The alarming rise of antisemitism must not be ignored. From an Israeli couple being harassed in a California restaurant to a Muslim youth group showing a slide of what they want to see in Canada (which displayed “Jew free” as one of the captions) to 75% of European teachers reporting antisemitic incidents in their classrooms (including 60% reporting Holocaust denial), we must pray, educate, and take action against this evil in every way we can.

The persecution of the Jewish people dates back thousands of years to when the Hebrew people would not worship false gods or idols of surrounding nations. Later in world history, when Roman Emperors converted to Christianity, the persecution of Christians largely eased, but the persecution of the Jews increased. The Middle Ages saw the Crusades, where mobs of people swept through Jewish communities– terrorizing and massacring in pogrom-style attacks (a pogrom is a violent attack targeted toward Jews). The Bubonic Plague then swept through Europe, killing one-third of the population, and who was blamed for that? The Jews. One hundred thousand were burned alive in Austria and Germany alone.

In the 16th Century, Reformer Martin Luther wrote a book called The Jews and Their Lies that called for violence against Jews (it was reprinted in 1935 by the Nazis). Many scholars say this publication marked the transition from Anti-Judaism (attacks motivated by the Jews’ refusal to accept Christianity) to Anti-Semitism (hatred of the Jews as a race that would “contaminate” the purity of another race). Russian pogroms arose in the early 20th century, and more than 500 Jewish communities in Ukraine were wiped out.

Throughout history, Jews have been subject to political, economic, and social discrimination: they were not allowed to own land in various European countries, and they were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1394, and from Spain in 1492. If that last year sounds familiar, it’s likely because that’s the same year that Christopher Columbus set out from Spain and discovered America– a place that later became a haven for many Jewish people.

From 1919 to 1942, Britain restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine and bowed to Arab demands to keep them out. Ships loaded with Jews fleeing Hitler’s Final Solution were turned away at ports in the Holy Land. Speaking of ships, a ship called The St. Louis was loaded with more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Germany in 1939. Cuba turned the ship away after invalidating the passengers’ entry permits, as did President Roosevelt when the ship was off the coast of Miami. Canada followed suit, and the ship returned to Europe. About one-third of its passengers were murdered during the Holocaust, which ended up costing the lives of six million Jewish men, women, and children.

Today, the UN has more resolutions against Israel than all other nations combined. The Anti-Defamation League reports that at least 2.2 billion people worldwide are antisemitic. Jews are the targets of antisemitic incidents ranging from social media posts to property damage to physical assaults.

The question is, what are we going to do about it?

May we pray and invoke the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to move in power to defend the people He has inscribed in the palm of His hand (Isaiah 49:14-16).

May we raise our voice and combat antisemitic acts, petitioning politicians and leaders at all levels of society to stand against all forms of antisemitism in their spheres of influence.

May we educate others on Jewish history, the Jews’ right to the land of Israel, and help expose lies propagated about both the Jews and the nation of Israel.

May we be like Corrie ten Boom and willingly take risks to help Jewish people under persecution. May we be like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and use our voice and influence to speak the truth, not buckling to cultural pressures.

Most of all, may we love and care for God’s firstborn, the Jewish people, just as the Lord loves them: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3, NIV).