Antisemitism at Harvard and the power of ideas

Police in England arrested five men, including four Iranian nationals, over the weekend in what is being described as one of the largest counter-terrorism operations in recent years. Authorities report that the “Iranian terror attack” was foiled with just hours to spare. Speculation mounted that the target may have been a synagogue or another target linked to the Jewish community.

If so, we can only wish to be surprised.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have announced a “comprehensive” aerial blockade repeatedly targeting Israel’s airports. This after a missile strike Sunday hit near Ben Gurion Airport, the latest in a string of attacks. In response, some twenty Israeli fighter jets struck targets in Yemen last night.

Closer to home, the New York Times reported recently that a task force at Harvard University found antisemitism has “infiltrated coursework, social life, the hiring of some faculty members, and the worldview of certain academic programs.” The rabbi and theologian David Wolpe recently spent a year as a visiting scholar at Harvard, where he saw personally how the October 7 massacre of Jews by Hamas “intensified hatred against Jews on an already hostile campus.”

He reports that Jewish students “were insulted, shunned, harassed, and hounded in a hundred different ways.” One student, having walked through Harvard Yard while being screamed at by protesters, said to him, “They don’t just hate what I believe. They hate me.”

Such sentiment illustrates the warning of French philosopher Emile Chartier, “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.”

How Freud explained antisemitism

Four days of celebrations in the UK began yesterday to commemorate eighty years since Sir Winston Churchill declared victory over Germany in World War II. King Charles III and the royal family took part, along with huge crowds and a military parade.

An estimated fifteen to twenty million people in Europe—six million of them Jews—died in the war because of the horrific idea of one man. A historian said of Adolf Hitler: “No other political leader of the era would have harnessed national passions or driven an anti-Semitic, pure-race agenda with such ferocity or tragic consequence, resulting in the deaths of millions of European Jews as well as gypsies, homosexuals, the weak, and disabled.”

Hitler’s maniacal commitment to the genocide of the Jews was fueled by eugenic theories, popular in the day, that claimed some people were genetically superior to others and sought to purify races accordingly. Charles Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, was a key early figure in this movement, building on Darwin’s “natural selection” theory to advance “race betterment.” Nietzsche’s advocacy of the “overcomer” additionally prompted Hitler’s elevation of Aryans to “super-race status” and reinforced his hatred of the Jews as their enemies.

Ideological prejudice against the Jews has tragically been the norm across much of their history. Sigmund Freud, who was born on this day in 1856, identified several such sources of antisemitism:

• The Jews are hated because they survive and thrive.
• They are forced to live differently, which provokes hatred against them.
• They are excluded and then seen as holding themselves separate.
• They are objects of fascination, but this creates envy.
• They are allowed only the currency of intellectuality, but their fantasized “cleverness” is then feared.

To this we can add claims by critical theory advocate and Columbia scholar Edward Said, who believes like many others that Israel is a “colonialist occupier” of Palestinian land and “oppressor” of the Palestinian people. Unsurprisingly, the BBC is reporting today that support among Americans for Israel is at its lowest level since Gallup began tracking it twenty-five years ago. Antisemitism continues to rise in the West even as teenage terrorists being radicalized online threaten our security and our future.

“We are remade in the likeness of his Son”

I have taught and published widely on Israel and Judaism for many years and have led more than thirty study tours to the Holy Land. In my work as a seminary professor, pastor, and philosopher, I have often reflected on sources of antisemitism. In my mind, jealousy and fear of the Jews’ success and uniqueness fuel much of the persecution they continue to face.

Their enduring significance can be traced to their commitment to this foundational text in the Hebrew Bible:

God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).

They genuinely believe that each person bears the image of God and is thus able and obligated to worship and serve the Creator according to the laws he has given us. Their passion for literacy stems from their commitment to reading and following the Torah; their drive to improve their land and the world at large stems from their partnership with God in stewarding his creation (cf. Genesis 2:15).

