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Amid rise of anti-Semitism, Christian students are trained to push back against it

More than 100 alumni of Passages Israel trips gathered at a conference in Texas on “the importance of speaking out against anti-Semitism whenever we witness it.”

Paticipants at the RISE Conference held by the organization Passages Israel. Photo: Mattanah DeWitt via Passages.
Paticipants at the RISE Conference held by the organization Passages Israel. Photo: Mattanah DeWitt via Passages.

Confronting anti-Semitism on college campuses was a key topic at the recent RISE Conference, an annual gathering of alumni of Passages Israel trips.

Passages is an organization that equips Christian college students to be informed voices for Israel on campuses around the country. In 2022, the group brought 620 multi-denominational Christian students from 23 universities on educational trips to Israel.

At the conference near Dallas earlier this month, which drew more than 100 people from across the U.S. and Israel, Passages alumni “reencountered Israel” and held sessions on professional development.

“We stressed the importance of speaking out against anti-Semitism whenever we witness it—no matter where it comes from—and gave our students the tools to do so,” said Serene Hudson, vice president of Israel engagement for Passages.

She cited such things as “expressing written support online for Jewish friends and confronting anti-Semitism when it appears—in our churches or among our families and friends—rather than only joining mass campaigns against celebrities in the public eye.”

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