Holocaust Archives - The New Antisemitism

September 20, 2023 By Olivier Melnick 13 Comments

The Critical PROPHETIC Implication of YOM KIPPUR!

Based on the perfect record of the Spring Festivals all fulfilled at the First Coming of Yeshua, the Fall Feasts will be fulfilled at the Second Coming of Yeshua the Messiah:
• Rosh Hashanah: Leviticus 23:23-25 – The Regathering of the Saints (Isaiah 27:12-13 – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians. 15:15-58)
• Yom Kippur: Leviticus 23:26-32 – The Great Tribulation (Ezekiel 36:24-25; Zechariah 13:8-9, 12:10, 2 Corinthians 5:10)
• Sukkot: Leviticus 23:33-44 – The Ingathering of the Messiah and the Believers (John 7:38-39, 8:12; Zechariah 14:16-19; Matthew 17:4)

The order is very important. Keeping in mind that calendar events repeat each year in the same order, Rosh Hashanah always occurs ten days before Yom Kippur, which happens a few days prior to Sukkot. There are good reasons to connect Rosh Hashanah or Yom Teruah (The Day of Trumpets) with the Rapture of the Body of Messiah–if not by date, at the very least, thematically. Logically, Yom Kippur would connect with the next event on God’s program, and that is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble or Great Tribulation, also known as Daniel’s 70th week (Daniel 9:27.)

Yom Kippur is a very solemn day on the Jewish calendar. It is a holy day but not a feast. It is a fast of one day when Jewish people reflect at home or in the synagogue. No comfortable clothes are worn, no perfume, and no food. Of course, we have come a long way from the strict regimen that the High Priest had to undergo in biblical times (Leviticus 16,) but the date is taken very seriously by contemporary rabbis.

It is believed that on Yom Kippur, God opens three books in heaven: The Book of the “Wicked,” the Book of the “In-Between,” and the Book of the “Righteous.” Obviously, nobody cares to be listed in the Book of the “Wicked,” and nobody is arrogant enough to claim belonging to the Book of the “Righteous.” That leaves just about every religious Jew praying that their name will be listed in the Book of the “In-Between” for the next year until the following Yom Kippur.
Toward that goal, religious Jews are given a period of ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, known as Yamin Moraim or the “Days of Awe.” This Rabbinic addition to the Jewish calendar has only one purpose: giving a Jewish person the opportunity to make amends, ask for forgiveness or apologize for wrongdoing or wrong saying, placing them in good standing with God right before He decides to place their name in one of the three books.

This is based on the basic rabbinic principle that man can atone for his own sins through works. But can one truly go back to all the people they hurt? Does God consider the best effort? This seems to be a stressful predicament that Jewish people find themselves into, unless of course, they consider that Yeshua the Messiah paid the price for their shortcomings once and for all, over 2,000 years ago. Then, there is no need for any guesswork on the writing of our names because the Bible tells us that once we place our trust in the death and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah (Isaiah 52:13-53:12), our name is written forever in the Lamb’s Book of Life ( Revelation 20:15; 21:27.)

But beyond the Jewish traditions attached to Yom Kippur, we must consider the grave prophetic implication of that Holy Day. One of three key scriptures for Yom Kippur, along with Leviticus 16:1-34 and Numbers 29:7-11, is Leviticus 23:26-32 where, among other details, we are told that Jewish people are to humble themselves. It is to be a solemn day to humble or afflict the soul. So, along that theme, Yom Kippur is also a day of repentance based on Ezekiel 33:19: “But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them.”

The word kippur comes from the Hebrew kaphar meaning “to cover.” It is found 110 times in the Tenach, mostly in Leviticus and Numbers. The word is not found in the New Testament. While the sacrificial system covered individual sins, Yom Kippur covered national sins, but it was only applied to the individual who afflicted his soul (Leviticus 23.) Yom Kippur will be fulfilled by the Great Tribulation, also known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble and Israel’s national Atonement in the Tribulation (Ezekiel 20:33-38; Hosea 5:15-6:3; Zechariah 12:10-13:1)

Hosea 5:15 speaks of the physical affliction of Israel, while Hosea 6:1-3 speaks of the spiritual affliction of Israel.

