For four years, I have felt a great burden about the ignorance, which many Christians (and Jews) display towards a book written by Martin Luther.

Many people have heard the name Martin Luther. Many people know that Luther was a great religious thinker, a reformer, a remarkable man who certainly changed the course of Christianity. However, an even great number of people have no idea that Martin Luther, in his later years, was a virulent anti-Semite. In 1543, he wrote his last book entitled, “On the Jews and Their Lies”. This book is, from beginning to end, a diatribe of vitriolic bigotry, the rantings and ragings of a man who had become delusional. He was consumed with a hatred of the Jews. His book has been an indirect cause of the deaths of millions of Jews throughout history. As recently as the Nazi period in Europe, the Nazis quoted pages of Luther’s final book to justify the “Final Solution”.

Yet in Churches throughout the world, the terrible harm caused by this book is neither taught, nor recognised and, perhaps far worse, is concealed.

I find this concealment on the part of Christian leaders, who know, and the ignorance on the part of Christian laity, damaging to the relationship between Jew and Christian. I have to add here that the majority of Jews, also, have no knowledge of the existence of Martin Luther’s,”On the Jews and Their Lies”, and therefore they, too, have little realisation of the terrible influence Luther’s writings. I feel it is so important to ensure that the truth must not be ignored nor concealed.

I have therefore put his book, in its entirety, on my web page under the heading, Articles, Readings and Poems. I want to urge everyone to read the book and then to make up their own minds about Luther. I want people to understand that Luther’s treatment of the Jews reverberates down to our own day as continues to cause much damage to the relationship between Jew and Christian. One of the ways to combat the misunderstanding, the bitterness and, in many cases, the hatred between Jew and Christian is for the Christian church to acknowledge the damage that has been caused so that we can begin to walk towards reconciliation. First, we have to recognise, and accept our responsibility for what has happened in the past.

After you have read the book on my web site, go to Google and type in “Martin Luther and the Jews” and you will be amazed at the articles that have been written but which have not seen the light of day within the church. Luther represents a very dark blemish in Jewish/Christian relationships and the Christian concealment/ignorance of his writings continues to ensure that the wall of hostility remains in place.

Rabbi Harold Vallins

The Lord bless you and keep you

The Lord lift up his face upon you and be gracious to you

The Lord cause his love to go before you and give you his peace

Through his Son, Yeshua, Jesus our Messiah.

Please visit my website http://www.rabbiharoldvallins.com