(November 8, 2023 / JNS)
In the wake of the Hamas massacre of October 7 and the onslaught of anti-Semitism that followed, Christians have the opportunity to write a new chapter in their history; one in which they present themselves as allies and friends of the Jews. This is exactly what thousands of Christians around the world are doing.
The long and painful history of Jewish-Christian relations has seen few heroes and many moral failures. Protestantism and Catholicism, at different times in their history, have adopted anti-Semitism as a doctrine. A famous example is that of Pope Paul IV. Cum Nimis Absurdin which he called for Jews to live in ghettos and wear identifiable clothing so that they could be spotted from afar – ideas Hitler would later adopt.
Around the same time, Martin Luther published “Of the Jews and Their Lies,” in which he ordered all Christians: “First, set fire to the synagogues or schools (of the Jews) and bury and cover with earth everything that does not burn. , so that no man will ever see a stone or ashes of it again.
Nowadays, the nauseating videos that spring London, New York City, Sydney, Los Angeles and all over the world serve as a wake-up call to all those who naively believed that “never again” meant Never again. Since October 7, anti-Semitism has increase up to 1200%.
Nevertheless, Christians rise to this horrible occasion.
In recent weeks, Jewish university students have faced unthinkable threats and hostility. One of the most poignant examples is that of Cooper Union College in New York, where several Jewish students were forced to hide in the library while pro-Hamas “protesters” knocked on the locked door. At Cornell University, which has more Jewish students than any other Ivy League school, a barrage of credible students threats Murders, rapes and other forms of violence against Jewish students led police to lock down the university’s kosher dining hall.
Although the responses from these and many other universities have been mediocre to say the least, Franciscan University of Steubenville announcement creating an expedited transfer system for Jewish students fearing for their lives and safety on other campuses. Father Dave Pivonka, president of the university, explain: “Our radical fidelity to Christ and to the Catholic faith requires of us fraternal charity towards our Jewish brothers and sisters, as towards all men. »
At the same time, several Christian-led awareness campaigns have worked to combat the changing narrative and refocus Hamas’ massacre of more than 1,400 Jews. In Times Square, Christians United for Israel spear a national campaign with their “Don’t Look Away” ad, imploring people not to forget the atrocities of October 7. Since then, CUFI has continued to job educational content, call to prayer and encourage people to support Israel and the Jewish people in the face of anti-Semitism.
On October 26, the Philos Action League – a global network of Christians committed to the fight against anti-Semitism –organized a day of solidarity. Hundreds of Christians showed up in nearly 200 cities around the world to bring a card and white roses — a nod to the Nazi-era white rose resistance movement — to their local Jewish community.
The same week, the Franciscan University and the Philos Project organized a conference called “Nostra Aetate and the future of Catholic-Jewish relations at a time of rising anti-Semitism. The conference, originally planned to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, providentially aligned with the current crisis. The event brought together many Catholic and Jewish intellectuals and resulted in the “Coalition of Catholics Against Anti-Semitism,” the strongest Catholic theological document condemning anti-Semitism to date. It has been so far sign by more than 350 leading Catholic voices.
In the quiet corners of their churches, thousands of congregations and worship movements, large and small, expressed their support for Israel and showed solidarity, generosity and prayer with their Jewish neighbors.
The Upperoom Evangelical Worship Movement announcement a “Night of Hope for Israel” in Dallas, Texas.
Jentezen Franklin, New York Times bestselling author and senior pastor of Free Chapel Church, sharing with its million followers, its congregation’s campaign to raise funds to build an Eshkol Resilience Center in southern Israel to help families affected by the massacre.
On the Friday following the attacks, Holy Nativity Episcopal Church in Georgia joined with a local Jewish community for a night of prayer for Israel.
In Arizona, Christ Church of the Valley opened its services with a call for moral clarity. “I want to make one thing clear: Hamas is an evil terrorist organization that attacked Israel. … They raped women. They burned babies,” said senior pastor Ashley Wooldridge. “And what worries me as a pastor, when I look at the situation, is that we can’t defend ourselves against evil if we don’t define evil, and it breaks my heart that there is so many people…even here in the United States, who will not recognize the evil that has happened.
Hundreds of other churches, from California to New York and everywhere in between, showed similar solidarity.
The darkness shows no signs of waning, but Christians around the world have brought a ray of light by demonstrating their commitment to changing the scenario of Christian-Jewish relations. Maybe in a few years when history asks, “Where were the Christians?” we will finally be able to answer: “Right in the heart of the action”.
The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
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