One tragic aspect of the Great Tribulation, seen as God resuming His divine program about Israel, is found in Zechariah 13:8-9: “And it will come about in all the land,” Declares the Lord, That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it. ⁹And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘they are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

Sadly, it appears that two-thirds of the Jewish people will perish during the Great Tribulation. If this were to happen today, 10,000,000 Jewish people would die, and that would be almost twice Hitler’s Holocaust. Taking a closer look at that passage, we notice that the verses speak of a percentage and NOT an exact number. All throughout the Bible, God is very precise when He wants to be, and He will not hesitate to give us exact numbers. So, what are we to do with a percentage? Well, rejoice and get busy!

As a pre-tribulational, pre-millennial believer, I believe in a literal Rapture of the believers that will occur before the Great Tribulation takes place. Anyone who has believed that Yeshua is the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world from Acts 2 forward will be taken in the Rapture, and that includes Jewish people who become believers in the Messiah. So, the more Jewish people come to Yeshua before the Rapture, the less will have to endure the Great Tribulation. The percentage of 2/3 and 1/3 will always be the same, but it is up to us to boldly proclaim the Gospel to our Jewish friends and reduce the numbers contained within the percentages.

Incidentally, the 1/3 that is “refined as silver and tested as gold” will become believers at the end of the seven years as, according to Zechariah 12:10, they proclaim Baruch Haba Bashem Adonai! So, Yom Kippur has a great fulfillment for the world in general and for the Jewish people in particular. It ushers in the return of Yeshua on earth, in Jerusalem, to inaugurate the Messianic or Millennial kingdom. Yeshua will not return until the remnant of Jewish people call on Him at the end of the Tribulation.

Rosh Hashanah will be fulfilled by the Rapture. (No, it is not necessary that the Rapture happens on Rosh Hashanah for the event to fulfill the Feast.)
Yom Kippur will be fulfilled by the Great Tribulation and the chastising of Israel, bringing the 1/3 to salvation and ushering in the return of Yeshua. It all makes sense in that order. Then, if you consider the perfect correlation between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Millenial Kingdom (Leviticus 23:33-43; Exodus 23:14-17; John 7:38-39, 8:12; Zechariah 14:16-19), you quickly realize that it is all part of God’s plan for the ages and it is simply perfect!

July 1, 2023 By Olivier Melnick 8 Comments

Holocaust Denial Is Pure Evil?

As unfathomable as the Holocaust was to those who entered the death camps at the end of WWII, it is all the more unthinkable even to contemplate the idea that the Holocaust never happened. Of all people, General Eisenhower understood that very well when he visited a death camp with General Patton after the war. When he spoke to members of Congress who had just visited Buchenwald in 1945, he said, “You saw only one camp yesterday. There are many others. Your responsibilities, I believe, extend into a great field, and informing the people at home of things like these atrocities is one of them… Nothing is covered up. We have nothing to conceal. The barbarous treatment these people received in the German concentration camps is almost unbelievable. I want you to see for yourself and be spokesmen for the United States.”

Furthermore, in a letter to General Marshall, also in 1945, he also wrote, “While I was touring the camp, I encountered three men who had been inmates and by one ruse or another had made their escape. I interviewed them through an interpreter. The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. In one room, where they were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops the tendency to charge these allegations merely to “propaganda.”

General Eisenhower somehow understood that the human race is such that if the Holocaust could be erased, minimized or denied, people would find ways to do it. He was very concerned about preserving the memory of such carnage for future generations. In spite of his efforts and that of others, Holocaust denial is a real thing in 2023.

Of all the people who spent years hunting Nazis post-WWII, Simon Wiesenthal understood that bringing those criminals to justice was critical but not enough. In his book The Sunflower, he said, “Discovering witnesses is just as important as catching criminals.”

Wiesenthal was so right! Especially as we move forward into the 21^st century and both criminals and surviving victims are in their mid-90s. Soon, very soon, first-hand accounts of the horrors of the Holocaust will be a thing of the past, and the historical revisionists will be one step closer to making the Jewish catastrophe completely disappear from the annals of history.

So was Elie Wiesel in Night, the memoir of his time in Auschwitz, “For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time,”

One of the most known Holocaust deniers is David Irving, who has written several books on the Third Reich and who has described the Holocaust as “limited,” “experimental,” “not systematic,” and “an invention of the allies.” He was exposed in a book by Jewish historian and antisemitism expert Deborah Lipstadt. In Denying the Holocaust, Lipstadt called Irving a Holocaust denier. This led to Irving suing her and Penguin Books. Irving was found by the judge to be an antisemite, a racist and a falsifier of the historical record. He lost, but unfortunately, that was just one battle against Holocaust denial that was a victory, but certainly not the war.

