Americans are brash. British are diffident. Russians are fine in small numbers, but get too many of them in the same room and all of a sudden it’s like “We are RUSSIAN”. We could talk about the French, about the Mexicans, and every other ethnic group on the planet, and I would argue that we are not being racist. We are simply engaging in the age old art of cultural anthropology. Generally speaking, this is the impression we have – or might have – of such-and-such people.
Above and beyond the issue of what an ethnic group is like there is the political structure of a people which we might think differently about. For example, I have an impression of Cubans based on those who have immigrated to the United States, and I have an opinion of the Cuban government which is vastly different. I empathize with the Ukrainian people while remaining skeptical of its politicians. I don’t approve of the Russian government but I suspect neither do many Russians – they just don’t want to get sent to Siberia for saying so out loud. So sometimes there is a secondary impression that we can have based on political analysis.
When it comes to the Jewish people, we can have these same kinds of thoughts without being racist, although there is more complexity involved. For example, there are large Jewish populations outside the State of Israel which means that there are American Jews and Russian Jews and European Jews who may all compromise smaller subsets of Jews. Then there are the Israelis, who are by and large Jews living in their own national State. I can make cultural observations along these lines without being racist. I can make some generalizations that may not be flattering and yet are not anti-Semitic in nature. Beyond that I can critique the policies of the Israeli government as a separate issue.
These types of generalizations are subject to the same rules as all generalizations. We hold them as an oversimplification that serves to release our minds from being overwhelmed by over granularization of a subject. But we are quick to adjust or change when we are suddenly confronted with a particular individual or a particular situation. At that point, our minds are called upon to move beyond a generalization of, say, “what women are like”, to deal with the specific woman confronting us. Which may be your wife, so you certainly want to move beyond generalizations.
Our neighbors sold out two years ago and an older gentleman moved in. As we were introducing ourselves, he told me that he had moved here from California (a not un-common phenomenon in our neck of the woods), then quickly added, “But I’m not a crazy liberal!” He felt the need to subvert any generalization that would make me think of him as a west coast nutjob, and that was just smart on his part. Now, to my credit, I have been around long enough to hold my generalizations loosely, so he was not in any danger from me pigeonholing him in that way. But Tommy (my neighbor) understands how life actually works and so he worked to remove any stereotypes as quickly as possible.
All of this is what I am calling “The Problem with the Jews” and I think it’s a perfectly acceptable thing for people to do, provided it stays in this box. Provided it is a loosely held generalization founded on general cultural analysis that the holder is willing to change and adjust as he encounters actual Jewish people. Unconditional positive regard for Jews or for Israel is not a requirement for evangelical Christians. We are allowed to note cultural issues or criticize political decisions.
Of course, the central problem with the Jews is not what you’ll find on a dark Reddit thread. The fundamental problem with Israel is not that they have prosecuted the war against Hamas inhumanely. The central problem with the Jews is that they continue to reject Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ of God, a problem that is shared by many of my own countrymen. In Israel’s stumbling on the Cornerstone, salvation has come to the Gentiles. But as Paul reminds us, this is not so that the Gentiles can boast over them. Instead, seeing what great things God has done with their rejection of the New Covenant, we are challenged to consider what great things God can do with their inclusion in the New Covenant:
I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?
(Rom 11:11-12)
Evangelical Christians should not be hateful or angry with the Jews, but rather prayer for the salvation of our “older brother” (Luke 15:11-32), who preserved our Father’s inheritance – the oracles, the adoption, the glory, the Law, the promises, and of whom is Christ according to the flesh. Anti-semitism has no place among Gentile believers.
The Problem of the Joooze
We move now from a problem “with” to a problem “of”, which seems to be the problem that Hamas has. It isn’t that Hamas is critical of particular Israeli policies or disdaining of particular cultural characteristics. Hamas doesn’t like the fact that the Jews exist at all. They are not looking to make peace with Israel, but to provoke a response from her that they can use to continue to justify their ethnic hatred. That this works in the international community is absurd. That the same spirit of Jew-hatred has found a home in the United States is distressing. Hate-crimes (a category I don’t like but will use for expediency) disproportionately target Jews. Anyone with eyes can see that college campuses have become partisan players against the Jews. And lately there seems to be an increase in animosity among young Christian men towards the Jews.
Now, if the knee-jerk response is to pull out a bunch of reasons why we should be critical of the Jews, we could discuss those one at a time as wise cultural anthropologists working through “the problem with the Jews”, but if underlying those “reasons” is an animating principle of ethnic animosity then we have moved over to “the problem of the Jews”. Why is there so much underlying hatred towards the Jews?
First, there is a human predisposition to despise the Jews because the Law of God came through the Jewish people, and the Law of God exposes our sin. This isn’t to say that Jews follow the Law as a whole, but to remind us that historically, we would not have the 10 commandments but for God giving them to the Jewish people. Since the Law exposes sin and people don’t like to have their sin exposed, there is a spiritual animosity towards the Jews that is largely subconscious. As Dennis Praeger put it: the world has never forgiven us for giving it the Law.
