South African Bishop Desmond Tutu recently thanked Jews for fighting oppression — part of their common heritage with Blacks — and called on Jewish support in the battle against apartheid.
Speaking to a capacity audience at Holy Blossom Temple, a major Reform Synagogue here, the 54-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner and leading voice in the fight against South Africa’s racist system reminded Jews they too suffered and continue to suffer from oppression.
Security was tight and bags were checked for the Bishop’s talks, part of the week-long Arts Against Apartheid Festival in Toronto. Tutu was in the city for three days and attended various events.
RELIGION AND POLITICS
In a stirring speech, Tutu said many times that he and other religious leaders have been accused of mixing religion with politics.
“Almost always, it is when you have stood up to speak against a system which you believe is inconsistent with the law of God. If Bishop Tutu was to have stood up here in Toronto and said he didn’t think apartheid was too bad, I can bet you my bottom dollar none of my erstwhile critics would say he was mixing religion with politics,” Tutu said.
“I have not yet heard the victims of apartheid say, ‘Bishop Tutu, you are too political. If anything, they would say, ‘You are not political enough’.”
The Anglican Bishop received a standing ovation upon entering the synagogue, to the strains of Shalom Aleichem, sung by the Holy Blossom Temple Choir. Accompanying Tutu was entertainer Harry Belafonte, who won applause by singing the Jewish folk song flawlessly along with his hosts.
JEWISH CIVIL RIGHTS INVOLVEMENT
Tutu was introduced by Belafonte, who said Jewish involvement in the days of civil rights marches in the United States would not be forgotten. Belafonte alluded to the “strains” between Blacks and Jews in the U.S. at a time when the two communities should be coming closer together.
Holy Blossom president Gordon Wolfe reminded the crowd of 1,200 of the 1962 visit to the synagogue of slain United States civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., who said segregation was morally wrong.
Tutu said what motivates him is not politics but his faith — “the Judeo-Christian faith. The world has a great deal to thank God for in His Jewish people, for you have given the world a tremendous heritage.
“But the one book people ought not to have been given is the Bible. In situations of injustice and oppression, (the Bible) is the most revolutionary literature ever to be around.”
Tutu used biblical allegories in the stories of Ahab, Jeremiah and Isaiah to justify involvement is social issues. He lashed out at those interpreters of the Bible — “the rich and comfortable who say, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord,’ and think they have done what is right.” Justice is done, he said, when “you have given the widow, the orphan and the alien their rights.”
Because Jews were once slaves in Egypt and created as “God’s people,” they must be compassionate, Tutu said. “Where there is injustice and oppression, God takes hold of us by the scruff of the neck and says, ‘You will speak, you will act on behalf of my people. I have seen the suffering of my people.’
“And so we tell oppressors everywhere that you have had it, because we worship a God who is always on the side of the oppressed, of the weak, of the hungry.” That, he said, is why Israel exists, “so that Israel should be a light to the nations.”
With his arms outstretched and his hands over his head, Tutu called on Jews “to join this wonderful enterprise of setting my people free. Will you?”
‘WE ARE COMMITTED TO FIGHT’
Rabbi Dow Marmur of Holy Blossom Temple responded by assuring Tutu that Jews will battle apartheid because “we know oppression and are committed to fight it. As victims of the Holocaust, we know racism.”
Many were expecting it but Tutu made no reference to Israel’s trading with South Africa, for which he has in the past singled Israel out for criticism. In fact, the Bishop’s own relations with South Africa’s Jewish community have been frosty, while rumors persist he has sympathies for the Palestine Liberation Organization. Last year, Tutu criticized the U.S. Senate’s decision to denounce the United Nation General Assembly’s Zionism equals racism resolution.
There were some concerns the Jewish Defense League would protest against Tutu’s talk but there were no incidents.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
