Harvard Christianity Journal Apologizes For Blog Post Saying Jewish People Deserved The Holocaust

An undergraduate Christianity journal at Harvard University has apologized after a blog post on their website argued that "punishments" to the Jewish people - including the Holocaust - were the result of Jews killing Jesus.

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:

The piece is not online because we believe that the piece is not conducive to the goals of the Ichthus. We are an educational organization. We seek for our authors and our readers to have both peace and a deeper understanding of the Christian faith. Our blogs are intended to be areas of thoughtful dialogue. This particular piece has led to increasing misunderstanding and disinformation about the author's views, the Ichthus, and Christianity. We do acknowledge that many of the claims of Christianity are offensive to those who do not believe it, but we think that much of the offense that has resulted from this article is not the offense of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And for that we apologize.