Antisemitism has been declared a ‘national emergency’. Here are 5 ways Christians should respond

I have written several articles now, all heading the same direction. So let’s try again. Each time there is a predictable mix of comments – the sympathetic and those who say, “Yes but…”, even when it comes to antisemitism. I am not sure this is for them, as I suspect they will never be persuaded. But for everyone else, and the many who are unsure or unclear, this is for you.

Apparently, antisemitism is now a national emergency. Keir Starmer has finally decided the chant “globalise the intifada” is antisemitic, that “there is no place for antisemitism on our streets” and that “an attack on Jewish people is an attack on everyone”… so it must now be true.

You know those people who ignore what you’re saying for years and then suddenly when they realise the truth start telling everyone as though they just had the best idea? How annoying that is? Well, that is being Jewish right now.

From the start, Jewish people have explained what it feels like to have marches each week through central London and other cities where the actions of radical Islamists are minimised or even praised. Or endless media parroting the narrative and lies of an Islamist terror group who openly call for the death of Jews. The BBC alone has had to apologise repeatedly for its well-documented distortions. And all this accompanied by gaslighting of the highest order.

Maybe now it is time for people to listen to what Jewish people have been saying all along: when people endlessly spout slogans promoting violence against Jews, eventually it always ends up with – who woulda thunk it – violence against Jews.

Spike Milligan’s gravestone famously reads, “I told you I was ill”. That’s commitment to comedy. Jews of this country aren’t looking for that kind of epitaph. We have seen enough and we prefer that you listen and act now rather than wait for more vandalised businesses, cancelled lecturers, and dead bodies.

It took two horrific stabbings in Golders Green to tip people over the edge and cause them to up their rhetoric and say the same things as before, but slightly more forcefully.

But what of the Church? Christians have had many chances to stand up and speak. Now is another. It only gets more urgent. I once heard the prophet Graham Cook say, ”the great thing with God is you never fail, you just get to take the same test over and over again.” That is very pertinent today.

Antisemitism predates October 7 and campus activism by several millennia. And it mutates, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, like a virus. So what should Christians do?

1. Learn to recognise antisemitism and call it out for what it is

It shouldn’t need saying that this is not about Israel, but it does. Every time I write or speak, some people deflect from antisemitism to Israel. “Yes but…” they say. And this is one way to recognise antisemitism – when Jewish people are attacked verbally or physically and you find yourself saying, ”Yes but…” it has crossed the line. Just think in any other context – if two Iranians were attacked in London would you say, “Yes but the IRGC…”? I doubt it would enter your mind. When Jews (or Israelis for that matter) are held accountable for the actions of the Israeli government, that is antisemitic.

2. Learn about the history of antisemitism

Age old tropes and lies have been presented as facts across the centuries and they’re being recycled today. These include but are by no means limited to Jews as baby killers, Jews controlling the banks/media/government where they secretly pull the strings and have devious influence and Jews as uniquely powerful and uniquely depraved. When you hear anything like this, it is plain old-fashioned antisemitism, just waiting for some grotesque cartoons to illustrate it. 

Understand also the language of Holocaust inversion. Why do you think the words associated with the Holocaust (genocide, Nazis, ghetto) are so often levelled at Israel - despite the many other conflicts on going in the world today? The broadcaster Jake Wallis Simons has spoken about three patterns that characterise this – demonisation, weaponisation, falsification. Reading his book, Israelophobia, is eye opening when it comes to the genesis of the language and propaganda being used. Slogans are crafted to maximise outrage and offense, but with little relation to the facts.

3. Learn about the history of the Middle East and of Israel

Learn the history of the many created states across the region post the first world war, and the existential wars Israel has had to fight simply to exist. Reject the loaded labelling and use of terms such as ‘Zionist’. Zionism is simply the belief that Jewish people should have a nation in their original biblical homeland. That is it. To be anti-Zionist means to be against the state of Israel existing. Where should it go? And do you not think the last couple of years, and current situation has highlighted exactly why it is needed?

4. Befriend Jewish people in your world

Right now all Jewish people are experiencing a level of anxiety and fear. Contrary to the offensive words of Zach Polanski, the danger isn’t merely perceived - it’s real. At a time when antisemitic incidents are as high as they have ever been, and people are dying or being attacked and seriously injured, to claim anything else is ludicrous. Jewish people are ten times more likely to be the victims of hate crimes and physical attacks than Muslims. Earlier today, I went to the gym. I went through five security gates to get there. You know why? Because it is at the Jewish Centre near where I live. Only the Jewish community live like this in the UK. No other community or minority requires this level of security.

5. Read what the Bible says

Paul says the Jewish people are “beloved for the sake of the patriarchs” (Romans 11:28) – in other words all we have we have through the Jewish people. Paul tells us not to be ignorant of the mystery, and to have a right attitude (Romans 11:25). Instead, so many of us are standing by in a state of paralysis, or worse still, a form of misplaced ‘neutrality’, as though adjudicating in a moral argument between Israel and Palestine. We aren’t. We are simply standing by while the Jewish people in our nation are persecuted, demonised, vilified, cancelled, and ultimately attacked with violence – on our watch.

Christians need to decide whether they will bless the Jewish people and stand with them in their hour of need or stand by in false neutrality. “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil”, said Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Where does that leave our silence now?