Why are people not trying to deny American slavery or the Russian Gulag? I am not in any way suggesting that we should deny these two other human tragedies or any others, but I am wondering why such focus is on the Jewish tragedy.

To be honest, I am not wondering why such focus is on trying to erase the Holocaust from history. Satan will invest all his efforts in trying to ridicule, minimize, ostracize and even demonize Jewish existence. He would be thrilled if he could convince some that the Holocaust never happened or was grossly exaggerated by the Allies or Jewish people to justify pushing for the creation of a Jewish state.

One way to fight Holocaust denial is through education: at home, at school, through movies and even in churches and mosques. Some have said that people talk too much about the Holocaust, but a survey taken two years ago shows otherwise.

63% of Millennials and Gen Z didn’t know that six million Jews died in the Holocaust.
48% of Millennials and Gen Z couldn’t name one single concentration camp.
56% of Millennials and Gen Z were unable to identify Auschwitz.
11% of Millennials and Gen Z believe that Jews caused the Holocaust.
49% of Millennials and Gen Z have seen Holocaust Denial on Social Networks.

Please do not tell me that we are speaking too much about the Holocaust after you consider the result of that survey. As first-hand accounts are becoming a rarity, the memory of the Holocaust is in our hands. Our generation is now responsible for continuing the fight for the preservation of historical truth and for the respect of the memory of the six million.

Holocaust Denial is pure evil, it is an insult to the victims and the survivors. When we see it, read it or even hear it, if we remain silent, we become the new bystanders of the 21^st century. Bystanders at such a critical crossroads in human history as at any other time are becoming co-perpetrators.

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” (Elie Wiesel).

May 10, 2023 By Olivier Melnick 2 Comments

The Six Stages of Antisemitism: It’s About to Get a Lot Worse!

Antisemitism, also known as the longest hatred, didn’t happen in a vacuum. It progressively grew, morphed and reinvented itself. It has been creatively adapted to fit the times. As one surveys the history of the Jewish people, it quickly becomes evident that it has been and continues to be punctuated by acts of antisemitism.

Forced baptisms and conversions, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Pogroms, the Holocaust and the Middle East crisis are just a few of Satan’s creative ways to turn the world against the Jews. He succeeded in millions of casualties even though God promised never to forsake Israel completely(Jeremiah 31:35-37.)

He has been busy on two fronts toward the same goal: the destruction of the Jews. First, he works hard at turning the Jewish people against Yeshua by erroneously making them believe that following Him is antithetical to remaining a Jew. Second, he has turned many within the Church against the Jews throughout history and even today with the growth and influence of Replacement Theology.

Some believe that antisemitism was at its apex stage during the Holocaust and stopped after that. If history stopped, I could agree with such a statement. Still, almost eighty years have passed, and outside of maybe slowing down a bit for two decades after the Holocaust, antisemitism is alive and well. It has been on an uninterrupted continuum since biblical days.

We can also look at antisemitism as existing on a spectrum throughout the history of the Jewish people. To understand the gravity of the current situation, we must study that spectrum. This will allow us to determine where normalization sits on the spectrum and what it means to us today.

As we study the spectrum of antisemitism, one thing will become evident: Antisemitism doesn’t vacillate through history, going back and forth on the spectrum from non-existent to full force. Instead, it keeps moving in the same direction, never looking back. It might slow down a bit when a particular historical figure appears on the world scene and sees Jewish people with favor, such as–within reason–Charlemagne (747-814) or Napoleon (1769-1821). Still, it never completely ceases, even with their favorable treatment.

So, the spectrum moves only in one direction at various speeds but never reverses direction. It is driven by Satan from one end to the other, without exception.

The starting point of antisemitism is found in the biblical record of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament.) Pharaoh who didn’t know Joseph (Exodus 1), Haman in the book of Esther, the Amalekites (Exodus 17) or even the list of people groups provided by Asaph in Psalm 83. Those are obvious examples of the enemies of Israel. Still, the animosity goes back to Genesis 3:15, when the seed of the serpent (Satan) fights the seed of the woman (Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah).

