Anti-Semitism continues to increase in Western Europe as more and more of the population makes outrageous claims in efforts to attack Jews and their heritage. Liliana Segre, a Holocaust survivor and senator in the Italian parliament, has become a target for online abuse ever since she called for the creation of a parliamentary committee to fight racism and online hate speech. The threats were so extreme they had to assign police bodyguards to the 89-year old.
This past November, Fabio Tulach, a boxer and avowed Catholic, became a council member in the northeastern city of Trieste, Italy. The Jerusalem Post reports there is a video circulating from La Repubblica in which Tulach claimed “Jesus was not a Jew,” despite clear Biblical evidence to the contrary. He made the comment during a November 18 meeting ahead of a council vote on a motion proposing to award 89-year-old Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre the city’s honorary citizenship.
Tuiach reportedly called Segre a “nice little granny,” whom he respected for witnessing one of the ugliest pages in history but said he was offended as a “devout Catholic” that she would refer to Jesus as a Jew. “As a devout Catholic, I was confused and also a little offended by the fact that she said that Jesus was Jewish,” Tuiach said. “He was the son of God, he was God for me; therefore I will abstain.” He later attempted to clarify his comments by stating, “Jesus was born to a virgin, he is the Son of God. This should be obvious to anyone defending our true faith: How can he be a Jew?”
Tulach, a Roman Catholic, has no Scriptural support for his position which in fact goes against the pages of Scripture in an attempt to deny Jesus’ earthly ethnicity. While it is true Jesus was born to a virgin and is the Son of God, Mary was Jewish and therefore Jesus’ human ethnicity was Jewish. Joseph, his earthly father was Jewish. Jesus was raised as a Jewish boy, being circumcised on the eighth day, regularly attending the synagogue and visiting the Jewish Temple. He celebrated the Jewish religious festivals, including the very Passover meal that would later become the Lord’s Supper. He observed the Torah, read from the Old Testament and was a practicing Jew. Pilate even calls Jesus the King of the Jews (Matthew 27:11).
There is an overwhelming amount of Biblical evidence to support Jesus’ humanity as a Jew. To state Jesus was not humanly Jewish because of His virgin birth or His divine nature illustrates they have rarely if ever read the Gospels. Or, it confirms one is so anti-Semitic they cannot stomach that Jesus came from a Jewish background.
These types of attacks on Jewish heritage, sometimes through ignorance but many times through anti-Semitic ideology, have been used throughout the ages to not only verbally attack the Jewish people, but also create atmospheres where persecution of Jews can become commonplace. For example, hatred and persecution of the Jews did not start in Germany with Adolph Hitler but were long held beliefs that can be traced back as far to the Reformation. If these ideals continue to fester, especially from politicians who hold influence and power, then it will lead to more and bolder attacks on the Jewish people.
Pray that Tulach and others that share similar anti-Semitic beliefs would repent of their beliefs and take a more Biblical approach to how they relate to the Jewish people.