Please Be Aware:

This Programme contains some very distressing descriptions of the systematic murder of Jewish People in the death camps!

Click on Link Below to Listen:

DUE TO THE LENGTH OF PART 2 A – PART 2 B IS A SEPARATE PODCAST THAT  FOLLOWS THIS MONTH

In 2008 a friend Dave Traher and I visited Cracow:

We went there and came back, unlike so many people of Jewish descent

 

A Jewish style restaurant like so many of the other aspects of Jewish life in Cracow was like a shadow and ghost of the past. Though the food was authentic Polish Jewish cooking, with many of the traditional dishes just like my mother cooked, none of the staff or owner is Jewish.

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Day Two: Visit to the Death Camps

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum Tours

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is the resting place for some 1.5 million people, as the site once served as a concentration camp and extermination site of the European Jewish community during World War II. Today, Auschwitz-Birkenau is an important historical area, allowing visitors to reflect on the monumental horrors that occurred during the genocide.

The Basics 

Auschwitz-Birkenau tours take visitors through some of the 13 surviving prison blocks that now feature museum exhibitions, many dedicated to victims and displaying documentary photographs and historical artifacts. In addition the main camp, a much larger camp called Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) sits about 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) to the west. This site has been left almost exactly as it was when the Nazis abandoned it at the end of the war, complete with gas chamber ruins, and is also considered a part of the UNESCO-listed Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. An official visitor’s center can be found at the entrance to Auschwitz I.

The two sites are often visited together on group or private tours from Krakow Old Town, available in a number of languages and generally including transport between the memorial areas, plus hotel pickup and drop-off or airport transfers. It’s recommended that travelers allot about 90 minutes for each of the sites. A visit is also sometimes combined with a trip to the nearby Wieliczka Salt Mine.

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Jewish Old Town, Cracow

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Poland, Czech Republic, Germany and Croatia are four European countries that I have visited in the past ten years and each has a story to tell of the tragic destruction of their Jewish communities. They were betrayed and destroyed by both the Nazis and their collaborators.In my own personal background I have one Polish Jewish gradmother who was my mother’s mother. Mini Levitson moved to England as a young girl together with her  family that included her grandmother. So as far as I know none of my direct close relatives from her family perished in the Holocaust.  That of course does not mean that members of my extended Polish family did not die under  the Nazis and their Polish collaborators.

Annie’s Grandmother

My Mom – Annie Mechanic nee Abrahms 

Please Note that the recorded programme differs substantially from the written record on this blog

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Prior to WWII, one in ten Poles were Jewish, which made 10% of the polish population Jewish. The Pale of Settlement included Poland:

The Pale of Settlement (Russian: Черта́ осёдлости, chertá osyódlosti, Yiddish: דער תּחום-המושבֿ‎, der tkhum-ha-moyshəv, Hebrew: תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב‬, tẖum hammosháv) was a western region of Imperial Russia with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish residency, permanent or temporary,^[1] was mostly forbidden. Most Jews were still excluded from residency in a number of cities within the Pale as well. A limited number of Jews were allowed to live outside the area, including those with university education, the ennobled, members of the most affluent of the merchant guilds and particular artisans, some military personnel and some services associated with them, including their families, and sometimes the servants of these.

The Pale of Settlement included all of Belarus, Lithuania and Moldova, much of present-day Ukraine, parts of eastern Latvia, eastern Poland, and some parts of western Russia, roughly corresponding to the Kresy macroregion and modern-day western border of Russia. It extended from the eastern pale, or demarcation line, to the Russian border with the Kingdom of Prussia (later the German Empire) and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Furthermore, it comprised about 20% of the territory of European Russia and largely corresponded to historical lands of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Cossack Hetmanate, and the Ottoman Empire (with Crimean Khanate).

The Russian Empire in the period of the existence of the Pale was predominantly Orthodox Christian. The area included in the Pale, with its large Jewish, Uniate and Catholic populations, was acquired through a series of military conquests and diplomatic manoeuvres, between 1654 and 1815.

The end of the enforcement and formal demarcation of the Pale coincided with the beginning of the First World War, and ultimately with the February and October Revolutions of 1917, i.e., the fall of the Russian Empire.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement]

Though Jewish life in Poland was at times turbulent and difficult for its Jewish population prior to WWII, there was never an attempt to systematically annihilate its Jewish population as the was promulgated by the Nazis. What is tragic is the many Polish citizens collaborated with the Nazis, as was the case with Ustasha in Croatia. However, far fewer devout Catholics were willing to participate in the Nazi genocide and a much higher percentage actively protected and hid Jewish people during those dark days. This included, priests, nuns and Catholic lay folk.

The Catholic Church in Poland was brutally suppressed by the Nazis during the German Occupation of Poland (1939-1945). Repression of the Church was at its most severe in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, where churches were systematically closed and most priests were either killed, imprisoned, or deported. From across Poland, thousands of priests died in prisons and concentration camps; thousands of churches and monasteries were confiscated, closed or destroyed; and priceless works of religious art and sacred objects were lost forever. Church leaders were targeted as part of an overall effort to destroy Polish culture. At least 1811 Polish clergy died in Nazi concentration camps. An estimated 3000 clergy were killed in all. Hitler’s plans for the Germanization of the East saw no place for the Christian Churches.^[1]

The massive crimes inflicted against Polish Catholicism took place in the wider context of the Nazi crimes against Poles under Generalplan Ost, as the German regime implanted a general policy of eventually eliminating Poland’s existence. Adolf Hitler himself remarked in August 1939 that he wanted his Death’s Head forces “to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language.”^[2] 

Catholicism had a presence in Poland stretching back almost 1,000 years.^[3] The historian Richard J. Evans wrote that the Catholic Church was the institution that, “more than any other had sustained Polish national identity over the centuries”.^[4] By 1939, around 65% of Poles professed to be Catholic.^[3] The invasion of predominantly Catholic Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939 ignited the Second World War. Britain and France declared war on Germany as a result of the invasion, while the Soviet Union invaded the Eastern half of Poland in accordance with an agreement reached with Hitler. The Catholic Church in Poland was about to face decades of repression, both at Nazi and Communist hands.^[5] 

Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the West on 1 September 1939 and a period of brutal occupation commenced. Racist Nazi ideology targeted the Jews of Poland for extermination and categorized ethnic Poles (mostly Catholics) as an inferior race. Jews were rounded up into Ghettos or sent to extermination camps. The ethnic Polish intelligentsia were also targeted for elimination, with priests and politicians alike murdered in a campaign of terror. Forced labour was also extensively used. The Red Army invaded Poland from the East on 17 September 1939.^[6]The Soviets were also responsible for repression of Polish Catholics and clergy, with an emphasis on “class enemies”. Operation Barbarossa, the German attack on the Soviet Union was launched in June 1941, shattering the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, and bringing Eastern Poland under Nazi domination.^[7] Norman Davies wrote:^[8]