The only idea more transformative than the Jews’ commitment to the imago Dei is the gospel proclamation that this “image” can be restored and redeemed in Christ. As the great theologian Athanasius (ca. AD 298–373) wrote:

We were made “in the likeness of God.” But in course of time that image has become obscured, like a face on a very old portrait, dimmed with dust and dirt.

When a portrait is spoiled, the only way to renew it is for the subject to come back to the studio and sit for the artist all over again. This is why Christ came—to make it possible for the divine image in man to be recreated. We were made in God’s likeness; we are remade in the likeness of his Son.

To bring about this re-creation, Christ still comes to men and lives among them. In a special way he comes to his Church, his “body,” to show us what the “image of God” is really like.

What a responsibility the Church has, to be Christ’s “body,” showing him to those who are unwilling or unable to see him in providence or in creation! Through the word of God lived out in the body of Christ, they can come to the Father, and themselves be made again “in the likeness of God.”

“All right knowledge is born of obedience”

If all Christians were to reflect the “image of God” as the body of Christ today, what steps would we take to combat antisemitism and encourage Jews to know their Messiah? How powerfully would we reveal Christ to those who are “unwilling or unable to see him in providence or in creation”?

For us to reflect this “image,” as Athanasius noted, the word of God must be “lived out in the body of Christ.” In his May 5 devotional, my friend Dr. Duane Brooks quoted John Calvin: “All right knowledge is born of obedience.” Then Duane commented:

“God’s next work in our lives begins with his grace and comes to fruition when we obey.”

Will you experience your Father’s “next work” in your life today?

Quote for the day:

“We can’t take the next step with God until we do the last thing he told us to do.” —Dr. Duane Brooks

Our latest website resources:

• An Israeli’s view on the future of Gaza: The only path to a lasting freedom for the people of Gaza

• Reconciling the “Gods” of the Old and New Testaments
• A review of Michael Heiser’s “The Unseen Realm”: Understanding the Old Testament’s most confusing passages
• Meta and Apple fined nearly $1 billion and an exposé of Meta: Why stories matter
• Pope Francis on five ways to engage a hostile culture

Denison Forum

The only path to a lasting freedom for the people of Gaza

News broke over the weekend that Israel is calling up tens of thousands of reservists as it prepares to continue its latest push into Gaza. The stated hope is to pressure Hamas into renewed negotiations to return the fifty-nine remaining hostages, with the clear message that their opportunity to do so is running out before IDF forces go in to get them.

In Gaza, there are signs of an uprising by civilians against Hamas. While not yet in significant numbers—and Hamas has been public in their persecutions of those who have spoken out—it’s happening.

I know the Gaza area quite well, and even used to take groups to tour around it.

More than 3000 years ago, Gaza was a large and important city. Its importance stemmed from its location on the “Via Maris,” which connected the southern empire in Egypt with the northeastern and eastern empires (Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria). It served the spice traders on their journey from the east to Europe and back.

Gaza is also a prominent area in the Bible, with both the Old and New Testaments mentioning it.

The region appears 22 times in the Old Testament, such as in Judges 1:18, where it describes how “Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.” The story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:26 also takes place in this region: “Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

My time in Gaza

An archaeological construction from the Byzantine period (5th century BC) was discovered by the Egyptians who ruled the Strip in 1965, when they wanted to build a casino there. Hebrew names in the mosaic, an image of King David perched on a harp, and the direction of prayer facing Jerusalem are all evidence of an ancient synagogue.

But for as much history as we find in Gaza, I wouldn’t recommend visiting anytime soon. Much of it looked terrible even before the war devastated the region, and that is still the case today.

For years, I did my army duty in the Gaza area, mainly at the border between Israel and Egypt. The border is divided by a tall fence with army positions on both sides.

