A student said, “My dad hates Jews, but I’m glad he did not pass it on to me.”
Recently, one of our missionaries in Germany was invited by a tenth grade teacher to speak on antisemitism and to share his experience and faith with the class. What an opportunity to impact students for the Messiah and against antisemitism!
Since this was an ethics class, which in Germany is offered to students who opt out of the Christian religion class, our staff expected there to be quite a few Muslims, atheists, and a few Jewish students. He was not disappointed.
Our missionary began with the words, “I’m a Jew who believes in Jesus” and went on to discuss Isaiah 53. “Does this Jewish prophecy ring a bell?” he asked the class.
“I think it describes Jesus, who was born in poverty, took the sins of the world upon himself, died, was buried in the grave of a rich man, and rose from the dead,” a Muslim student responded—a brilliant kid who goes to pray at his mosque every Friday.
“Does it strike you all that it was written 700 years before the birth of Jesus?” The kids never considered Jesus from this perspective.
Our staff member also opened up about his own experiences of antisemitism, which were very informative to the students as he encouraged them to stand against an “us-them” mentality or that of “the other.” In the end, the teacher asked if he would come again!
