Transfer of Memory is a touring exhibition of portraits and accompanying stories of Minnesota Holocaust survivors. The exhibit is currently on display at St. Olaf until October 28 and the St. Olaf Flaten Art Museum, together with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), presents Transfer of Memory to provide space to explore issues of tolerance, prejudice, and discrimination. Lutheran Center Director Deanna Thompson spoke at the reception for the exhibit, addressing Martin Luther’s anti-Jewish writings and the important ways St. Olaf can work to actively repair Luther’s legacy of harm towards the Jewish community.

Thanks so much to Jane Becker Nelson and the Flaten Art Museum staff for this invitation and for your work in bringing this exhibit to St. Olaf this fall. I’m honored to be a part of this opening and to share the podium with Steve Hunegs, an amazing partner and friend to St. Olaf, as well as with photographer David Sherman, Hazzan Joanna Dulkin, and Hannah Niederman, with whom I’m privileged to work as they serve as an Interfaith Fellow in the Lutheran Center this year.

St. Olaf is one of 26 colleges and universities affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, a body of around 3 million Lutherans, the 7th largest Christian denomination by membership in the country. St. Olaf and the other ELCA-related institutions remain indebted to the Lutheran intellectual tradition of higher education, one that lifts up the values of rigorous liberal arts education, intellectual humility, and enduring commitment to reform–all aspects of the best of the legacy of Martin Luther’s life and work in 16th century Germany.

St. Olaf’s mission states that the work of the college is nourished by Lutheran tradition. I appreciate the use of the term “nourish” here–it acknowledges the ongoing relevance of Lutheran tradition in the life of the college. At the same time, it’s important to recognize that when we’re nourished by something, some of whatever is nourishing also goes out as waste. That St. Olaf is hosting Transfer of Memory, an exhibit about Minnesota Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, provides us with an important opportunity to name Martin Luther’s awful writings against the Jews, that in a treatise entitled, “On the Jews and Their Lies,” written in 1543, Luther advocates for the burning of synagogues and holy books and driving the Jews out of Germany because of their refusal to become Christian (see excerpts here compiled by the Jewish Virtual Library). 

St. Olaf’s mission states that the work of the college is nourished by Lutheran tradition. I appreciate the use of the term “nourish” here–it acknowledges the ongoing relevance of Lutheran tradition in the life of the college. At the same time, it’s important to recognize that when we’re nourished by something, some of whatever is nourishing also goes out as waste.

For quite some time Luther scholars have wrestled with the kind of weight to give these writings of Luther’s. In the 20th century scholars emphasized that Luther’s anti-Jewish attitudes and diatribes were confined to the final years of his life, a time when his struggle with serious health issues affected his approach to pressing issues of the day. 

More recent scholarly work on Luther and the Jews, however, argues that Luther’s theological evaluation of Judaism and Jewish people did not really change during his lifetime. Scholars note that Luther’s anti-Jewish views were drawn from his interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures. 

Luther scholars Kirsi Stjerna and Brooks Schramm rightly insist that “The Holocaust forever changed the rules of engagement for all matters Jewish-Christian.” While Luther did not make the Holocaust inevitable, he takes his place alongside the legion of Christian thinkers and leaders that forcefully advocated for the expulsion of Jews. No reasonable reading of Luther can avoid the conclusion that his claims about the Jews further contributed to the dehumanization by Christians in both thought and practice.¹ 

It is also important to note that the ELCA has long been committed to working with Jewish leaders and communities to confess and reject Luther’s writings and the legacies of harm they’ve created. Here’s an excerpt from a public declaration from the ELCA in the 1990s:

“In the spirit of that truth-telling, we who bear his name and heritage must with pain acknowledge Luther’s anti-Judaic diatribes and the violent recommendations of his later writings against the Jews. As did many of Luther’s own companions in the sixteenth century, we reject this violent invective, and yet more do we express our deep and abiding sorrow over its tragic effects on subsequent generations. In concert with the Lutheran World Federation, we particularly deplore the appropriation of Luther’s words by modern anti-Semites for the teaching of hatred toward Judaism or toward the Jewish people in our day.

“We recognize in anti-Semitism a contradiction and an affront to the Gospel, a violation of our hope and calling, and we pledge this church to oppose the deadly working of such bigotry, both within our own circles and in the society around us.” – Declaration of the ELCA to the Jewish Community, 1994

Grieving the complicity of our own tradition within this history of hatred, moreover, we express our urgent desire to live out our faith . . . with love and respect for the Jewish people. We recognize in anti-Semitism a contradiction and an affront to the Gospel, a violation of our hope and calling, and we pledge this church to oppose the deadly working of such bigotry, both within our own circles and in the society around us. Finally, we pray for the continued blessing of the Blessed One upon the increasing cooperation and understanding between Lutheran Christians and the Jewish community.”   

Finally, it is important to acknowledge, as contemporary Luther scholars do, that Luther wrote what he did about “Jews” absent any conversations with any Jewish colleagues or neighbors or friends. He did talk occasionally with Jewish converts, but never with those whose lives were immersed in the beauty and power of Jewish tradition.

One important way we at St. Olaf can work to repair Luther’s legacy of harm is to not only name the sins of Luther but also be part of the ongoing work to build and sustain relationships with organizations like the Jewish Community Relations Council, and to build bridges of education, understanding, and support for our Jewish students, staff, and faculty, as well as our Jewish friends and neighbors in Northfield and beyond.

One important way we at St. Olaf can work to repair Luther’s legacy of harm is to not only name the sins of Luther but also be part of the ongoing work to build and sustain relationships with organizations like the Jewish Community Relations Council, and to build bridges of education, understanding, and support for our Jewish students, staff, and faculty, as well as our Jewish friends and neighbors in Northfield and beyond. Learning about the stories of Minnesotans who survived the Holocaust is one such valuable opportunity to do just that. Thanks again to all who made this event possible.

1. Brooks Schramm and Kirsi I. Stjerna, eds., Martin Luther, the Bible, and the Jewish People: A Reader (Fortress Press, 2012).