Anti-Semites are ignorant of the common foundation of Judaism and Christianity. Otherwise they would know that Jesus was a dedicated practicing Jew and that the synagogue was his spiritual home; thus, an attack on a synagogue is also an attack on Jesus.

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Since 1962 when Pope John XXIII initiated Vatican II, Christianity has entered a process of reconciliation with Judaism to address ancient wounds after a long history of Anti-Semitism. In recognition of the bond between the two faiths, Pope Francis recently proclaimed: Inside every Christian is a Jew.

Nevertheless, far right Christian extremists in the USand other countriescontinue to spew hatred in defiance of Christian scripture.

At his Sunday sermons, megachurch televangelist Joel Osteen holds up the Christian Bible and says what most Christians believe: "It's the word of God."

Tragically, anti-Semites have not paid careful attention to the "word of God." If they had, they would know that Jesus was a dedicated practicing Jew throughout his life, as confirmed by a consensus of biblical scholars.

Like the Jews who were slaughtered at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Jesus attended Shabbat services at a synagogue on the Sabbath, where he worshiped and read from the Torah.

The Gospel of Luke tells us: "And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read" (Luke 4:16).

Had the Pittsburgh murderer attacked a synagogue in Galilee in the early first century, he might have killed Jesus and his followers, putting an end to Jesus' fledgling ministry.

The Pittsburgh murderer is not alone in his ignorance of the "word of God." His tirade "Kill all Jews," uttered as he fired an automatic weapon on peaceful worshipers, has a long history. So do his social media attack words: "Jews are the children of Satan."

The fourth century Eight Homilies Against the Jews (387 CE) by St. John of Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, comprises more than 100 pages. Among his diatribes, he declares: "The Jews are more savage than any highwaymen" and "are the most miserable and wretched of all men." His vicious attacks on synagogues include: "The synagogue is a dwelling of demons " the synagogue is not only a brothel " it also is a den of robbers and a lodging for wild beasts " must you not despise it, hold it in abomination."

These themes have echoed throughout the centuries. They reached a crescendo 1,200 years later with Martin Luther, the German theologian who initiated the Protestant Reformation. In his publicationOn theJews and Their Lies(1543 CE), Luther calls Jews "base and whoring people" full of the devil's feces." He incited his followers to "set fire to their synagogues or schools," and proposed that "their rabbis should be forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb."

The following centuries witnessed atrocities against Jews driven by these and other anti-Semitic rants, which many commentators believe paved the way for Hitler'sgenocide.

Throughout the centuries, marginalized, ghettoized, and persecuted Jews were routinely blamed for societal woes. In medieval times, Jews were charged with "poisoning the wells" to spread the black plague (1347-1351 CE),resulting in the massacre of more than 200 Jewish communities.

When children died under suspicious or unknown circumstances, Jews were accusedand often tortured and executed on the bogus charge that they extracted blood from these victims for Passover matzah and other religious rituals (the blood libel).

Hate mongers today continue the tradition of blaming the Jews-- this time for instigating and supporting the caravan of migrants from Central America.

The Pittsburgh murderer was incited by this latest "Jewish conspiracy." He envisioned himself as a foot soldier in the patriotic vigilante army striking back at the Jews, including a 97-year-old woman praying in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. And what a danger this "invasion" must pose if the president of the United States is mobilizing the vast resources of the most powerful army on the planet to meet the threat.

President Trump is planning to send as many as 15,000 troops to our southern border -- far more than the 8,475 American troops deployed in Afghanistan as of May 2018. These will reinforce the 2,100 National Guard troops and 18,600 border patrol agents already there. All this military might is being deployed to stop a few thousand -- and ever shrinking numbers-- of men, women, and children seeking freedom and a safe haven. And what's behind this national emergency? According to the Pittsburgh killer, "a Jewish conspiracy."

Today in America, anti-Semitism is on the rise. 2017 showed a steep 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents over the previous year, according to Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Then there's the lingering belief among 26 percent of Americans, according to the most recent survey, that Jews collectively are responsible for the death of Jesus -- a bizarre accusation that flies in the face of the fact that virtually all of Jesus' followers were Jews and without his Jewish followers, there never would have been Christianity.

Most anti-Semites know nothing of the Jewish roots and foundation of Christianity. They are dangerously unaware or refuse to believe that the synagogue was the spiritual home of Jesus. And thus they do not understand that an attack on a synagogue is also an attack on Jesus.

With this kind of ignorance and hatred abounding, is it really a surprise that violence against Jews has resurfaced?

(Article changed on November 10, 2018 at 05:12)

Authors Bio:

Bernard Starr has written about climate change since 2007 often calling for a program modeled after the Manhattan Project. He is a psychologist and Professor Emeritus at CUNY, Brooklyn College where he taught developmental psychology to prospective teachers and research methods and statistics in a graduate program that he directed. He is also the lead author of a lifespan textbook-- Human Development and Behavior: Psychology in Nursing. Starr is the founder and for twenty-five years the managing editor of the cutting edge Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics published by Springer; also was editor of the Springer Publishing Co. series Adulthood and Aging and Lifestyle and Issues in Aging. For several years he wrote for the Scripps Howard News Service on healthcare, the boomers, and issues of an aging society. And for seven years he was writer, producer, and host of an award-winning radio commentary, The Longevity Report, on WEVD-AM Radio in NYC. His book, The Starr-Weiner Report On Sex and Sexuality in the Mature years (co-authored with Dr. Marcella Bakur Weiner) provided the first comprehensive data on sexual activity after age 60. He is a past president of the Brooklyn Psychological Association and a past president of the Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy. He is also the main United Nations representative for the Institute of Global Education (IGE), an NGO with ECOSOC status. His latest book, The Crucifixion of Truth, is a drama about historical antisemitism set in 16th- century Italy and Spain. He also authored Jesus, Jews, and Anti-Semitism in Art. and Jesus Uncensored: Restoring the Authentic Jew. His earlier book, Escape Your Own Prison: Why We Need Spirituality and Psychology to be Truly Free, published by Rowman and Littlefield, explores spirituality as a psychology of consciousness. Currently, his articles are published at OpEdNews. Previously, he published on the Huffington Post contributor platform. Starr has also published in Salon, Barons Financial Magazine, the Algemeiner, and the New York Daily News.