Michael KellyOn the banks of the beautiful River Danube in Budapest there is a poignant memorial. I stumbled upon it during a recent visit to the Hungarian capital. Known simply as Shoes on the Danube Bank, it is 60 pairs of old-fashioned shoes, the type people wore in the 1940s, cast in metal. There are women’s shoes, there are men’s shoes and there are children’s shoes. They sit at the edge of the water, scattered and abandoned, as though their owners had just stepped out of them and left them there.
They are a memorial to the Hungarian Jews who, in the winter of 1944-1945, were shot on the banks of the Danube River by the members of the Arrow Cross Party.
The Arrow Cross Party was a Nazi-inspired party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which governed Hungary for a little over five months from late 1944 to early 1945. During its short reign of terror 15,000 people (many of them Jews) were murdered and 80,000 people were deported from Hungary to various Nazi death camps.
Both of Hungary’s governments during World War II were allied to Germany and, in all, between 450,000-600,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
Seventy years after the end of World War II, the Holocaust remains a horrifying stain on Europe’s history and identity. What is terrifying, however, is that anti-Semitism remains a real and present danger in the Europe of 2015.
The Jews of Europe are a fearful community once again in their homelands. The murder of a Jewish man at a synagogue in Copenhagen at the weekend is a reminder that the ancient hatred of the Jewish problem is alive and well. Coming just weeks after the murderous attack on a Jewish supermarket in Paris, the Jews’ fears are clearly not unfounded.
Many European countries have seen a rise in attacks on Jewish places of worship, cultural centres and businesses. Radical Islamists have found common cause with cretinous right-wing politicians who exploit anxiety about austerity by stoking the fires of hatred and division. In this worldview, the Jews are hated simply because they are different.
A Rabbi told me recently about the distress felt by children in a Jewish school. The boys no longer want to wear the Kippah (skullcap) on the way to and from school for fear that they will be subject to verbal or physical attack because of their faith.
An ugly ancient hatred has reared its head. All people who are serious about having a society where everyone can feel at home must stand up to it.
Anti-Semitism Irish style
The most-recent research about anti-Jewish sentiment in Ireland comes from 2011. The study by Jesuit priest and sociologist Fr Micheál Mac Gréil (based on ESRI statistics) showed that “anti-Semitic sentiment was strongest in the 18-25 age range, with 46% claiming that they would not be willing to accept a Jewish person into their family (40% in ‘all ages’ category) and 48% would refuse an Israeli citizen.
Evidently, anti-Semitism is a pressing issue in modern Ireland.
Christian roots
The history of the relationship between Christians and Jews is a litany of tragic and inexcusable events and attitudes in which people betrayed the principles of their own Christian faith.
The Christian roots of anti-Semitism cast a dark shadow over the history of the Church. To our eternal shame, the followers of Christ often stoked hatred of the Jewish people.
Whether as a result of theological ignorance or fear of difference, Christians were often to the fore in various persecutions of the Jewish people. Shameful too has been the cowardly silence with which many Christians have looked upon instances of anti-Semitism.
In 1986, Pope St John Paul II became the first Pope – probably since St Peter – to visit a synagogue where he referred to Jews as the “elder brothers” of Catholics in the faith of Abraham. In 2000, John Paul II presided at a liturgy seeking forgiveness for, amongst other things, Catholic anti-Semitism.
We’re products of our history, but we are not prisoners of it. Historic Christian anti-Semitism means that Catholics have a particular responsibility to call out and challenge prejudice and hatred against the Jewish people.