The Longest Hatred 19

A Messianic Jewish friend has kindly allowed me reproduce this sickening anecdote of his. Sickening but, sadly, not surprising, since, as I too have experienced, Jew-hate is alive and well among some who attend evangelical churches.

Anti-Semite in Coeur D’Alene

It was my understanding that the virulent anti-Semitism thriving in Haden Lake, by Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, had been dealt with. Richard Butler et. al. were gone. Until today. (Click here for information on Coeur D’Alene’s history with anti-Semitism).

Emboldened by my misapprehension, I did away with the baseball hat, that often conceals my Kippah. That was when, outside Coeur D’Alene’s Office Depot, I locked my keys in the rental car. There was nothing for it but to call for a locksmith, and I quickly found one, listed under ‘Locksmiths’ in the Yellow Pages, with the simple descriptor, ‘Car Door Unlocking.’

How interesting to find, after he unlocked my car, that this was a Christian. In fact, he had spent a couple years distributing Bibles, etc. with the Gideons in Russia, Hungary, etc.
It didn’t take long before he began to express his displeasure at Michael Savage and Savage’s alleged attitude of ’superiority’ as a Jew, and his supposed disdain of Gentiles. It went on from there. The Jews should have defended themselves during the holocaust. If they had, so many wouldn’t have died, he alleged. My protests and attempted corrections of his ignorance were to no avail. It wasn’t just the Jews who died in WWII (duh) - so were many others. (He was clearly moving towards blaming Jews for complaining too much about the holocaust), etc. etc.... All he wanted was to rant on… Clearly he was a problem. I tried to bring it home to him, telling him that I knew hundreds of Gentiles, and none of them had such strongly held anti-Jewish attitudes as he did. (How can you tell I was sensing I was under attack as a Jew?). This is when he asserted that all the Gentiles I know were ’sucking up’ to me (thus suggesting that my dear friends are hiding their true thoughts in order to please me). I was aghast. I hate conflict, but I made the point - he was an anti-Semite, and I had no time for him. My ten-year-old son, Sammy, was already in the car. He had figured the atmosphere was getting hot!

Time for me to get in the car. By this time I had a raving, shouting, gesticulating lunatic on my hands. What sadness I had, as we drove off, and I had to explain what had happened to my son - who hadn’t missed much, anyway.