Jews and Poles faced a common enemy through the Nazi onslaught

The Nazi plan for Poland entailed the destruction of the Polish nation. This necessarily required attacking the Polish Church, particularly in those areas annexed to Germany.^[9] According to Hitler biographer Ian Kershaw, in his scheme for the Germanization of Eastern Europe, Hitler made clear that there would be “no place in this utopia for the Christian Churches”.^[1] Historically, the Catholic Church had been a leading force in Polish nationalism against foreign domination, thus the Nazis targeted clergy, monks and nuns in their terror campaigns to eliminate Polish culture. Nazi ideology was hostile to Christianity and Hitler held the teachings of the Catholic Church in contempt. Hitler’s chosen deputy and private secretary, Martin Bormann, was firmly anti-Christian as was the official Nazi philosopher, Alfred Rosenberg. In his “Myth of the Twentieth Century“, published in 1930 Rosenberg wrote that the main enemies of the Germans were the “Russian Tartars” and “Semites”—with “Semites” including Christians, especially the Catholic Church:

________

In Search of a Lost People – Part 2 B

Due to the length of Part 2 A – Part 2 B is a separate Podcast that will follow next month

In 2008 a friend Dave Traher and I visited Cracow:

*

 

A Jewish style restaurant like so many of the other aspects of Jewish life in Cracow was like a shadow and ghost of the past. Though the food was authentic Polish Jewish cooking, with many of the traditional dishes just like my mother cooked, none of the staff or owner is Jewish.

*

Day Two: Visit to the Death Camps

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum Tours

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is the resting place for some 1.5 million people, as the site once served as a concentration camp and extermination site of the European Jewish community during World War II. Today, Auschwitz-Birkenau is an important historical area, allowing visitors to reflect on the monumental horrors that occurred during the genocide.

The Basics

Auschwitz-Birkenau tours take visitors through some of the 13 surviving prison blocks that now feature museum exhibitions, many dedicated to victims and displaying documentary photographs and historical artifacts. In addition the main camp, a much larger camp called Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) sits about 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) to the west. This site has been left almost exactly as it was when the Nazis abandoned it at the end of the war, complete with gas chamber ruins, and is also considered a part of the UNESCO-listed Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. An official visitor’s center can be found at the entrance to Auschwitz I.

The two sites are often visited together on group or private tours from Krakow Old Town, available in a number of languages and generally including transport between the memorial areas, plus hotel pickup and drop-off or airport transfers. It’s recommended that travelers allot about 90 minutes for each of the sites. A visit is also sometimes combined with a trip to the nearby Wieliczka Salt Mine.

*

Jewish Old Town, Cracow

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At lunch time we went to the Ariel Jewish restaurant and I ordered a traditional Polish Jewish meal as did Dave. I asked the waiter if he was Jewish and he replied that he was not. I then enquired as to whether the owner was Jewish and he again said that he was not a Jew and nor was the chef – Yes a Jewish style restaurant, but no Jews were involved. This was symptomatic of the reality of Polands lost Jews. Shadows and memories of Polands tragic history.

On the Tuesday morning bright and early our tour coordinator picked us up at the hotel where Dave and I where we were staying. Together with four other British visitors we traveled the 40 miles to Auschwitz and joined a lager group of English speaking visitors.

Our tour guide for the morning at the main camp gave us each headsets so that we could listen to her commentary as we progressed through the concentration camp.

At the entrance be first encountered the sign over the entrance that declares Abrbeit Macht Frei – Work/ Labour Makes Free – the only freedom that most of those who entered would be the freedom from the sufferings of this mortal life that results from death.

Please note that this written account is not identical to the audio recording

Charitable Donation to Support Shalom Radio UK’s Running Costs

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Poland, Czech Republic, Germany and Croatia are four European countries that I have visited in the past ten years and each has a story to tell of the tragic destruction of their Jewish communities. They were betrayed and destroyed by both the Nazis and their collaborators.

My intention is to explore the twin themes of hope and peace in the face of loss. Doom and gloom is never my objective, for like the Phoenix that rises out of the ashes, as with that legendary bird Jewish hope will arise and be reborn!

The Star of David like the Phoenix has arisen out of the ashes of the Shoah 

Am Yisrael Chai – The People of Isreal live! Is not only a Jewish declaration of national survival, but also the acclamation that despite all those who have sought to destroy us we live and reserve the right to self-determination, both in Israel and the diaspora.

The Jews of Dubrovnik, Croatia

EPSON scanner image

EPSON scanner image

In this programme I focus upon the Jewish community of Dubrovnik, past and present.

EPSON scanner image

EPSON scanner image

Death Camps 

Stand with me in Auschwitz or Auschwitz Birkenau extermination camps and cast your mind back to the absolute horror of the Nazi killing machine that took place in the Holocaust during WWII.

I have stood in a gas chamber and walked through a crematorium – though I had a momentary sense of what those who died there must have experienced in their last moments in the land of the living, it is impossible to truly know what they went through.

Dubrovnik, Croatia 

In terms of the chronology of my visits, I begin with my last visit. It was some reservations that Elisheva and I decided to visit Croatia due to its history of Nazi sympathies leading up to and during WWII. However, on further reflection it occurred to me that this current generation can’t be held responsible for the sins of their fathers.

To my delight I discovered the synagogue in the Old City of Dubrovnik. On duty was a young woman who I will call Star (I have changed her name to protect her identity)

I asked Star how many Jews were killed in Croatia?

According to what was recorded:

Slavko Goldstein estimates that approximately 30,000 Jews were killed from the Independent State of Croatia, with approximately 12,790 of those killed in Croatia.

The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › The_Ho…protect her identity.

Star explained that there are only 47 Jewish people living in Dubrovnik currently and prior to WWII there were about 90 Jewish people in that city which is a comparatively small population in this predominantly Catholic country.

I enquired as to what happened to the Jews of not only Dubrovnik, but Croatia as a whole?

Star explained that there were different groups in Croatia – those who collaborated with the Nazis and those partisans who defended the Jewish people and resisted fascism.

She then drew the Facist Ustaše symbol on a piece of paper and she explained that this symbol of hate still occasionally appears on subways walls and aother places and then she quickly scribbled it over.

Symbol of Hate

History of the Jews in Croatia

The Jewish community of Croatia dates back to at least the 3rd century, although little is known of the community until the 10th and 15th centuries. By the outbreak of World War II, the community numbered about 20,000[4] members, most of whom were killed during the Holocaust that took place on the territory of the Nazi puppet state called Independent State of Croatia. After World War II, half of the survivors chose to settle in Israel, while an estimated 2,500 members continued to live in Croatia.[2] According to the 2011 census, there were 509 Jews living in Croatia, but that number is believed to exclude those born of mixed marriages or those married to non-Jews. More than 80 percent of the Zagreb Jewish Community were thought to fall in those two categories.

World War II.