At the origin, it was nothing more than biblical pagan jealousy. The people around Israel were jealous of the “chosen people” status of Israel declared by God (Deuteronomy 7:6-8; 14:2; 26:17-19; 2 Samuel 7:23-24, Psalm 105:8-15; 135:4; Isaiah 41:8). The Jewish people have been set aside by the God of Israel for His purpose, and that makes many people jealous, For You have separated them from all the peoples of the earth as Your inheritance, as You spoke through Moses Your servant, when You brought our fathers forth from Egypt, O Lord God.” (1 Kings 8:53).

Moving into the Greek Scriptures (New Testament), we find many passages that paint part of the Jewish leadership as antagonistic to Yeshua and His followers. This doesn’t validate the antisemitic tone that many have tried to attribute to the Greek Scriptures. That part of the Bible is not antisemitic, but it is not within the scope of this article to address that issue.

After the closing of the Canon of Scripture, from the late 1^st century forward, many of the ante-Nicaean Church Fathers contributed to the building of an early anti-Jewish sentiment. The following generations of Church Fathers continued the diatribes. This section of the spectrum could be called theological anti-Judaism. It continued throughout history with various degrees of intensity, peaking at times such as the Crusades or the Inquisition and specific recurring times on the calendar such as Holy Week as it became Classical Antisemitism.

Unbeknownst to him, Martin Luther set the stage for the Holocaust in his pamphlet “On the Jews and their lies.” He never intended for the Jews to be mass-murdered, but his words carried much weight, which led to tragic consequences. Martin Luther couldn’t look forward to the future or Adolf Hitler, but Hitler most definitely looked back at Luther and chose to act upon the theologian’s every word and beyond. There was another shift, and Classical Antisemitism became Racial Antisemitism. Hitler described the Jews as vermin and sub-humans to be eradicated for the betterment of mankind. He tried to support his lethal agenda against a backdrop of science by promoting Eugenics (debunked soon after, but seeing a bizarre comeback in the 21^st century).

Then came the interlude—two decades of relative respite for the Jews. The words “antisemitic” or “antisemitism” became taboo after the Holocaust. To be sure, while the words were avoided, the thoughts and actions continued. Yet, it was time for Satan to reinvent the oldest hatred. So, he repackaged it in the form of anti-Israelism or anti-Zionism so that an antisemite could continue their nefarious agenda without being called an antisemite. Most scholars now agree that this period, which continues to this day, is known as the New Antisemitism. It has benefited quite a bit from the advent of the Internet and social networks. People feel good about being social justice advocates while they demonize Israel and the Jews.

Yet, the spectrum is even broader. In 2012, in Toulouse, France, a man killed seven Jewish people total, including a rabbi and two young children at a day school. In my opinion, this attack marks when Jewish people started getting killed again for being Jewish. In 2015, during the “I am Charlie” days, a man entered a kosher supermarket on the east side of Paris, took Jewish people hostages, and ended up killing four of them. Keep in mind that killing four or more people in one event constitutes a “mass killing.” The carnage continues to this day all over the world. This is what I have called End-Times Antisemitism. It is part of the new antisemitism but is a hybrid of classical antisemitism (biblical days to Holocaust) and the new antisemitism (1948 to today).

I believe that there is one more brand of antisemitism coming, and I call it Tribulation Antisemitism. It will be a time of great turmoil and destruction for the Jewish people left behind. According to Zechariah 13:8-9, two-thirds of the Jewish people living at that time will perish, and one-third will survive and become followers of Yeshua the Messiah. As difficult as it is to say and comprehend, it will be a time far worse than the Holocaust for the Jews.

While, again, this is not within the scope of this work, I believe in a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial Rapture of the Church. Believers will be taken up in the air by Yeshua before the start of the Tribulation, also known as the Time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).

The reason why I need to clarify my eschatological position is to avoid being accused of escapism. Some who do not adhere to a pre-Tribulation Rapture feel that those who do are simply buying into a doctrine of escapism to avoid the terrible days ahead. Believing in a pre-Tribulation Rapture should encourage believers to share with the lost before we are all gone. That includes sharing with our Jewish friends who will suffer the most during the Tribulation. I truly cannot wait for Yeshua to call us home, and yet, I can wait for Him to do so, as long as I can be used to lead more people to Him. Time is of the essence as the stage is being finalized for the antichrist and the Tribulation a little more each day.

This is where the normalization of antisemitism comes on the spectrum. While antisemitism has existed since biblical days, there always were people to defend the Jews against the libels and the diatribes. Israel’s advocates continue to be as vocal as they can today, but they are a dying breed.

