After decades of progress in Jewish-Catholic dialogue, spearheaded by Nostra Aetate and Lumen Gentium, it is deeply troubling that many Jewish Catholics are now leaving the Church. Both Jews who have retained their identity and those long-assimilated into Catholic life have confided to me that they no longer feel safe in the Church. They no longer feel welcome. Increasingly, they are encountering open antisemitism, and it is frightening them enough to drive them away.
Over the past two years, since Hamas terrorists—aided by some Gazan civilians—invaded Israel on October 7, 2023 to murder, kidnap, and destroy, misinformation has spread widely, accompanied by a troubling one-sidedness on the part of the Church hierarchy.
I am a Torah-observant Jew and a devout Catholic, devoted to the Sacraments and the Magisterium. I believe Israel to be the ancient and ancestral homeland of both the Jewish and Christian peoples. Judaism, by nature, is a Messianic religion. Everything we do—every Scripture, prayer, liturgy, and tradition—leads us seamlessly to Yeshua (Jesus), the promised Moshiach (Messiah), to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Blessed Eucharist, and the Blessed Virgin. Jewish Catholics live under both Covenants.
In Judaism, our prayers are directed towards Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). Many of us see the establishment of the State of Israel and the return of its Jews from the four corners of the earth as a sign of G-d's faithfulness in gathering His people back into their promised inheritance. Israel is also the birthplace of Christianity, where the descendants of the first believers still reside. Together, we consider ourselves "living stones" (cf. 1 Peter 2:5). The State of Israel recognizes and seeks to preserve the sites holy to both religions.
Having made aliyah over ten years ago, my family and I are now proud Israelis. Ever since we moved—during Operation Protective Edge (Tzuk Eitan) in 2014—the Gazans under Hamas have waged full-scale war against us. Regular rocket barrages launched from Gaza have forced millions of Israelis into bomb shelters and protected areas. We also face existential threats from Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Syria, Houthi missiles from Yemen, terror attacks in Judaea and Samaria (the West Bank), Iranian missiles, infiltrations from Jordan, and internal unrest within Israel itself.
All able-bodied citizens between 18 and 45 are conscripted to serve in some capacity in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Many who are not enlisted in regular or reserve duty volunteer in other capacities.
The role of the IDF is to keep the land safe for all Israeli citizens—Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze, and others, whether religious or secular. Israel, often described as the sole democracy in the Middle East, guarantees equal rights for all, regardless of religion, political position, gender, race, or sexual orientation. The IDF is not made up only of Jewish soldiers; many Christians, including a significant number from the various Catholic rites, volunteer to serve.
The IDF upholds the doctrine of "Purity of Arms." On the first day of enlistment, each soldier is given a book of moral conduct, which must be studied and memorized. The dignity of life is held in the utmost importance, as each person is created in the divine image. Rarely in history has a nation at war provided such extensive humanitarian aid to its enemy as Israel has.
Recently, during the war in Gaza, another battlefront has opened: hasbara—the effort to correct misinformation and Hamas propaganda against Israel. Much of it is sponsored and disseminated by the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera, the Gazan Health Ministry (a propaganda arm of Hamas), and the United Nations agency UNRWA. Much of this negative propaganda has been accepted as truth and echoed by the Church.
Sadly, the Holy See has accepted and repeated the narrative that Israel is the aggressor and Gazans the victims. Church leaders have repeated charges that Israel is committing forced starvation and genocide in Gaza, that it deliberately targets Christians and their places of worship, and that it is perpetuating a humanitarian crisis. These accusations persist despite Israel's repeated pauses in fighting to allow civilians to move out of harm's way and to permit thousands of tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Many accuse the IDF of targeting Christians and churches, overlooking the fact that Israel has come to the aid of persecuted Christians in Syria, who have been ethnically cleansed by jihadist groups during the Syrian conflict.
