Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries, presented this message at the Summit on Opposing Antisemitism. We partnered with Moody Bible Institute to host this event in Chicago on November 9, 2024.

I am Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries, and it is my pleasure to thank you for attending our Summit on Opposing Antisemitism. It is a joy for me as the leader of a 130-year-old Jewish mission to partner with the great Moody Bible Institute in support of Jewish people.

It is only fitting this historic Summit is taking place in the Torrey-Gray Auditorium of Moody Bible Institute. Founded in 1886, this institution was actually started eight years prior to the start of the mission I have had the privilege of serving as president for these last almost thirty years—Chosen People Ministries. Moody and Chosen People Ministries have had a deep partnership, serving the Lord in evangelism, Bible teaching, and bringing the gospel especially to Jewish people for over 100 years. R. A. Torrey, who was the founding academic leader of Moody Bible Institute, had a deep love for Jewish people, as did D.L. Moody, the founder.

I am grateful for these Moody Bible Institute trailblazers who expressed a deep theological belief in God’s ongoing plan for Israel and heart for the Jewish people.

I am a Messianic Jewish man myself, raised in a Jewish home in New York City and came to faith in Yeshua (Jesus) when I was nineteen years old. I am especially grateful to my dear friend Dr. Michael Rydelnik and his wife Eva for their incredible support leading up to the Summit. I also deeply value the leadership and direction of Dr. Mark Jobe, the president of Moody. I also thank Dr. William Washington, Dr. Don Sweeting, Rev. Saleem Shalesh, Marty and Misha Goetz, and the young Israelis who joined us and opened their lives and hearts to us throughout the day. I am grateful for our workshop leads, Karl, Eva, Robynne, and Rachel for their tremendous teaching ministries. Lastly, a big thanks to the Moody Bible Institute staff and Chosen People staff and all those who carried the weight of conference preparation. They have done such a great job of planning and implementing the plan. We all owe them a debt of gratitude!

I am delighted that members of both my tribes attended: the Jewish tribe and the Christian tribe. We are so grateful for your taking time to make this stand with us against the plague of antisemitism!

This Week in Chicago and Amsterdam

It is so fitting that this historic conference was scheduled for today, as one of the earliest indications that something far more sinister and brazen was about to happen in Germany was Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass which took place on November 9–10, 1938, and was one of the first events capturing the attention of the world letting us know that the Nazi movement and their leader Adolph Hitler was going to initiate and allow a modern-day Pogrom and maybe worse. This event emboldened the Nazis and eventually led to the concentration camps and wanton slaughter of six million Jewish people throughout Europe.

A few of the details will give you the picture:

• Widespread attacks by paramilitary forces and civilians took place
• Over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed, 1200 synagogues burned
• Scores of Jewish individuals were brutally attacked and murdered

This past week in Chicago also saw the attacks on a local synagogue and two Jewish individuals at DePaul University. To make matters worse, a Jewish man was shot in the West Rodgers Park area of the city simply because he was Jewish.

According to one report,

The shooting took place at around 9:30 a.m. last Saturday in the 2600 block of W. Farwell, police said, when the perpetrator opened fire on a 39-year-old man who was walking to synagogue.

Chicago authorities filed hate crime and terrorist charges against a suspect accused of shooting a Jewish man walking to synagogue and then opening fire on police and medical emergency responders. The announcement comes after the shooting drew fierce condemnation from the city’s Jewish community as leaders called for hate crime charges against the suspect, saying the victim had been targeted because of his faith.[1]

Amsterdam

And then, just a few days ago in Amsterdam

Antisemitic rioters “actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them” after a soccer match in Amsterdam, authorities in the Netherlands said Friday, with police reporting five people hospitalized and dozens detained after a night of violence that the mayor said had shamed the city. The police did not mention the nationality of any of those injured or arrested after the unrest in the Dutch capital. The five people treated in the hospital were released, while some 20 to 30 people suffered light injuries, police said. At least 62 suspects were arrested, with 10 still in custody. The attacks were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Amsterdam, including the King of the Netherlands, across Europe and by the United States.  Israel’s airports authority said a plane sent to Amsterdam to bring Israeli citizens back home after the violence had arrived back at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv Friday afternoon. Israel’s government initially ordered two planes, but Netanyahu’s office later said it would work to help citizens arrange commercial flights.[2]

This Is Why We Are Here!

