Srpska pravoslavna crkva i jevrejsko pitanje

Abstract

U članku je prikazan odnos Srpske pravoslavne crkve i njenih istaknutih predstavnika prema Jevrejima od druge polovine tridesetih godina do marta 1941. U centru pažnje je odnos prema političkom antisemitizmu, progonima Jevreja, totalitarnim ideologijama i ratu. Prikazan je i odnos jevrejske zajednice prema nekim važnim versko-političkim pitanjima, kao i reagovanja na stavove predstavnika SPC.

The relation of the Serbian Orthodox Church to the Jewish question is traced through the attitudes and actions of its most influential representatives. The main concept of bishop Nikolaj Velimirović was a renewal of the Serbdom and Christianity at large. The frightful impact of the Bolshevik revolution was the main cause of his strengthening anti-Semitism, which spread as well with other clerics of the Orthodox Church. These attitudes were strongly expressed in the course of the 1930s. Alongside internationalism, bishop Nikolaj criticized imperialism and chauvinism. In the second half of the 30s, he was criticizing both communism and fascism and was publicly speaking in favor of the Jews during their persecution. Such a position had an impact on the Jewish community, whose influential members held his public action in great esteem. Patriarch Gavrilo was a consequent enemy of totalitarian ideologies. His public display of sympathy for the persecuted Jewish people was particularly noted in the Jewish audience. The engagement of the Serbian Orthodox Church against the accession of Yugoslavia to the Tripartite Alliance was an encouragement to the Jewish community on the eve of its destruction.