On March 10, 2022, at NRB’s annual Breakfast to Honor Israel, a host of NRB convention attendees, members, and NRB leadership gathered to hear a call to action for people of faith to band together against antisemitism.
The breakfast opened with the national anthems of both the United States and Israel, and music by recording artists The Isaacs. The keynote speaker Johnnie Moore, President of The Kairos Company and President of The Congress of Christian Leaders, urged all people of faith to deepen their relationship with Israel and redouble their commitment to fighting antisemitism.
“We are seeing more antisemitic behavior in America than we have seen in decades,” Moore shared. The tragic persecution of Jewish people also manifests in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS) which unfairly cripples Israel in business and its economy. He credited this rise, in part, to a lack of education on the history of Israel and its relationship with other countries. He emphasized that we must know our history, the good and the bad, in order keep alive the lessons learned and relationships built from stories of the past. “We must tell the stories of those who acted heroically for the Jewish people—such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oskar Schindler, and Corrie Ten Boom.”
“We must get to know our Jewish neighbors with no other agenda than friendship,” Moore encouraged, “and build our relationship with the real Israel, not simply the Christian interpretation of Israel. Sharing about the Holy Land with our children and letting the information influence their learning of the faith will cement into their adulthood.” He also mentioned the importance of sending your pastor to Israel to better understand the Bible and see it come alive, noting that it will change the way the pastor preaches.
Moore closed with the encouraging yet bold declaration that we need to “speak up” against antisemitism, no matter what form it takes. To Christians, he urged that whatever way that politics may go, stand for Israel and act as an “evangelical firewall” to those who are hostile toward them. We should do this not only because they are the people of Israel but because they are our friends.
This event was sponsored by NRBTV, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), offering humanitarian aid throughout Israel, Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM), a non-partisan, global grassroots organization to combat antisemitism, and Artza, a subscription box company delivering artisanal food and content to your front door that supports Jewish small businesses and charities.
