In 1939 a ship, the MS St. Louis, left Hamburg, Germany with 937 Jewish passengers. They hoped to find a haven from Nazi persecution. They sailed to Havana, Cuba. The Cubans did not want them.
But neither did Canadians. The ship was denied entry into the port of Halifax. Christian pastors, and academics too, protested. But this made no difference.
In 2018 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized for this action. He acknowledged that it was the Liberal government of the day that was “unmoved by the plight of these refugees.”
Why unmoved? Some Canadians would have been worried about the financial burden that a shipload of incoming passengers might bring. Others would be concerned about them taking away jobs. After all, the ship arrived during a time when people were still coping with the effects of the Great Depression. At the same time, some people might have been ignorant of the abilities of the Jewish community in business, law and scientific research.
But a large part of the reason for being unmoved by the plight of the refugees would have been the feeling of anti-Semitism found in Canada and the rest of the Western World. The now infamous phrase, “None is too many,” summed up the Canadian government’s response to the question, “How many Jews should Canada permit to enter?” This attitude stood side by side with the vision of Canada as a strong, white, Protestant (non-Catholic) nation.
But this meant that Canada was living a great contradiction. The West at that time thought itself a collection of Christian nation states, Canada a junior member among them. There were, as there are today, church buildings on virtually every street corner. A church dominated every village in Europe – and in Canada. And note: The Christian church is supposed to take with extreme seriousness the command of Jesus Christ to “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is absolutely no debate whatsoever that by “your neighbour”, Christ meant everyone – even, maybe even especially, people who one does not like.
The sense of contradiction deepens when we realize that, when Jesus gave that command, he was quoting Jewish Scriptures. He himself was a Jew and nearly all of his first followers were Jews.
In fact, the movement that became known as Christianity began as a Jewish movement. This is clear to anyone who reads the accounts of the life of Christ. There are four; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In all of them, especially in Matthew, it is stated over and over again that Jesus said this or performed that as a direct fulfilment of a hope, event, core theme, secondary theme, statement, or dream found in the Jewish Scriptures. All of the biblical documents concerning the life, teaching, and effects of what Christ did are Jewish documents. They are written by Jews, for Jews (and non-Jews) about a Jew.
How then did anti-Jewish feelings arise in the Western world? To be continued in Part Two.