Last Christmas, my husband and I replaced the Star of Bethlehem over the outdoor nativity set we inherited from his grandmother with a 45-inch neon Star of David. I told my children it was an act of solidarity for our Jewish friends—and an act of defiance for those who hate them. If they’re coming for the Jews, I told my children, they’ll have to take us, too.

It was in that same spirit that I traveled to Israel in May, in wartime, as part of the I Believe Israeli Women delegation, an initiative of the Seed the Dream Foundation in partnership with Jewish Women International. I went to bear witness to the aftermath of Hamas’s barbaric murder of the Jewish people on October 7 as well as to gain a firsthand understanding of how the terrorists used rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war. 

I met with survivors, released hostages and the families of those still held hostage. I visited the site of the Nova music festival and witnessed the devastation at nearby Kibbutz Kfar Aza. I spoke to ZAKA first responders on duty that day and saw their unedited photographs of men, women and children murdered by Hamas. I stood one mile from the Gaza border, where the birdsong that early Saturday morning competed with the roar of artillery. I returned home a changed woman promising to believe Israeli women and tell their story.

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READ MORE:

Fighting to Hold Hamas Accountable
Film Bears Witness to Hamas’s Sexual Violence
October 7 Survivors Will Not Be Silenced

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I would never intentionally seek harm for myself or my family. But my husband and I, both Roman Catholics, know that greater harm will befall our school-aged children if we fail to teach them to act morally in the face of growing antisemitism. Catholics are encouraged from a young age to heed Jesus’s words from John 15:13: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for a friend.” And the Jews are our friends. 

But let us first live and fight. I believe that a Christian must be an “ezer” for the Jewish people. Ezer, the Hebrew word for “helper,” is used 21 times in the Hebrew Bible. Yes, God uses it to refer to Eve, but also to strong nations that aided the Israelites. God even uses the word 16 times to refer to Himself. 

Many Christians believe we are being called to be ezrim today, just as many did in the 1930s and 1940s during the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust. We fear what fate will befall the Jewish people if their state is taken from them.

And that is the reason Israel exists—so that the Jewish people can defend themselves. But the existence of Israel does not mean Christians have no role in the defense of Jews, or that we can remain silent in the face of antisemitism. 

People often ask why I am so passionate in my support of the Jewish people. The answer is simple: I was raised right.  

My Catholic parents ensured that I understood what “Never Again” meant. Never again will we stand by as people call for the murder of Jews.

My father insisted I read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich at 12 years old. My mother and I read numerous firsthand accounts of the Holocaust. My parents taught me that the Jews who led uprisings at the Warsaw Ghetto, Sobibor and Treblinka were heroes. My parents respected and admired Israel.

In most Catholic schools, students in eighth grade learn about the rise of Hitler, Stalin and the Holocaust, and how to effectively combat similar evils today. The same lessons I was taught decades ago are the ones my children are learning today.

So powerful were these lessons that on my 21st birthday, I went alone to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria to bear witness. I felt it was my moral obligation. It is the same reason my family and I stand with you today, as do many others.

In these trying times, my dear sisters, know that you are not alone.

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Jennifer Stefano is an independent journalist and contributing columnist to The Philadelphia Inquirer.