A plea to my fellow Christians: Now is the time to stand up for the Jewish people

Your Jewish friends, neighbors, and co-workers undoubtedly feel unsafe at this moment, and you have an opportunity to show them they are not alone.

By BRITTANY BERTSCHE NOVEMBER 13, 2024 03:27

PASSAGES PROGRAM participants and staff attend a pro-Israel rally in Washington, in November last year. (photo credit: CADE CHUDY)

Eighty-six years ago, on November 9-10, 1938, a massive pogrom was carried out against the Jews of Germany by the Nazi regime. The attack was wide-ranging: Jews were attacked in the streets, Jewish-owned businesses and synagogues were destroyed (earning the attack the name Kristallnacht, literally “Night of Crystal,” or “Night of the Broken Glass”), and 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.

On November 7, 2024, another pogrom was carried out in Europe against Jews, this time in Amsterdam. Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv were brutalized by a mob after a soccer game in what evidence suggests was a premeditated attack. Israelis, men and women, were beaten, attacked with rocks and fireworks, and chased throughout the city. The city where Anne Frank once lived and hid from the Nazis before being murdered in a gas chamber has once again become unsafe for Jews.

Here is the reality: Kristallnacht did not happen in a vacuum, nor did the Amsterdam attack. In the months leading up to the 1938 pogrom, acts of violence were committed against Jews throughout Germany, and the Nazi regime made life increasingly difficult for Jews, who were demonized by Hitler as parasites and the root of all of Germany’s problems, economic and otherwise.

Similarly, antisemitic rhetoric and violence have exploded in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack against Israel. From Columbia University to the streets of London, chants of “Globalize the Intifada,” a call to violent resistance against Israel, and accusations of genocide have raised the temperature, fostering environments in which violence against Jews is almost inevitable.

Amsterdam is just the latest city to experience the rise in antisemitism reaching a dangerous boiling point.

Pro-Palestinian protesters face Dutch police during a banned demonstration in Amsterdam, Netherlands November 10, 2024. The sign reads: ''Police state''. (credit: REUTERS/Esther Verkaik)

And it’s not just Amsterdam. Jews are being assaulted in Chicago, New York City, and Paris. Though taking place in different cities and countries, these attacks have one thing in common: They are committed against Jews by people who hate the State of Israel and, by extension, all Jews.

Kristallnacht marked the beginning of the worst genocide ever committed against a group of people – the Holocaust. In the following years, six million Jews would be starved, shot, and gassed to death by the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler.

The Holocaust began with ostracization, boycotts of Jews

The Holocaust did not begin with mass violence, however. The Holocaust began with the ostracization of Jews from German society: boycotting Jewish shops, removing Jewish professionals from their jobs, and publicly demonizing Jews in print and cartoons. And from this ostracization flowed violence – first random attacks, then the pogrom of Kristallnacht, and then, eventually, mass murder.

Today, we see a similar pattern: the attempted boycott of Jewish-owned restaurants, Jewish professionals facing antisemitism in their workplaces, and the demonization of Jews in the public sphere, especially on social media. Violence against Jews, unsurprisingly, has swiftly followed these things.

As I watched the horrifying footage of a Jewish man being kicked repeatedly by hate-filled assailants, a deep pit opened in my stomach. A student of the Holocaust, I know what this kind of antisemitic violence can lead to if not dealt with.

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In the wake of the October 7 attack, I often reflect on what it is to be an upstander in the face of antisemitism. As a devout Christian, I am both inspired and convicted by the stories of Christians like Corrie ten Boom, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the lesser-known but just as courageous Elsie Tilney, who hid a young Jewish boy in her bathroom for five months before they were both liberated by French and American troops.

If Corrie ten Boom and Elsie Tilney, motivated by their love for God and their belief that every person is created in His image, can risk their lives for the Jewish people, I can speak loudly and clearly against antisemitism and stand proudly with my Jewish friends.

Such is my plea to my fellow Christians: If there was ever a time to stand up for the Jewish people, it is right now. Your Jewish friends, neighbors, and co-workers undoubtedly feel unsafe at this moment, and you have an opportunity to show them they are not alone.

Let me be clear: By standing up for the Jewish people, I do not mean agreeing with every action the State of Israel takes. What I do mean is speaking up when you hear hateful comments made against Jews, reporting antisemitic vandalism, and, yes, even intervening when a Jewish person is attacked on the street. Remember, a little kindness goes a long way.

Finally, to my Jewish friends and readers: I see you and your suffering. My heart breaks alongside yours. I stand with you, now and always.

The writer works at Passages Israel, a Christian organization dedicated to taking Christian students to Israel and mobilizing young people to support the Jewish state on campuses and in communities across the US, and to stand up against antisemitism.