Actress Patricia Heaton rallies Christian community to fight antisemitism: 'It's up to us' to do something
Actress Patricia Heaton says it's up to Christians to stand against the tide of antisemitism sweeping across America, and she's helping mobilize people nationwide to break the silence and take action.
"You could see that body cam footage from Hamas where they were gleefully murdering people, and I was astonished and horrified, and then I looked around, assuming that the churches would also be horrified and outraged, and I wasn't hearing anything. It was like crickets," Heaton told Fox News' Brian Kilmeade on Saturday.
"So I posted on my Instagram, 'If you had been a German during World War II, don't you hope that you would have been a German who stood by your Jewish neighbors and hid your Jewish neighbors?' Well, today is your opportunity, and I still believe that."
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Heaton helped found the October 7 Coalition to urge Christians to voice their support for the Jewish community. Getty Images
The "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "The Middle" star is among the founders of the October 7 Coalition, a network of Christians visibly speaking out against the rise of antisemitism in the U.S. since Hamas terrorists carried out attacks on Israeli residential areas last October and propelled the region into ongoing war.
Together, with the nonprofit JewBelong, the organization is putting together pink and white billboards with warning messages about hate, and they're slated to go up across the country.
One reads, "Jewish students deserve to be safe on campus." Another says, "You don't have to be a Jew to protect Jews."
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Jewish students at El Camino Real Charter High School walkout to protest antisemitic incidents at the Woodland Hills school on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. Antisemitism concerns have been on the rise since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. Getty Images
Archie Gottesman, founder of JewBelong, said many Jews have similarly remained silent in the months since the war between Israel and Hamas began.
"Those of us who are [speaking out] have been feeling very, very alone," she told Kilmeade.
"The Jews are only 2% of the entire country, so even if all of them spoke out, it's not enough. We need allies."
The push to fight back comes amid reported incidents of hate at colleges and universities across the country. In some areas, Jewish-owned businesses have also faced hate crimes.
In one example, a New York deli was vandalized with a swastika. In another, a retired pastor was caught drawing the symbol on his Jewish neighbor's groceries.
In Las Vegas, a special needs Jewish student returned home with a swastika etched into his back, sparking outrage from his mother and spawning legal action as a result.
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A vandal was caught in the act after spray-painting a swastika on a Holocaust memorial in Philadelphia. The crime is one of many displays of antisemitism that have emerged in the months since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. Fox News
"Maybe back in 1939, people didn't know what was going on. We know what's going on, and it is up to us as Christians to do something about it," Heaton said during Saturday's broadcast.
"The Jewish people are feeling very, very alone and they need to know we will stand by them," she added."
Original article source: Actress Patricia Heaton rallies Christian community to fight antisemitism: 'It's up to us' to do something