There are several seemingly contradictory beliefs about non-Jews in Torah Judaism; On the one hand we have the belief that we are the Am HaNivchar... the Chosen People. We were chosen by God to receive His Torah. Other nations were given the opportunity and rejected it so we were given the "Take it or die" option at Maamid Har Sinai. So it is our Torah adherence that makes us superior. Not because of anything that we innately have but because of what Torah does for us. It is the Torah that raises us above the fray, not any inherent biology. And the Torah wasn't even voluntarily accepted till the events of Purim. It took the Am K'shei Oref (...not a particularly flattering trait) that long... to understand its benefits enough to finally say Kimu V’Kiblu... and accept it voluntarily.
The other side of the coin is the constant appellation used to describe the gentile's relationship with the Jew: Halacha Hee, Esav Sonei Es Yaakov. Then there is the constant haranguing by some Mechanchim about how Bnei Noach are Michuiv Misah if the violate any of the Sheva Mitzvos Shelahem.
Sometimes there are religious inspirational figures who, when trying to exhort us toward ethical behavior, they point to the “Goy” as the model for unethical behavior. One Mechanech I know has made the statement, “He cannot be MiZera Yisarael” when disapproving of someone’s perceived unethical behavior. I hear these kinds of statements all the time. The subliminal message: Zera Yisrael... is superior Zera!
Even in my own early education there was certainly more of an emphasis on the inherent evils of “the Goy” than there was on their Tzelem Elokim aspect. How often I heard, and still hear, the comparisons between “the Jewish way” and “the “Goyish way”?
The famous Hadran given at any Siyum Mesechta is chock full of such comparisons: Anu Mashkimim, VeHeim Mashkimim... Anu Ameilim, VeHeim Ameilim... Anu Ratzim, VeHeim Ratzim... The subliminal message is that we are inherently better then “them”.
But it is not true. It is not us. It is our beliefs... beliefs that translate into actions. It is the observance of Halacha... the practice of Mitzvos Bein Adam LaMakom AND bein Adam L’Chavero, which make us better, not any inherent superiority.
When secular culture is constantly denigrated the easy association to make, is that the “evil culture” is the Goyishe culture. When a Jew is seen doing something wrong, it is always blamed on the Goyishe Kop (gentile mindset).
In short it is rare to hear anything positive about Goyim. Goyim are automatically deemed inferior. That this is because they lack Torah is skimmed over and the Goy is looked upon as an inferior being. The very word “Goy” is a pejorative.
Is it any wonder then that in certain Yeshiva high schools there is such a dichotomy in behavior of young high school age Bnei Torah between in the way Rabbeim are treated and the way secular teachers are treated? The Rebbe is venerated, as he should be. But the secular teacher is the object of scorn mostly behind his back and occasionally even to his face! This creates enormous Chilul HaShem but these young people are oblivious to it.
The secular teacher is often subjected to ridicule and treated like a moron... there to be tolerated only because of some “silly” rules by state government about educational requirements but never to be taken seriously. Did not the Charedi press in Israel essentially endorse this attitude (if not this behavior) by claiming that all secular knowledge is “emptiness”? Is it not the attitude by many Roshei Yeshivos and Rabbeim that serious study of secular subjects (i.e. the entire academic universe of the gentile) is Bitul Zman?
On the other side of the coin, there is one undisputable damning fact about the non-Jew. It is the history of evil in Europe that he has perpetrated to his Jewish neighbor over the centuries culminating in the ultimate evil, the Holocaust. Even prior to the holocaust Jews were persecuted whether by pogrom, massacres, or by simple prejudice as they were in some cases barred from entire countries. Those countries that did allow a Jew residence barred him from certain neighborhoods and professions forcing them to live in ghettos and become moneylenders. This reinforced the negative Jewish image of Jews as “Shylocks” out for their “pound of flesh” so immortalized by William Shakespeare. Jews were constantly vilified in literature even by some of the most distinguished of authors who used the most negative of stereotypes when writing about the Jew. It is no small wonder that Jews have come to look so negatively upon the gentile. 2000 years of persecution can do that to you.
Unfortunately this image of the persecution of Jews by the non-Jew (or his government) has been retained well into the mindset of some American Jews... especially amongst Chasidim. They who have absorbed and retained their parent’s feelings about the Goy... transferred those feelings to non-Jewish Americans, and believe to this day, that it is a Mitzvah to lie, cheat, or steal from a Goy as long as you don’t get caught. They believe all Goyim to be on the very lowest rung of humanity and deserving of such treatment, even though there is little if any evidence that American non Jews harbor any kind of ill feeling toward their fellow Jewish citizens.
It has thus become the mindset of the some Jewish educators that anything Goyish is automatically inferior. It does not take much of a leap to believe that the Goy is a genetically inferior being.
But this is wrong, wrong, wrong... and is a gross failure of the Jewish educational system.
