Is this saying anti-Semitic?

Question

“What’s odd is that God would choose the Jews.”
My co-worker says it all the time and it really bugs me.

Answer 1

Yes, it is anti-semitic.

"If Jesus knew he was dying for Christians, he probably would have changed his mind." would be similarly offensive to Christians. If your co-worker is Christian, perhaps this saying will make him/her realize this.

Answer 2

In many ways, it sounds anti-Semitic because it suggests that the Jews are the odd ones that God has chosen. However, the first time I heard this statement was from a religion professor. His explanation was that God did choose the Jews, for God's own reason, but that it is really hard to understand why the Jews were chosen as God's people instead of the Babylonians, the Canaanites, or any others of the ancient civilizations.

This is one of the basic dilemmas of Christianity and Judaism. The religion originated as a sect based on ethnicity. And it existed as such for thousands of years. The Christian line is that a couple of thousand years ago God opened up the club to those who were not ethnically Jewish, but this doesn't discount the earlier history that God is said to have functioned only on behalf of the Jewish people for thousands of years until finally the disciples decided to accept Gentiles into the fold. Doesn't this decision process make God's choices seem a little odd?

Answer 3

It certainly sounds anti-Semitic. I suppose if your co-worker meant that in terms of probability, the ancient Jews being a relatively small ethnic group, it seems like God might have picked the Persians or the Egyptians or the Babylonians and gotten more followers. But the way the statement is worded, it sounds like it is saying that there's something inherently wrong with Jews, and therefore God should not have chosen them.

Answer 4

It's odd that your friend would say it a lot. It may show that he is anti-semitic or at least thinks about Jews strangely often. I can't think of why a person would need to say this often in a work environment; but I don't think the phrase is anti-semitic.

Think about what the phrase says. Isn't it odd G-d would chose any group of people. You could easily fill in Chinese, Farci, Thai.

Anyways, it's no more anti-semitic than G-d who makes a similar remark in the TOrah, "Do not think I chose you because you are the greatest of the peoples, because you are the least of the peoples. Rather I chose you to fulfill the promise I made to you forefathers."

Maybe ask your co-worker what the phrase means to him, that he keaps saying it.

(BTW, the concept of choseness means they were chosen to recieve the Torah at Mt SInai, not that they are inherently superior.)

Answer 5

No, its not. Man will think that its odd that God would choose the Jews, but God does not. God thinks that by chosing the weaker, it will show that the Almighty is infinitely more powerful, more magnificant than any man. For example, I'm sure you have heard the story of "David and Goliath". David was much weaker than Goliath but manage to defeat the mighty Goliath. If David were stronger than Goliath, then what is the big deal? But the fact is that he is not.

Answer 6

I think your co-worker is actually meaning that it is ironic, which it is. Something that is ironic doesn't necessarily have to be derogatory.

Besides, if God chose a people that would lose their lives in order to save his Son, it might have actually stopped the crucifixion from happening -- then where would we be?

Also, it proved that Jesus had to go through it alone, which proved how much he was willing to do for us. If he had had support, it wouldn't be as difficult of a task and it wouldn't have meant as much. But that's just one man's interpretation; we will probably never fully understand God's plan -- that's where faith comes in.

Answer 7

First of all, God chose the Israelites, which includes the Jews, but part of which, according to my belief, are the Slavs. But I really don't understand, in what way are Jews better then Greeks, for example?

Answer 8

I would definitely say that it's ignorant....it totally depends on the heart of the person if it's truly anti-Semetic, but without a doubt, thoughtless. To wonder at the reasoning of God is not wrong, but to say something like that without regard for others is.

Answer 9

I'm not sure I would consider it anti-semitic, but I would call it wrong to say especially in the work place. Obviously this person isn't worried about being pc.

Answer 10

It's certainly ignorant, if not anti-semitic.

Tell him he's wrong. The Jews are not the chosen people because God chose them, they are the chosen people because they chose God. And that is, to use a christian phrase, the gospel truth.