The Once (and Future?) Judeo-Pagan Alliance

Israel's conduct toward the pagan peoples was such that they called its monarchs godly kings and trusted their generosity without hesitation.
- Elia Benamozegh, Israel and Humanity

Jewish anti-paganism is unfortunate. Before their ill-advised revolt, Judeans were treated far better under pagan Rome than they would be under any subsequent Christian or Islamic regime. Judaism and paganism share many common features absent or downplayed in other monotheisms: the intertwining of religion and ethnicity, fealty to blood ancestors (even converts adopt Abraham as their "blood" father), harvest festivals, lack of overt proselytization. Julian the Apostate, the pagan Roman emperor who attempted to overturn Christianity, even promised to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem! According to the Jewish Encyclopedia:

The recognition of Christianity as the religion of the state by Constantine the Great, uncle of Julian, about the year 312 had resulted in an increase of persecution for the Jews of the Roman empire; but Julian, immediately upon his accession to the throne, issued a proclamation extending freedom and equal rights to all sects and beliefs, Jewish, pagan, and Christian. In his passionate devotion to paganism, which he vainly sought to reestablish, Julian vehemently opposed Christianity; but for Judaism and the Jew he showed every consideration. His knowledge of Jewish affairs was extensive. In his writings he refers to the Sabbath, the Passover, the dietary laws, the laws of sacrifice, circumcision, and other Jewish practises. He is said to have established among the Jews of Palestine an order of patricians, who exercised judicial functions, and whom he entitled "primates" (called in the Talmud "aristoi").

His views upon Judaism are set forth at length in his polemic against Christianity. He regards Judaism as inferior to Hellenism, but vastly superior to Christianity. He is particularly severe upon the Jewish doctrines of monotheism and the election of Israel. He inveighs against the narratives of the Creation, the garden of Eden, the Flood, etc., with the same arguments as were employed at a much later date by Voltaire. Throughout his polemic (only extant in St. Cyril's works) he displays an accurate knowledge of the Old Testament, often quoting it with fluency. His acquaintance with the text was, however, limited entirely to the version of the Septuagint: he knew little or no Hebrew.

The most important incident in his career that is associated with Jewish history is his proposal to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. This novel suggestion was propounded by him in a letter addressed to the "Community of the Jews," at the beginning of the year 363. In this epistle Julian alludes to his abolition of the heavy taxes which had been imposed upon the Jews and to his desire to treat them amicably.

Additionally, Norman Berdichevsky points to the parallel sufferings of Jews and pagan peoples:

Like the Jews, the Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians maintained a distinct and isolated cultural heritage stemming from pre-Christian times, suffered the persecution of militant Crusaders (the Teutonic Knights considered it a holy task to Christianize or exterminate them from the 12th to the 14th centuries); were victims of the intolerant designs of the Russian and German empires to assimilate "peculiar" minorities; enjoyed a late flowering national renaissance based first and foremost upon the ancestral languages, sustained a far flung Diaspora (for the Balts in Scandinavia, Canada, Australia and the United States); and strove to bring about reborn national states committed to democratic ideals but surrounded by aggressive and hostile neighbors. . . .

The tragic similarities, the shared fate of being cultural isolates and bearers of an ancient pre-Christian heritage which survived into the modem world, deserves recognition. . . .

The individuality of the three peoples and especially the revelation that the archaic Latvian and Lithuanian languages, the former Baltic pagan religion, Baltic legends and folk customs were all survivors of the ancient Indo-European or Aryan pre-historic culture reinforced the analogy of "turning the clock back thousands of years", just as Zionism had sought to do by reestablishing a Jewish state and reviving the Hebrew language.

Many modern pagans tend toward anti-Judaism because of their hatred of Christianity, as if (despite the Greek fathers) it were some Jewish plot. In response to Nietzsche's polemic, I say Judea may have conquered Rome in the sense of imparting a religious language, but at what price in Judean lives and dignity?! Instead of a Jewish plot, the persecution of flesh-and-blood ("carnal") Israelites by the self-proclaimed "true Israel" church can only be described as a joke by God! Today's anti-universalist, neo-pagans should take a page from Julian the Apostate and recognize Judaism as a natural ally and indeed, model for how a national religion can survive in a Christian/post-Christian liberal world. Zev Jabotinsky captures the quintessentially Jewish spirit of universalism-through-particularism when he writes:

Indeed, I love the small states. If I had been the creator of the world I would have long ago decreed that all of the great kingdoms be divided up into tiny independent states ... I love that kind of small town that has the audacity to think of itself as the center of the world, as the city of my birth Odessa, for example... My faith in small states has to do with this philosophy: the more capitals, the more culture. Indeed I remember Kovno, Riga and Reval [Tallin] from before the war. Their inhabitants complained about the boredom, exactly as they do today (to always be in Paris is boring like anything persistent); but a tourist who looks from the side sees the difference. Previously there was nothing to examine in those cities or ask about: today each one of them is a laboratory of creative experiments: They are creating one of the greatest of God's miracles—the nations.

Pagan cosmopolitanism is far closer to the Jewish eschatological dream than the drab uniformity of one world under Allah or Christ (or Marx or Mammon). In the Jewish messianic age, all the nations worship at Mount Zion - but they remain nations. Jews are to be a kingdom of priests, but so others may be kingdoms of builders (Rome), philosophers (Greece) or warriors (Assyria). As above, as below: every part has its function in the whole. God has many names, from YHWH to Zeus to Krishna. He tore down Babel because he desired a multiplicity of tongues to sing his praise.