The United Church and the Jewish Community Part Two

By Kenneth Bagnell

 

      The troubled relationship between the  United Church of Canada and the country’s Jewish community has recently become worse. A resolution before the church’s national council in August, one calling for a church-wide boycott of goods produced in Israeli settlements, passed by wide margin. As I wrote in early August, while social justice should be the Church’s goal for both Israelis and Palestinians the boycott tactic was, to me, futile: (a) it would not move Israel to change a policy, and (b) it would seriously, perhaps irrevocably, damage the church’s relationship with our Jewish colleagues.

   In the wake of the General Council decision both remain true. (Reaction within the Jewish community has been very disquieting: a national Jewish organization quickly called for breaking off any interfaith relationships in which the United Church is involved.) Public reaction was mixed, but most letters to editors I’ve read were critical on grounds of selectivity: what about Syria, China, Darfur, the list is unending. Thus, many Canadians suspect the church of having a fixation on democratic Israel to the exclusion of rogue states. Or indeed they regret that major and evolving moral issues (doctor-assisted suicide for one) don’t get attention, being crowded from the agenda because of excessive time given Israel. Moreover if it escalates, many United Church people may well be stereotyped by Jews and many others as members of “that anti-Jewish church,” with all that implies.  It’s quite disconcerting.)  

   A United Church minister at the General Council, Rev. Andrew Love of Arnprior, near Ottawa (a former businessman with a master’s degree in planning and a Queen’s theological education) worked to defeat the motion. He uses an ancient word to describe what he feels was driving opposition to Israel: “Anti-Semitism.” Strong language. In a lengthy interview by phone and email, he repeated his conviction. He also expressed regret at the attitude of clergy delegates at the meeting. (He was given observer status and an information table.) “Many clergy approached me in a very heated manner,” he says, “But what was worse, I felt, was their attitude to lay delegates. They seemed to feel that church members were not informed, thereby needing the ministers to guide them as to voting. I was shocked at the arrogance. That’s what I came away with, along with the fact that when it came to  debate the motion, about three hours were spent not on substantive issues, but nitpicking amendments. The real issues of the boycott were not seriously debated.”

   A professional survey, done in July, by a respected polling firm, The Gadalf Group — its principal partner is David Herle, a member of the widely watched CBC TV’s Insider’s Panel – indicates that a substantial majority, almost 80 percent of active United Church members, wanted the church “to remain neutral” on the issue. But the General Council vote took the opposite position: a large majority favoring the motion to boycott. What happened? I spoke to a senior member of the polling firm, and have no doubt as to the reliability of its survey. It was, he said, a survey of the people in the pews not the people in the pulpits. Given this, it’s natural to wonder if the ordained delegates, were successful in what Andrew Love mentions: aggressive lobbying to “educate” the lay delegates.

    Reverend Andrew Love backs up his use of the descriptive “anti-Semitism” by pointing to some  resolutions proposed for General Council affirmation. One example, proposed by a BC presbytery and affirmed by the British Columbia for discussion by the General Council, has words, so chilling, that a non Jewish person can ever realize. It proposed that General Council “remove from all future United Church policy statements and communications any wording which recognizes Israel as a ‘Jewish state.’”  No responsible group, including Canada’s left, the NDP, has ever – I dare hope will ever — come close to recommending this.

     No one of us who is not Jewish, can understand the chill this notion contains. (Maybe many just don’t care.) But one who does feel it is a now aged and revered Rabbi in Toronto: a childhood survivor of Dachau where both parents perished, and now a member of the Order of Canada. When he heard the proposal he emailed me: “What upsets me most is the United Church rescinding its previous support of Israel as a Jewish state. To me, it signifies the revival of the old religion-based anti-Semitism: there should not be a sovereign Jewish state because Jews should survive as a wretched minority dependent on the toleration of their Christian or Moslem hosts in everlasting exile and dispersion.” He ended by noting that the first weapon the Nazis used against Jews in 1933 was a boycott: “It still gives me a nightmare when I recall the sight of Nazi stormtroopers in front of my parents shoe store.” Nonetheless, Rabbi Schild, a wise person, despite his strong disapproval, rejects the idea of ending relationships: “More dialogue is required, not cessation of dialogue.”

      The church’s major scholar on Christian-Jewish relations is Professor Emeritus of Religion at one of our major universities, The University of Toronto. Dr Alan Davies is also a United Church minister. Over the years, he’s written often on Christian-Jewish relationships. A book he co-authored with Marilyn F. Nefsky, “How Silent were the Churches?” examines the response of churches to persecution of Jews in World War II and the aftermath. He’s a careful scholar, thereby taken seriously. If you’re interested in the complex history of the relationship between the United Church and the Jewish community, read his recent essay titled: “Jews and Palestinians: an unresolved conflict in the United Church mind.” It’s in a new book, “The United Church of Canada: a History,” edited by Donald Schweitzer. (Many libraries now have it.) Given his years – he’s entered his eighties – Dr. Davies has distinct advantage: as is sometimes said of others, “he’s able to take the long look back.”  So, before too long, I hope to hear his view on the issue which should deeply concern us all. When I do it will appear here.

 

Kenneth Bagnell was, until recent retirement, a  member of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto.