Tag Archives: antisemitism

That antisemitism has always been with us cannot be denied. The reasons for it are many and varied, but Christians of all people need to take this very seriously indeed. Sadly, too much of the Christian church over the centuries has been involved in ugly antisemitism and Jew-hatred. Here I want to quote from five books on this. Some are authored by Jews, some by Christians, and some by Messianic Jews. I present these quotes in that order.

Ryvchin, Alex, The 7 Deadly Myths: Antisemitism from the Time of Christ to Kanye West

In this brief book the Australian writer begins by seeking to define terms:

The term “antisemitism” is a modern creation and a wholly unsatisfactory one. The word was created by a German populist and agitator, Wilhelm Marr, in 1879 to give anti-Jewish activities a legitimacy and a sound of pseudo-scientific sophistication. Marr founded the League of Antisemites. It is often and incorrectly spelled with a hyphen and capitalization of “semitism” (anti-Semitism), which falsely suggests a hatred of Semites or Semitism. No such people exist, though the word “Semitic” refers to a linguistic family which includes Arabic and Hebrew. This has led to claims that antisemitism refers to hatred of both Jews and Arabs when in fact the term was created by Marr only with hatred of the Jews in mind. As in the cases of Kanye West and basketballer Kyrie Irving, self-identifying as a “Semite” has become a way of denying being antisemitic despite making remarks hateful towards Jews….

While numerous scholarly and working definitions of it have been developed and applied, in its essence antisemitism is a hatred of the Jews, which has been expressed variously as a hatred for the Jewish religion, and hatred of Jews as members of an ethnic, national and perceived racial group.

It should be noted that antisemitism is often expressed through the use of euphemism or coded language which deliberately avoids the use of the term “Jew” in order to elude accusations of racism and to bolster the appeal of this form of prejudice. The term “antisemitism” is itself an example of such obfuscation. Zionism, which refers to the political/national movement to re-establish an independent Jewish homeland in Palestine is the most commonly used euphemism in contemporary antisemitic speech. (pp. 22-23)

Prager, Dennis and Joseph Telushkin, Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism

The opening words of the book are these:

Hatred of the Jew has been humanity’s greatest hatred. While hatred of other groups has always existed, no hatred has been as universal, as deep, or as permanent as antisemitism. The Jews have been objects of hatred in pagan, religious, and secular societies. Fascists have accused them of being Communists, and Communists have branded them capitalists. Jews who live in non-Jewish societies have been accused of having dual loyalties, while Jews who live in the Jewish state have been condemned as “racists.” Poor Jews are bullied, and rich Jews are resented. Jews have been branded as both rootless cosmopolitans and ethnic chauvinists. Jews who assimilate have been called a “fifth column,” while those who stay together spark hatred for remaining separate. Hundreds of millions of people have believed (and in the Arab world many still do) that Jews drink the blood of non-Jews, that they cause plagues and poison wells, that they secretly plot to conquer the world, and that they murdered God. The universality of antisemitism is attested to by innumerable facts, the most dramatic being that Jews have been expelled from so many of the European and Arab societies in which they have resided…. (p. 3)

Image of Antisemitism: History and Myth — Antisemitism: History and Myth by Spencer, Robert (Author)

Spencer, Robert, Antisemitism: History and Myth

This is a very detailed and well-documented look at antisemitism throughout the ages. In his Epilogue he writes:

The line separating good and evil doesn’t pass between people of one ethnicity and another, nor between people of one religion and another. There are Jews who do good and Jews who do evil, just as there are Christians who do good and Christians who do evil, and the same can be said of people of every group. Only when Jews are involved in some enterprise or another, however, does their presence become evidence that the enterprise itself is a massive Jewish conspiracy. People have been captivated by this delusion throughout history, and it is on the rise again now.

This is an age of social contagions. There have been occasions of mass hysteria throughout the ages: the Salem witch trials, the COVID-19 panic, and many more. It is apparently an impulse deep within human nature: to be susceptible to suggestion that overpowers the ability to reason and leads to a stampede. Hatred of Jews is a persistent and recurring social contagion that is now cresting again, after people of goodwill around the world thought that it had been definitely laid to rest in the ashes of National Socialist Germany in 1945.

Against social contagions, rational argumentation is only of limited value. In this book, I have tried to show the fundamental irrationality and wrong headedness of some of the principal charges against Jews, but I’m well aware that attempting to argue rationally against those who insist that people are acting clandestinely on the basis of secret teachings is an unwinnable proposition. There is a sucker born every minute, said P. T. Barnum, and he could have said the same thing about antisemites and their theories. Since I began writing this book, new antisemitic conspiracy theories have been born, and some people will always be willing or even happy to be convinced.

