It began with 100 students at Columbia University in New York City and has spread from Massachusetts to California and Tennessee to Texas, but increasingly it is clear these efforts are coordinated.
The ongoing anti-Israel demonstrations at elite US colleges and universities are exactly what happened in Germany in the 1920s, just years before Nazis took over the country, according to the head of the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel, Dani Dayan.
While many of these students have no idea what they are even supporting when they hold signs that say, “We are Hamas,” “Gas the Jews,” and “Final Solution,” many of them do.
Even more alarming, professors, who certainly know what they are doing, are joining these protests.
These protesters fail to understand that the modern state of Israel was formed on the heels of the holocaust where 6 million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by the Nazis. They realized that they needed a homeland where they could live in peace and prosperity and raise their families. But also the Jewish community has had a continual presence in their land since the first kingdom of Israel, since King David. How could they be colonizers? They are indigenous people.
God gave this land to Israel.
It was my distinct honor to speak at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles the day after October 7 of last year when over 1200 Jewish people in Israel were tortured, butchered and some even beheaded. In addition, 240 people were taken hostage.
Where are the protests for them? Where are the protests for citizens of 17 countries still held hostage? What about the hundreds of thousands killed this year in Sudan?
I told the Jewish people that were gathered that day that as evangelicals we stand with them, we are praying for them, and will do everything we can to help them. This is more important now than ever.
As a pastor, I will not stand by idly as this horror unfolds before our very eyes. We are living in a moment where history will judge us.
The great criticism of the church of Germany was that they did not speak out on behalf of the Jewish people. We cannot let this happen again.
Not us. Not now. We stand with Israel, we stand with Jews everywhere, and we stand against antisemitism.
As Bible-believing Christians we should understand that the Jews have always been and always will be God’s chosen people.
Antisemitism is evil, and as leaders and followers of Jesus we must speak out against it loudly and constantly.
I urge my Christian brothers and sisters and especially pastors and Christian leaders to speak up for the Jewish people more than ever, now!
Also, I thank God we are seeing none of these protests on Christian colleges. We should send our kids to them.
