Perspective: Why Jews can count on American Christians in terrible times

“Be careful,” my elderly aunt admonished me before I left New York City 22 years ago to visit a number of Christian colleges across the country for research on a book I was writing.

She and others in my Jewish extended family were genuinely worried about my physical safety, with one even muttering something about lynching. They warned me about antisemitism and cautioned me to watch my back.

I thought their words were silly even before I visited these schools — which included those affiliated with evangelicals, Catholics and Latter-day Saints — but afterward I found their ideas downright preposterous. The truth is that Jews have no greater friends in this country, and in this world, than faithful Christians, and I can only hope that somewhere in the aftermath of the horror we are witnessing in Israel, my friends and relatives will reckon with this truth.

According to Gallup polling from 2020, about 70% of Protestants are sympathetic to Israel, a number that remained unchanged since 2010 and is 10% higher than the rest of the American public.

Moreover, Protestants who attend religious services more frequently are more likely to be sympathetic to Israel than the Palestinians. They are vocal about their support both culturally and politically, visiting Israel, supporting its economy and demanding that American politicians remain steadfast in their military and economic support of the country.

Outside of Jews, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were the most sympathetic to Israel, at 79%.

My visits to Christian schools two decades ago yielded few attempts at conversion, let alone coercion or threats. A dean at Bob Jones University in South Carolina teared up and told me he loved the Jews and was thrilled to find out that I was “of the Jewish persuasion.” At other schools, students asked me about my own religious traditions. At Brigham Young University, students were quick to talk about how they see themselves as very similar to the Jewish people culturally and religiously.

Atheists, by contrast, the group with whom my Jewish friends and relatives would probably say they feel most comfortable with because they are not engaged in any kind of proselytization, are more likely to express a favorable view of the Palestinian government (39%) than of the Israeli government (20%). One hopes that might have changed in recent days, but who knows?

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I am not naïve to the long history of persecution of Jews by some Christians. The theological and political history of how we got to this point is long and complicated. Norman Podhoretz’s 2009 book “Why Are Jews Liberals?” attempts to answer it. Sadly, we American Jews have too often prioritized liberalism over the preservation and protection of our own community. Many of us don’t like the position of religious Christians on abortion, for instance, and so we often fail to recognize and respect the vital role they have played in protecting Israel and speaking out about antisemitism here at home.

In recent years my Jewish friends have been more inclined to populate their lawns and Facebook pages with “Black Lives Matter” signs, despite the virulent antisemitism and anti-Zionism the leaders of these groups have spewed. Just this week, BLM Chicago posted an image of a parachuter with the Palestinian flag (like the ones who came to murder and kidnap innocent Jews this week) with the caption “I support Palestine.”

By contrast, here was the statement from Russell Moore, a former leader of the Southern Baptist Convention and now editor of Christianity Today:

“As Americans, we should stand with Israel under attack because it is a fellow liberal democracy — and a democracy in a region dominated by illiberal, authoritarian regimes. As Christians, we should pay special attention to violence directed toward Israel — just as we would pay special attention to a violent attack on a member of our extended family. After all, we are grafted on to the promise made to Abraham (Romans 11:17). Our Lord Jesus was and is a Jewish man from Galilee. Rage against the Jewish people is rage against him, and, because we are in him, against us.”

At my alma mater, Harvard University, 31 student groups posted a letter unequivocally supporting Hamas in this conflict and it took the administration several days to issue a statement finally saying that these groups did not speak for the school.

As I think about where my own children will attend college, where they will be most protected from the hatred and violence toward Jews that seems to be spreading on American campuses, I suspect a place with a large population of devout Christians should be on the list. Maybe then I won’t have to advise them to “be careful.”

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Deseret News contributor and the author of “No Way to Treat a Child: How the Foster Care System, Family Courts, and Racial Activists Are Wrecking Young Lives,” among other books.