Matthew, Mark, Luke, John...and Me: Growing Up Jewish in a Christian World

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John...and Me: Growing Up Jewish in a Christian World

With this thought-provoking memoir, Arthur D. Ullian demystifies the roots of antisemitism and calls on people of all faiths to find a road to healing. Building on a recent report by The Church of England, a statement from Pope Francis, and Jesus’ directive to “Love thy neighbor,” the book is set against the current backdrop of rising far-right hatred and the devastating effects of the global pandemic. In this memoir, Ullian tells a story of being the only Jew in a prep school outside Boston, finding himself the brunt of many admonishments from the pulpit during weekly services in the chapel which all students were required to attend. Listening to the Gospels accusing Jews of committing the worst of all crimes led him to spend years researching history only to discover that the events described could not have happened. Years later, as a result of a bicycle accident which put him in a wheelchair, he went to Washington and became a member of the Advisory Council to the Director of the National Institutes of Health and lobbied Congress to double NIH funding by $14 billion annually. More than twenty years later, that funding enabled the discovery of the Covid-19 vaccine in ten months. This project, in which doctors, scientists, health workers of all colors, races and religious beliefs worked together for the good of us all is an example of the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, or “Repair the World.” In an effort to heal the world in his own way, Pope Francis has proclaimed, “I will never grow tired of condemning every form of antisemitism.” Putting thought into action, The Church of England has re-evaluated the role of its holy texts, prayers, and hymns in propagating antisemitism. The introduction of a 2019 Report commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, God’s Unfailing Word, states that “Christians have been guilty of promoting and fostering negative stereotypes of Jewish people that have contributed to grave suffering and injustice. They have a duty to be alert to … such stereotyping and to resist it. Too often in history the Church has been responsible for and colluded in antisemitism.” “This gratifying admission by the Church of England suggests that Jews can open dialogues with Christian organizations and with the religion and history departments of our colleges and universities,” says Ullian. “The Bible stories that misrepresented us to serve a political agenda are hard-wired into society. But if those stories can be retold in context, the next generation might begin to see things differently.” "Arthur D. Ullian has written a powerful, moving and charming book about his life-long struggle as a Jew in a deeply gentile world. He has also written an informed and insightful study of Christianity and its fraught relationship with Jews and Judaism over the past 1700 years. The son of highly assimilated Jews who came of age in the 1950s rather than the 1960s, his experience may seem surprising to the generation raised after Vatican II and the rise of the Black Civil Rights and women's movements, in a world where ethnic identity was more accepted, and more respected, where the WASP establishment somewhat less dominant. There are many parts to this wonderful work, not the least of which is how he courageously grappled with paralysis, became a leading advocate for increasing federal funding for the National Institutes of Health for every disease group, leaving his business as a real estate developer, to pursue an important cause, and found his path to a Jewish life of pride, value and joy. "The work offers a deeply personal insight into a very special man in the world that shaped him. Not the least of its virtues is that the book also provides an accessible history of Christian antisemitism, with all of its social and economic repercussions, which sends an important message in an age of rising tribalism and hatred." --Michael Berenbaum, Rabbi and American Jewish University professor. He served as Deputy Director of the President's commission on the Holocaust, Executive Editor of Encyclopedia Judaica , Project Director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and President & Chief Executive Officer of the USC Shoah Foundation: The Institute for Visual History and Education (founded by Steven Spielberg). "I found myself mesmerized by this bold memoir, which details both the cultural and physical challenges experienced by Arthur Ullian from boyhood to maturity, and his life-long effort to make sense of two thousand years of Christian animosity toward Jews. In his tender and revealing descriptions of prep school, marriage, fatherhood, mid-life paralysis, and advocacy for medical research, I found a passionate soul inviting us to 'walk in his shoes' as he journeys through the painful and often horrific past of antisemitism, and still imagines a future of greater fellowship and justice. Throughout the book, he pays tribute to caring friends, classmates and colle