We gathered today at the Summit to take a corporate stand against the growing antisemitism in our country and around the globe and to show support for our Jewish friends and family. It is time for Jesus-loving believers, both Gentiles and Messianic Jews, to stand up and raise their voices against this growing antisemitism and in support of our Jewish friends both in Chicago, the United States, Europe, and, of course, Israel.

This tragic growth of the oldest hatred began well before the events of the past couple of weeks and the tragic events of October 7, 2023, when, as we know,

Thousands of Hamas terrorists swarmed into Israel, invading towns and villages around the Gaza border, slaughtering over 1,400 Israelis—mostly civilians and committed unspeakable atrocities including rapes, mutilations, beheadings, and torture. At least 220 people were kidnapped, including children and the elderly.

The Hamas massacre came almost exactly five years after a white supremacist, Robert Bowers, on October 27, 2018 shot eleven Jewish people to death during Sabbath morning services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [including several Holocaust survivors] in what was the deadliest attack on Jewish people in the history of the United States[3]

Another synagogue shooting happened on April 27, 2019, at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California on the last day of Passover, which fell on a Saturday when a nineteen-year-old man armed with an AR-15-style gun stormed into the Chabad of Poway synagogue a little before noon on Saturday, yelling antisemitic slurs. A Jewish woman, Lori Gilbert Kaye, was shot and killed.[4]

Recently and Post-October 7

There have been more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in the year since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, according to ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) preliminary data. This is the highest number of incidents ever recorded in any single year periodsince ADL started tracking in 1979.These newly released figures, from Oct. 7, 2023 to Sept. 24, 2024,represent an over 200-percent increase compared to the incidents reported to us during the same period a year before, which saw 3,325 incidents.[5]

It would be a misunderstanding to believe the growth of all this antisemitism is politically driven and stems from the conflict between Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

Today’s virulent antisemitism appears to be both a growing hatred and a reawakening of the latent Jewish hatred embedded in the culture of modern society. 

It might be good to take a moment remind ourselves of the heartbeat of our cause by defining antisemitism so we know what we are dealing with!

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance at the committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial met 26 May 26, 2016, in Bucharest, Romania to adopt the following working definition of antisemitism, which includes guidance about how to speak about Israel—and how not to speak about Israel as a nation of Jewish people.

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.[6]

The definition included various illustrations to guide the IHRA in its work—especially pertaining to Israel.

Manifestations of antisemitism might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel like that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.[7]

I deeply appreciate the definition of antisemitism suggested by the now deceased Lord Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Britain, who defined and explain antisemitism at a conference held at the European Parliament in 2016.

Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else. It takes different forms in different ages. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, the state of Israel. It takes different forms, but it remains the same thing: the view that Jews have no right to exist as free and equal human beings.

The new antisemitism has mutated so that any practitioner of it can deny that he or she is an antisemite. After all, they’ll say, I’m not a racist. I have no problem with Jews or Judaism. I only have a problem with the State of Israel. But in a world of 56 Muslim nations and 103 Christian ones, there is only one Jewish state, Israel, which constitutes one-quarter of one per cent of the land mass of the Middle East. Israel is the only one of the 193 member nations of the United Nations that has its right to exist regularly challenge[d], and many, many other groups, committed to its destruction.[8]

We are again grateful for our wonderful speakers who helped us better understand antisemitism through the lens of Scripture and suggested ways we who love the Lord and His word can help stop the hate and oppose antisemitism.

There is a popular statement by the brilliant Jewish scientist, Alfred Einstein, who was very concerned about antisemitism as he lived through the horrors of the Nazi period and was one of the scientists saved by the Allies. Einstein said, “If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity.”