From the beginning, the Latin Patriarch, together with the Greek Orthodox and Coptic Patriarchs, have failed to denounce Hamas and other radical Islamist terror groups—including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian Authority, and Al Nusra Front—as evil. Instead, blame is continually directed at Israel—whether through fabricated reports of the IDF intentionally striking Gazan hospitals and schools, or dropping bombs on the oldest church in Gaza. Even though these misleading claims have been discredited repeatedly, they persist in the minds of many Catholics.
In July 2025, a story emerged alleging that "settlers in the West Bank set fire to the only church in the Christian town of Taybeh, burning the cemetery and leaving the church in ruins." This announcement was a complete falsehood. It was documented that a gang of marauding Palestinian youth had set fire to Jewish grazing fields in the area, endangering nearby Jewish farms. Due to heavy winds, the fire spread to the outskirts of Taybeh but was quickly contained by Jewish settlers before it could reach the ruins of an ancient Byzantine church, abandoned since the 800s. Video footage and further investigation disproved these slanders against Israel. Yet the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem released a statement condemning "settler violence" and "violations of international humanitarian and human rights law," while remaining consistently silent about Palestinian and jihadist violence.
That same month, the Holy Family parish in Gaza was struck by a stray tank shell. For days, Catholic news outlets carried the headline: "[Cardinal] Pizzaballa 'not sure' Gaza parish IDF strike was a mistake." At best, this cast doubt on the veracity of the IDF report, which had concluded that a tank had misfired. It was a regrettable accident that killed three innocent civilians. In May 2024, a similar tank misfire killed five Israeli soldiers. Though such tragic accidents regularly occur in the fog of war, Catholic media, apologists, pundits, and social media influencers picked up the story and came squarely against Israel as aggressor, labeling it as a deliberate attempt to exterminate Christians. The claim that it was a deliberate act was eagerly received by many who were already disposed to blame Israel and the Jews.
Many well-known and respected Catholic media outlets and social media influencers reach wide audiences of both Catholics and non-Catholics. They include noted apologists, news pundits, bloggers, YouTubers, and podcasters. Taking their "news" from the Patriarch and the Vatican, their audiences are regularly led to believe libels such as "Israel is leading the world into World War III" and "Israel controls American policy." In one especially damning article on the alleged "starvation of Gaza," the New York Times published a front-page photo that showed a malnourished child. The image was later discredited as an older photograph of a child from Iraq with cerebral palsy, not a starving child in Gaza—and the NYT was accused of "journalistic malpractice." Even the assassination of Charlie Kirk is now being touted by some of these influencers as "an Israeli hit job." Such reckless speculation only deepens the climate of suspicion and hostility.
Moreover, there has been an increasingly heated debate about whether blessing Israel remains valid today, and whether the modern State of Israel has any biblical significance at all or is merely a political construct. In flagrant contradiction of Nostra Aetateand all Church documents on Judaism since the Second Vatican Council, some Catholic media outlets are increasingly publishing articles portraying Israel and Judaism themselves as anathema, claiming that the Church has replaced the Jews in a new and better covenant that invalidates the old. The misinformation has escalated to the point of portraying Israel as an evil, aggressive, genocidal, colonial empire. And because Israel is synonymous with the Jews, antisemitism has once again become rampant in the Church. These are the same blood libels that accused Jews of deicide, raising the old lust for blood once again in modern times.
As a result of the rampant anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and antisemitic libels spread from the hierarchy to the faithful, including priests and laity, we as Jewish Catholics no longer feel safe in the pews. My daughter in the United States sat through a homily about the atrocities the Jews allegedly committed against Christians throughout history. A collection for Gaza was taken up afterwards. When I spoke to our local bishop about my concerns, he told me my daughter "should just change churches if she is not comfortable." Such a response is unacceptable. It goes beyond mere discrimination; it has become blatant antisemitism.
