Typically, after a major Palestinian terror attack on Israel, the Jewish State gets a few days of world sympathy, depending on the number of Jewish casualties. After 1,300 of our brothers and sisters brutally murdered by Hamas butchers, something new and frightening occurred this time. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators had their boots on and were marching in cities from New York to Dearborne, while the bullets were still flying and as Hamas terrorists were still dragging Holocaust survivors and Israeli kids to captivity in Gaza.
While we watched the unfolding nightmare in real time, a digital intifada was exploding on TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook. No matter that we haven’t even come to grips with the fact that last week we suffered the most deadly attack on Jews since the Holocaust, hateful, anti-semitic propaganda is spreading quickly and virally, influencing the minds and hearts of the younger generation on social media. Despite what it might look like on your social media, the pro Israel voices are being utterly drown out by a tidal wave of hate against are people from the left.
It is abundantly clear that despite Israel’s best attempts at public diplomacy, public opinion and the mainstream media has shifted far away from Israel, especially among young Americans. That is why we urgently need the next generation of American faith leaders, led by rabbis and pastors, to put aside our painful history, and work closely together, for the sack of all of our shared values, that are under brutal attack.
I realize there are many Jewish Press readers who are opposed to all cooperation with Christians. As an Orthodox rabbi and grandson of Holocaust Survivors, I am aware of the dangerous pitfalls of working with Evangelical Christians. Yes, it is true that some Christians still want to convert the Jews. However, I always explain to my non-Jewish friends that if we are going to work together, we must understand and respect each other. And therefore, after centuries of forced conversions and Christian antisemitism, the Jewish People won’t tolerate proselytizing, which we consider an act of hatred, not love.
Having worked closely with Evangelicals for more than ten years as the founder of Israel365 and editor of “The Israel Bible,” I know that we are in a crisis and at a crossroads in our relationships with Christian Zionists. Research study after research study consistently show a dramatic decline in young Evangelicals support for Israel. It would be inexcusable if we let these cracks in the foundation grow into unrepairable chasms, greatly undermining Israel’s safety and security.
America’s Evangelical community firmly believes in the Bible, whose opening verse that we read last Shabbos in Parshas Bereishis establishes that Hashem created the world, and, as Rashi points out, gave Eretz Yisrael to Am Yisrael. If more Jews, especially frum Jews who believe in the eternal truth of the Torah, boldly reach out to our non-Jewish friends to build relationships for the sake of strengthening Israel, we can transform Israel from the most hated country in the world into the most beloved. Although it seems like we are hopelessly outnumbered on the Hasbara battlefield, by embracing a faith-based approach to Israel advocacy, we can reclaim and reframe the narrative.
In consultation with our poskim, Israel365 is building a faith-based, new movement for Israel that is uniting all of those Jews and non-Jews who believe that what unites us is much stronger than what divides us. Together, frum Jews and Evangelical Christians are developing the largest pro-Israel movement around the world, which Eretz Yisrael needs more than ever before.
Earlier this week, Israel365 hosted a major rally in Dallas, Texas, where leading rabbanim and mega-pastors shared a stage, shoulder to shoulder for the first time. Repeatedly, the pastors rejected prosetlyzing and the rabbis thanked them for their unconditional support for Israel and the Jewish people, with no strings attached.
In the last century, Christian antisemitism boiled over and led to the murder of Six Million of our people. Yet, miraculously, today, there are tens of millions of American Christians who stand united with Israel. With the Jewish State under attack like no other moment in most of our lifetimes, and with support for Israel slipping in the younger generation, we can’t afford to take our Evangelical friends for granted. Rather, those who want to defend Israel and who are concerned for Israel’s future, must embrace our new opportunity to stand up for Israel and at the same time fulfill our eternal destiny to be an “Ohr Lagoyim” – a light unto the nations.
