Granted, 21st century anti-Semites don’t believe that Jews drink the blood of Christian babies like many in the middle ages did, but over the last decade or so, anti-Semitism has steadily increased. Now, one must separate anti-Semitism from frustration, even anger, at the policies of the Israeli government or Israeli settler violence against Palestinian or the horror of Gaza.
The roots of anti-Semitism run deep, but it is not necessarily religiously based. In fact, many of the new right-wing anti-Semites are not even religious. The “Unite the Right” torch parade reminiscent of Nazi parades with “Jews will not replace us” speaks to something far deeper.
In his first term Trump said there were some “very fine people’ in that Neo-Nazi march; now, however, he claims that DEI programs are anti-Semitic. Anti-Semitism now is used as a political football even as there is a new anti-Semitism on the right. As Christians, we need to do some real soul-searching.
Prayer for the Day
You, O God, created all of us as your children,
But we hold some not equal in your sight;
You, O Lord, call us to love our neighbors as ourselves,
But we disparage certain groups as other than us.
Hold us to your call to stand up for the other, the outcast,
Those who we do not know, but human as are we.
In the name of the One who included all,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Jews cannot fight antisemitism alone. The victim cannot cure the crime. The hated cannot cure the hate. It would be the greatest mistake for Jews to believe that they can fight it alone. The only people who can successfully combat antisemitism are those active in the cultures that harbour it.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Great Britain (1948-2020)
History has taught you nothing if you think you can kill ideas. Tyrants have tried to do that often before, and the ideas have risen up in their might and destroyed them... Do not imagine your barbarities to the Jews are unknown here. God sleepeth not, and He will visit His Judgment upon you…
Helen Keller, humanitarian (1880-1968)
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Luke 10: 29a