This reminds me of the words of Isaiah the prophet who wrote, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation like a torch that is burning” (Isaiah 62:1).

We cannot remain silent when the Jewish people are under siege! God still has His holy hand upon His ancient chosen people; Jewish people are still the apple, the iris of His eye!

God will never allow His chosen people to be destroyed. And when you choose to be an enemy of Jewish people and seek the destruction of God’s people, then you stand in opposition to God’s purposes in this world. He promised to bless those who bless Jewish people because it is through  Jewish people that He will bring blessings to the world through the Scriptures and through the Messiah Himself (Genesis 12:1–3).

As followers of the Messiah Jesus, whether Jewish or Gentile, we recognize that our humanity demands, compels us to raise our voices and no longer remain silent about antisemitism. In fact, all racial hatred is antithetical to the biblical message and human decency as the Almighty, blessed be He, created each of us in His image. And for those of us who follow Jesus the Messiah we believe the message of the New Testament, as well as the Old.

We read in the Gospel of John, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

We have no choice but to love and care for all whom God created, and at this time, when the Jewish people are under siege, we must be diligent in standing for and with for Jewish people.

So, let’s take to heart the messages of this hour and commit to saying something, and even more—doing something on behalf of Jewish people.

It is time, dear friends, to take action!

In June, we held a rally against antisemitism on Broadway. One of our speakers, a pastor and Jewish believer who served on our Chosen People Board in Australia, said at the end of his message, “We need to show the Jewish people that we love them and to let them, and let the antisemites know that if they want to get to the Jewish people, to the Jewish community, then they need to first get through the church.”

I was so encouraged by what Mark said. If I had understood this level of love years before I came to faith in Jesus, I might have come sooner. We have a role to play in the plan of God, to bless those who have been created by God to bless us, and if that means standing between the Jewish people and those who are trying to harm them, whether in the Diaspora or in Israel, then I hope we will have the spiritual motivation and courage to stand with the Jewish people against those who want to destroy them.

May God give us the grace to do this because, as we all know, we serve Jesus, a risen, Jewish Savior—Yeshua!

[1] Christopher Cann, “Officials call for hate crime charges after Jewish man shot walking to Chicago synagogue,” USA Today, October 30, 2024, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/10/30/chicago-shooting-jewish-synagogue/75934186007/.

[2] “Israeli Soccer Fans Attacked in Amsterdam, with 5 Hospitalized and Dozens of Suspects Arrested,” CBS News, updated on November 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/on-tree-of-life-shooting-anniversary-liberal-us-jews-mourn-alone-over-hamas-atrocities/.

[3] Danielle Ziri, “On Tree of Life Shooting Anniversary, Liberal US Jews Mourn Alone over Hamas Atrocities,” Times of Israel, October 27, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/on-tree-of-life-shooting-anniversary-liberal-us-jews-mourn-alone-over-hamas-atrocities/.

[4] Jill Cowan, “What to Know about the Poway Synagogue Shooting,” New York Times, April 29, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/us/synagogue-shooting.html.

[5] “Over 10,000 Antisemitic Incidents Recorded in the U.S. since Oct. 7, 2023, according to ADL Preliminary Data, ADL, accessed November 22, 2024, https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/over-10000-antisemitic-incidents-recorded-us-oct-7-2023-according-adl.

[6] “Working Definition of Antisemitism,” International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, accessed November 22, 2024, https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism#:~:text=“Antisemitism%20is%20a%20certain%20perception,community%20institutions%20and%20religious%20facilities.

[7] Ibid.

[8] In a 2016 speech, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks attempted to define and explain antisemitism at a conference held at the European Parliament. “Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks on Combatting Anti-Semitism,” Yeshiva University, accessed November 22, 2024, https://www.yu.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/The%20First%20Occurrence%20of%20anti-Semitism%20in%20the%20Bible.pdf.