The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia refers primarily to the genocide of Jews, but sometimes also include that of Serbs (the “Serbian Genocide“) and Romani (Porajmos), during World War II within the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist puppet state ruled by the Ustashe regime, that included most of the territory of modern-day Croatia, the whole of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and the eastern part of Syrmia (Serbia). 90% of Croatian Jews were exterminated in Ustashe-run concentration camps like Jasenovac and others, while a considerable number of Jews were rounded up and turned over by the Ustashe for extermination in Nazi Germany.

How many Jews were killed in Croatia?

Slavko Goldstein estimates that approximately 30,000 Jews were killed from the Independent State of Croatia, with approximately 12,790 of those killed in Croatia.

The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › The_Ho…

History of the Jews in Croatia

The Jewish community of Croatia dates back to at least the 3rd century, although little is known of the community until the 10th and 15th centuries[when?]. By the outbreak of World War II, the community numbered approximately 20,000[4] members, most of whom were killed during the Holocaust that took place on the territory of the Nazi puppet state called Independent State of Croatia. After World War II, half of the survivors chose to settle in Israel, while an estimated 2,500 members continued to live in Croatia.[2] According to the 2011 census, there were 509 Jews living in Croatia, but that number is believed to exclude those born of mixed marriages or those married to non-Jews. More than 80 percent of the Zagreb Jewish Community were thought to fall in those two categories.

World War II.

The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia refers primarily to the genocide of Jews, but sometimes also include that of Serbs (the “Serbian Genocide“) and Romani (Porajmos), during World War II within the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist puppet state ruled by the Ustashe regime, that included most of the territory of modern-day Croatia, the whole of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and the eastern part of Syrmia (Serbia). 90% of Croatian Jews were exterminated in Ustashe-run concentration camps like Jasenovac and others, while a considerable number of Jews were rounded up and turned over by the Ustashe for extermination in Nazi Germany.

Shoah

The fate of the Jews of Dubrovnik (Ragusan) during WWII deteriorated in April 1941 with the capitulation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia when it became part of the ‘First Italian Zone,’ with the military forces under the Italians and the civil administration under Ustase a Facist ultranationalistic regime that in acted anti-Jewish measures.

We should note how the Facist Ustaše began to enact the Nazi dehumanising policy of isolating and restricting the Jewish population of not only Dubrovnik, but the whole of Croatia. They willing complied with the Nuremberg anti-Jewish laws, marking out Jewish enterprises.

Jews were-forbidden entry into restaurants and beaches and the were forced to display signs on their business firms and shops: ‘Jewish firms;’ and ‘Jewish shops.’

These measures grew in hostility and severity with Jews having to surrender their personal possessions – cars, lorries, motorcycles, radio sets, cameras, typewriters and general tools of their trade.

Curfews were imposed upon them that stipulated that they were not allowed to be outdoors beyond 8.00 p.m. This was followed by the first transport to concentration camps. Among the first victims were prominent Jews of Dubrovnik that included Joseph Berber a photographer, Joseph Fuch a shopkeeper, and merchant Klein. Of these three men only Fuchs survived. Jasenovac concentration camp was their destination.

Jewish families of Dubrovnik prior to 1941

Church Collaberated with Facists and Nazis 

Catholic clergy involvement with the Ustaše covers the role of the Croatian Catholic Church in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a Nazi puppet state created on the territory of Axis–occupied Yugoslavia in 1941. The NDH was controlled by the Ustaše movement, which was not recognized by the Holy See, although the Holy See, more specifically Pope Pius XII, was criticized for not condemning the movement more timely and forcefully.

Mark Biondich notes that “[T]he younger generation of radical Catholics, particularly those of the crusader organisation, supported the Ustaša with considerable enthusiasm, while the older generation of Croat Populists [HSS] was more reserved and in some cases overtly hostile”.^[9] This generational gap between conservative and radical Catholic priests was further reflected by region (urban vs rural), the geographical location of churches and bishoprics, and an individual priest’s relative place within the Church hierarchy. More senior clerics generally disassociated themselves from the NDH.^[9] They were also divided by religious order. The Fransciscans, who had resisted for over fifty years Vatican efforts to turn over parishes to secular clergy,^[10] were far more prominently associated with the Ustaša than were the Salesians.^[9]Mass murder occurred through the summer and autumn of 1941. The first Croatian concentration camp was opened at the end of April 1941, and in June a law was passed to establish a network across the country, in order to exterminate ethnic and religious minorities.^[11] According to writer Richard Evans, atrocities at the notorious Jasenovac concentration camp were “egged on by some Franciscan friars”.^[11]Phayer wrote that it is well known that many Catholic clerics participated directly or indirectly in Ustaša campaigns of violence, as is attested in the work of Corrado Zoli (Italian) and Evelyn Waugh (British), both Catholics themselves.^[12]A particularly notorious example was the Franciscan friar Tomislav Filipović, also known as Miroslav Filipović-Majstorović, known as “Fra Sotona” (“Friar Satan”), “the devil of Jasenovac”, for running the Jasenovac concentration camp, where estimates of the number killed range between 49,600 and 600,000.^[13][14][15] According to Evans, Filipović led murder squads at Jasenovac. According to the Jasenovac Memorial Site, “Because of his participation in the mass murders in February 1942 the church authorities excommunicated him from the Franciscan order, which was confirmed by the Holy See in July 1942.”^[16]He was also required to relinquish the right to his religious name, Tomislav. When he was hanged for war crimes, however, he wore his clerical garb.^[17]Ivan Šarić, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vrhbosna in Sarajevo, supported the Ustaša, in particular the forcible conversion of Orthodox Serbs to Roman Catholicism. His diocesan newspaper wrote: “[T]here is a limit to love. The movement of liberation of the world from the Jews is a movement for the renewal of human dignity. Omniscient and omnipotent God stands behind this movement.”^[18] Šarić appropriated Jewish property for his own use, but was never legally charged. Some priests served in the personal bodyguard of Pavelić, including Ivan Guberina, a leader of the Croatian Catholic movement, a form of Catholic Action. Another priest, Bozidas Bralo, served as chief of the security police in Sarajevo, who initiated many anti-Semitic actions.^[13]To consolidate Ustaša party power, much of the party work in Bosnia and Herzegovina was put in the hands of Catholic priests by Jure Francetić, an Ustaše Commissioner of this province.^[19] One priest, Mate Mugos, wrote that clergy should put down the prayer book and take up the revolver. Another, Dionysius Juričev, wrote in the Novi list that to kill children at least seven years of age was not a sin.^[13] Phayer argues that “establishing the fact of genocide in Croatia prior to the Holocaust carries great historical weight for our study because Catholics were the perpetrators and not, as in Poland, the victims.”^[20]

