Actress Patricia Heaton: Christians should stand with Jewish people

It is time for Christians to take a firm stand against the rising tide of antisemitism, actress Patricia Heaton said.

“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,” she told Brian Kilmeade of Fox News. “It was like crickets. 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.”

Heaton, who starred in “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “The Middle” is a founder of the October 7 Coalition, a network of Christians speaking out against the rise of antisemitism in the United State following Hamas’ terror attack on Israel last October that led to an ongoing war in the region. The coalition has partnered with the nonprofit JewBelong, creating pink and white billboards with messages about hate to place across the country.

“Those of us who are [speaking out] have been feeling very, very alone,” Archie Gottesman, founder of JewBelong, told Kilmeade concerning the silence of many Jews since the war between Israel and Hamas began. “The Jews are only 2 percent of the entire country, so even if all of them spoke out, it’s not enough. We need allies.”

In recent months, there have been reported incidents of antisemitism across the country, including at colleges, universities and Jewish-owned communities. For instance, a New York deli was vandalized with a swastika. In another case, a retired pastor was caught drawing the symbol on the groceries of his Jewish neighbor. In Las Vegas, a Jewish mother called for legal action after her special-needs son returned home with a swastika etched into his back.

“Maybe back in 1939, people didn’t know what was going on,” Heaton said. “We know what’s going on, and it is up to us as Christians to do something about it. The Jewish people are feeling very, very alone, and they need to know we will stand by them.”

–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice