The Insanity of Antisemitism
Jim Melnick’s[1] wonderful book Jewish Giftedness and World Redemption is filled with “Hmm, I didn’t know that” information.
For example, Jim tells the story of renowned physicist Max Planck’s response to the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.” As a result of this Nazi measure, Jewish civil servants were fired simply for being Jewish.
Max Planck had won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1918. That same year Fritz Haber won the Nobel Prize[2] for chemistry. Planck was a gentile, so his job was not in jeopardy when the anti-Jewish “Restoration Law” was enacted in 1933. His esteemed colleague Haber was not so fortunate.
To his credit, Max Planck approached Adolph Hitler to personally intercede for Haber and other Jewish scientists. Planck foresaw the devastating effects of losing the intellectual abilities and scientific contributions of some of the world’s preeminent minds.
As Melnick puts it, “Hitler reportedly flew into a rage and said, ‘A Jew is a Jew.’ He then reportedly concluded the meeting by saying: ‘If the dismissal of Jewish scientists means the annihilation of contemporary German science, then we shall do without science for a few years.’”[3]
Think of it: Hitler willingly – even eagerly – got rid of some of history’s best and brightest minds (including Einstein) simply because they were Jewish. The “cradle of quantum mechanics,” the Gottingen Institute, went out of existence after the Nazi purge.[4]
It is impossible to quantify how significant the loss of Jewish brainpower was to the Nazi war effort. What if a Nazi atomic bomb would have been developed with the help of Germany’s Jewish scientists?
Hitler’s hatred of the Jewish people exceeded even his lust for world domination. He viewed Christianity and Bolshevism as Jewish creations. Had Germany succeeded, his goal was to exterminate not only the Jewish people but Christianity and Communism as well.[5]
Examples abound of “Jew hatred” in contemporary society, from neo-Nazi racism to the BDS movement and anti-Israel resolutions passed in the United Nations Security Council.[6]
What if today’s antisemites were as consistent as Hitler in not benefiting from Jewish contributions to the world? Advice columnist Ann Landers published an essay by Sam Levinson[7] telling those who would avoid contact with things Jewish that “you aren’t going to feel so good” – literally. Medical benefits to mankind from the Jewish people include:
the vaccines for polio (injected and oral) and hepatitis
the skin test for diphtheria
treatments for scurvy and beriberi
discovery of the link between the pancreas and diabetes
more recently, invention of the “PillCam” (ingestible camera that scopes the GI tract)
What additional “invented by Jews” household and tech gadgets[8],[9],[10] must the antisemite eschew? A short list includes:
Flashlights and flashdrives
TV remote control
Shopping carts
Mobileye driver assistance and Waze navigation
Drip irrigation (and the cherry tomato!)
Intel’s 8088 and Centrino chips
We haven’t touched on Jewish contributions to art, music, sports, and entertainment. Most important are the spiritual blessings the world has received in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram that “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”[11]
The Bible (Old and New Testaments) has Jewish authorship.
No individual has impacted the world more than Jesus of Nazareth, Israel’s promised Messiah and the hope of all mankind for a restored relationship with our Creator.
Written by Wes Taber, LIFE Executive Director
Care to interact? We’d love to hear from you.
Where do you see antisemitism rearing its ugly head today?
What practical steps are you taking to fight this scourge?[12]
For which Jewish contributions to society are you most grateful?
Footnotes:
[1] Full disclosure: Jim is a dear friend and valued ministry colleague whose credentials are too numerous to list.
[2] 201 of 892 (22.5%) Nobel laureates have been Jewish according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_Nobel_laureates.
[3] Jim Melnick, Jewish Giftedness and World Redemption (Clarksville, MD: Lederer Books, 2017), 119. https://jewishgiftedness.com/planckandhitler.html
[4] Melnick, Jewish Giftedness, 123.
[5] Melnick, Jewish Giftedness, 125.
[6] See https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/ga12028.doc.htm for insights into how Israel is depicted in the official records. Note the dissenting views to the June 13, 2018 resolution expressed by US Ambassador Nikki Haley and Israel’s Ambassador Danny Danon.
[8] http://www.aish.com/j/f/WE-JEWS-Little-Known-Jewish-Inventions.html.
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Israeli_inventions_and_discoveries.
[10] https://www.israel21c.org/israels-top-45-greatest-inventions-of-all-time-2/.
[11] Genesis 12:1-3.
[12] See https://lifeinmessiah.org/learn-how-to-fight-antisemitism for ideas for standing against antisemitism.