Execution of prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp, which was briefly run by a Franciscan military chaplain, Miroslav Filipović, who was stripped of his status by the church but was hanged for his war crimes wearing his clerical garb.^[1]Pavelić told Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop that while the lower clergy supported the Ustaše, the bishops, and particularly Archbishop Stepinac, were opposed to the movement because of “Vatican international policy”.^[6]Along with Archbishop Stepinac, bishops Mišić and Rožman objected to the Ustaša violence.^[18] Hebblethwaite wrote that to oppose the violence of the new Ustaše state, the “Vatican’s policy was to strengthen the hand of [Archbishop Stepinac] in his rejection of forcible conversions and brutalities.”^[6]Phayer wrote that Stepinac came to be considered as jeudenfreundlich (Jew friendly) by the Nazi-linked Ustaše authorities. He suspended a number of priest collaborators in his diocese.^[21] Thirty-one priests were arrested following Stepinac’s July and October 1943 explicit condemnations of race murders being read from pulpits across Croatia.^[22] Historian Martin Gilbert wrote that Stepinac, “who in 1941 had welcomed Croat independence, subsequently condemned Croat atrocities against both Serbs and Jews, and himself saved a group of Jews”.^[23] Aloysius Mišić, Bishop of Mostar, was a prominent resister.^[18]Gregorij Rožman, the bishop of Ljubljana in Slovenia allowed some Jews who had converted to Catholicism and fled from Croatia into his diocese to remain there, with assistance from the Jesuit Pietro Tacchi Venturi in obtaining the permission of the Italian civil authorities.^[24]In Italian-occupied Croatia, Nazi envoy Siegfried Kasche advised Berlin that Italian forces were not willing to hand over Jews and had “apparently been influenced” by Vatican opposition to German anti-Semitism. The intervention of Giuseppe Marcone, Pius XII’s Apostolic Visitor to Zagreb, saved a thousand Croatian Jews married to non-Jews.^[4] The Apostolic delegate to Turkey, Angelo Roncalli, saved a number of Croatian Jews by assisting their migration to Palestine. Roncalli succeeded Pius XII as Pope, and always said that he had been acting on the orders of Pius XII in his actions to rescue Jews.^[21]Yad Vashem has recognised 109 Croatians as Righteous among the Nations for rescuing Jews from the Holocaust, including Catholic nuns, Jožica Jurin (Sister Cecilija), Marija Pirović (Sister Karitas), and Sister Amadeja Pavlović, and a priest, Father Dragutin Jesih, who was murdered.^[25][26][27]Archbishop Stepinac denounced the atrocities against the Serbs.^[4] Phayer wrote that in July 1941, Stepinac wrote to Pavelić objecting to the condition of deportation of Jews and Serbs and then, realizing that conversion could save Serbs he instructed clergy to baptise people upon demand without the normal waiting time for instruction.^[13] As Pavelić’s government cracked down on Serbs, along with the Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant Germanic minorities, the Catholic clergy took steps to encourage Orthodox Serbs to convert to Roman Catholicism.^[28]

Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac of Zagreb was, at the time of his appointment in 1934 at the age of 39, the youngest Catholic bishop in the world. He initially received very little guidance from the Vatican and was given great leeway in how to deal with the rise of the Ustaše. His control over the lower bishops and clergy was not uniform.^[13] Historian of the Holocaust Martin Gilbert wrote that, “Stepinac, who in 1941 had welcomed Croat independence, subsequently condemned Croat atrocities against both Serbs and Jews, and himself saved a group of Jews in an old age home”.^[4]Stepinac shared the hope for a Catholic Croatia and viewed the Yugoslav state as “the jail of the Croatian nation”. The Vatican was not as enthusiastic as Stepinac and did not formally recognize the Ustaša, instead sending Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone as an apostolic visitor. Stepinac, who arranged the meeting between Pius XII and Pavelić, was satisfied with this step, viewing it as de facto recognition and Marcone as a nuncio in all but name.^[5] Stepinac began attempting to publicly distance himself from the Ustaša in May 1941.^[18]As the Ustaše murders “increased exponentially” in the summer and fall of 1941, Stepinac fell under “heavy criticism” for the church’s collaboration, but he was not yet prepared to break completely with the Ustaše. Phayer wrote that Stepinac gave the Ustaše the “benefit of the doubt …[and] decided on a limited response”.^[34]Stepinac called a synod of Croatian bishops in November 1941. The synod appealed to Pavelić to treat Jews “as humanely as possible, considering that there were German troops in the country”.^[34] The Vatican replied with praise to Marcone for what the synod had done for “citizens of Jewish origin”, although Israeli historian Menachem Shelah states that the synod concerned itself only with converted Jews.^[34] Pius XII personally praised the synod for “courage and decisiveness”.^[35] Shelach has written that:

According to scholar Ronald J. Rychlak:

Rychlak writes that the “Associated Press reported that ‘by 1942 Stepinac had become a harsh critic’ of the Nazi puppet regime, condemning its ‘genocidal policies, which killed tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and Croats.’ He thereby earned the enmity of the Croatian dictator, Ante Pavelić … [When] Pavelić traveled to Rome, he was greatly angered because he was denied the diplomatic audience he had wanted”, although he enjoyed at least two “devotional” audiences with the pontiff, under whom the Vatican granted Pavelić “de facto recognition” as a “bastion against communism”. Phayer wrote that Stepinac came to be known as jeudenfreundlich (Jew friendly) to the Nazis and the Ustaše regime. He suspended a number of priest collaborators in his diocese.^[21]Stepinac declared publicly in mid-1942 that it was “forbidden to exterminate Gypsies and Jews because they are said to belong to an inferior race”. When Himmler visited Zagreb a year later, indicating the impending roundup of remaining Jews, Stepinac wrote Pavelić that if this occurred, he would protest for “the Catholic Church is not afraid of any secular power, whatever it may be, when it has to protect basic human values”. When the deportations began, Stepinac and papal envoy Giuseppe Marcone protested to Andrija Artuković. According to Phayer, the Vatican ordered Stepinac to save as many Jews as possible during the upcoming roundup.^[21] Although Stepinac reportedly personally saved many potential victims, his protests had little effect on Pavelić.^[37]

A Dilema 

The role of the church in the face of oppressive regeims is a very crucial and often not as staight forward as it first appears. Nationalism of itself is not a bad thing, but it depends on how that develops and what are its attitude towards diversity and particularly other groups of people living within the nation-state.

Brexit in the UK or Trump’s America both show how there are those who use nationalism to give expression to their own racist xenophobic attitudes. This is also true of Labour’s attitude to Israel and Jewish people in the UK under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

There are some who use Brexit to futher their racist agenda, just as in America under Trump, White Supremisits have been given licence to give expression to their hatred of African-Amerians and Hispanics in particular. Corbyn’s hatred of Israel equally has openned the door for those of the hard-left to not only express their opposition to Israeli policy towards the Palestinians, but also target Jews in Britain and Corbyn while claiming not to be an anti-Semite is hopelessly failing to protect Jewish people  against all kinds of anti-Semitic attacks and this includes Jewish MPs in Labour and anyone who actively supports Israel or speaks out against his attitue towards Israel and Jews in general.

