Even before the Israel-Hamas war, there was an increase in antisemitic incidents in the U.S.: 3,697 such incidents in 2022; in fact, a 36% increase from the year before. Now, it’s just getting worse.  

Jon Rettinger, a father of three, told CNN that one of his children asked if they were going to be kidnapped like the victims in Israel, “It’s horrible for any family to have to explain to children that people hate them because of who they are,” he said. “And to have to kiss your kids goodbye every day with worries.” 

Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, told CBS News, “People have got to name it and address it … It can’t be swept away.” Christians should be first in line to condemn antisemitism, keeping in mind, as Francis Schaeffer wrote, “that our Lord Himself was a Jew—born a Jew, lived a Jew, died a Jew.”