We’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places.
As a Jew, I was moved to tears last week at the Christians United for Israel annual summit in Oxon Hill, Md. Passionate support for the Jewish people from speakers and crowds was palpable —and overwhelming.
“In recent weeks, we have seen Jews murdered on the streets and Jewish businesses ransacked here in America . . . it’s shameful,” Pastor John Hagee said from the podium. “We are not going to allow the Jewish people to suffer on our watch!”
A good thousand people jumped out of their seat at the Gaylord Convention Center, just over 10 miles from Washington, DC, and cheered, many waving Israeli and American flags.
The 20th annual CUFI summit, which ended July 2, was a three-day lovefest for the Jewish people and the Bible that culminated with lobbying at the Capitol. CUFI is a political powerhouse and growing, with nearly 11 million members nationwide. Its singular issue: Undying support for Israel.
The romping, roaring Zionism at CUFI is awe-inspiring — especially after watching social justice groups, from environmentalists to pro-choice activists, close ranks against us, post-Oct. 7. That betrayal came after decades of support by Jewish organizations and even synagogues.
Meanwhile, true friends have been standing with us ever since Hagee first brought together 400 evangelical pastors to his San Antonio church in 2006 to ignite a cohesive Christian movement around the affirmation of Jews and Israel, as part of a strict interpretation of the Bible.
“This relationship could not be more kosher,” said CUFI co-executive director and rabbi Shari Dollinger. “CUFI is non-conversionary. CUFI is non-partisan. And CUFI unilaterally supports the Israeli government. I’ve been here for 18 years and I have never once been proselytized to.”
In the Jewish community, fear runs deep of Christian violence and blood libels, something CUFI leaders acknowledge and address head-on. Replacement theology — the belief that Christians and the church have replaced Jews and Israel in God’s covenants — is seen as another threat.
Those beliefs have been officially disavowed by mainline churches such as United Methodist and Evangelical Lutheran, although complete rejection of the theology varies among congregations.
CUFI has always been in direct — and even combative — opposition to replacement theology. At the summit, that distinction was reiterated dozens of times by many speakers.
“The Bible is proof of God’s eternal, unshakeable love of Israel and the Jewish people is all through the Scripture,” Hagee said in a speech. “Jesus Christ is — and always will be — a Jewish rabbi.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told The Post after his Tuesday night speech at CUFI that the organization is uniquely “vocal and public about their support” for Israel. “You don’t hear the ifs and the buts.”
CUFI’s success lathers up the anti-Israel actors. At last year’s summit, protesters secretly infiltrated the conference and frequently disrupted Hagee’s address, only to be hustled out by Prince George’s County police as attendees shouted, joyfully, “Israel lives! Israel lives!”
That, too, was a stirring moment, considering how so many Jewish events get derailed by a clutch of keffiyeh-wearing hecklers.
The only security breach this year was when two long black banners reading “CUFI Kills” and “No God Bombs Children” temporarily dropped from balconies in the hotel atrium before hotel security yanked them down.
Hagee, undaunted, told attendees: “Our security team ha s caught 30 hardcore protesters trying to invade this meeting. We are not afraid of you thugs who think you can muscle your way into this organization and distract us. If a line has to be drawn, draw that line around Christians and Jews. We are one!” The crowd roared.
In response to surging antisemitism in K-12 schools and universities, CUFI has doubled the size of its youth outreach team to 11 people, who work to mobilize more Christian kids to advocate for their Jewish peers.
That initiative is proving fruitful. More than 200 high school students and 300 university students attended the summit, an all-time high.
Israeli-American Uriel Appel, a junior at University of Maryland at College Park, came to thank CUFI students whom he said were instrumental in beating back student-led Israel-boycott resolutions.
“CUFI has been our best friends on campus,” he told me.
CUFI kids say they’re all in.
“Jewish students are scared on campus, and me, as a Christian, I’m their ally,” Texas Wesleyan University student Arianna-Rosie Bourgoin told me. “We’re not the same people back in the day, from the Holocaust, from the Crusades. We’re different. And we’re stronger together.”
The brash Zionism at CUFI is refreshingly, well, unneurotic. Hot pink T-shirts with “Zionist” in a big font sold out early.
“The Bible is proof of God’s eternal, unshakeable love of Israel.”
Pastor John Hagee
“Jews are lot more self-conscious. We don’t want to offend anyone or say anything that could be deemed as radical because we don’t want to be seen as religious zealots,” Appel told me. “They don’t have that concern.”
Although there’s no official tally, organizers and longtime Jewish attendees say more Jews attended this conference than ever before. Demand for kosher food was so high this year, a separate luncheon was held for about 100 attendees.
Still, if pro-Israel Jews intend to meet pro-Israel Christians halfway, we have a long way to go.
Ken Marcus, former Trump appointee and founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told The Post after his CUFI speech, “It’s a shame that some in the Jewish community are reluctant to accept some of the warmest and truest offers of support we have.”
Here’s an idea: Let’s show up for the people who show up for us.
Let’s push back against anti-Christian bigotry in Jewish circles the way CUFI pushes back against anti-Jewish bigotry in Christian circles.
Let’s put to bed old, inaccurate fears that every evangelical is out to convert or replace us.
And let’s converge — en masse! — at the 2026 CUFI conference. Tickets are on sale now for $75 through August before they jump to $200 — the Anti-Defamation League by comparison charged $550 for tickets to its conference this year.
We will dance down the aisles to “Shalom Aleichem” — peace be upon you — and sing the American and the Jewish national anthems with our very best friends.
I’ll bring my new T-shirt that says “CUFI: Game changer, planet shaker, friend and defender of Israel.”
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