A recent series of anti-Semitic terror attacks in America has Jews on high alert, worried that they may become the victim. Even Jewish members of Congress are alarmed; Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) said he “increased our investment in security.” As the name suggests, terrorism is spreading terror. The racist violence threatens not only Jews but America’s entire system of constitutional order.

American Jews have good reason to believe they might become targets of attack. On Sunday, an illegal immigrant from Egypt attacked a Jewish march for the hostages, injuring eight elderly Jews with homemade flamethrowers. On May 21, a man traveled from Chicago to Washington, D.C., where he shot and killed a young couple that worked at the Israeli embassy. In the wee morning hours of April 13, a man infiltrated the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and set it on fire while Governor Josh Shapiro (D) and his family slept inside.

“I have had a hard time getting the image of being shot and killed out of my head,” said Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio). “It happens almost every time I’m in a big crowd now.”

Of course, Israelis in Israel have faced a near-constant threat of violence against them for a long time. Last month, a terrorist shot and killed a pregnant woman in Samaria as she was on her way to the hospital to give birth. This does not diminish the trials of American Jews; rather, it accentuates them by underscoring the fact that Jews face violent hatred everywhere.

Landsman seems to encounter near-constant hostility for his Jewish identity. On the anniversary of the October 7 attack, pro-Hamas demonstrators erected an encampment outside Landsman’s Cincinnati home. Even now, “the number of times in the course of a week I’m called a ‘Jewish demon’ is pretty unsettling,” he said.

In addition to Schneider and Landsman, Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.), and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) also said Jews face extra danger after the recent series of anti-Semitic terror attacks.

Gottheimer and Landsman urged the Trump administration to authorize more grants through the Nonprofit Safety Grant Program, which provides security for houses of worship.

The critical reader will have noticed that all five Jewish members of Congress quoted by Axios are Democrats. This is unsurprising; out of 32 Jewish members of Congress, all but three are Democrats, according to Pew Research Center.

The critical reader may also be tempted, at least in part, to blame these members for their own predicament — after all, haven’t Democrats been the ones fanning into flame the rampant anti-Semitic protests that have now escalated to murderous plots?

Such a judgment would be over-hasty. Despite the overwhelming volume of the anti-Semitic rabble, a number of elected Democrats have spoken up for Israel, honoring the commitment to her preservation that used to infuse both parties. This year, all five members mentioned above signed a letter from “41 pro-Israel House Democrats” advocating for the remaining hostages. Their levels of support may vary, but a substantial minority of Democrats at least self-identifies as pro-Israel — not surprisingly, many Jewish representatives are among that number.

Yet, alas, this group of “pro-Israel House Democrats” failed to capture even 20% of the party’s House caucus. The Israel-haters among their party (which, by extension, nearly always means “Jew-haters”) are more numerous and louder. Forms of anti-Semitism exist on both the Left and the Right, but more than two-thirds of anti-Semitic incidents in America in 2024 were linked to left-wing extremism.

Such anti-Semitism is fundamentally un-American. In the Declaration of Independence, America’s Founders declared the “self-evident” truth “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Anti-Semites effectively deny that people of Jewish descent are created equal, threatening their life through murderous or harmful plots, their liberty through discriminatory policies, and their pursuit of happiness through their campaign of terror.

America’s birth certificate drew heavily upon both Scripture and Enlightenment philosophy, which unwittingly retained many biblical ideals. Indeed, the famous statement in the Declaration of Independence can be traced back to Moses’s account of creation, in which he wrote that God created man in his own image and likeness, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Genesis 1:26, 28).

Consequently, anti-Semitism is fundamentally unbiblical, just as it is un-American. As Christians, we desire to “lead a peaceful and quiet life” under just laws that allow all people to flourish, because, like God, we desire “all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:2, 4). Jews need Jesus just like everyone else, and it’s difficult to evangelize them if they are paranoid that every stranger may contemplate their personal harm.

Due to the incurable fallenness of human nature, civil society will never achieve perfect peace, safety, and justice until Jesus returns. When Zechariah depicted perfect security with the image of “boys and girls playing in its streets” (Zechariah 8:5), he was speaking of the eschatological kingdom. But Christians can and should strive for a juster, safer society, in imitation of God and out of love for people made in his image. That includes condemning and expunging the pernicious ideology of anti-Semitism, so that neighbors of Jewish descent may live among us and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ without fear.