In the 1920s and ’30s, Nazi supporters of Adolf Hitler took to the German streets: “Juden Raus!” … “Jews Out!” … “Jews to Palestine.”
In our time, European supporters of Hamas hold banners aloft: “Jews out of Palestine!” Now comes a new wrinkle in the never-ending quest to solve the “Jewish problem.”
In a comment on Facebook, the Rev. Larry Grimm of Capitol Heights Presbyterian Church in Denver makes this offer to the 6 million Jewish citizens of Israel: “America is the Promised Land. We all know this. Come to the land of opportunity. Quit feeling guilt about what you are doing in Palestine, Jewish friends. Stop it. Come home to America!”
With rockets from Gaza raining down on them, a million Israelis (including our own grandchildren) scurry for cover when the sirens go off. We all thank Larry for expressing his theological anti-Semitism so openly. It makes bomb shelters a more attractive option than accepting the generosity of his offer.
Earlier, in an e-mail to Presbyterians for Middle East Peace from Grimm’s Capitol Heights Presbyterian Church address, he wrote, “I favor the dismantling of the Jewish nation. By definition this nation is racist. It is as racist as our American roots were which sought to convert the indigenous population … . Before long, the land of the Holy One will not have any indigenous Christians. Yes, I favor the elimination of the Jewish State.”
Hard to know where to begin to deconstruct his hubris.
Let’s start with Christians living in the Holy Land. Fact: The Christian population has actually increased in Israel in recent decades. It is in the adjacent Palestinian Authority, which controls Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, where Christians are an endangered species. And in surrounding Muslim countries from Egypt to Iraq, tragically, the only increase in Christian populations is to be found in cemeteries.
Fact: The relationship of the people of Israel to the Holy Land dates back some 3,500 years, a truth celebrated in the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s new exhibition that opened this month at UNESCO headquarters in France. That U.N. agency — a co-sponsor of the exhibition, by the way — has a mandate to safeguard history from people like Rev. Grimm. He not only rejects any future for the Jewish people in their land, he is also ready to erase the past. No small accomplishment for a man who looks to the Bible to trace the path and words of the Hebrew prophets and a Jew called Jesus.
Grimm makes clear his attitude toward Israelis in a photo he shared on his timeline from the Facebook page of Rima Najjar, assistant professor of English literature at the Palestinian Al-Quds University. In response to the recent abduction of three Israeli teens by Palestinian terrorists, the photo showed Arabs passing out sweets in celebration. When asked in a comment box whether it was the Presbyterian way to celebrate the suffering of others, Grimm responded: “What do you think?”
(While Grimm acknowledged to The Denver Post that he wrote the first two quotations in this article, he said he knows nothing about a photo of Arabs passing out sweets.)
Only the Good Lord can lift the stone of hate from the reverend, but we can offer him some perspective on illegal occupation of land by settlers. Back in 1851, the Treaty of Fort Laramie promised to safeguard the lands of the Arapaho Nation for their traditional inhabitants. White settlers ignored the treaty, gradually encroaching on more and more Arapaho land. The U.S. government refused to move against the settlers, who then overran the tribe.
The Native Americans had no recourse but to move, mostly to Oklahoma, where they joined the Cheyenne, but not before 150 of them, including women and children, were slaughtered in the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, under orders of Col. John Chivington.
Rev. Grimm is surely aware that his church is built on land illegally seized from the Arapaho. So we will reciprocate his call to 6 million Israelis. Reverend, take a few days to get your effects in order, return to your own promised land, and leave Colorado in the hands of its indigenous people. We can send you the phone number of someone from the Arapaho tribal government who will be happy to receive the deed to the house you illegally occupy.
If we had to hazard a guess, we imagine that your forebears hailed from Germany. Fortunately for you, Article 116 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany provides immigration privileges to ethnic Germans. You see, reverend, like Israel — and over 30 other countries — Germany extends right-of-return privileges to its offspring.
Alas, Rev. Grimm, you are not alone in your denomination. As the vice moderator of Committee 4 at the recent PCUSA General Assembly, Virginia Sheets advocated for some anti-Israel resolutions by appealing to the best in the religious sensibilities of the delegates. “Jesus did not mind telling the Jews when they were wrong.” (Not the Israelis, mind you, but the Jews. That conveniently ignores the fact that when Jesus spoke, he was speaking to his own Jewish brethren.)
With friends like the two of you fanning the flames of theological anti-Semitism, you only reinforce the need for a safe haven for the Jewish people. And that place is the democratic Jewish state of Israel.
Our world views are also molded by God’s words. In His founding Covenant, He promised our founding father, Abraham, that there will always be a place for us in Eretz Yisrael. As for you, we would be happy to help process your application to Germany.
If Berlin turns you down, please be in touch. We might be able to arrange another suitable home for you. How about Gaza City?
Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is its director of Interfaith Affairs.