The everlasting wellsprings of anti-Semitism that we have examined, in Christianity, Islam, and national and international socialism, are still active today and will continue to nourish bitter fruit. Imams are preaching about how the “genocidal” Jews are acting according to their nature in Gaza. Christians are claiming that the Jews secretly control US foreign policy (they apparently haven’t noticed the Biden administrations comprehensive in multifaceted betrayal of Israel) and are manipulating the Gentile leaders of the world like so many puppets on a string. All over the world, people believe, in line with the United Nations, that Israel is uniquely evil and deserving of far more attention in condemnation than North Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and other violators of human rights. Jew hatred is as old as Judaism itself. It has persisted for centuries. It will not end. (pp. 361-362)

Brown, Michael, Christian Antisemitism: Confronting the Lies in Today’s Church

In these two important books Brown looks specifically at fellow Christians, and how the church has been far too much involved in ugly antisemitism. In the Preface to this book he states:

This is a book I wish I did not have to write, a book that I wish was not urgent and relevant. But it had to be written, and it certainly is urgent and relevant. Antisemitism is raising its ugly head again right within the church, including the evangelical church. Something that I rarely encountered in almost fifty years of walking with the Lord as a Jewish believer in Jesus is becoming increasingly common. How can this be?

It was one thing to document the ugly history of “Christian” antisemitism, an oxymoron if ever there was one. (Please note that, after the first reference to “Christian” antisemitism in the main text of the book, the quotation marks around the word “Christian” have been removed. But I trust our point is clear: you cannot be truly and consistently Christian while at the same time being an antisemite.) I have been documenting that history for years, most prominently in my book Our Hands Are Stained With Blood, first published in 1992.

Yes, it was one thing to talk about how early church leaders demonized the Jewish people, or to talk about Crusader armies marching through Europe who turned on their Jewish neighbors, or to talk about Martin Luther’s blatantly antisemitic writings. All that was in the past, so disconnected from today. All that was so different from what I experienced in congregation after congregation around the world for decades, where I encountered special love for Israel and the Jewish people. The “Christian” antisemites were rare, their sentiments quite fringe. But things have changed in recent years, and with what feels like ever-increasing intensity, the old lies are being spread and the standard libels are being embraced right within the church. “It’s those evil Jews who are destroying the world!”

How jarring it is to watch an evangelical Christian broadcast where the host talks about wanting to see Jewish people come to faith in Jesus and claims deep loyalty to the Lord, only to hear him spread vicious lies about the Jewish people in the next breath. I ask again: How can this be?

The purpose of this book, then, is to focus on contemporary “Christian” antisemitism, starting with a short, painful journey into the past and ending with a shocking arrival into the present. From there, we will define the term antisemitism, demonstrate how widespread this is in the church today, look at some of the major issues and key players, examine the key scriptures that are being misused, understand the role of modern-day Israel, and look ahead to the return of the King. (xi-xii)

Brown, Michael, Our Hands are Stained with Blood: The Tragic Story of the Church and the Jewish People

The whole debate about whether Israel has been replaced by the Church is a massive one. Brown wades into this, and makes a number of points, including this one:

Paul never said that Gentile believers were “true” or “spiritual” Israel. It was the believing remnant within Israel that was “true” or “spiritual” Israel. (Actually, the terms “true Israel” or “spiritual Israel” never occur in the Bible, and it might be helpful to completely avoid them.)

Many people have feelings and impressions about what the Scriptures teach. But the facts are facts: While the New Testament often describes Israel and the Church in similar terms —both are pictured as the children of God, the bride of God, the chosen people, etc.—on no definite occasion does the New Testament ever call the Church, “Israel.” In fact, out of the 77 times that the words “Israel” and “Israelite” occur in the Greek New Testament, there are only two verses in which “Israel” could possibly refer to the Church as a whole: Galatians 6:16, where Paul speaks of the “Israel of God,” and Revelation 7:4, where John speaks of the 144,000 sealed from the twelve tribes of Israel. This is saying something! Seventy-five “definites” and only two “maybes.” I wouldn’t want to side with the “maybes”! (p. 181)

See this introductory piece for more on that debate: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2023/10/20/on-replacement-theology-an-introduction/

For further reading

These 25 books are well worth exploring to get a better grip on these various issues:

