OPINION:
One of the most talked-about Super Bowl ads from this year was set in a high school hallway. A student being bullied, with a note calling him a “Dirty Jew,” finds solace in a fellow classmate who tells him not to listen to the bullies.
At a time when one-third of Jewish students have experienced antisemitism while on campus or have felt targeted because of their Jewish identity, universities face a significant choice. They can retreat into silence or moral equivocation, or they can model courage, creating space for honest dialogue while refusing to excuse barbarism or indulge antisemitic falsehoods.
Colorado Christian University has chosen the latter.
In the aftermath of Hamas’ murderous attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 (and the ensuing antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric), we launched an annual initiative dedicated to standing with Israel. We opposed antisemitism in all its forms and fostered serious engagement between Christian and Jewish communities.
This program reflects a conviction that transcends politics: The United States and Israel share not only strategic interests but also deep moral and civilizational roots.
Israel matters to America for practical reasons. It is the only stable democracy in the Middle East, a reliable ally in a volatile region and a critical partner in intelligence, technology and defense. Yet those facts alone are not sufficient to explain the depth of American support for Israel, nor should they be.
The stronger bond is cultural and moral. Judeo-Christian ideas, human dignity, moral responsibility, ordered liberty and the rule of law are foundational to Western civilization. These principles animate American constitutionalism just as they animate Israel’s democratic experiment.
When Israel is attacked for being a Jewish state committed to democratic norms, it is not only Israel on trial but also the moral legitimacy of the West itself.
That is why antisemitism today is so dangerous. It rarely announces itself honestly. Instead, it cloaks itself in moral language, academic jargon or selective outrage. It treats Israel as uniquely illegitimate, excuses or minimizes terrorism, and holds the Jewish state to standards demanded of no other nation. History teaches us where this road leads.
From March 3 to 5, Colorado Christian University will host “CCU for Israel,” where students will hear directly from a variety of voices, including Omer Shem Tov, who was abducted from the Nova Music Festival and held hostage by Hamas for 505 days.
His presence is not symbolic; it is personal. Students will engage him in conversation, listen to his story and grapple with the human cost of terrorism, not through headlines but through a living witness.
They will also hear from Oscar “Osi” Sladek, a Holocaust survivor whose life bridges the darkest chapter of Jewish history with the modern struggle against hatred and denial. In a moment when historical amnesia is increasingly fashionable, such testimony is indispensable.
Taken together, these events reflect a simple but urgent truth: Standing with Israel is not an act of partisanship. It is an act of moral clarity.
In this fractured cultural moment, the very threads of Western civilization, which Israel embodies in the Middle East, hang in the balance. Our shared belief in the sanctity of human life, the responsibility of moral action and the possibility of ordered liberty remains a bulwark against chaos and cruelty. These are not relics of the past; they are resources for the future.
It is now more important than ever before to model the quiet strength and extend the hand of friendship to our Jewish neighbors. Standing with Israel is ultimately about standing for something larger: truth over propaganda, civilization over barbarism and hope over fear.
This is a cause worthy not only of a week but also of a generation.
• Greg Schaller is director of the Centennial Institute, the conservative think tank of Colorado Christian University.
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