Antisemitism – A Global Pandemic

Israel is a shining light, a beacon of democracy, hope, and freedom in a corner of the world that is tortured by despair, death, and destruction.

If you don’t believe there is a terrible bloodlust against Jews around the world, then you have your head firmly in the sand.

Videos of Jews being beaten, stabbed, kicked, and cursed at in the streets of Amsterdam while the Police stood idly by should be a wake-up call to even the most tone deaf that all is not well in the world of geopolitics.

Amsterdam erupted with violent, organized mobs targeting Israeli soccer fans after a heated match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, said news reports.

In response to the unrest, Israeli authorities quickly coordinated with Dutch officials to ensure the safety of their citizens, sending evacuation planes to bring them home.

When have you heard of any European Government sending planes to Tel Aviv to bring back European football players attacked by Jews?   Never happened. Never will. Jews are too civilized to attack ordinary citizens. After all, they live in peace with 2 million Arab Israelis in their land. The terrorists who try to kill Jewish elderly, women, and children are usually from outside Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.

From a Jewish man being shot in Chicago to calls for “Jew Hunts,” renewed antisemitic violence is sending shockwaves across communities worldwide. He survived, and it’s being investigated as a hate crime.

“It has felt like it’s open season on Jews, certainly since October 7th,” said Ellie Cohanim, Senior Fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. “The massacre in Israel seems to have ignited a terrible bloodlust against Jews around the world.”

Meanwhile, protesters waving Nazi flags in Howell, Michigan, gathered outside the American Legion post hosting a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank.

Cohanim, a former State Department Envoy, states that Iran is the leading state sponsor of antisemitism. Hardly surprising when we recall the hatred of Iran towards Israel and its funding of proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis to fight against the democratic state.

“There is a strain of radical Islam, also around the world we’ve seen from Europe to the United States, that is all too willing to embrace this radical, Jew-hating philosophy,” Cohanim said. “Reports from our own U.S. intelligence agencies indicate that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been funding pro-Hamas activities we’ve seen on our college campuses and in our city streets. Iran is the leading state sponsor of antisemitism globally.”

EJ Kimball with the Combat Antisemitism Movement sees a “disease of hate” spreading, noting that one in five Jewish-American children has experienced antisemitism since October 7th. He tells CBN News that CAM is seeing a 50% rise in the number of Jews hiding their identity. One solution he offers is simply calling out antisemitism for what it is.

“A definition of antisemitism called the IHRA definition: The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, it is the gold standard,” said Kimball.

The beginning of that definition states: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

Kimball believes that if people, entities, and governments adopt this definition and implement it, law enforcement will have the tools to stop antisemitic violence.

As reports of these incidents increase, Jewish communities are calling for greater solidarity and action from people of all faiths.

“But even more than that, you’ve got to stand up and call out evil when it rears its ugly head. Last week, in Washington, D.C., on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the only kosher restaurant was attacked—its windows smashed. It means coming out and condemning it for what it is,” Kimball said.

Both Kimball and Cohanim agree that confronting this issue requires more than symbolic gestures; it requires enforcing existing laws and empowering communities to stand firm against hatred.

The spike in antisemitism globally is hardly news. And yet, there is something about contemporary antisemitism that sets it apart from its earlier and even ancient versions, writes Michael Oren.

It is the cry of revenge in Gaza, based on the Hamas terrorists and civilians killed there. (We must recall that Hamas purposely puts its own civilians in harm’s way and so civilian deaths are Hamas’ responsibility, not the fault of the IDF who increase risk to its own soldiers in order to protect Gaza civilians.)

The trope is that Jews, by nature and creed, are vengeful. By insisting that Jewish soldiers in Gaza are acting not in self-defense or even patriotism but out of sheer vindictiveness, Jew haters are reviving the classic claim that, in contrast to Christianity’s God of love, Jews worship a God of vengeance.  And Christians tend to forget that the New Testament’s God of love is the God of the Old Testament.

It is a lie of course that the Jewish God is a God of vengeance only (ignoring the loving God of Psalm 23 and the wrathful Jesus in Revelation 19), but some lies if repeated often enough become true.

Now the Pope has taken a massive step back toward the raw antisemitism that led up to the Holocaust.  In a new book he writes that the war in Gaza “has the characteristics of genocide.”  Not only is this a perverse inversion of reality (Israel is the victim of an attempted genocide by Iran and its proxies like Hamas) but on October 7 the Pope took out of context what Jesus said to the temple leaders (“You are of your father, the devil” John 8.44) and applied it to Israel and Jews generally.  As British journalist Melanie Phillipps has put it, this “regurgitates the ancient Christian theological hatred of the Jews and the desire to obliterate them.”

This spike in antisemitism globally should be taken seriously especially by Christians–Catholics and Protestants and Anglicans–as they themselves face global persecution not seen in a century.

The way forward is the way back. This is a metanoia moment for the world as Israel faces internal and external threats. Eight nations are arrayed against Israel, and their leader is Iran who may soon pose a nuclear threat in the not too distant future. Will the world rail against Israel if it destroys Iran’s nuclear capabilities or will they secretly breathe a sigh of relief, while publicly saying otherwise.  Judging by past performance, probably the latter.

A Middle East dominated by the minarets of jihadist Islam benefits no one. It is not just the synagogues of “eternal light” but Christian churches that must stand as a bulwark against a militant, dogmatic and dangerous worldview that wants to see the destruction of ALL the alternatives.

Christians must stand with Israel not only because there is prophetic testimony that God has not finished with His people, but also because Israel is a shining light, a beacon of democracy, hope, and freedom in a corner of the world that is tortured by despair, death, and destruction.