Both Archbishop Justin Welby of the Church of England and former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks have spoken out against Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to both condemn anti-Semitism in the Labour party and also distance himself from those who use the cloak of anti-Zionism as a guise to continue to attack British Jews and even question the loyalty of those who support Israel.

In a news update on the web the other day I noticed that the Russian Orthodox Archbishops have broken ties with the Ukrainian Orthodox leadership, this is due to the worsening of the political relationship between Russia and the Ukraine. Once more we witness the fact that the Church has lost its prophetic voice and has bowed the knee to the political order of the day. The German Christians in Nazi Germany is the classic case where the Church became part of the Nazi regime giving it a theological justification for its devilish ideology in creating an Aryan Jesus who hated the Jews and became their enemy. Only the Confessing Church resited and stood against Nazism and its murder of the Jews.

Apartheid South Africa equally saw many Christian denominations develop a theology that supported Apartheid. Thankfully, this was not universal and particularly the Anglican Church (CPAS) and Roman Catholic Church spoke out against the racist ideology. There were also dissenting voices among Afrikaans Reform Churches as well as Methodist and Presbyterians who also spoke out against Apartheid. There were individual clergy who took a bold stand at great personal cost, these included Archbishops Joost de Blank and Desmond Tutu, Beyers Naudé, Ds. Ben Marais, Dr John W. de Gruchy,  and Rev David Russell to mention some of the more pominant anti-Apartheid clegry. People like Dietrich Bonhoeffer were an inspiration in the struggle against apartheid.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity’s role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship has become a modern classic.[1]

Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler’s euthanasiaprogram and genocidal persecution of the Jews.[2] He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to a Nazi concentration camp. After being accused of being associated with the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was quickly tried, along with other accused plotters, including former members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office), and then executed by hanging on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing.

Righteous Among the Nations of Dubrovnik

In addition to people like Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac there were a number of outstanding people who went to great lengths to save the Jews of Dubrovnik  and this includes Miho Ercegovic and his son Velimar, who worked in their photographic business – this included Elvira Kohn, Paula Rosenberger and her sister Eugenia. When they were exposed as Jews, the Ustase soldiers forced their way into the bookshop Jardan and photographic business and despite Miho brave effort, he was unable to prevent their arrest.

While being taken away Miho handed Elvira a Leica camera, and she enquired, “How shall I give it back to you?” Moho replied, “May the camera share your fate!” (p 106).

Leica camera

Evira was at first taken to the camp Kupari, and then to Rab. She managed to hide the camera and take photographs. When she escaped from the camp to the free territory and began to work as the first war photographer and reporter for the Vjesnikdaily news paper. Her photos proved a most valuable record (died 2003).

During World War II, there existed numerous Concentration camps in the Independent State of Croatia. Most were operated by the Croatian Ustašaauthorities, and some by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.^[1]The first concentration camps established by Ustaše chronologically preceded large German concentration camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka.^[2]

Miho Ercergovic

He, together with all members of his family showed real selfless care for the imperiled Jewish people that they knew. Here is a record of what his son wrote reflecting on those years:

“My father was called ‘Jewish Mentor’ because he employed Jews. This is the truth, because there were Elvira Cohen, Janka Neumann and Harry Fischer who worked in the bookshop…, it was known as the bookshop ‘Jardan.’ It was shelter for all those who needed help to reach the island of Korcula in order to save their lives. The home of Ercergovic family became a refuge for the persecuted” (p 107).

“During the year 1943 I personally brought from Zagreb to Dubrovnik Sarika and Helga Weiss. We also his the mother and aunt of…(list various others)” (p 1070.

Miho Ercergovic and Velimir Ercergovic were honoured  with the title “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1997. This is part of the effort of Vah V’Shem Holocaust Centre in Jerusalem, Israel

Elisheva and I were invited by a Dutch friend to attend a special ceremony at Yad V’shem, Jerusalem to honour Elizabet’s father Mr Vis (Fish) who was a Dutchman. When he was town clark during WWII in a small village in Holland he removed the names from the Town Hall records of the two hundred Jews who lived there and as a result the Nazis were not able to detect them and they eascaped the death camps.  They placed a small memorial brick in a special wall at the Yad V’shem site, with Mr Vis’ name and dates.

Righteous Among the Nations

Families like that of Miho Ercergovic and Velimir Ercergovic stood out as a beacon of light and hope in a very dark chapter in  the Jewish history of the community in Dubrovnik. They were not alone, as there were others who also endeavoured to save Jews from Facist Ustaše and the Nazis.

Blessed be their memory, for they are truly Righteous Among the Nation of Dubrovnik, Croatia.

The Jewish Community 1946. – 2018

The Dubrovnik Jewish community numbered 36 members who had survived the Holocaust. In 1986 that number fell to as few as 15 people and this followed a devastating short was when a coalition of the Yugoslav National Army, joined by a Montenegrin and Serbian paramilitary troops.

The first shell followed by a salvo of missiles hit Dubrovnik and the surrounding areas, as if to wipe out the memory and identity from living memory. The Dubrovnik synagogue took a hit as well during this vicious assault. As if the fragility of this small Jewish community was not already a further body blow?

However, returning to our theme of hope and peace and thinking of the image of the Star of David arising out of the ashes like the Phoenix, the Jewish presence has been reasserted.

“Yet nothing of the planned destruction of the cultural heritage and the erasure of the memory. After the war, bit by bit, the city was restored. Donators organised the restoration of the synagogue and provided the necessary support” (p 121).

Today the Jewish community is active and vital. In 2003 it opened a museum, in which visitors travel through time – from ancient times to the recent past. Up to 70,000 visitors a year visit the museum and synagogue.

Star explained that there are 47 active Jewish members of the Jewish community in Dubrovnik in 2018, and though they do not have a resident rabbi, they do meet together to celebrate their Jewish heritage,  both  religious and cultural significance.

They maintain a cadelstick of witness in Dubrovnik to Jewish life that continues to bear witness to the enduring love of the G_D of Israel.

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The subject of Apostasy can mean a number of different things in the context of varied religious groups.

For Jewish people becoming a follower of Yeshua is still considered by many as an act of apostasy and those who have become believers  are referred to as meshumad – meshumadim (pl.) 

In Judaism, apostasy refers to the rejection of Judaism and possible defection to another religion by a Jew. The term apostasy is derived from Ancient Greek: ἀποστάτης, meaning “rebellious” (Hebrew: מרד‬) Equivalent expressions for apostate in Hebrew that are used by rabbinical scholars include mumar (מומר‬, literally “the one that was changed”), poshea Yisrael (פושע ישראל‬, literally, “transgressor of Israel”), and kofer (כופר‬, literally “denier”). Similar terms are meshumad (משומד‬, lit. “destroyed one”), from tashmud – to destroy or one who has abandoned his faith, and min (מין‬) or epikoros (אפיקורוס‬), which denote the negation of God and Judaism, implying atheism.

Woman holding scale of balance – Weigh it in the balance to see if the JWs faith is OK?

