Kerby Anderson

Antisemitism has been on the rise, and Jews are being targeted here in America. Here are a few of the most reported attacks over the last 15 months. A white supremacist kills 11 Jews and wounds 7 others during Sabbath services in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Another shooter opens fire in a Passover service in California. Two shooters with the Black Hebrew Israelites target a kosher grocery store in Jersey City and kill four. A black man storms into a home during the seventh night of Hanukkah stabbing five people with a machete.

Those, of course, are the most visible because they were violent and usually led to loss of life. But consider that nearly half of Jewish young people in America say they have been victims of antisemitic attacks in the last five years. More than a third of them have experienced such hatred on a college campus.

One survey found that 88 percent of Jewish Americans think antisemitism is a problem in the US. Also, 84 percent of them believe that the problem has gotten worse over the last five years.

The motivations for these attacks vary, but believing false ideas certainly drives this age-old hatred. The shooter in California wrote a manifesto that read like something out of the fallacious Protocols of Zion. Others deny the Holocaust, say that Jews are responsible for so much evil in society, and try to argue that Jewish people are fake Jews.

As Christians, we need to do what we can to combat this evil. First, we need to educate ourselves about antisemitism. I have written a booklet on the subject, which is available through Point of View. Second, we need to call out and denounce antisemitism. Third, we need to show solidarity with the Jewish people and also pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6).