Matthew, Mark, Luke, John...and Me

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.”