US Sees Uptick in Anti-Semitic Fliers
Anti-Semitism is surging in recent days. This week students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign discovered anti-Semitic fliers blaming the Jewish people for the coronavirus. They were strewn around campus on Sunday (20th) and used “centuries-old anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish power as well as modern manifestations of anti-Semitism,” jns.org reported. This immediately followed a similar event in Colleyville, Texas, the same city in which a man held the congregants of a Jewish synagogue hostage at gunpoint for 11 hours in January. Anti-Semitic fliers were left on Colleyville driveways on Saturday (19th), claiming “anti-Semitism is a human right.” In the past few months, similar fliers promoting anti-Semitic messages have been found in front of homes in Texas, Florida, California, Colorado and elsewhere.
This trend is especially troubling because there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to the timing of these fliers. While some of the incidents share accusations of Jewish responsibility for the coronavirus, this is an odd time to stress this message nearly two years after COVID began. It’s sad and unfair to see people filled with hatred choosing to direct their racially-charged anger toward the Jewish people for no other reason than their heritage. One thing is not in doubt: Anti-Semitism is certainly not a human right. Because we believe the words of Jesus, we know the opposite is true, as He told us to “love one another; as I have loved you” (John 13:34). Love for others is our responsibility, and loving God’s Chosen People, the apple of His eye, is our duty and our pleasure.