Brown, Michael, Christian Antisemitism: Confronting the Lies in Today’s Church. Charisma House, 2021.
Brown, Michael, Our Hands are Stained with Blood: The Tragic Story of the Church and the Jewish People. Destiny House Publishers, 1992, 2019.
Chafets, Ze’ev, Double Vision: How the Press Distorts America’s View of the Middle East. William Morrow, 1985.
Dershowitz, Alan, The Case for Israel. John Wiley, 2003.
Dershowitz, Alan, Defending Israel. Hot Books, 2019, 2023.
Dershowitz, Alan, The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies: And How to Refute Them with Truth. Skyhorse, 2024.
Frantzman, Seth, The October 7 War. Wicked Son, 2024.
Friedman, David, One Jewish State: The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Humanix Books, 2024.
Gilder, George, The Israel Test. RVB, 2009.
Hammer, Josh, Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West. Radius Boog Group, 2025.
Journo, Elan, What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Post Hill Press, 2018, 2023.
Klein, Aaron, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Israel. Regnery, 2019.
Levy, Bernard-Henri, Israel Alone. Wicked Son, 2024.
Murray, Douglas, On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel, Hamas and the Future of the West. HarperCollins, 2025.
O’Neill, Brendan, After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation. Spiked, 2024.
Pipes, Daniel, Israel Victory: How Zionists Win Acceptance and Palestinians Get Liberated. Wicked Son, 2024.
Prager, Dennis and Joseph Telushkin, Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism. Touchstone, 1983, 2016.
Ryvchin, Alex, The 7 Deadly Myths: Antisemitism from the time of Christ to Kanye West. Academic Studies Press, 2023.
Senor, Dan and Saul Singer, The Genius of Israel. Constable, 2023.
Sieff, Martin, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East. Regnery, 2008.
Simon, Jake Wallis, Israelophobia. Constable, 2023.
Smith, Mark, Israel Disarmed. Bombardier Books, 2024.
Spencer, Robert, Antisemitism: History and Myth. Bombardier Books, 2025.
Spencer, Robert, The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace. Bombardier Books, 2023.
Tishby, Noa, Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth. Free Press, 2021.

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Race, Multiculturalism, and Two-Tiered Justice? | CultureWatch

On fairness and impartiality in Western law:

Two high-profile cases of wrongdoing in Australia need to be closely examined. One case involving a female has just had a jury decision, while the other involving two nurses is quite new, and we await what the outcome will be. But one wonders if both in the end will demonstrate yet again how so much of Western justice is now hyper-politicised, and certain groups seem to get off much lighter than others.

While the ramifications of the second case are still ongoing, we can rightly say of the first case for now that if white, male, Christians did the sorts of things that she did, they would likely be heading to prison by now. Hopefully the second case will not be treated so lightly.

Sam Kerr

The first case involves the female soccer player, lesbian, and mixed-race (she has an Indian mother), Sam Kerr. She was involved in an ugly incident in London back in late January, 2023. She got into a dispute with a taxicab driver and the police while drunk, vomiting in the cab and arguing with the driver and police.

She had called a police officer “stupid and white” and was charged with racially aggravated harassment. But a London jury just found her not guilty of the charges. After the decision, Kerr said sorry for “expressing herself poorly.” Um, she should directly apologise to the cabby and the police.

And if a white person, especially a white Christian male, would have done similar things as Kerr had done, do we really believe the outcome would have been the same? Why do we rightly believe that the book would have been thrown at such a person? It seems the only racism that exists is when it is done by whites. Non-white racism seems to be peachy keen.

Moreover, will Football Australia take her back as captain of the Matildas, the national female soccer team? One can imagine if the male team, the Socceroos, had someone engage in this sort of nasty behaviour, real penalties would be put in place. But we await word if the Matildas will make a strong stance here, or just go back to business as usual with their star player.

The NSW nurses

This situation is of course much, much worse, but given how antisemitism in this country has been treated with kids gloves for so long, one wonders what might happen to the pair. The story goes like this:

Two nurses from a Sydney hospital have been stood down pending a full investigation over a video of the pair threatening Israeli patients. Two New South Wales Health nurses have been stood down and a police investigation is underway after a male and female worker spoke about refusing to treat Israelis and suggested they would “kill them” if they turned up to a south-west Sydney hospital.

The two-minute clip was uploaded by a Jewish influencer to TikTok on Wednesday morning which showed the two nurses appearing to be in a hospital setting. The discussion quickly turns ugly with the man suggesting the influencer will be killed amid the tensions between Israel and Hamas, before a female worker jumps in front of the camera to say “it’s Palestine’s country, not your country you piece of sh*t”.

Further comments from the woman are beeped out, before the Jewish influencer asks a question about Israelis, which prompted the woman to speak up again. “I won’t treat them, I won’t treat them. I’ll kill them,” she said. Stunned by the response, the influencer questioned if “god forbid” something happened to an Israeli in Australia and they turned up to a hospital, would they kill him.