Reading posted comments and receiving various emails and messages from Catholics has been more than frightening. It had been years since I heard the term "perfidious Jews" or "synagogue of Satan", but even these classic Catholic antisemitic labels are resurfacing today. These falsehoods are not innocent: they lead to incitement and sometimes to violence. Several social media users are even calling for the dissolution of Israel and the complete eradication of the Jewish people worldwide. One such message I personally received featured a picture of Crusading knights bearing the cross standard. The caption read: "Time for a new Crusade to take back the Holy Land and cleanse it of the Jewish and Muslim infidels? Deus vult [God wills it]." Words have consequences: what begins as misinformation, combined with theological distortion, easily trickles down and reaches the masses as incitement.
I have known people who were kidnapped by Hamas and held in subhuman conditions deep underground in Gaza. They were denied proper medical attention, food, and basic hygiene. They were sexually assaulted and psychologically and physically terrorized. I have personally attended the funerals of six young Israeli soldiers—one a Messianic Jew from a family of Jewish believers in Jesus.
As a Jew and a Catholic, I uphold the dignity of life. Hamas, whom Israel is fighting, is an evil death cult that raises its children from a young age to hate and murder. On October 7, 2023, it did not matter if one was Jewish or not, Israeli or not. No one in the murderous rampage by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and some Gazan civilians stopped to check religion, race, or ideology. It is more than unfortunate that the Church hierarchy has equated the terror committed by these groups with the just self-defense that Israel is forced to engage in.
The Jewish people have every right to tread lightly when it comes to Catholics, for we have learned the hard lessons of history—from the theological anti-Judaism of the early Church to medieval blood libels, pogroms, massacres, Church edicts forcing Jews into ghettos, forced expulsions, inquisitions, and silence in the face of evil.
In light of this troubling history, recent statements from Church leaders have been discouraging. Cardinal Parolin and Pope Leo XIV have called for an end to the "perverse spiral of hatred and violence" and "the indiscriminate use of force and the forced displacement of the population" (of Gaza by the IDF).
On the second anniversary of the worst massacre and desecration of Jews since the Holocaust, Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa issued a pastoral letter to the parishioners of his diocese. While most are Arab-Christians in both Israel and the Palestinian territories, the Cardinal failed to acknowledge the existence of Jewish Catholics.
In this letter, the Cardinal stated:
For two years, the war has absorbed most of our attention and energy. By now, everyone is sadly aware of what has happened in Gaza: continued massacres of civilians, starvation, repeated displacement, limited access to hospitals and medical care, lack of hygiene, without forgetting those who are being held against their will.
While the letter expressed evident sympathy towards the Palestinian residents of Gaza and the West Bank, it only briefly acknowledged the plight and trauma of Israelis. Jewish Catholics perceived this bias as discouraging and painful. For example, the Patriarch wrote:
We must not forget, moreover, that the situation continues to deteriorate in the West Bank as well. Our communities now face all kinds of problems daily, especially in small villages, which are increasingly surrounded and suffocated by settler attacks, without sufficient protection from the security authorities.
Many Jewish Catholics perceive that for too many Catholics, the fault lies with the Jew. It has been this way since the early days of the Church. We have every reason to be defensive and afraid.
I recently spoke with two other Jewish Catholics who were sadly leaving what they see as a hostile environment in the Church. Unfortunately, I had no words to convince them otherwise, as I too have reached my breaking point. Do Catholics who oppose Israel realize that their stance has repercussions on the faith of many—and that they are pushing Jews out of the Church?
We must not lose sight of the Jewish foundations of the Church. Yeshua, the Holy Family, and the first disciples were all observant Jews. If Catholics wish to preserve the legacy of Nostra Aetate, their focus should not be on criticizing Israel amid her existential struggle against relentless jihadist enemies, but rather on proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and Christ's salvation to all sinners alike.
Jewish and Israeli Catholics feel alienated in a Church that they now perceive as hostile. And yet, Yeshua our Messiah is truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Where else can we go? This is the Jewish-Catholic conundrum. May Catholics once again stand in solidarity with Israel, so that fewer Jewish Catholics feel compelled to flee the arms of Mother Church. May the Church return to the spirit of Nostra Aetate, welcoming the Jewish people—not only as the foundation and root of the Church but as both fully Jewish and fully Catholic brothers and sisters in the same faith.
