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Source: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/they-asked-if-i-was-jewish-i-said-no/
Antisemitism Is Not a Jewish Problem to Solve Alone
(Times of Israel) Katie Posey - I'm a Christian researching antisemitism. I presented survey research on theology, digital media, and antisemitism among young Christian men at a recent Contemporary Antisemitism Conference in Haifa. What led me to this? Maybe it was when I was 15 and was cast as Anne Frank's mother, Edith Frank, in our high school play. Something didn't reverse when the stage lights went dark and we turned in our costumes. These people, except for Otto Frank, were murdered. I kept thinking about all the people across Europe who knew what was happening and said nothing. My Christian parents instilled in me a love and honor for Israel and the Jewish people from an early age. During my first month-long visit in 2013, Israel captured my heart in a way other lands have not. When I tell people I research antisemitism and develop Holocaust programming, the first question is: Are you Jewish? No, I say. And then I watch them try to work out why a Christian would spend her life on this. It shouldn't take being Jewish to care. Antisemitism is not a Jewish problem to solve alone. People across the seven largest Jewish communities report hiding their identity in public and questioning whether they have a future in their home countries. Foundational figures of the Christian faith spread anti-Jewish rhetoric for centuries. Both the Protestant and Catholic churches throughout Europe were largely silent during the Holocaust. The weight of that is part of what motivates me to study and research in this field. To my fellow Christians: the Jewish people are our spiritual family. Jesus is Jewish. His disciples were Jewish. The early church was Jewish. When we turn away from the suffering of Jewish people, we are turning away from something that lives at the very root of our own faith. We can choose differently now. We can wrap our hearts around our Jewish neighbors. The writer is a postgraduate fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.