What will happen when antisemitism becomes normalized and goes mainstream? This shift must occur for the Tribulation events to occur with such intensity. When normalization occurs, it will be open season for the Jews and those who defend them. We are not quite there, but we are very close. In other words, the stage is set for the final iteration of antisemitism… The incentive to share Yeshua with our Jewish friends has never been so palpable!

April 10, 2023 By Olivier Melnick 1 Comment

Remembering Some Unexpected Heroes of the Holocaust!

Every year around this time, Israel commemorates Yom Ha Shoah, or “The Day of the Catastrophe”. It was first commemorated in 1951, and a law was later passed by the Knesset in 1959 to make it an official holiday. It was known as the Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day Law. The official day is the 27th of Nisan, which falls a week after Passover and eight days before Yom Ha’azmaut (Israel’s Independence Day). In Israel, at 10:00 AM, a siren sounds and almost everybody stops what they are doing, including motorists on highways getting out of their vehicles, to observe two minutes of silent reflection for the victims and heroes of the Holocaust. It is one of the most solemn moments on the Jewish calendar, observed by religious and secular Jews alike.

As the Law passed by the Knesset is called Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day Law, each year, we remember the six-million innocent victims of Hitler and his Nazi regime, helped by co-perpetrators across Europe. Remembering the victims is critical if we want to keep history intact and learn from it. Incidentally, if we were to keep a brief moment of silence for the six-million victims, it would require us to be completely silent for 11.5 years non-stop. But what about the heroes of the Shoah? What about the people who risked their lives to help Jewish people? Better yet, what about all the unknown heroes of the Shoah, without whom the world would have lost much more than six million Jews? Without forgetting the six million–one of them being my maternal grandfather, Maurice Weinzveig who perished at Auschwitz–we need to pay tribute to some incredible unsung heroes of the Shoah. Let’s also keep in mind that those who hid Anne Frank were breaking the law and those who killed her were following it!

We have all heard about Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg and Corrie Ten Boom. They are some of the most known heroes of the Holocaust, and rightfully so, but this year let me introduce you to a few other heroes that have been in the shadow of history for too long.

Ho-Feng-Shan (1901-1997): Ho-Feng-Shan was born in China at the turn of the 20th century. He started out as a writer and diplomat for the Republic of China before he was appointed Consul-General of China in Vienna, Austria in 1937. Not long after his move to Vienna and against his government and the German authorities, Ho-Feng-Shan started to issue visas, especially after Kristallnacht in November 1938. He had issued 2,000 visas to Jews in the first six months of his tenure as Consul-General, which leads many historians to believe that by the time he was called back to China in 1940, he had issued many thousands of transit visas to Shanghai. No visas were required to enter Shanghai, but the papers helped Jews cross the border towards Italy and Switzerland with Chinese visas. Later, when asked why he did it, he answered, “It was just natural to feel compassion for those persecuted and help them. It was what had to be done” In 2001, he received the Yad Vashem Medal of Righteous Among the Nations posthumously.

Dr. Hans-Georg Calmeyer (1901-1972): Born in Osnabrück, Germany, Calmeyer was stationed in the Netherlands during WWII. He was put in charge of the Interior Administration which also handled “Jewish Affairs”. While Jews in Germany had no recourse to try proving they were not Jewish, in the Netherlands, they could provide papers to document their ancestry and find loopholes in the system to escape certain death. Calmeyer saw an opportunity to disobey his superiors and started to accept false papers from Jewish people. He was credited for having saved at least 4,000 Jews, even though he received some serious complaints from the Nazi party. After the war, he rarely spoke of his actions. In 1992, he received the Yad Vashem Medal of Righteous Among the Nations posthumously.

Wladyslaw Bartoszewski (1922-2015): He was a Polish politician and social activist. He participated in the defense of Warsaw against the Nazi forces and as a result, was sent to Auschwitz. After Auschwitz, he met Catholic Priest Jan Zieja, with whom he had this dialogue:
– How could all this be God’s will?
– Don’t think about why God allows evil. Think about why God saved you. It was for a reason, wasn’t it? It was for a purpose. Bear witness to the truth. You saw how people are suffering. Help them!– Help who?
– Help those who need it.
– But who needs it?
– Those who are suffering the most.
– But I’m a student, Father. I have no resources with which I can do anything great.
– So do something small, but don’t turn your face away. People in the ghetto are suffering. Help them.
He joined the Polish Underground in 1941 after his release and became a leader of Zegota (The Council for the Aid of Jews). Zegota was responsible for saving several thousand Jews and, according to one estimate, 40,000 to 50,000 Jews benefited in some way from its activities. He also fought during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In 1965, he received the Yad Vashem Medal of Righteous Among the Nations.

