Judaism and Peacebuilding

It is universally recognised that Judaism is a religion which has experienced religious violence first-hand. In terms of the Holocaust, as well as in the pre-Holocaust and post-Holocaust eras, Jewish adherents have had to deal with intense violence and the loss of generations of their culture. However, although it must be acknowledged that this religion has undergone a history of anti-Jewish hostility, Judaism, like any other religion, is not necessarily simply an innocent victim of religious violence.

Firstly, in his paper titled Judaism and Peacebuilding, Marc Gopin (2004: 113) discusses how it is possible to point a significant numbers of religious Jews in the direction of peace-making. He recognises that, in light of the Holocaust and traditionally second-class citizenship endured in the Middle Eastern communities of Islam, peacebuilding and peacemaking as vocations will be dismissed by the section of the Jewish community that has the longest memory (Gopin 2004: 113). However, he goes on to say that it is this part of the religion’s population that needs religiously and culturally rooted conflict resolution the most (Gopin 2004: 113).

Gopin contends that the first stage of Jewish peacebuilding, for some followers, is mourning (2004: 114). He says, “mourning is a healthy evolution out of rage over the past” (Gopin 2004: 114). More often than not, what is mourned is mourned in ways that create violence. Therefore, a peacemaking mourning process must speak to the deepest identity needs of a group. Gopin (2004: 114) says, “there is no conflict, especially deadly conflict, that does not involve loss. These losses, often unacknowledged, are the fuel of conflict.” Some Jewish adherents thus need to acknowledge loss, accept it and begin rebuilding their people’s lives without the need for conflict. In other words, one must indulge in memory and accept the past for a more peaceful future.

Although the events of the Holocaust can be blamed for acts of violence and conflict throughout history, the roots of Judaism can also be argued to cause religious violence. To certain Jewish adherents, other religions’ views are deemed unacceptable (Gopin 2004: 116). This ideology in itself is inherently violent. According to Gopin (2004: 116), the Jewish tradition “tends to operate in a theological and moral construct as if no other systems exist.” This ideology arises from the belief that the Jews are the ‘chosen people,’ chosen to be in a covenant with God. This is the most important and foundational root of Judaism. However, in classical Judaism, “the religious psyche is meant to be self-loving in order to be loving in an other-directed sense” (Gopin 2004: 116). The classical basis of this is the Golden Rule, which comes in its earliest form from the Torah in Leviticus 19:18: “Do not take vengeance, or bear a grudge. And you must love your neighbour as yourself, I am the Eternal God” (Gopin 2004: 116). This rule needs to be recognised in terms of peacebuilding.

The most important issue facing the integration of religion and peacebuilding is the multi-cultural, multi-religious and secular nature of most contemporary social settings. Nowadays, society must be prepared to creatively integrate religious traditions with secular constructs, as well as with constructs from other religious and cultural traditions. Judaism must therefore adapt to the contemporary world, put the past behind them and adopt the Golden Rule in an effort to build a world of peace and acceptance. History cannot be changed but the future can be.

Reference

Gopin, M. (2004). Judaism and Peacebuilding. In H. Coward and G.S. Smith. Eds. Religion and Peacebuilding. Albany: State University of New York Press.