Genocidal antisemitism in America?
I am certain that most of the Christian Post’s readers have been as shocked as I have been by the shameful and gruesome scenes of virulent, genocidal antisemitism breaking out on the campuses of major American universities. Until I saw it with my own eyes, I would not have believed such scenes could have erupted in our country. Clearly, these are not the “better angels of our nature.”
These scenes from the past few days call to mind the virulent antisemitism of 1930s Nazi Germany. And we all know where that eventually led.
These outbreaks of racist violence must serve as a wake-up call. Clearly, cultural Marxism has deeply infiltrated the American university structure at the faculty and administration levels. Far too many students have been “brainwashed” concerning Israel and the Palestinians. Most of these students have never been taught of the Israeli peace offers turned down by the Palestinians in 1948, 1967, and ultimately the Camp David and Oslo Accords.
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Why? The answer is simple. The Palestinians rejected the idea of a Jewish state. The chant of “a Jew-free Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea” involves the death or forced removal of between six to seven million Jews. Does that number sound familiar? Yes, that is the approximate number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Hamas’s charter calls for the abolition of the Jews in Israel. Surveys show that at least two-thirds of Palestinians support Hamas. Hamas, by the way, and the Palestinian Liberation Front (P.L.O.) are both kleptocracies with some of their leaders being worth up to a billion dollars from siphoned-off funds intended for their people.
They pay pensions to the families of terrorists killed attacking the Israelis. They teach their children in school that the Jews are monsters and in the process turn their young men into replicas of Nazi stormtroopers.
They want American young people to be ignorant of their history—a history that condemns this terrible antisemitism.
The first president of the United States, a year after being elected president in 1789, visited the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1790. The warden of the synagogue, Moses Seixas, took the occasion of President Washington’s visit to send a letter of greeting to our country’s first president. He expressed the congregation’s esteem for the president and the freedoms offered in the new nation. The warden went on to say,
Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free Citizens, we now with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty diposer of all events behold a Government, erected by the Majesty of the People – a government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance – but generously affording to all Liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship – deeming everyone, of whatever Nation, tongue, or language equal parts of the great governmental Machine: - This so ample and extensive Federal Union whose basis is Philanthropy, Mutual confidence and Public Virtue, we cannot but acknowledge to be the work of the Great God, who ruleth in the Armies of Heaven, and among the Inhabitants of the Earth, doing whatever seemeth him good.
What a remarkable statement of faith—a remarkable letter, and it produced a remarkable and historic response from President Washington.
Our nation’s first President wrote to the synagogue and expressed his desire, “The children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree. There shall be none to make them afraid.”
He also said the following:
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess a like liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
President Washington’s letter was written before the First Amendment had been ratified. President Washington declared religious liberty, not mere toleration, to be the nation’s standard, and in an echo of America as “the city on the hill,” declares this radical new liberty to be a “policy of worthy of imitation.” As was the case with many things, President Washington “got it” and he “got it right!”
The cultural Marxists do not want us to know our history, because a nation’s history tells us who we are. We are better than these demonstrations. We must teach our young people our history. May we never forget who we are. May we continue to be the “city on a hill.”
Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.
Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” and in his weekly column for CP.