On Monday 23rd July, 2018 Roni saw the film Apostasy by Daniel Kokotajlo a former member of the Jehovah Witnesses

Apostasy review – faith and fellowship in potent account of hidden world of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Click on Heading above for the Link to the Film Web Site

London film festival 2017

Daniel Kokotajlo’s debut about life among a religious community in Oldham is authentic, sensitive and subtle but has a sledgehammer narrative punch

Peter Bradshaw

    

Here is an utterly absorbing and accomplished debut feature from writer-director Daniel Kokotajlo, known before this for his well-regarded short films Myra and The Mess Hall of an Online Warrior. Apostasy * combines subtlety and sensitivity with real emotional power. It also packs a sledgehammer narrative punch two-thirds in, after which life in the film carries on with eerie quietness as usual, while we, the audience, have no choice but to go into a state of shock. It shows that Kokotajlo can really do something so many new British film-makers can’t or won’t: tell a story.

* (Link to Film Web Site)

The film is set among a community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Oldham in north-west England. Kokotajlo grew up in a Jehovah’s Witness family before leaving the faith while at college, and his writing – detached but calmly observant and sympathetic – is evidently based on a real knowledge of this culture, invisible to outsiders. He has apparently used the JW meeting hall in Oldham for the film: the building’s exterior, at any rate. I have to say that Apostasy exposes the slightly preposterous drama of Richard Eyre’s new film The Children Act, with a similar plotline about Jehovah’s Witnesses, based on the Ian McEwan novel. Apostasy is more knowledgeable, less excitable.

Siobhan Finneran plays Ivanna, a middle-aged woman firmly in the Jehovah’s Witness faith: a world in which failure to believe, or to avoid unbelievers, can get you shunned or “disfellowshipped”. She has two teenage daughters: the older Luisa (Sacha Parkinson) is at college and the younger Alex (Molly Wright) is still in school. Both live at home, of course. As to the girls’ father, Kokotajlo leaves that as the great unmentioned subject: whether alive or dead, his past behaviour and current absence is a potent, silent countercurrent to the drama.

Ivanna is concerned about the bad influences Luisa will encounter at college: people of no faith or, even worse, the wrong faith. (She dismisses Catholicism as “wishy-washy”.) Her fears are well founded. Luisa has an unbelieving boyfriend by whom she has got pregnant and her excommunication (to borrow the wishy-washy term) is inevitable. Meanwhile, delicate, shy, clever Alex is very flattered when a young man, an up-and-coming elder in the JW faith, introduces himself to her and her mother at the weekly meeting and asks them both to supper: this is Steven, played by Robert Emms. Alex sees perfectly well how the match is being made by her mother, in concert with the church, so that she will not go down the same route as her sister, and, concerned as she is for Luisa, this responsibility cements her already deeply committed attachment to the orthodoxy. Family tensions become unbearable.

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The performances of Finneran, Wright and Parkinson are tremendous and all the more moving for their restraint. Kokotajlo’s direction is lucid and direct. With cinematographer Adam Scarth (who also shot the recent Daphne), he conjures an undramatic world of cloudy days and dull workplaces, kitchens, front rooms. The women’s faces are captured mostly in intimate closeup. Parkinson’s simmering anger as Luisa is almost unwatchably painful, because her rebellion is always tempered by a need not to upset her mother; Wright’s gentleness and tenderness in the role of Alex is heartbreaking.

Finneran’s Ivanna is the most mysterious of all. She is a world away from, say, Geraldine McEwan’s religious matriarch in the BBC TV adaptation of Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit in 1989. There is no righteous hysteria, no rage, just an utterly serene contentment with the worldview she has grown up with, and the inevitability of the “new system” that will come into being after this current world has come to an end. But Ivanna’s faith is severely tested, and there is a brilliant scene in which Kokotajlo comes in for another key closeup on Ivanna undergoing a silent dark moment of the soul in the midst of a prayer meeting. With the tiniest flinches and winces, Finneran conveys Ivanna’s suppressed turmoil, before she stumbles out to the lavatory to find the elder’s voice has been piped in there too, via the PA system. The word of God is omnipresent. Apostasy is a supremely intelligent and gripping drama.

You may wonder why on a blog concerning Messianic Jewish Perspectives has featured a film about Jehovah Witnesses (JW/ JWs) and someone who has left their faith?

The answer is due to the fact that there are a number of Jewish people who have embraced the JW movement as well and this is also true in Israel today. While living in Cape Town Roni had to do with a young Jewish woman who had become a Witness and she had been referred to him for spiritual advice.

Haifa, Isreal  

Then, while living in Haifa during the late 1990s Roni had an encounter with an Israeli named Alexander who was one of the leading members of the JWs in Western Galilee. For a period of three months they regularly met at the Haifa railway station precint for discussions. They both brought English language Bibles with them and note books. Though Alexander’s preferred translation was the New World Translation (NWT – JW), out of deference for Roni he used the American Standard translation, due to the use of Jehovah for the Tetragramaton  – YHWH.

The Rules of Engagement

Only Bibles were permitted due to Alexander’s request that Roni did not give him any literature that was critical of the JWs. However, Roni in contrast was happy to receive their Watch Tower publications that aided their discussions. 

Jehovah’s Witnesses Jehovah’s fast facts and introduction

Adherents	6.5 million
Beliefs	One God: Jehovah. No Trinity. Christ is the first creation of God; the Holy Spirit is a force.
Practices	No blood transfusions, no celebration of holidays, no use of crosses or religious images. Baptism, Sunday service at Kingdom Hall, strong emphasis on evangelism. No taking up arms – conscientious objectors.
Main Holidays	Memorial of Christ’s death, celebrated annually. All Christian or other religious-based holidays are rejected as unbiblical and pagan.
Texts	New World Translation of the Scriptures. Plus Numerous Watchtower Publications.

Watch Out: You Are in Danger – Be  hind the Smiles are Deceptive Teachings Designed to Ensnare You!

What JWs Believe

Jehovah’s Witnesses and Salvation

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe salvation is a gift from God attained by being part of “God’s organization” and putting faith in Jesus’ ransom sacrifice. They do not believe in predestination or eternal security. They believe in different forms of resurrection for two groups of Christians. One group, the anointed, go to heaven while the other group, “the other sheep” or “the great crowd” will live forever on earth.

Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that salvation is possible only through Christ’s ransom sacrifice and that individuals cannot be saved until they repent of their sins and call on the name of Jehovah. Salvation is described as a free gift from God, but is said to be unattainable without good works that are prompted by faith. The works prove faith is genuine. Preaching is said to be one of the works necessary for salvation, both of themselves and those to whom they preach.They believe that baptism as a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses is “a vital step toward gaining salvation”, and that people can be “saved” by identifying God’s organization. They also believe that conforming to the moral requirements set out in the Bible is essential for salvation.

