A response to the New Testament burning in Or Yehudah

Anyone who burns books has no right, certainly no religious right, without mentioning a moral right, to belong to any religion at all. The moment that a person or a group of any kind commits such a shameful act, which evokes dark moments in history, that person or that group excludes himself or itself from the status of civilized human beings and consigns himself or itself to the status of contemptible creatures.

Humans who have faith, and it is of little importance to which religion they belong, are first of all human beings, distinguishable from contemptible creatures, motivated by dark, fundamentalist, fanatic forces, thinking that an act of burning will raise them up one degree. The opposite is true. This group as well as all those who remained silent are not free of sin, and this includes the responsible ministers as well as the honorable mayor of Or Yehudah. As the poet Heine said: “In a place where they burn books, they will eventually burn human beings”. In as far as these acts will not be condemned, they will constitute one more step towards further radicalization. Woe to us, a people that has been persecuted, tortured and murdered, if we have not learnt from history. And perhaps they have learnt, learnt that fanatic part and learnt it well… May the proverb “the disciple surpasses his teacher” not be realized! I do not even want to think about what part of history they learned.

As one among two billion Christians in the world, who supports fraternity, mutual recognition and that all might finally understand that there is indeed only one God, I, and with me Hebrew-speaking Catholics in this country, believe that the Knesset should have responded. And it is still not too late.

I end with a prayer for unity, collaboration and mutual respects among peoples and religions.

N.O. member of the community in Haifa