Eduardo Propper De Callejon (1895-1972): He was the Secretary of the Spanish Embassy in Paris during the Holocaust years. In July of 1940 alone, he issued 30,000 visas to Jews of France and Spain to allow them to get into Portugal. After a while, he was exposed and transferred to Rabat, Morocco. He is credited for having facilitated the escape of more than 30,000 Jews. He never received any recognition in his lifetime. In 2007, he received the Yad Vashem Medal of Righteous Among the Nations posthumously.

Vesel and Fatima Veseli (1895-1972): Vesel and Fatima Veseli were a Muslim couple who lived in a small village in Albania during WW2. Albania was predominantly Muslim and was one of the first countries invaded by Italy which was Germany’s ally at the time. The Veselis took in the Mandil family who were Jews in dire need of protection. The whole village was friendly to Jewish people during the occupation. In the Muslim holy book, the Qur’an, it says, “Whoever saves one life, saves all of mankind” (Al-Ma’idah 5:32), which is very similar to the Talmudic quote saying, “Anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world.” (Sanhedrin 4:5). The Veselis went out of their way to hide, protect and feed the Mandils, going as far as dressing them like Muslims to move them around more freely. In 1987, they received the Yad Vashem Medal of Righteous Among the Nations posthumously.

These unknown people from around the world are a few unsung heroes of the Holocaust. Without their unconditional and compassionate involvement, many more Jews would have become the innocent casualties of the evil of Hitler and his regime. They had much in common, as they became heroes of this great human catastrophe. They acted as good Samaritans (Luke 10:29-37). They were breaking the Law. They knew the risk they were taking (Esther 4:15-16). They were creative with what was at their disposal (Joshua 2:4-7). They never worried about how many or how few people they helped. Yet today, many believers are in a place where we are soon going to have to decide how we can help Jewish people in dire need of protection and provision again. Surely, many believers will display the same qualities that these earlier heroes had, but as disciples of Yeshua, we have much more:

1. WE UNDERSTAND GOD’S PROMISES
• To bless those who bless the Jews (Gen. 12:3)
• To curse those who curse the Jews (Gen.12:3)
• To never forsake Israel (Jeremiah 31:35-27)
• To go after the enemies of Israel (Zech. 12:9)
• To watch over Israel 24/7 (Psalm 121:4)
• To never change (Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6)
• To have Yeshua return BECAUSE of the Jews calling on Him (Zechariah 12:10)

2. WE UNDERSTAND GOD’S POWER
• The Gospel is the power of God (Romans 1:16)
• The Word of the cross is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18)
• The whole universe is His (1 Chronicles 29:11)
• His greatness is unsearchable (Psalm 145:3)
• Nothing is too hard for Him (Jeremiah 32:27)

3. WE UNDERSTAND GOD’S PROVISION
• We are valuable to God (Luke 12:24)
• God will meet all our NEEDS (Philippians 4:19)
• God provides for those who seek Him (Psalm 34:10)
• There are no limits to God’s provision (Luke 9:1—17)

Heroes are rarely if ever, self-proclaimed. They are usually recognized after the fact, but sometimes they remain in the shadows of history. As we commemorate Yom HaShoah, let us never forget the six million, but let us also recognize and express our gratitude to the many who selflessly reached out to Jewish people in dire need. They are some of the people God used to continue to keep His promise that He will never forsake Israel. May their memory be a blessing and may they become models for what’s to come!

April 1, 2023 By Olivier Melnick 1 Comment

A Blue Square to Show Support To Our Jewish Friends…Then What?

It has now become common knowledge that antisemitism is on the rise like never before. Just this past week, the ADL released the numbers for antisemitic incidents in 2022, and it is not good at all. In fact, these numbers are the highest they’ve been in the past 45 years since records started being kept in the USA. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The ADL counted 3,697 incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault targeting Jews last year — a 36% increase from the 2,717 recorded in 2021 and by far the highest total since the organization began tallying the data in 1979. The incidents include one fatality — the killing of a professor at the University of Arizona who was shot allegedly by a student, in part because the student believed Meixner was Jewish. The tally also includes the hostage situation at a Texas synagogue early in 2022.