Secondly, the Jews are hated because they are disproportionately successful. Envy lies at the root of a lot of antisemitism. Historically, God’s elective purposes (Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, etc…) have resulted in envy. But additional to that is the fact that Jews always seem to wind up with the money. Since we are living in an envy-driven world – envy fuels the Marxist dogmas of sexism, racism, etc…- it shouldn’t surprise us that envy lies at the heart of some Jew-haters. But it is somewhat surprising that this should take root in the political right, which tends to despise these forms of Marxism, and who reject the principle that attaining more wealth is automatically a sign of wickedness. It could be that for cultural reasons, the Jews have produced more billionaires, more technological advances, more inventions, and more wealth than any other ethnic group on the planet. And if so, I would sure like to learn more about that.
Let’s say you take a group of young white men who are justifiably upset that they have been blamed for all the suffering of the Western world. Justifiably, because they have only been alive for a couple decades and really haven’t been participating in society for more than a decade. They feel as though their very existence is problematic for the political left. They feel like they aren’t getting to participate in meaningful ways. That jobs that they should be able to get have been sent overseas or given to less qualified people as a result of DEI policies. That housing has skyrocketed and the odds of owning their own house looks grim. That corporations are absorbing public funds and then limiting opportunities for entrepreneurs. That women, whom they have an instinct to protect, are rejecting them in favor of careers. Frustrated, they look for someone to blame for this and they find the Jews: a high performing people who disproportionately own the wealth of our nation, who are embroiling us in an overseas conflict, and about whom countless conspiracies and conspiracy theories abound. The Jews own the media. The Jews own the housing. Epstein was a Jew!
I offer as evidence for this phenomenon the strange implications made by certain conservative media types that the Jews were somehow implicated in Charlie Kirk’s murder. Or that Charlie Kirk was “souring” on the Jews. This really does show how biased and out of control some of conservative media has become towards the Jews, especially if you look at Charlie Kirk’s robust defense of Israel in May at Cambridge. So imagine just for a second you are Erika Kirk or Andrew Kolvet or Frank Turek. You actually know Charlie Kirk, but you see some media personality with “special insider information” about the “trends” she noticed in Charlie over the last year towards the Jews. Or imagine you are Charlie’s mentor and find out that some rando out there has decided you were part of the conspiracy to take out Charlie before he could flip on Israel. Not only are these insane, but they are also deeply sinful because they falsely accuse, with hints and rumors and gossip, the character of a man who cannot defend himself anymore and the character of those who loved him the most. The fact that it is finding an audience among Christian young men is troubling.
I call this the “problem of the Joooze” because it isn’t rational, it isn’t occasioned by specific cultural characteristics or political activities, but is essentially animated by the mere existence of the Jewish people. This is sinful and wrong.
Tying it Together
To reiterate my basic premise: There are legitimate cultural and political criticisms that Christians can make of the Jews/Israel, the primary critique being their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of God. This should not lead us to a hatred or despising of the Jews, but of a desire to see them turn from the dead works of self-righteousness to the living righteousness of a resurrected Savior.
Christians should guard their hearts against any form of ethnic animosity as a principle of Christian conduct, but in relation to the Jewish people we ought to also add a layer of gratitude and appreciate for their contributions to redemptive history, which are all to the glory of God. This does NOT mean a blanket promotion of every pro-Israel policy or a defense of every individual Jew, as they are as fallen as the rest of us and capable of horrendous evil just as much as we are.
One way a believer might discern a wrong spirit is a tendency to blame the Jews for everything. This could be evidenced by a tendency to indulge in conspiracy theories. And yes, I get that yesterday’s “conspiracy theory” might be tomorrow’s reality, and the fact that we really can’t trust anyone is problematic. But that raises the question of why we believe that there is a famine in Gaza, or that Israel is using feeding stations to bait civilians into a kill zone? Why should we believe those things when they are promoted by a politcal party who rape women and murder children as a form of public policy?
Another way a believer might sense an antisemitic streak in himself is by comparing his level of outrage towards Israel compared to his level of outrage towards Hamas, or even a completely different tragedy like the persecution of Christians by Muslims in Africa. Righteous anger can be a legitimate and good thing, but when all the righteous anger is dumped on the Jews, maybe it is an indication that our compass is less attuned to righteousness than it is to the Jews.
Finally, some advice for those who struggle with animosity towards the Jews. Full disclosure: it is my goal to pull you out of that dark place. But even if your hatred were towards Hamas, I would want to pull you out that dark place, because that dark place of hatred is not where God has called us to live. He has called us to walk in the light. If the Jews are your mortal enemies, God calls you to love your enemies. How do we love our enemies? We pray for them. We bless them. We do good to them.
Additionally, I want to remind all the young men out there that the Jews are not preventing you from getting married, having kids, owning a house, serving God, and loving your community. God is for us; who can be against us? Walk with hope for this life and the life to come. Faith, hope, and love are the antidotes for us. In the world we will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, a Jewish carpenter has overcome the world.
Nathan Writes 