The rise in antisemitic violence in the United States should not surprise anyone who has been paying attention.
These attacks did not come out of nowhere. They grew in an environment where hatred of Jews was minimized, excused, and often dressed up as political activism. What should have been clearly condemned was too often defended, softened, or ignored.
Repeated lies change what people are willing to accept.
Since Oct 7th, the Jewish people and the nation of Israel have been treated like acceptable targets in public conversation. Israel has been accused of horrific crimes in reckless and false ways. Jews who support Israel have been painted as guilty by association. Old antisemitic ideas about power, control, influence, and divided loyalty have come back in updated language and have been pushed into the mainstream.
Some of this comes from the far left. Some comes from the populist right. Some comes from Islamist voices and those who excuse them. Some comes from people who say they oppose antisemitism while repeating some of its oldest themes in new language.
This is a moral problem.
As Christians, we understand that words are not small things. Scripture says, “The tongue has the power of life and death” Proverbs 18:21. That is still true. Words shape what people believe. They shape what people excuse. And they shape what people eventually do. When a group of people is constantly described as dangerous, oppressive, corrupt, or uniquely guilty, it becomes easier for others to justify threatening them, isolating them, or attacking them.
That is why incitement matters.
When people chant for intifada, call for Israel’s destruction, or justify terrorism as resistance, that is not harmless protest. It is helping create a culture where violence against Jews becomes easier to imagine and easier to defend.
And, it is exactly what we are seeing today in the United States.
Too many institutions still will not deal with this honestly. They condemn attacks after they happen, but they will not confront the rhetoric that helped make them possible. They speak against antisemitism in broad terms while tolerating the specific lies, slogans, and accusations that feed it.
That is not courage. That is avoidance.
Antisemitism is not just another prejudice. Christians understand that it has a deeper history than that. The Jewish people are central to the biblical story. The existence of Israel points back to the faithfulness of God. That is one reason hatred of the Jewish people keeps returning, even as it changes language and political form.
We do not need to overcomplicate that point. We just need to stop pretending this hostility toward Jews is random or disconnected from the larger spiritual and moral condition of a nation.
There is also something very practical here. People often tolerate antisemitic rhetoric when it comes from voices they already agree with on other issues. If it is framed as human rights, anti-war concern, nationalism, anti-elitism, or social justice, they give it a pass. But a lie does not become true because it is packaged well. Hatred does not become righteous because it borrows the language of compassion.
Christians should not fall for that.
We should also be honest that antisemitism never stays in one place. A culture that normalizes hatred of Jews is already in serious moral decline. The Jewish people are often the first target, but history shows they are rarely the last.
So what should Christians do?
First, speak clearly. Do not hide behind vague language. Do not act like this is just another political disagreement. When antisemitic lies are being spread, they need to be named and rejected.
Second, refuse false narratives. Reject the slanders against Israel that rely on distortion, double standards, or open hostility to the Jewish state’s right to exist and defend itself. Reject the slogans that sound fashionable but carry violent meaning.
Third, pray seriously. Pray for protection over Jewish communities, schools, synagogues, and families. Pray for Israel. Pray for courage for pastors and Christian leaders to say what is true without backing down.
Finally, stand publicly with the Jewish people. Stand with Israel’s right to exist and defend herself. Stand against the normalization of antisemitism from any direction, whether it comes from the left, the right, or Islamist movements.
This is not the time for silence.
Antisemitic incitement leads to violence.
That is the pattern. Christians should be among the first to say so.