The Witnesses reject the doctrine of universal salvation, as well as that of predestination or fate. They believe that all intelligent creatures are endowed with free will. They regard salvation to be a result of a person’s own decisions, not of fate. They also reject the concept of “once saved, always saved” (or “eternal security“), instead believing that one must remain faithful until the end to be saved.

Regarding whether non-Witnesses will be “saved”, they believe that Jesus has the responsibility of judging such ones, and that no human can judge for themselves who will be saved. Based on their interpretation of Acts 24:15, they believe there will be a resurrection of righteous and unrighteous people. They believe that non-Witnesses alive now may attain salvation if they “begin to serve God”.

The ‘anointed’

Based on their understanding of scriptures such as Revelation 14:1-4, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that exactly 144,000 faithful Christians go to heaven to rule with Christ in the kingdom of God. They, with Jesus, will also perform priestly duties that will bring faithful mankind to perfect health and ‘everlasting life’. They believe that most of those are already in heaven, and that the “remnant” at Revelation 12:17 (KJV) refers to those remaining alive on earth who will be immediately resurrected to heaven when they die. The Witnesses understand Jesus’ words at John 3:3—”except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”—to apply to the 144,000 who are “born again” as “anointed” sons of God in heaven. They teach that the New Testament, which they refer to as the Christian Greek Scriptures, is primarily directed to the 144,000, and by extension, to those associated with them. They believe that the terms “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16), “little flock” (Luke 12:32), “New Jerusalem,” and “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (Revelation 21:2,9) in the New Testament also refer to the same group of “anointed” Christians.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that being ‘anointed’ involves a personal revelation by God’s spirit which “gives positive assurance of adoption” to the individual alone. Members who claim to be anointed are not given special treatment by other congregation members. However, only those in the anointed class partake of the unleavened bread and wine at the yearly commemoration of Christ’s death, or Memorial.

The ‘other sheep’ and the ‘great crowd’

Watch Tower Society literature states that Jesus’ use of the term “other sheep” in John 10:16 was intended to indicate that the majority of his followers were not part of the 144,000 and would have an earthly, rather than heavenly, hope. In the resurrection, those who died faithful to God are included in the ‘other sheep’ and will receive the “resurrection of the righteous” (“just” KJV) mentioned in Acts 24:15. Those who died without faithfully serving God will receive the “resurrection of the … unrighteous” (“unjust” KJV). They will be given an opportunity to gain God’s favor and join Jesus’ ‘other sheep’ and live forever in an earthly paradise. Individuals unfavorably judged by God are not resurrected, and are said to be in Gehenna, which they consider to be a metaphor for eternal destruction. Those of the ‘other sheep’ who are alive today, some of whom survive through Armageddon without needing a resurrection, are referred to as the ‘great crowd’.

Personal Insights and Comments 

Roni’s personal refections are not based solely upon the three month study that he undertook with Alexander, for while living in Johannesburg, South Africa, he also together with a chap called Peter had debated with JWs in Edenvale, Jo’burg.

On a new housing estate there were two groups of women who were actively seeking to recruit new members for their women’s groups – the one was an Evangelical church and the other was a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah Witnesses. Peter had been asked if he could come and speak to the combined group in a community hall and bring a friend with him (Roni), because there were four women who were struggeling to decide which group to join – either the JWs or the Evangelicals.

Roni clearly recall the afternoon meeting

The leading JW lady gave a presentation about their beliefs and hoping that the undecided women should choose their group. Much like the list of some of their principle doctrines listed above she clearly articulated them. Roni then responded and gave a short Gosple presentation in which he outlined the Kerygma (from the ancient Greek word κήρυγμαkérugma) is a Greek word used in the New Testament for “preaching” (see Luke 4:18-19, Romans 10:14, Matthew 3:1). It is related to the Greek verb κηρύσσωkērússō, literally meaning “to cry or proclaim as a herald” and being used in the sense of “to proclaim, announce, preach”. Merriam-Webster defines it as “the apostolic proclamation of salvation through Jesus Christ“. Amongst biblical scholars, the term has come to mean the core of the early church’s oral tradition about Jesus.

Peter who was conversant with New Testament Greek (Koine Greek 300 BC – 300 AD Byzantine official use until 1453), and he spoke about the problems with the New World Translation of the New Testament that has a theological bias seeking to prove cardinal JW doctrines.

When Peter had concluded speaking Roni asked for some of those present to give their personal stories from both groups as to how they had come to faith in Jehovah and joined the JWs and also from some of those from the Evangelical church who had made a profession of faith in Jesus as Messiah and Lord.

On Refelction

The outcome of the meeting that took place was as follows:

The JWs who spoke said how that through their joining the Witnesses they had found peace of mind and hope for the future in which a ‘new day would dawn’ and after Armageddon had happened. While those who had embraced Jesus as saviour, spoke of finding a living faith through trusting in God. 

Roni subsequently heard from Peter that of those four women who were undecided, two became committed believers in Jesus and joined the Evangelical church, one had joined the JWs and one stopped associating with either group. 

Alexander and Roni

There were areas of agreement and also some profound issues that they could not agree upon. Roni elaborates:

• They both have a Jewish heritage
• Their respect for Scripture as God’s Word – though for Roni, not the NWT of the JWs
• A love for God and his concern for humanity and their plight in a godless age
• God does have a plan for the redemption of humanity
• The uniqueness of Yeshua – though they differed on the question of his divinity 
• God wants to establish his kingdom rule in the earth – though they differed substantially as to what that means
• Personal responsibility for one’s own life, i.e. one cannot blame others for one’s own choices and failures
• Universal peace and overcoming conflict and war – reconciliation and harmony among all God’s people 

However, it became clear that neither of them was willing to embrace the other’s beliefs on the things that kept them apart:

• The Person and Work of Yeshua – for Roni, he is the divine Son of God, Saviour and Lord. He is not a created being and his purpose for coming into this world was much more than just paying the ransom price as a ransom sacrifice as held by the JWs. Though the doctrine of the Tri-Unity/ Trinity is not explicit in the Scripture, it is implicit and there are many passages that testify to that reality (The trinitarian formula at the end of Matthews gospel may well be a later addition –  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,…” – ( Matthew 28¹⁹ ) 
• The Holy Spirit is not a force but a Person and one of the God-head
• The New World Translation is an unrelaible edition of the Bible that seeks to prove the JWs theologically biased doctrines and is linguistically unsound
• Salvation is by grace through faith alone and not by joining some society/ organisation such as the Watch Tower Society and becoming a member of a Jehova Witnesses Kingdom Hall
• The JWs doctrine of salvation is deficient as they speak only of Jesus paying the ransom price/ sacrifice
• Their Millennial teaching is confused and biblically unsound – the issue of the 144,000 who are those alone elected to go to heaven does not square with sound teaching about rewards and who is eligble for heaven
• It is irrelavant as to what was the shape of the instrument of troture and execution upon which Jesus died – stake Stauros (σταυρός) is a Greek word and can equally mean cross. It could have been a T – shaped cross – tau  upon which Jesus died
• Or as the Hebrew Scripture call the place of execution as The Cursed Tree
• What is important is that Jesus/Yehua died to take away sin and to make full atonement for all humankind There are many different expressions of the Messianic faith/ Christian faith and one group such as the JWs does not have the menopolly
• It has been wisely said that when someone takes a Scriptural text out of context and creates a pretext for a doctrine that does violence to sound hermeneutical  principles (sound biblical interpretation) 
• It is not suprising that when this approach is used to establishing doctrine that one will land up with many un-biblical doctrines that cannot be substantiated by Scripture
• Such groups however sincere that they may be must be avoided at all costs

By mutual agreement Roni and Alexander decided to not continue to meet – Shalom

The following is a brief overview of what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe, along with what the Bible really teaches, printed among the many articles and resources in the back of the ESV Study Bible (posted by permission).

