involved slave trade and colonialism. People who live in glass houses should not be throwing bricks. Slave trade and colonialism – and a huge mass murder that was a part of them - are much greater crimes than execution of someone who did not even die.

Should white people now living be attacked for living in a system that involved atrocity? I do not know the answer to that. Should the residents of the Soviet Union have been attacked for Stalin's atrocities? Should the Germans now living be attacked for Nazism? This is a debate that should be held on a large scale. But one thing is absolutely for certain. It is wrong to blame the Jews for the death of Jesus while excusing much greater and much more recent crimes by Spanish and English slave traders and colonists.

So it is time that more people be alerted to this hypocrisy. I refuse to be blamed for things that I had nothing to do with. And more Jewish people should come out and say outright the same thing.