When we signed a peace agreement with Egypt, both sides were very generous to each other: “You take Rafah,” we said to the Egyptians. “No, no, you can take it,” the Egyptians answered. Ultimately, the Palestinian city of Rafah was divided in the middle, and this remains true to this day.

In my Army base, we had the keys to the Palestinian mayor’s house in Rafah. He frequently needed our protection from his own people. I never understood what the mayor did, considering the sewage ran in the streets while garbage and terrible smells penetrated everything. It was the “ best” way to lose weight, as it was impossible to erase the smell for two months.

That said, it’s difficult to understand Gaza’s current state without knowing a bit more about its history.

How Gaza became what it is today

In Israel’s 1948 war for independence, we were attacked by five Arab countries. After the war, the Gaza Strip remained under Egyptian control. 250,000 Palestinians fled to Gaza, where the existing population was 80,000. To house everyone, Egypt built refugee camps for the new population.

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel gained control of Gaza among other areas.

The area remained under Israeli control until 2005, when Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip completely. It was the end of a process that began with the Oslo Agreement, where the Gaza Strip became a Palestinian autonomous area.

Today, the population of Gaza is about 1.9 million, 1.3 million (68 percent) of whom are considered refugees. That is an incredibly high number, and so many remain due primarily to the work of a UN organization called UNRWA.

The following description is taken word by word from the official page of this UN organization:

UNRWA is unique in terms of its long-standing commitment to one group of refugees. It has contributed to the welfare and human development of four generations of Palestinian refugees, defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period June 1, 1946, to May 15, 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 War.”

The “unique” way in which the UNRWA has “contributed” to the state of Gaza has resulted in one of the biggest failures I can think of.

Palestinians are the only people to retain refugee status generation after generation as a result of United Nations support. It made them completely passive.

A combination of UN support and the thought that “Allah will provide” makes it difficult to see how they will ever move beyond their challenging situation. That said, a good first step would be to stop enabling 5.9 million Palestinians to live as refugees.

I do not see a way for the people of Gaza to escape domination by Hamas unless they take responsibility for their lives. As plans are made to rebuild Gaza, working to ensure that its people can—and must—try to move beyond their refugee status is a crucial step in ensuring that the region can have a chance at sustainable peace going forward.

Do your part

We Jews were refugees more times than I can count across our history, but we always fought to move on. We did everything to improve our lives and to have a better future.

Scripture teaches that God is omnipresent, meaning He exists everywhere and at all times. This belief is central to the Jewish understanding of God’s nature, as expressed in prayers like the Shema, which affirms God’s unity and universality. However, Judaism also emphasizes human responsibility and free will in shaping one’s life.

Judaism encourages trust in God while actively engaging in efforts to improve oneself and the world, reflecting a balance between divine presence and human initiative.

I don’t know how to solve the Gaza problem, but I do know that the situation there will never really improve until the human initiative to take responsibility for that improvement is valued by the people living there.

And the same is true in our lives as well. Sitting back and waiting on God to make us better will never result in the kind of transformation the Lord longs to create in us. He has blessed us to have a part in that growth.

Will you do your part today?

Denison Forum

The power of predictions and the urgency of revival

Warren Buffett is retiring at the end of the year. This is the headline news from his company’s annual shareholders meeting Saturday, but there’s more to know.

According to Forbes, Buffett is worth $168.2 billion. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, ended March 2025 with $347.7 billion on hand. Over the last year, his company’s stock rose 33.9 percent, compared with 12.3 percent for the S&P 500. All that to say, when Buffett discusses the economy, people listen.

Tens of thousands of them, in fact.

At Saturday’s annual meeting in Omaha, people came from around the world to hear the ninety-four-year-old investment guru. He stated that “balanced trade is good for the world” and that “trade should not be a weapon,” but he also urged patience to investors worried about the future. “People have emotions,” Buffett said. “You’ve got to check them at the door when you invest.”

