(As Delivered)
Buenos días, mis amigos.
Thank you, Pastor Sam, for having me here today. And again, I need to recognize my friend, and I’m just so inspired by Bishop Robert Stearns. Thank you so much for your commitment to NHCLC. Thank you for your commitment to the state of Israel. Thank you for your commitment to the Jewish people. And congratulations on 25 years of the NHCLC. Bravo! Bravo!
So, we had the honor of hosting Pastor Sam at our conference Never is Now - this past March. He had 4,000 people on their feet. He is a rock star! That crowd loved him -- just as much as we all do here today.
So Pastor Sam, we met here a year ago as strangers, and I think of you today as a brother.
And thank you to Pastor Juan Rivera -- you have stood up for Israel and the Jewish people, even when it wasn’t easy. Thank you so much. And, thank you to Becky Hernandez. She is an amazing leader who does all the work behind the scenes to make this happen
And I also want to give a warm hello to Pastor Ryan from Victory Outreach. He welcomed me to services at their church in Hollywood earlier this year…and in that room, I saw young people, I saw families, and people singing and moving…and feeling joy and love. It was incredible.
And it was not my faith. And a lot of it was not in my language. But I understood it all -- I know that feeling of something bigger than yourself…of a kind of connectivity and spirituality… That Sunday stayed with me. And I would be privileged and honored to visit your churches in the year ahead.
So look, I have had the gift of leading the ADL, the oldest anti-hate organization in America for over a decade. Since 1913, our mission has been to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.
And in my work, I have spoken at many conferences, many organizations. But a year ago, I came here to this stage in this place, and I saw something I have never seen before.
Never before, never before, had I seen a non-Jewish community devote so much of its conference, its energy, its agenda to antisemitism.
It was an embodiment of what we learn in Leviticus in the Bible that we all read, to love thy neighbor as thyselves. This is not just an important passage in our Bible, it is one of the foundational ideas of our shared Judeo-Christian civilization. But I did not just see it on that date, I felt it. There was a spirit in this room. It radiated from every person. It was energizing, it was electrifying, and then at the end when we came together in prayer, and that spirit was more than words. It was palpable, it was real, and we all felt it. And it reminded me of our partnership, it hit me like a bolt of lightning. The importance of us being hand and hand.
Our partnership is essential. Because the challenges we face are real. And the threats that we face are real. From communism and socialism, from Islamism, and from evil.
Look, Pastor Sam he often says, “We are what we tolerate.”
And we will not tolerate antisemitism.
So what have we done in this past year?
We built resources. New sermons and prayer guides that give pastors like all of you practical tools that you can use to speak up against antisemitism and stand with the Jewish community -- in your church, in the public square, and online as well.
And we built relationships, face to face, in your churches. And we are planning visits to your congregations this year.
Because, you know, after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, which was the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust, and I was just in Israel two weeks ago for the anniversary of October 7, and I visited the Nova site where they raped and slaughtered young people and I visited the kibbutzim, the farms where they murdered entire families. Children in front of their parents. Parents in front of their children. These butches and I will tell you, some turned their backs on us in that moment. Some defended the savagery.
You know who didn’t? You know who is still with us? You. You. You. You.
The Christian community stood with us. And you have been with us.
And so as I think about this next year working together, we are going to give this everything we got. We are going to urge Congress to pass the Safe Worship Act to create safe access to churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship.
We are going to launch a new Sunday school curriculum in English and Spanish that celebrates the Land of Israel and the Jewish people, so families can learn about Jewish history, which is our history, which is Christian history because we all worship the same God and pray from the same Bible.
We will connect your churches with synagogues. We will connect our synagogues with your churches through Kulanu, which is our network of hundreds of synagogues and through NHCLC.
And we will fight with you against the evils of socialism, Islamism, and we will fight with you for the dignity of all people regardless of where you were born, what language you speak, or what your legal status might be.
Because there’s more we can do, one on one…person to person…neighbor to neighbor.
So invite a Jewish neighbor to your Sunday meal. Because you will be getting invitations to our homes for lunches on Saturday or a Shabbat dinner on Friday night.
Because I do not know Isaiah 5 but Isaiah 2 tells us that when we walk together, we walk in the light of the Lord.
I pray that one day, every church has a synagogue down the road that it can call when it needs support. Just like I know with you, every synagogue has a church we can call when we need help.
That is the America we are building. That is the world we are building. Pastors who stand up against anti-Jewish hate and rabbis who stand up to anti-Latino hate. Young Christians and young Jews who stand shoulder to shoulder. And neighbors who become not just friends, not just allies, but family because that is what God wants and that is what this moment demands.
Twenty-five years ago, I don’t think anyone would have predicted a Jewish organization, and the largest Hispanic Christian network would stand together like this. So imagine what with God’s help we will do in the next 25 years.
Gracias. Que Dios los bendiga. And I look forward to fighting with you together.
Jonathan Greenblatt with Rev. Samuel Rodriguez at NHCLC Summit