Editing Judeo-Christian (section)

==Jewish responses==
The Jewish community's attitude towards the concept has been mixed. In the 1930s, "In the face of worldwide anti-semitic efforts to stigmatize and destroy Judaism, influential Christians and Jews in America labored to uphold it, pushing Judaism from the margins of American religious life towards its very center."{{sfn|Sarna|2004|p=267}} During [[World War II]], Jewish chaplains worked with Catholic priests and Protestant ministers in order to promote goodwill, addressing servicemen who, "in many cases had never seen, much less heard a [[Rabbi]] speak before".{{Sfn|Sarna|2004|p=267}} At funerals for the unknown soldier, rabbis stood alongside the other chaplains and recited prayers in Hebrew. In a much-publicized wartime tragedy, the sinking of the {{SS|Dorchester||2}}, the ship's multi-faith chaplains gave up their lifebelts to evacuate seamen and stood together "arm in arm in prayer" as the ship sank. A 1948 postage stamp commemorated their heroism with the words: "interfaith in action".{{sfn|Sarna|2004|p=267}}

In the 1950s, "a spiritual and cultural revival washed over American Jewry" in response to the trauma of the Holocaust.{{sfn|Sarna|2004|p=267}} American Jews became more confident in their desire to be identified as different.

Two notable books addressed the relationship between contemporary Judaism and Christianity, [[Abba Hillel Silver]]'s ''Where Judaism Differs'' and [[Leo Baeck]]'s ''Judaism and Christianity'', both motivated by an impulse to clarify Judaism's distinctiveness "in a world where the term Judeo-Christian had obscured critical differences between the two faiths".{{sfn|Sarna|2004|p=281}} Reacting against the blurring of theological distinctions, Rabbi [[Eliezer Berkovits]] wrote that "Judaism is Judaism because it rejects Christianity, and Christianity is Christianity because it rejects Judaism."<ref>Disputation and Dialogue: Readings in the Jewish Christian Encounter, Ed. F. E. Talmage, Ktav, 1975, p. 291.</ref> Theologian and author [[Arthur A. Cohen]], in ''The Myth of the Judeo-Christian Tradition'', questioned the theological validity of the Judeo-Christian concept and suggested that it was essentially an invention of [[Politics of the United States|American politics]], while [[Jacob Neusner]], in ''Jews and Christians: The Myth of a Common Tradition'', writes, "The two faiths stand for different people talking about different things to different people."<ref>Jacob Neusner (1990), ''Jews and Christians: The Myth of a Common Tradition''. New York and London: Trinity Press International and SCM Press.  p. 28</ref>

Law professor Stephen M. Feldman looking at the period before 1950, chiefly in Europe, sees invocation of a "Judeo-Christian tradition" as [[supersessionism]]:
{{blockquote|Once one recognizes that Christianity has historically engendered antisemitism, then this so-called tradition appears as dangerous Christian dogma (at least from a Jewish perspective).  For Christians, the concept of a Judeo-Christian tradition comfortably suggests that Judaism progresses into Christianity—that Judaism is somehow completed in Christianity. The concept of a Judeo-Christian tradition flows from the Christian theology of supersession, whereby the Christian covenant (or Testament) with God supersedes the Jewish one. Christianity, according to this belief, reforms and replaces Judaism. The belief, therefore, implies, first, that Judaism needs reformation and replacement, and second, that modern Judaism remains merely as a "relic". Most importantly the belief of the Judeo-Christian tradition insidiously obscures the real and significant differences between Judaism and Christianity.<ref>Stephen M. Feldman (1998), ''Please Don't Wish Me a Merry Christmas: A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State''</ref>}}