The previous post (here) noted that, during Bea’s time as a faculty member and student at Bethel College, she devoted herself to, among other things, Mennonite-based peace initiatives. This post sheds light on another of Bea’s concerns in the late 1940s.
We learn about this concern in the 1 March 1949 issue of The Mennonite (page 13, here), which contains a passionate article written by Bea about Jewish-Christian relations. Oddly enough, nowhere does the article list Bea as the author. That identification did not come until four issues later, in the 29 March issue (page 5 here, lower right):
Due to an inadvertant [sic] oversight, we failed to acknowledge the article, “The Christian and the Jew,” found on page 13 of the March 1, 1949, issue of THE MENNONITE, as being written by Mrs. Henry Buller, of Bethel College, who is herself of Jewish extraction.
Given the point of the article, Bea’s identity as a Jew who had become a Christian was crucial. One can only hope that the article’s effectiveness was not blunted by the tardy disclosure of that personal information.
In the end, of course, what is of enduring significance is the article itself, and through that article Bea speaks a message that is just as relevant today as it was in 1949.
“The Christian and the Jew”
…and hath broken down the middle wall of partition…
“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, … and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby.…” (Ephesians 2:13–16).
DO WE AS CHRISTIANS really believe that Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile? Of course, we do! Why then are we building it up again? Why are we building it higher and better than ever? Is that the type of reconstruction in which we engage? How can we say that we are followers of Christ and at the same time hate anyone? How can we believe that He by His Cross has slain the enmity between Jew and Gentile, and yet talk about the Jew and treat him as one of our real enemies?
What do you think of when you read in the daily paper that a certain Solomon Levi has donated a big sum of money to Joeville Junior College? What are the mental pictures that hurry through your mind? Solomon Levi … a second-hand, clothing store … where you could get cheap suits if you were ready to “out-jew” the Jew … or (if you live in the city) maybe the shabby, little fellow trotting through the streets with a pushcart, selling peaches, pears, grapes, tomatoes, oranges—according to the season. Or does your stereotype of Solomon Levi represent him as a Hollywood movie magnate, overdressed with slick black hair, crooked nose, sly eyes, a sparkling diamond-tie-clasp, pigskin gloves and spats? When you read about this donation, do you think to yourself: “No wonder, he gave away that money; he had to ease his conscience because of the crooked way in which he had gotten it”? Or, “Maybe, it was cheaper than paying income tax”?
Let us not engage in unwarranted generalizations. Have you heard of a Jew who lowered himself to shrewd and tricky business practices? That does not necessarily mean that ALL Jews will pull the wool over your eyes when you deal with them. Not any more than you would suspect ALL businessmen in Centerville to be dishonest, because one merchant of that town resorted to unethical methods. I believe that as Christians we should never permit ourselves to generalize about people: “All Negroes like watermelons.” “You have to be careful with Italians, they’ll stab you in the back!” “Of course, he is lazy, he’s a Mexican.” “All Japanese are twofaced.” These and similar statements which one hears from time to time—even in Mennonite families—are not only incorrect, unscientific, and harmful. They are unworthy of a Christian! James tells us clearly, that any man who can control his language, can bridle his whole body.… “Behold we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.” We definitely need to cleanse our vocabulary of slanderous untruths, we need to purge our thoughts of two-edged stereotypes. They are an evidence of uncleanliness in our own hearts and help to rebuild, bit by bit, this middle wall of partition which Jesus tore down.
Having personally witnessed the growth of anti-semitism in Germany, I have often asked myself just where we can make a contribution—we, as American Mennonites—so that such a plague might never find fertile ground in a country where we have the liberty to speak, write, and teach as God leads us. If one surveys the field objectively, one must admit that already some roots of anti-semitism have found a receptive soil even in our Mennonite brotherhood. I wonder whether in some of our Sunday school teaching and preaching we are not inculcating into our children ideas of hate and distrust of the Jew. Yes, it is true, many passages of the Bible lend themselves to anti-Semitic trends. Israel is not always the hero of the Old Testament, but sometimes the villain. The Hebrew prophets, all our Scriptures unflinchingly expose the weaknesses and flaws of even a Moses, a David, the Pharisees. Are we, therefore, justified to arouse in young minds a distrust or dislike for the Jew? Maybe we hear too often that the JEWS crucified Jesus—remember, the Apostles, Paul, and Jesus Himself were Jews.
As children of God we desire sincerely to be peacemakers, and as peacemakers we will have to learn to understand those people who do not recognize Jesus as the Christ. It seems to me that the Jews are the stepchildren in our efforts of evangelization. We do not understand them and we make little attempt to reconcile them unto God into one body with the Gentiles. Persecutions have never destroyed the Jews physically, even if millions have perished at the hands of so-called Christians in Spain, in Poland, in Russia or in Germany. Even if mass persecutions have not wiped out the Jewish people, spiritually they have suffered very severely from these waves of hate that swept over them again and again. Whenever suffering has befallen them, bitterness has crept into their inner life and they have emerged with renewed clannishness and a poisoned outlook on life. What have we done, what are we doing to show them a better, clearer way? Jesus says: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The twentieth century Jew truly is weary and heavy laden, and asks for nothing more instantly than for rest and peace of mind.
Who is that present-day Jew? What kind of a person is he? Is he the spiritual descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? No, we are much too narrow in our criteria if we consider only the believing, observant Jew. There are at present three branches of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed (or Liberal), it is true. Outside of the adherents to these three religious communions there are large numbers of Jews who belong to the Jewish family only by ethnic or cultural tradition. Can you imagine the confusion and bitterness of this latter group? A Jewish scholar puts it this way: “Ideas cannot be inherited like a hooked nose. They can be acquired only in the way one acquires a broken nose.…“ In our approach to these folks then, we cannot go back to ther [sic] Messianic hope, for they have no such hope. We will have to deal with them as we would with any agnostic or even atheist. If they are to be won, it will be only if by the grace of God, our Christianity can reveal itself as more than saintly words and shallow rites—if Jesus lives in us and we in Him.
I never had the privilege of knowing Bea, but if I had I think I would have liked her very much. She was, as we see in this article, a clear and careful thinker and a forceful communicator. As a result, her words retain a timeless truth and relevance even today, as we witness yet another surge in anti-Semitic sentiment and rhetoric.
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