Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
For the Record, Anti-Semitism is Real

For the Record, Anti-Semitism is Real

Last updated on: August 27, 2019 at 5:52 pm by Mary Pezzulo

For the Record, Anti-Semitism is Real 2019-08-27T17:52:09-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Sometimes I don’t write about something that’s important, because I feel I have nothing to say. Sometimes I have nothing to say because it’s a topic I know absolutely nothing about– the ordination of women deacons, for example. I don’t have the theological background to have a good opinion, so I try to shut up and listen. Sometimes I have nothing to say because I’m tongue-tied with panic and grief– the fires in the Amazon are giving me that reaction. It’s important to talk about them but I don’t know what to say. Sometimes I don’t say anything because somebody else said it much better and I don’t want to steal their thunder, and the past couple of days that’s how I’ve felt about the disturbing trend of antisemitism that’s cropping up again lately. My friend Rebecca wrote about it beautifully. I didn’t feel I could top that, so I just liked and shared her post.

I, myself, don’t have the honor to be Jewish. There’s an annoying trope where white women like me are supposed to look back on our genealogy and tell you about the one relative we had who was something other than a white non-Jewish European so it looks like we understand being a minority, but as far as I know I’ve never had one of those. People address me as if I’m Italian sometimes because I married a man who is half Italian, but I’m not Italian either. When I trace my family tree I find that a solid half of my relatives were WASPs or Westphalian Protestants who settled in rural Indiana, and the other half were Irish or Welsh Catholics who settled in West Virginia and Columbus, Ohio. A single one of them over two hundred years ago might’ve been from the very edge of the Eastern border of France, but that’s all. “Honest to God rednecks,” my friend says. That’s who I am.

But I have eyes. I can see what’s going on around me.

I’ve written once about antisemitic outbursts I saw in the comments here on Patheos.

You can say that’s just a random nut, if that’s what you believe.

We all know about the terrorist attacks in the past year, at Tree of Life Synagogue just a stone’s throw away from me in Pittsburgh and at Chabad of Poway in California.

You can say those were insane people not part of an organized movement if you like.

Then there’s what I’ve seen in the community of Catholic bloggers and writers. I’m friends with with Jewish women who are Catholic, such as Rebecca Bratten Weiss and Jenn Morson. I’ve seen what they go through when they speak publicly. It’s not that people disagree with them. It’s not even that people are horrible to them. People are horrible to any woman who speaks out on anything important; they do it to me all the time. It isn’t antisemitism to merely call a Jewish woman names. It’s only antisemitism if you do it because she’s Jewish. And when random commentators are calling my friend “vulgar Jew,” putting her name in “echos,” claim that a Jew can never actually be a Catholic– well, that is antisemitism.

Meanwhile I see public Catholics of a traditionalist bent getting more and more cozy with overt antisemites– Patrick Coffin giving a platform to E. Michael Jones, for example, or the gingerbread-averse Taylor Marshall and Steve Skojec following so many white nationalists on Twitter. That sort of thing.

Which brings us to Austin Ruse.

I don’t positively know that Austin Ruse is an antisemite. I am certain that he’s a curmudgeon and an annoyance. I know that he’s written some pretty nasty attacks on my Jewish Catholic friends, and he never seems to stick to attacking their ideas with which he disagrees; he makes it personal and implies they’re all part of a sinister conspiracy. Disagreement isn’t antisemitic, but if you happen to always imply conspiracy when you write about people who are Jewish, that’s not innocent. That’s participating in an antisemitic culture even if you don’t mean it that way, and I suspect he does mean it that way. But maybe he just hates everybody.

Recently, he wrote an attack on the Catholic author and theologian Dawn Eden Goldstein– who is a convert to Catholicism and is Jewish, if you couldn’t guess. He attacked her for being faithful to the Pope, of all things. The hit piece was so ridiculous I’m not going to justify it with a link, but you can read Goldstein’s level-headed rebuttal of him here. Again, he’s not writing to disagree with her ideas but as if to “expose” her, the way he so often does, as if this is all some kind of shady conspiracy.

And if Ruse wasn’t being openly antisemitic, the comments on the article certainly were. Here’s the most shocking one I saw:

In case anyone can’t read that, someone named Andrew Towne writes: “She’s a Jew (Goldstein) and she’s acting like a Jew– infiltrating, subverting, lying, causing trouble, trying to take over. When are Christians going to understand that a tiger doesn’t change its stripes? Jews have no place in the Church. They have no place among Christians. They can only be agents of destruction. Even when they “convert” they remain Jews. It’s in their DNA. Collectively, they are Anti-Christ. ”

It’s easy to laugh at a moron like this and wonder what he’s going to do when he finds out that Jesus, Mary and the original Twelve Apostles plus Saint Paul were all Jews. Christianity itself could be called a Jewish conspiracy. But this is the kind of talk that has, through history, gotten Jewish people tortured and killed. It’s actually not funny at all.

Rebecca Bratten Weiss wrote an article condemning this antisemitism. And I’d encourage you to scroll down and read her comment thread if you can stomach it. She doesn’t delete and block trolls like I do when I notice them; she just lets people talk to see what will happen. That thread is full of the most horrendous antisemitic garbage, more idiots claiming a Jew can never be a Christian, people linking to truly appalling blogs claiming that Christians are allowed to be racist in general. Thankfully I saw other people telling them where to get off as well. But if Rebecca was exaggerating her claims, those people wouldn’t have commented in the first place.

Here are a few low-lights, if you can’t stomach reading the whole thing yourself:

I’ve been struggling with finding something to say about any of this. Not because there’s nothing to say, there’s lots. But because I’m tongue-tied with shock and anger, and because there doesn’t seem to be anything I can add to the discussion except to say that this is really happening, they’re not just imagining it, I’ve seen it too.

But today I realized, that itself is something I’ve got to say. I’m remiss if I don’t. Because it’s always my job to speak out when others are being unjustly attacked– and also specifically because I’m not Jewish. When Jewish people point out antisemitism, they’re not believed. Maybe somebody will believe a relentlessly white Catholic descendant of honest-to-God rednecks from West Virginia and Indiana. And maybe they won’t, but I’ve got to try. Every one of us, whatever our background, has a duty to try.

For the record: this is really happening. They’re not just imagining it. I’ve seen it too.

Antisemitism is real, it’s deadly, and it’s on the rise. It’s finding a nice cozy home among “traditionalist” Catholics. And being in denial about this when you’ve actually seen otherwise, is another form of antisemitism.

We have to call it out when we see it, whether or not we feel we have something to say.

(image via Pixabay)

Appalachia

catholic conspiracy alarmism

Christianity and Judaism

Public face of Catholicism

Rebecca Bratten Weiss

redneck

Traditionalist

Previous Post

August 26, 2019

Everything that Lives is a Miracle

Next Post

August 27, 2019 An Update on the Purported Apparitions in Argyle, Texas

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to Hebrews, what two things cannot be shaken?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Faith and love A kingdom that cannot be shaken The word and Spirit Heaven and earth