Harvard Christianity Journal Apologizes For Blog Post Saying Jewish People Deserved The Holocaust
The post - titled "Why Us?" - appeared Wednesday on the website for The Harvard Ichthus and was apparently written by an anonymous Jewish convert to Christianity, The Boston Globe reports. The post was taken down soon after, but was reposted with edits on Friday, before it was again removed. An editorial apology was posted over the weekend.
While the original piece has now been completely removed from the Ichthus' website, The Globe has a full copy of the text based on screenshots.
In one of the more startling lines in the blog post, the author recalled his religious heritage as a way to communicate how he understands Jewish suffering. "We, the Jews, collectively rejected God and hung Him up on a cross to die, and thus we deserved the punishments that were heaped on our heads over the last 2000 years," the author wrote.
In a statement to The Globe, Aaron Gyde, a Harvard senior and the Ichthus' editor in chief, said, "As a staff, we would not argue that the fact some Jews were involved in the death of Jesus merits the persecution they have suffered over the past 2,000 years ... We deeply regret the way many Christians have used our sacred texts to justify anti-Semitism. We did not feel that the intent or purpose of the article was specifically anti-Semitic."
Gyde further elaborated on the Ichthus' reasoning for removing the offensive post in the journal's online apology: