(Digital Editor's Note: This article was published first in the August 2023 print edition of The Stand.)
When Abram followed the call to leave his country for a new land, God vowed to bless him, make his name great, make a great nation of him, and make him a blessing to others.
Then, God made another two-pronged promise to the patriarch: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3, KJV).
The Stand recently discussed with journalist Jeff Jacoby the ongoing impact of this patriarchal promise in the context of today’s rising tide of antisemitism.
Powerful words
“In the past, when Christians quoted this verse as the reason for their support of Jews and Israel,” Jacoby explained, “I kind of disregarded it. But after hearing it spoken again and again by people who truly did support and defend Judaism, I began to understand that it was more than words.”
When it comes to sharing and living by one’s words, Jacoby might be considered an expert, considering he has been a columnist at The Boston Globe since 1994. Described in his Globe bio as “a conservative writer with a national reputation,” Jacoby is much more than that. He is a trusted and reliable source of unbiased, hard-hitting commentary for conservatives and liberals alike.
He and his wife Laura have been married for 27 years and have two sons, Caleb and Micah. An observant Jew, Jacoby is the son of a Holocaust survivor. His father was the only one of his seven family members who survived Auschwitz.
Despite that great loss, Jacoby wrote that he never once heard his father complain: “It was as if [he] decided that, after Auschwitz, no setback or misfortune was worth even a moment’s self-pity.”
Obviously, Jacoby is no stranger to antisemitism and its life-altering consequences. But when asked for his thoughts on America’s escalating surge of hatred toward Jews, he grew silent for a moment before answering.
“I don’t believe America is an antisemitic nation,” he said. “But I’m kind of a history buff, and if we look back over world history, it is obvious that antisemitism is not a new problem. In fact, we can see a pattern throughout history.”
Historic cycles
Jacoby shared an older Globe column in which he further explained this historic hatred against Jews: “Antisemitism has existed for as long as Jews have existed, shape-shifting to fit the times. It has proven the most ineradicable of hatreds because, like a virus, it mutates.”
As proof, Jacoby cited incidents of blatant and often bloody antisemitism throughout history, and it was not a short lesson.
Whether isolated or commonplace, antisemitism peppers the history of almost every race, religion, and culture, including medieval Christianity, communism, Nazism, American industrialism, black nationalism, Islamic terrorism, and the current Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Consequently, Jacoby believes the biggest problem with antisemitism is the motivation behind it – the hatred that fuels it from generation to generation.
“The most dangerous antisemites don’t regard Jews or Judaism as inferior, but as the embodiment of what they revile most,” he wrote in one column. “For millennia, antisemites have identified Jews with whatever in their worldview was uniquely detestable or treacherous.” Never was that truth more evident than during the Holocaust when 6 million Jews (including 1.5 million children) were killed in Hitler’s unveiled attempt to exterminate all Jews.
Resurging hatred
Of that evil period in modern history, Jacoby remarked, “After World War II and the Holocaust, I think people somehow believed that we had seen the end of antisemitism. That maybe the cycle had ended once and for all. Now, we see that was not the case.”
In shocking numbers, the U.S. Department of Justice reported in 2021 that more than 50% of all hate crimes in America involved antisemitism, though Jews account for less than 2% of the U.S. population. This statistical disparity is growing wider according to the Anti-Defamation League, which found that hate crimes against Jewish individuals rose another 36% in 2022, the highest number ever recorded.
To stem this swelling wave, Jacoby urges Christians to first denounce current cultural lies, including the Palestinian portrayal of Israel’s recognition as a sovereign nation on May 14, 1948, as a catastrophe.
“The restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land is not a normal historical event,” Jacoby stated. “It is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy [Deuteronomy 30:3-5; Ezekiel 37:11-14], a miracle that our generation has been extraordinarily privileged to witness.”
Jacoby also believes Christians must resolve not only to stand but also to walk alongside their Jewish neighbors. They must be like the tenants who lived above his father’s furniture shop during Cleveland’s race riots in1968, when Jacoby was 9 years old.
Instead of standing by and allowing Mark Jacoby’s business to be ransacked, gutted, or burned like so many others on the block, his neighbors formed a human chain of protection in front of the store.
“Stay away from this place,” the protectors told rioters. “It belongs to a good man.”
Neighborly goodness
Of such goodness, Jacoby once wrote to his 16-day-old son: “For thousands of years, Caleb, our people have been taught that nothing matters more than being good. Not riches, not fame, not education, not success. ‘What does God require of thee,’ the prophet Micah questioned long ago, ‘but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?’”
Amid America’s growing antisemitism, such God-ordained goodness will require Christians to be true allies of their Jewish counterparts. Believers cannot avert their gaze and look away from antisemitism but confront it with words and actions. In essence, God’s people must follow His command in Leviticus 19:18 to love their neighbor as themselves.
Mark 12 clarifies that only love for God should supersede the command to love others, and 1 John 5:3 declares, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (ESV).
Those words still ring true today. God’s commands are not burdensome, even when He instructs Christians to make a choice to either bless Israel and be blessed – or be cursed.
Ironically, as far back as May 15, 2003, Jacoby pondered that choice and the relationship between Jews and Christians in a column titled “Israel’s Unshakeable Allies.”
“But there is no denying the obvious: Devotion to Israel and warmth toward Jews are powerful forces in American evangelical life,” he wrote. “At a time when antisemitism is on the rise around the world, the friendship of the Christian right is something every Jew should cheer.”
It is also a friendship every Christian should pursue. Considering God’s ancient promise to Father Abraham, the world’s future evidently rests in that choice.
