German Jewish leader to Protestants: Condemn Martin Luther’s anti-Semitic teachings

Ed-note (Sabba) – For all the students at “TUT Uni” who have not yet read Martin Luther’s “The jews and their lies”, now is the time! Here are a couple of passages from this monument of Christian literature

“I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that these miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them. I would not have believed that a Christian could be duped by the Jews into taking their exile and wretchedness upon himself. However, the devil is the god of the world, and wherever God’s Word is absent he has an easy task, not only with the weak but also with the strong. May God help us. Amen.”

“Such a desperate, thoroughly evil, poisonous and devilish lot are these Jews, who for these fourteen hundred years have been and still are our plague, our pestilence, and our misfortune.”

“They are the real liars and bloodhounds, who have not only perverted and falsified the entire Scriptures from beginning to end and without ceasing with their interpretations. And all of the anxious sighing, longing and hoping of their hearts is directed to the time when some day they would like to deal with us heathen as they dealt with the heathen in Persia at the time of Esther.

(…) Oh how they love the book of Esther, which so nicely agrees with their bloodthirsty, revengeful and murderous desire and hope. The sun never did shine on a more bloodthirsty and revengeful people as they, who imagine to be the people of God, and who desire to and think they must murder and crush the heathen.”

JERUSALEM POST – Germany’s top jewish leaders urged Protestants to confront and condemn anti-Jewish teachings of Martin Luther, who began the Protestant Reformation.

Speaking at a conference in Berlin last week, Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said he hopes for a clear sign from the Protestant Church condemning Luther’s anti-Jewish writings ahead of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.

Luther’s statements on Jews were “not at all acceptable,” the Juedische Allgemeine weekly quoted Schuster as saying at a June 10 conference titled “Reformer, heretic, enemy of the Jews — Jewish perspectives on Martin Luther,” which was organized by the Central Council and the Evangelical Academy.

In his voluminous 1543 text “On the Jews and their Lies,” Luther called Jews a “base” people and urged faithful Protestants to burn down synagogues and drive Jews from their homes. Luther was responsible for regulations barring Jews from working or living in his region.

Nikolaus Schneider, former council president of the Protestant Church in Germany, told Schuster during a public discussion at the conference that the church has begun to confront Luther’s anti-Jewish sentiments, adding that he was fairly sure the council would issue a declaration on the matter in time for the anniversary, Juedische Allgemeine reported.

In 1517, Luther disseminated his Ninety-Five Theses condemning various church practices. According to some, he posted the theses on the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

But while Luther took church leaders to task on their abuses, it has taken too long for Protestants to take Luther himself to task, critics have said.

For Jews, there is “no good or bad Luther … just the Luther whose encouragement to burn synagogues and drive out the Jews” they cannot forget, Doron Kiesel, the German-Jewish council’s director of educational programs, said at the conference, according to the Juedische Allgemeine.