Survey: American Jews Negative on Christians

A survey of American Jews (pdf) released earlier this month shows that they have negative feelings towards both Mormons and the Christian Right, but of the two, Mormons are the least disliked. The Christian Right is viewed in a much more negative light.

Respondents were asked to rate their feelings toward certain groups on a 100-point scale, where ratings between 51 degrees and 100 degrees indicated that the respondent felt favorable or warm toward that group, while ratings between 1 degree and 49 degrees meant that the respondents did not feel favorably toward the group. Ratings of 50 degrees indicated that the respondent did not feel particularly warm or cold toward the group.

When asked to rate Mormons on the same 100-point scale described earlier, American Jews, on average, rated them at 47. The average rating for Muslims was somewhat lower, at 41.4. By contrast, when asked to rate the Christian Right, American Jews report an average of 20.9, a score indicating that American Jews hold considerably unfavorable feelings toward members of the Christian Right, significantly more so than toward Mormons or Muslims.

Michael Medved, a talk show radio host and Orthodox Jew, knew whereof he was speaking when he said, "For most American Jews, the core of their Jewish identity isn’t solidarity with Israel; it’s rejection of Christianity. This observation may help to explain the otherwise puzzling political preferences of the Jewish community explored in Norman Podhoretz’s book. Jewish voters don’t embrace candidates based on their support for the state of Israel as much as they passionately oppose candidates based on their identification with Christianity—especially the fervent evangelicalism of the dreaded “Christian Right.” — Commentary

Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ (2004), about the crucifixion of Jesus, was major news before it was released because Jews were said to be furious that it included the Biblical incident of a Jewish mob demanding the death of Christ. News stories and rumors circulated that Hollywood Jewish bigwigs, including Steven Spielberg, were up in arms and vowing revenge, with threats that Gibson would never work in Jewish-dominated Hollywood again.

Gibson caved. He removed that crucial scene of Jews demanding the death of Jesus, shouting, "His blood be on us and on our children." (Matthew 27:25)

Said Mel later, "I wanted it in…My brother said I was wimping out if I didn't include it. It happened; it was said. But, man, if I included that in there, they'd be coming after me at my house, they'd come kill me." (The New Yorker, September 15, 2003)

Christians, and others too, were aghast that there were furious cries of anger and demands of censorship of the Bible. Do people really blame the Jews of today for what happened 2,000 years ago? A non-Jew's initial reaction would be "Of course not." Besides, it's doubtful that today's Jews are literal descendants of those long-ago Jews. But many Jews apparently blame that passage of the Bible for their persecution over the years, to the point where Mel Gibson said he felt his life was endangered over it.

Rabbi Benjamin Blech, a Talmudic Jew, strenuously objected to the movie in print, giving the goyim insight into his Jewish perspective. He wrote, "We need to use this [the movie] as an opportunity to explain that for Jews personal accountability is the real path to heaven; that we do not believe someone can die for our sins, nor that God requires the death of His son to appease Him. At the end of the day, 'The Passion' doesn’t connect with Jews because we reject the very notion that God can be tortured, can scream out in pain and can die. Not only Christians, but all too many secular Jews still don’t get the great theological issues we have with a movie that from a Jewish perspective distorts the definition of God and the relationship we have with Him. . . . we can’t relate to a film that is preoccupied with nine hours of dying. 'Choose life' is the cardinal message of our religion. A movie that celebrates death, produced under the Icon Films label, can only make me regret as a Jew that Gibson didn’t take to heart the Biblical prohibition of the Second Commandment: 'Thou shalt not make for yourself any icons.'"

Blech's words aren't going to influence Christians, it's obvious to them that he doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to their religion. His words perhaps are meant for Jews and non-believers, in the nature of preaching to the choir, since they will presumably understand that a Jewish rabbi is not a source of reliable information about Christianity.

American Jewish attitudes towards other religions is only a small part of the survey. It provides a fascinating look at such subjects as how they feel about Israel (nowhere near as supportive as the U.S. Congress does!), the values they find most important in their lives, which political party they prefer, and much more.

Links:

Why The Jews Hate Jesus Christ. Brother Nathanael, a Russian Orthodox Christian who grew up as an American Jew, seems not to care who or how many resort to the old canard of calling him an anti-Semite. [Real Zionist News]

Judaism Is An Anti-Christ Religion [Real Zionist News]

Present-Day Jews Not Descended from the Middle Eastern Jews of Biblical Times [Rense.com]

Christians blamed for Holocaust [Answers.Yahoo]

Christian tourists come across a drunk & unfriendly young Israeli who says, "We killed Jesus, we're proud of it." [Hawaii Political Info] (video, many four-letter words)