1. The divine name.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that God’s one true name—the name by which he must be identified—is Jehovah. 

Biblically, however, God is identified by many names, including:

In NT times, Jesus referred to God as “Father” (Gk. Patēr; Matt. 6:9), as did the apostles (1 Cor. 1:3).

2. The Trinity.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the Trinity is unbiblical because the word is not in the Bible and because the Bible emphasizes that there is one God. 

Biblically, while it is true that there is only one God (Isa. 44:6; 45:18; 46:9; John 5:44; 1 Cor. 8:4; James 2:19), it is also true that three persons are called God in Scripture:

the Father (1 Pet. 1:2),

Jesus (John 20:28; Heb. 1:8), and

the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4).

Each of these three possesses the attributes of deity—including

omnipresence (Ps. 139:7; Jer. 23:23-24; Matt. 28:20),

omniscience (Ps. 147:5; John 16:30; 1 Cor. 2:10-11),

omnipotence (Jer. 32:17; John 2:1-11; Rom. 15:19), and

eternality (Ps. 90:2; Heb. 9:14; Rev. 22:13).

Still further, each of the three is involved in doing the works of deity—such as creating the universe:

the Father (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 102:25),

the Son (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2), and

the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2; Job 33:4; Ps. 104:30).

The Bible indicates that there is three-in-oneness in the godhead (Matt. 28:19; cf. 2 Cor. 13:14).

Thus doctrinal support for the Trinity is compellingly strong.

3. Jesus Christ.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus was created by Jehovah as the archangel Michael before the physical world existed, and is a lesser, though mighty, god.

Biblically, however, Jesus is eternally God (John 1:1; 8:58; cf. Ex. 3:14) and has the exact same divine nature as the Father (John 5:18; 10:30; Heb. 1:3).

Indeed, a comparison of the OT and NT equates Jesus with Jehovah (compare Isa. 43:11 with Titus 2:13; Isa. 44:24 with Col. 1:16; Isa. 6:1-5 with John 12:41).

Jesus himself created the angels (Col. 1:16; cf. John 1:3; Heb. 1:2, 10) and is worshiped by them (Heb. 1:6).

4. The incarnation.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that when Jesus was born on earth, he was a mere human and not God in human flesh.

This violates the biblical teaching that in the incarnate Jesus, “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9; cf. Phil. 2:6-7).

The word for “fullness” (Gk. plērōma) carries the idea of the sum total. “Deity” (Gk. theotēs) refers to the nature, being, and attributes of God.

Therefore, the incarnate Jesus was the sum total of the nature, being, and attributes of God in bodily form.

Indeed, Jesus was Immanuel, or “God with us” (Matt. 1:23; cf. Isa. 7:14; John 1:1, 14, 18; 10:30; 14:9-10).

5. Resurrection.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus was resurrected spiritually from the dead, but not physically.

Biblically, however, the resurrected Jesus asserted that he was not merely a spirit but had a flesh-and-bone body (Luke 24:39; cf. John 2:19-21).

He ate food on several occasions, thereby proving that he had a genuine physical body after the resurrection (Luke 24:30, 42-43; John 21:12-13).

This was confirmed by his followers who physically touched him (Matt. 28:9; John 20:17).

6. The second coming.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the second coming was an invisible, spiritual event that occurred in the year 1914.

Biblically, however, the yet-future second coming will be physical, visible (Acts 1:9-11; cf. Titus 2:13), and will be accompanied by visible cosmic disturbances (Matt. 24:29-30). Every eye will see him (Rev. 1:7).

7. The Holy Spirit.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force of God and not a distinct person.

Biblically, however, the Holy Spirit has the three primary attributes of personality:

a mind (Rom. 8:27),

emotions (Eph. 4:30), and

will (1 Cor. 12:11).

Moreover, personal pronouns are used of him (Acts 13:2). Also, he does things that only a person can do, including:

teaching (John 14:26),

testifying (John 15:26),

commissioning (Acts 13:4),

issuing commands (Acts 8:29), and

interceding (Rom. 8:26).

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity (Matt. 28:19).

8. Salvation.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that salvation requires faith in Christ, association with God’s organization (i.e., their religion), and obedience to its rules.

Biblically, however, viewing obedience to rules as a requirement for salvation nullifies the gospel (Gal. 2:16-21; Col. 2:20-23). Salvation is based wholly on God’s unmerited favor (grace), not on the believer’s performance.

Good works are the fruit or result, not the basis, of salvation (Eph. 2:8-10; Titus 3:4-8).

9. Two redeemed peoples.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe there are two peoples of God: (1) the Anointed Class (144,000) will live in heaven and rule with Christ; and (2) the “other sheep” (all other believers) will live forever on a paradise earth.

Biblically, however, a heavenly destiny awaits all who believe in Christ (John 14:1-3; 17:24; 2 Cor. 5:1; Phil. 3:20; Col. 1:5; 1 Thess. 4:17; Heb. 3:1), and these same people will also dwell on the new earth (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-4).

10. No immaterial soul.

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that humans have an immaterial nature. The “soul” is simply the life-force within a person. At death, that life-force leaves the body.

Biblically, however, the word “soul” is multifaceted. One key meaning of the term is man’s immaterial self that consciously survives death (Gen. 35:18; Rev. 6:9-10). Unbelievers are in conscious woe (Matt. 13:42; 25:41, 46; Luke 16:22-24; Rev. 14:11) while believers are in conscious bliss in heaven (1 Cor. 2:9; 2 Cor. 5:6-8; Phil. 1:21-23; Rev. 7:17; 21:4).

11. Hell. 

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe hell is not a place of eternal suffering but is rather the common grave of humankind. The wicked are annihilated—snuffed out of conscious existence forever.

Biblically, however, hell is a real place of conscious, eternal suffering (Matt. 5:22; 25:41, 46; Jude 7; Rev. 14:11; 20:10, 14).

Anathema Maranatha – “The Lord He Comes – Cursed are those that do not follow the Truth!”

A Strong Warning To All Who Distort The Truth of The Gospel Message! 

MTMI – Messianic Teaching Ministry International

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