Nothing happening today has changed his long-term optimism about the US. He observed that “we’re always in the process of change” and added, “If I were being born today, I would just keep negotiating in the womb until they said, ‘You could be in the United States.’”

Following this story over the weekend prompted me to reflect on the power predictions have to become reality and the significance of this power for our souls and society.

Why yesterday was Star Wars Day

In case you missed it, Sunday was Star Wars Day (“May the Fourth be with you”), bringing us a host of quotes from the iconic film series. One of the most memorable comes from Return of the Jedi, when Obi-Wan Kenobi famously told Luke Skywalker, “Many of the truths that we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.”

While I disagree strongly with the underlying postmodern claim that there are no absolute truths (which is an absolute truth claim, by the way), Obi-Wan was right: when we act on our perceptions, we thus turn them into reality.

For example, when an investor like Warren Buffett encourages us to have faith in America and we therefore continue to invest in the country, our economy improves and our belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Of course, it helps when the object of our faith is worthy of it. You can sincerely take the wrong road and become lost, or take the wrong medicine and die.

Churches so full they turned people away

Consider Gen Z (adults ages eighteen to twenty-seven), in many ways the future of our society. Many have sincerely placed their faith in secularism, which contributes to their lack of flourishing today. A new study found, as the New York Times reports, that young adults are struggling “not only with happiness, but also with their physical and mental health, their perceptions of their own character, finding meaning in life, the quality of their relationships, and their financial security.”

However, in response to the loneliness epidemic and a loss of trust in the establishment, large numbers of young adults—and young men in particular—are turning to the Savior rather than secularism. In the UK, the number of young men attending church services has increased fivefold, and fourfold for young women. Gen Z adults are the most likely group to report an increase in Bible reading.

This trend is continuing across all demographics. Many churches in Great Britain were so full on Easter Sunday that they had to turn people away. Seventeen thousand people were baptized in France over the Easter weekend.

Once again, we are learning to pray with St. Augustine, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

“You have been set free from sin”

The key to experiencing genuine revival in our souls and our society is making the right spiritual decisions that become reality when we choose them.

In Romans 6, Paul taught that “the death [Jesus] died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God” (v. 10). Consequently, “you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v. 11). Consider translates a Greek word meaning to “appraise, reckon, believe to be true.”

When we make this determination that we are “dead to sin,” we are empowered to make these choices as well:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace (vv. 12–14).

We can choose godliness over sin because “you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God” (v. 22a). You have been set free describes a completed action. The consequence of this fact “leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (v. 22b).

As St. Augustine observed, because of the Fall we were non posse non peccare, “not able not to sin.” But because of the transforming grace of Christ, we are now posse non peccare, “able not to sin.” The choice is ours.

If we believe Satan’s lie that we are sinners doomed to sin, we make his deception our reality. If we believe God’s assurance that we are “dead to sin” and can choose godliness with the help of God, we make his promise our reality.

There is no sin we must commit. To the contrary, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Paul testified, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). You have the opportunity and ability to choose the same reality today.

“The only reason we don’t have revival”

Imagine the impact on our souls if each of America’s Christians chose to see ourselves as “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” and lived with true godliness by the help of God. Imagine the impact on our broken society. Imagine the revival that would come to our families, churches, and culture.

You can choose this reality for yourself today.

Leonard Ravenhill observed,

“The only reason we don’t have revival is because we are willing to live without it!”

Are you?

Quote for the day:

“Revival will come to us and within us when we really want it, when we pay the price.” —A. W. Tozer

Our latest website resources:

• Reconciling the “Gods” of the Old and New Testaments
• A review of Michael Heiser’s “The Unseen Realm”: Understanding the Old Testament’s most confusing passages
• Meta and Apple fined nearly $1 billion and an exposé of Meta: Why stories matter
• Pope Francis on five ways to engage a hostile culture
• Deion Sanders’ advice to his son Shedeur after draft slide

Denison Forum