We Need to Talk About Anti-Semitism
On the morning of June 24, 1922, German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau left his villa in Berlin in an open limousine. Another open-topped vehicle overtook them, and two black-clad assassins sprayed bullets into the limousine and blasted it into the air with a grenade.
Why kill Rathenau? He had worked for Kaiser Wilhelm ii and was still working to make Germany strong again. The killers were right-wing extremists with the same ultimate goal. But they wanted to wage a bloody “internal war” to force “the exclusion of Jews” from German government.
The Rathenau murder was a stepping-stone to the Holocaust. Most Germans were aghast at the violence, but a less-
extreme resentment toward Jews was simmering below the surface. Many believed some variant of the “stab in the back” myth: that the kaiser and Germany had lost World War i because socialists and Jews had sabotaged the war effort at home. In the U.S., prominent men like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh promulgated similar ideas about “Jewish conspiracies.” Replace these phrases with “Israel lobby,” “Palestinian genocide” or “Free Palestine,” and the sentiments of the 2020s echo those of the 1920s.
By the time World War ii was raging, many Europeans of all walks of life had found it to be a logical progression to exclude Jews from government, from basic rights and from society in general. Because the anti-Semitism undercurrent never reversed, those who had been shocked by the Rathenau murder in 1922 were giving the “Heil Hitler” salute by 1941 and loading Jews into cattle cars to exterminate them at Auschwitz and Treblinka by 1942.
The same attitude simmers today.
On April 13, 2025, Cody Balmer set the Pennsylvania governor’s residence on fire in an attempt to assassinate Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish. On May 21, Eli Rodriguez committed a terroristic double murder of engaged couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. On June 1, a man attacked peaceful pro-Israel protesters in Boulder, Colorado, with Molotov cocktails and a flamethrower, causing the death of an 82-year-old woman. When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, usually a vehement critic of Israel in Congress, cast a vote in favor of Israel on one occasion, her office was vandalized and she received death threats.
Meanwhile in Europe, more people are targeting Jews for intimidation, harassment and violence. During the annual Glastonbury Festival on June 28, British punk rock duo Bob Vylan led the crowd in a hateful condemnation of the Israel Defense Forces, chanting, “Death, death to the idf.” At a July 20 concert, Belgian authorities arrested two Israelis after a pro-Palestinian group accused them of “severe violations of international humanitarian law” with no evidence other than the fact that they had waved idf flags. On July 22, an Israeli cruise ship blocked its passengers from disembarking on the Greek island of Syros because 300 protesters had encamped at the port to intimidate them.
These people are targeting Jews because they are Jewish—and because they feel they can express anti-Semitism with impunity. Many times, they are right. It is the pro-Israel who suffer consequences.
Holocaust
Most people would condemn the brutal murders of Lischinsky and Milgrim, just as most condemned the assassination of Rathenau. But many today, as then, also feel that resentment toward Israelis and Jews is legitimate. They don’t recognize anti-Semitism for what it is: a warning sign, a harbinger of worse to come.
Anti-Semitism is madness, yet it has thrived in Western culture for 2,000 years. Ancient Rome taxed the Jews extra heavily and treated them as second class. Medieval Europeans branded all Jews as guilty of killing Jesus Christ, of causing the Black Death and of cannibalizing Christian children. The evils of both capitalism and communism have been blamed on Jews.
Where does this special hatred for this special people come from?
Before the descendants of Judah became a nation, God prophesied that the Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10). Jesus Christ was born a Jew. He said that “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). He had a special relationship with the Jews during His human lifetime. Revelation 5:5 identifies Christ as “the Lion of the tribe of Juda.” Romans 3:1-2 state that God preserved “the oracles of God” (His Holy Scriptures and the Sabbath day) through the Jews. The Jews rejected Christ as the Messiah at His first coming, but Romans 11 establishes that this does not negate them from being God’s people. God even says true Christians must become spiritual Jews to be saved (e.g. Romans 2:29). In other words, if you believe the Bible, you believe that God has given the Jews a special role.
“Jesus Christ grew up as a Jewish lad,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in The Key of David. “God gave the Jews a very prominent place in His plan. From these facts we must assume that God the Father and Jesus Christ have a close connection to the Jewish race—but only to further their spiritual plan.”
The Bible also reveals that the devil exists, opposes God’s plan, and is so powerful as to be “the god of this world” who “deceives the whole world” and is the “accuser of our brethren” (2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9-10). He is attacking God, God’s work and God’s people, including true Christians, the nations of Israel and—as is abundantly evident—the Jews.
Revelation 12 reveals that in the “short time” prior to the Messiah’s return, the devil is “cast down” and confined to Earth. Jesus Christ prophesied to His disciples about the same time period, saying that Jerusalem (which today is controlled by the Jews) will be surrounded by armies inspired by Satan—and be desolate (Luke 21:20). He warns His people “in Judea” to flee before carnage engulfs the city (verse 21). “[A]nd Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (verse 24).
“When a race receives honor as God has honored the Jews, Satan hates them for that,” Mr. Flurry writes. “He inspired enemies to rise up and strip them of all dignity! The Nazis often shaved their heads, took their clothes, beat them, and used them for medical experiments. God says it will be far worse the next time around. Do you believe God? …
“The Jews say, ‘Never again!’ Sadly, we have to tell them they are dead wrong. It is going to happen again, and it’s going to make the Holocaust look like a dress rehearsal. The Jews suffered horribly in World War ii. That history is a stark warning of what is about to come upon them!” (ibid).
Christ criticized those who did not “discern the signs of the times” of Bible prophecy (Matthew 16:3). In Luke 21:36, He warns that we must watch the evil happening in our time and be stirred—or we too will become victims: “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Hope
“They need to know what an exalted role God has given them!” Mr. Flurry writes of the Jews in The Key of David. “They need hope! This whole world needs hope.”
Jesus Christ prophesied that the very reason He will return to Earth is to stop the devil, take away his rule as “god of this world,” and reestablish God’s government on Earth.
“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:27-28).
Jesus Christ is the Messiah of the Jews and of all mankind. He is coming to a specific city, Jerusalem, and bringing the truth to the world specifically through true Christians and through the nations of Israel. (See page 23 and request your free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy.)
“God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34), as the history of the Jews and all of Israel attests. The reason the Bible, from beginning to end, is about Abraham’s descendants in Israel, is that God is using them in His plan to reach all humanity.
Anti-Semitism’s dramatic rise worldwide should alarm everyone. It should also motivate us to study more deeply into its origin and what the role of the Jews and other peoples of Israel is. This study brings the Bible—and Bible prophecy—roaring to life!