Other articles from this issue | Version in English | Version in French

Editorial
The Editors

Our century - the twentieth - has been called "the century of refugees". It is estimated that there are around a hundred million migrants in the world, only a small percentage of whom have the legal status of "Refugee". The majority are displaced persons with no legal protection, dependent on the goodwill of a host country. A great movement of people is underway, different from any other period in human history, resulting in the transformation of societies. For example, the USA census of 1990-91 revealed that only 10010 of immigrants are of European origin (in contrast to the past). 37% are Asian, 36% Hispanics and the rest Blacks. The causes of this movement are diverse. All are seeking surival, fleeing racial, religious, political persecution, natural disasters, victims of war, famine or simply in search of a better life.
Nation States show different attitudes to this phenomenon but it is clear that most "host" countries are placing greater restrictions on foreigners seeking to settle. More distressing is the rise of xenophobia in the so-called civilised world, often resulting in violence to the stranger and the weak. Yet have not these societies been nurtured on the moral values of the Bible? Have they forgotten the teaching of the Pentateuch which insists and repeats that "God is on the side of the weak, the poor and the stranger". It admonishes, exhorts, commands its hearers about behaviour towards "the stranger" more often than about any other individual or group.
The evolution of society urges us to return to the teaching of the Bible which is also that of Jesus Christ. At the same time it poses a question to us as Jews and Christians: What can we do together to be a sign of hope so that our brothers and sisters in distress can look to us for help, as the Swiss document on Antisemitism demands (cf. p. 16)?
Asher Finkel begins the response, describing the Biblical teaching and tracing its development in the Rabbinic sources and also in the New Testament. Both traditions arrive at a similar conclusion - the Stranger has become the Neighbour whom God commands us to love as ourselves. The Statement of three Swiss Churches "On the Side of the Oppressed" applies the teaching to our contemporary situation with its challenge, whilst the document "Anti-semitism: A Sin against God and Humanity" shows the fundamental link between anti-semitism and xenophobia. The former is the classic example in Western culture of hatred and persecution against the minority in its midst.
Can the new rapprochement between the Church and the Jewish people inspire a common action to combat xenophobia wherever it manifests itself? The future of humanity depends on it!