It is important to note that these incidents are not just verbal or printed abuse. Since 2012, at the time of the France “Toulouse Massacre”, Jewish lives have been lost again. Jews are being killed again, just for being Jewish. Looking back at the year 2000 when I started to compile data about worldwide antisemitism, things have gotten worse. A lot worse. I used to get looks from people when I said that if things keep getting worse, the Jewish communities of the world will experience the 1930s and 1940s again soon. I fear that we are now on the cusp of a renewed 1930s and 1940s era for Jews.

Additionally, many antisemitic incidents worldwide are under-reported or not reported as a result of the lack of consequences for the culprit over the years. In other words, when in the best-case scenario, a person or group is found guilty of antisemitism, very little if anything is being done to punish them. There seems to be no accountability at all, which emboldens perpetrators to do more harm. I document this and much more in my latest book The Normalization of Antisemitism: When the Oldest Hatred Becomes the New Normal.

As I write this, we are approaching April 18, 2023, the day of the very solemn commemoration of Yom HaShoah (the Day of the Catastrophe) in Israel when all Israelis stop everything wherever they are in Eretz Yisrael and observe a two-minute moment of silence remembering the Holocaust victims. This time of year, the topic of antisemitism is always a little more tender than usual.

As we live in the age of Internet communication with a plethora of social network platforms, people can get very creative in expressing support for a particular cause. We often see people’s profiles dressed up with a hashtag or a flag in support of a country in turmoil. It is no different for those who desire to express their support for Israel and the Jewish people worldwide. A few years ago, we saw a deluge of #WeRemember on all the networks, posted by people who were declaring their support for the Jewish people and remembering the horrors of the Holocaust. While I agree that any show of solidarity is positive, I still think that many people posted the hashtag on their platforms and then felt that their conscience was cleared of any guilt. In reality, soon after Yom Ha Shoah, the hashtag dwindled down and eventually disappeared. It was back to business as usual, and people are not really paying attention to antisemitism anymore.

It seems that we are again bringing attention to the Jewish people and their plea with a new image in 2023. Again, I applaud the attempt at exposing the hatred against the Jews, but will it change anything? The new hashtag #StandUpToJewishHate was created along with a blue square. The blue square campaign was launched by the Jewish owner of the New England Patriots football team. He invested $25 million in this honorable endeavor. Many people are starting to display the little royal blue square in their photos online. The website connected to the square has several links offered to viewers for reporting antisemitic acts. This attempt at documenting and reporting acts of antisemitism is exemplary, but will it change anything? I have my doubts.

Over the years, I have seen many attempts at ending antisemitism, and while they were all commendable, they never have gone far enough to move into legal actions and prosecutions. A lot happens on paper and in committee meetings, but very little gets implemented. I have become convinced that antisemitism has now become the bully in the Jewish community’s courtyard. Even when we know that the bully will return multiple times, it is our duty to fight that bully the best we can every single time all the while knowing that we will not win the battle, or not yet at least.

So, can we fight against antisemitism and oppose it? Absolutely yes! Can we completely eradicate it? I don’t think so! The reason why I don’t think we can fully eradicate it is spiritual. Fighting antisemitism is a spiritual battle. Any attempt at fighting antisemitism without understanding that it is a creation of Satan who hates the Jews because God loves them is bound to fail. I believe that the Bible clearly explains why Satan hates the Jews, namely because they will one day say Baruch Haba Bashem Adonai and usher in the return of Yeshua the Jewish Messiah which will also put an end to Satan’s career of hate.

While people of goodwill and Bible-believing followers of Yeshua should continue to denounce, expose and oppose antisemitism, now is the time to start thinking about what we can do for our Jewish co-workers, family members, schoolmates and neighbors. A blue square might identify us as friends of Israel and the Jewish people–in our day and age, that is enough of a target on our backs–but the real test comes when we must move into action to physically help Jewish people. The time has come to prepare to help the Jewish people around you.

Go ahead and publish the hashtag and wear the blue square pin…Good for you, but please, also make yourself ready to become Genesis 12:3 in action and actually come to the rescue of Jewish people. Who knows? It might be as easy as telling your next-door neighbor that you’ve got his back!

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