The relationship between the Unification Church and Judaism has been marked by some controversy. The Divine Principle–the main textbook of Unification Church beliefs–has been accused of containing antisemitic references. Statements by Unification Church founder and leader Sun Myung Moon that Jewish victims of the Holocaust were paying indemnity for the crucifixion of Jesus have also been described as antisemitic. Unification Church leaders, including Mose Durst and Andrew Wilson, have disputed this and have urged better relations between church members and members of the Jewish community.
History
The Unification Church was founded in South Korea in 1954. The Divine Principle, written by Moon and other church members and first published in 1966, is the main textbook of Unification Church beliefs. Moon considered the Divine Principle to be the "Completed Testament" which followed the Old Testament and the New Testament. Its teachings are based on the Bible, but include new interpretations not found in Jewish and Christian tradition.
In 1975 Moon founded the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, New York partly in order to promote better relationships between the Unification Church and other religions, including Judaism. A rabbi was hired to teach the Old Testament, along with other professors from various Christian denominations.
In 1976 the American Jewish Committee released a report by Rabbi A. James Rudin which stated that Divine Principle contained "pejorative language, stereotyped imagery, and accusations of collective sin and guilt." In a news conference presented by the AJC and representatives of Catholic and Protestant churches, panelists stated that the text "contained over 125 anti-Jewish references." They noted Moon's public then-recent condemnation of "antisemitic and anti-Christian attitudes", and called upon him to make a "comprehensive and systematic removal" of antisemitic and anti-Christian references in the Divine Principle as a demonstration of good faith.
In 1977 the Unification Church issued a rebuttal to the report, stating that it was neither comprehensive nor reconciliatory, but rather had a "hateful tone" and was filled with "sweeping denunciations." It denied that the Divine Principle teaches antisemitism and gave detailed responses to 17 specific allegations contained in the AJC's report, stating that allegations were distortions of teaching and obscuration of real passage content or that the passages were accurate summaries of Jewish scripture or New Testament passages.
In 1984 Mose Durst, then the president of the Unification Church of the United States and himself a convert from Judaism, said that the Jewish community had been "hateful" in its response to the growth of the Unification Church, and placed blame both on the community's "insecurity" and on Unification Church members' "youthful zeal and ignorance." Rudin, then the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, said that Durst's remarks were inaccurate and unfair and that "hateful is a harsh word to use." In the same year Durst wrote in his autobiography: "Our relations with the Jewish community have been the most painful to me personally. I say this with a heavy heart, since I was raised in the Jewish faith and am proud of my heritage."
In 1989 Unification Church leaders Peter Ross and Andrew Wilson issued "Guidelines for Members of The Unification Church in Relations with the Jewish People" which stated: "In the past there have been serious misunderstandings between Judaism and the Unification Church. In order to clarify these difficulties and guide Unification Church members in their relations with Jews, the Unification Church suggests the following guidelines."
Moon made some controversial statements about the Holocaust, that its victims were paying indemnity for the crucifixion of Jesus. Some commentators, including David G. Bromley, a sociologist and expert on new religious movements, have suggested that this is a reason for the Unification Church being "considered anti-Semitic." The Unification Church has also been criticized for saying that the First World War, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Cold War served as indemnity conditions to prepare the world for the establishment of the Kingdom of God.