The City Without Jews is an Austrian film. In the movie, the nameless city’s Jews are forced to leave on Christmas Day. “Some of the poorer people leave on foot, accompanied by soldiers with bayonets. Whole communities walk slowly through the snow, some on crutches, some carrying Torah scrolls from the synagogues,” the BBC writes in its summary of the movie.

The film was not made following the Nazi era or a drama about the Holocaust. It was made in 1924 — eight years prior to Hitler’s coming to power. It’s as relevant today as it was 94 years ago.

In Public and Private, Hate is Growing

There are places in the U.S. where anti-Semitism is in the open. The so-called “National Socialist Movement” held a rally last week in a little town in Georgia to “mark Adolf Hitler’s birthday.” The “movement” drew a whopping two dozen supporters, scores of police, and national media that highlighted its moral deformity.

Most incidents of anti-Jewish bigotry are less public but not less disturbing. A survey published in February said there were almost 2,000 reported incidents of anti-Semitism in the United States in 2017. This is up nearly 60 percent from 2016, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

These kinds of things aren’t unique to America. Across the globe, from Holocaust denial to white-washed biographies of Hitler, attempts to blot-out anti-Semitic violence are almost a fad.

Why? Scapegoating, bizarre conspiracy theories, a feeling of powerlessness, and the Satanic effort to eliminate a people unique in God’s plan for humanity.

Anti-Semitism on College Campuses

In America, there’s a growing acceptance of anti-Semitism on many college and university campuses. The problem has become so serious that last fall, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) held a hearing to investigate the matter.

As former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement told the Committee, last year “Anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses have included: spray-painting and drawing swastikas on residency halls and predominantly Jewish fraternities; taping the word ‘JEW’ and a swastika next to a student’s Israeli flag in his room; and writing that ‘Zionists should be sent to the gas chamber’ in a campus bathroom.”

Much of this is fomented by pro-Palestinian organizations like National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP). The organization claims to be against anti-Semitism. But it asserts it main mission is “freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people, who have been living without basic rights under Israeli military occupation and colonialism since 1948.”

Israel Has a Right to Exist

Israel has a moral and legal right to exist as a sovereign state. It is not occupying the land within its internationally recognized borders.

As to the NSJP’s influence, a recent report documents that where the NSJP has opened chapters, incidents of anti-Semitism have followed. Just last month, NSJP protesters yelled and chanted for a full two hours at an “Israel Block Party” at the University of Texas. These charming youngsters bellowed such slogans as, “5-6-7-8, Israel is a terrorist state” and “From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Ethnic cleansing, anyone?

Is Israel a flawless state? No. It has made mistakes with respect to the Arabs who live in and around its borders.

But how many countries have been so relentlessly attacked by its own residents and neighbors as Israel? How many countries have yielded back territory it won after being assailed by those who hate it? And how many people have been so exploited by their own leaders as have the people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank? After decades during which billions of dollars have poured into these areas, why do they remain in such great economic need?

Students at dozens of premier U.S. colleges and universities have voted to urge their schools’ administrators to divest from Israel. Thankfully, few if any of these student-led actions have been acted upon.

Christians’ Duty

From the beginning of time, the devil has hated the Jewish people. A liar and murderer from the beginning, as Jesus said, he has always wanted to thwart God’s plan for those He has called uniquely from all nations.

He still does. He possessed Judas so as to enable him to betray the Savior. He moves in the hearts and minds of many today, deceiving the angry, the bigoted, and the overlooked with that most irrational of impulses, hatred of the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — and of Jesus.

Christians have a very simple duty: Stand with Israel, vocally oppose anti-Semitism where it rears-up, challenge its purveyors with facts and truth, and pray.

• Pray for and write to American policymakers concerning the need for our country to stand with Israel.
• Pray for “the peace of Jerusalem,” as Scripture commands (Psalm 122:6).
• Pray for the leaders of the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority, that their loathing of Israel will stop and a commitment to the well-being of those they represent will replace it.
• Pray for Israel’s leaders, that they would administer justice to all and have God’s special guidance in protecting their people.
• Pray for the leaders of Israel’s enemies, that God would thwart their designs to attack Israel.
• Pray for the poor souls in our own country, that their anti-Semitism would return to the pit of hell from whence it came — and that they would find the hope of heaven in the Jewish Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, the Savior of all men.

America must never become a “city without Jews.” Let us, instead, be a shining city on a hill, one in which the Jewish people will always be welcome.