Giving Compass' Take:

· Lela Gilbert and Frank R. Wolf discuss the rise of anti-semitism in the United States and why Christians should be on the front lines of the fight against it.

· What is anti-semitism? What does the Bible say about persecution, oppression and freedom? 

· Here's more on anti-semitism and how schools should respond to it. 

One of President Trump’s guests at his State of the Union speech Tuesday was Judah Samet, who received an ebullient welcome and a spontaneous rendition of the “Happy Birthday” song from the audience on his 81st birthday. A Holocaust survivor, Samet emerged alive—once again a survivor—and somehow remained uninjured during the Tree of Life synagogue massacre on October 27 in Pittsburgh.

The mass murder at the synagogue marked the end of an era in the United States. A gunman took the lives of 11 Jews in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history, ending an era of peace and security for America’s Jewish community.

The recent observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day and Samet’s appearance at the State of the Union both serve to remind Americans that the Pittsburgh shooting didn’t take place in a vacuum.

Anti-Semitic activity has been soaring in the United States. The Anti-Defamation League reported last year that from 2016 to 2017, instances of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and assault increased 57 percent—the largest single-year jump since ADL began tracking the data in the 1970s.

Read the full article about fighting anti-semitism by Lela Gilbert and Frank R. Wolf at Hudson Institute.