Christians must stand with Jews against antisemitism - opinion

• Published date: 13 March 2024
• Author: SEBASTIÁN PARRA
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

As I tried to reason with them on the false equivalency of simply talking about casualties and the moral clarity that one should have considering who started the war, I felt alone and a little scared

I found myself there due to my work with Passages, an organization that brings Christian students to Israel and helps advocate for Israel and the Jewish people. I had worked with a Passages alum at Duke University to put on a flag-planting demonstration in which we installed 1,200 Israeli flags on a lawn on campus, one flag for each Israeli murdered on October 7. We did this in partnership with Duke Students Supporting Israel and End Jew-Hatred.

In the confrontations that ensued with counter-protesters, it became fruitless to try to explain the right of the Jewish people to their ancient, ancestral, and indigenous homeland; the countless peace offers that Palestinian leaders have rejected throughout the decades; how Israel left Gaza and gave it in full to the Palestinians, and in return they got rockets and a massacre.

It's much easier to scream "Genocide!" and "Occupation!" Historical facts and reason are very weak against raging ignorance.

But then, some Jewish students heard the insults being shouted at me. They quickly came over and began remonstrating with the angry mob. Suddenly, I felt safer, protected, supported, and I recognized that this must be what the Jewish people feel when they see Christians standing with them against antisemitism and realize that they are not alone.

Unfortunately, Christians throughout history have a shameful record of turning a blind eye to antisemitism, too often being the proponents of Jew hatred and violence against Jewish communities.

During the Holocaust, the hateful legacy of the 15th-16th-century reformer Martin Luther was weaponized by Hitler and the Nazi party to perpetuate antisemitic prejudices. Julius Streicher, publisher of the antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer, printed antisemitic sermons promoting violence against Jews.

Churches also discriminated against pastors and church staff of Jewish ancestry in obedience to Nazi Aryan-exclusive policy. The silence of Pope Pius XII regarding the Nazi genocide was deafening; and French Catholics identified Jewish citizens who were arrested and taken to Nazi extermination camps.

Even when Jews were able to escape Europe, they were sent back to die in concentration camps, such as the case of the St. Louis cruise ship, in 1939 which the United States, a nation built on...