The man in the NSW Health uniform then added: “You have no idea how many (Israelis) came to this hospital and I sent them to jaheem.” The influencer is understood to have randomly come across the two health workers on Chatruletka, a video chatting service that randomly connects users together. NSW Premier Chris Minns told 2GB the pair – who were later confirmed to have been employed at Bankstown Hospital in Sydney’s south-west – have been stood down.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday morning, NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said an investigation involving the department and NSW Police was underway. “There is no place in our hospital and health system for this sort of view to ever take place. There is no place for this sort of perspective in our society,” he said.

“Hospitals are different in the fact that every single Australian … and every single resident of this state should be able to go to their local hospital when they need care and attention and get high quality care that is safe and effective.” Mr Park, who earlier described the video as “appalling” which left him “sick to my stomach” – issued an apology to the Jewish community for another antisemitic incident.

“Not only am I sorry, but I can assure you this: the care you get in our hospitals will continue to be first class. We will investigate this,” he told reporters. https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/man-and-woman-dressed-in-nsw-health-uniform-say-in-viral-video-they-refuse-to-treat-israeli-patients-and-suggested-killing-them-if-they-turned-up-to-hospital/news-story/425c733b1527229b49e63d3ca35120df

The Australian Jewish Association said this:

The AJA demands the immediate termination of employment and deregistration of any health workers who threaten to kill Jewish patients and criminal charges where appropriate. This is a direct result of the Albanese Government allowing antisemitism to surge out of control.

This is not the first incident involving medical workers. We have seen anti-Israel politics introduced into hospitals and doctors politicising their work by adding their names to outrageous and hateful anti-Israel petitions. There needs to be an inquiry into how many medical workers share these murderous views.

A newer report tells us more about who they are:

A Sydney nurse who bragged about sending Israeli patients to hell in a “sickening” clip leaked online is an Afghani refugee who recently became an Australian citizen. Ahmad “Rashad” Nadir and his female colleague, who has been identified as Sarah Abu Lebdeh, from Bankstown Hospital, were both stood down after they made the “vile” comments during a stream with a Jewish influencer in Israel.

Nadir previously fled from Afghanistan to Australia with his family as a teenager and is understood to work one day a week at a medical centre in Sydney’s CBD, as well as Bankstown Hospital. https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/kill-them-workers-in-nsw-health-uniforms-claim-they-wont-treat-israelis-in-sickening-video/news-story/b5111dc4029f07d21f8d03c54122886a

As mentioned, this is a breaking story, and we await the outcome of it all. But bear in mind a few salient points. Unchecked immigration has not made Australia stronger or better – it has bitterly divided the nation, especially with so many making clear their dislike of Australian values of tolerance, pluralism and respect, and promoting vile antisemitism. Once again, we see the many failures of rampant multiculturalism.

And being Muslims, they were simply acting out their faith. They have full warrant to do so. Islam teaches in the Koran, the hadith, and the sira just what it thinks of the Jews, and we now have over 14 centuries of Jew-hatred and murder to demonstrate these teachings.

I have listed in earlier pieces some of the Islamic passages, such as Sura 2:190-19: “Fight in the cause of God those who fight you … And slay them wherever you catch them …And fight them until there is no more tumult.” See more on this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2008/11/21/jesus-muhammad-and-violence/

The scary thing is having people like these in positions such as nurses. What should be life-giving treatment here seems to be the exact opposite. While we know what Islam teaches concerning the Jews, what is incredible was how brazen this pair was in openly stating their aims and intentions.

Indeed, have they already carried out some of these threats? Have they already injured or killed patients they were meant to be looking after? With recently passed legislation on hate crimes and the like, will the two be treated with the full force of the law, including punishments, or will excuses still be made and kid glove applied to them?

They of course should be fired immediately, and they also deserve jail time. Better yet, they should be deported at once. We do NOT need or want people like this walking in our midst and treating our sick and injured. Heaven help us all with such vile haters like this living and working among us.

While it is hoped that most Muslims in Australia would unequivocally condemn the pair, far too often there is silence, especially from Islamic leaders. Until we have a loud and clear denunciation of this from those in the Islamic community, we can only fear that more of this will be occurring.

We await how all this unfolds. Will real justice be served, or will more excuse-making and justifications for such things be offered? We will soon find out. But we can say one thing with certainty: Unchecked immigration, disordered multiculturalism, rampant DEI, and weak Labor leaders chasing Muslim votes in good measure explain the Jew-hating nurses in NSW.

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