In this era of hate and fear, anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States. 

According to the Anti-Defamation League, anti-semitism incidents in the United States rose 36% in 2022. 

“This escalation in antisemitism incidents comes just after the ADL reported on American’s highest level of anti-semitic attitudes in decades,” ADL claims.

In addition, the ADL claims that the anti-Semitic Goyim Defense League, a crossover with other white supremacist groups, has stepped up its propaganda against Jews from 74 in 2212 to 492 in 2022. 

It seems that every generation suffers from a hate disease when it comes to Jews. Whenever anything bad happened, people have blamed the Jews. — for centuries. It isn’t a racial bigotry – Jews look like most other people in society.

Christians Initiated Anti-semitism

So what is the reason for this hatred? Jews have always been a peaceful group that provided many valuable services to the American public. 

Not only are they shrewd business people but they are compassionate and generous with their hard-earned prosperity, often in a hostile environment. 

It all started over religion.

From out of the chute, Christians expected that Jews would give up their religion and join the rest of the converts. Most Jews chose to stay with their faith, inflaming the Christian community. 

Jews Remained Faithful

So hostility began in the New Testament era and spread across Christendom. Because the controversy involved large numbers of Christians and Jews, the hostility took root throughout the land. 

Historians agree that the break between Judaism and Christianity followed the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE and exile of the Jews.

This fracture was aggravated when Constantine became emperor of the Roman Empire (331 CE) and declared that Christianity would be the only official religion. Jewish loyalty to their faith became contentious.

St. Augustine, Luther Contribute

Early religious leaders made Anti-semitism an issue that prevailed through the centuries. St. Augustine was no saint when it came to Jews. Martin Luther praised Jews until he discovered that they would not convert. Then he became very angry and proposed a cruel litany of punishments.

The Christian Nationalist movement claims that they hate the Jews because they killed Jesus. That is not consistent with John 3:16 in which God gave His son willingly on our behalf. If the Jews were responsible, then Christianity has no footings.

Let’s be clear. Anti-semitism started with Christians and was perpetuated by Christians through the years. In the current age, we have the Christian Nationalists who exclude Jews from their vision of America. They are really the Ku Klux Klan without the hoods.

North Dakota people did not join the hate movement and actually accommodated new Jewish settlers, according to Dr. Ken Dawes, former chair of the UND Social Work Department. 

Dawes has been studying early Jewish settlements in Grand Forks and five Jewish communities in North Dakota, including Devils Lake-Garske, Wing-Regan, Ashley-Wishek, Bowman and Painted Woods. 

Jews Welcomed to ND

“Jews were well-received in North Dakota and became integral parts of the agricultural and business communities, primarily in Minot, Bismarck, Grand Forks and Fargo,” Dawes observed. They added substantially to the strength of the main streets. 

According to Dawes, hundreds of Jews came with the sponsorship of eastern Jewish organizations and staked out claims under the Homestead Act. But farming was alien to the Jewish culture so many of them proved up their claims, sold the land and moved to town where they could pursue their own professions.

In summary, hostility toward the Jews started with Christianity, a hypocrisy of significant proportions. Even though we have a few bigots, North Dakota can be proud of its openness. 

Lloyd Omdahl is a former lieutenant governor of North Dakota and former political science professor at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.