A Knife, a Neighborhood, and a Question for Every Believer

On April 29, a man armed with a knife ran through the streets of Golders Green, one of London’s most recognizable Jewish neighborhoods, and stabbed two people. One victim is in his 30s. The other is in his 70s. Both were hospitalized in stable condition. A 45-year-old suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, and authorities have called it what it plainly is: an antisemitic attack.

Let that sink in. A man ran down a public road in a Western capital city in 2026, hunting Jewish people with a blade.

I want to talk about what this means for Christians, because I think too many of us treat antisemitism like someone else’s problem. It is not.

CBN News carried the Associated Press report detailing the attack and aftermath:

Two people were stabbed Wednesday in Golders Green, a London neighborhood with a large Jewish community, and a 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over what authorities called an antisemitic attack. Shomrim described a suspect running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and attempting to stab Jewish members of the public. Metropolitan Police said the victims, one man in his 30s and one in his 70s, were hospitalized in stable condition. Counter-terror detectives are leading the investigation, although it had not been declared terrorism.

Counter-terror detectives are leading the case even though the incident has not been formally declared an act of terrorism. That distinction may matter for legal categories. It does not change what happened on the ground: a man tried to murder Jews for being Jewish.

This attack did not come out of nowhere. The CBN/AP report noted that it followed recent arson attacks targeting Jewish sites in London, including a charity’s ambulances in Golders Green and a nearby synagogue. The pattern is unmistakable. Jewish people in London are being targeted with escalating violence, and if you are a praying person, that should trouble you deeply.

Here is where I want to be direct with my fellow believers.

There is a temptation, especially in the social media age, to treat overseas violence as background noise. Scroll past it. Maybe share a flag emoji and move on. But Scripture does not give us that luxury. “If one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Corinthians 12:26). The Jewish people are not strangers to the Christian story. They are woven into the very fabric of our faith, from Abraham to the apostles. Jesus Himself wept over Jerusalem.

Genesis 12:3 records God’s promise to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.” You can debate the theological scope of that verse, but the moral direction is unmistakable. God takes the targeting of His covenant people seriously. We should too.

And beyond covenant theology, there is the plain command that even a child in Sunday school knows. Love your neighbor. The man in his 70s who was stabbed while walking down his own street is a neighbor. The younger man beside him is a neighbor. The Jewish families who now lock their doors a little tighter and check over their shoulders a little more often are neighbors. Loving them means, at minimum, not being indifferent when they bleed.

I have watched antisemitism creep back into polite society over the last few years, dressed up in political language, excused under various banners, and tolerated by people who would never tolerate the same hatred directed at any other group. Christians should be the last people on earth to participate in that silence. We worship a Jewish Savior. We read a Jewish Bible. We are grafted into a Jewish olive tree, as Paul reminded the church in Rome (Romans 11:17-18). To shrug at antisemitism is to shrug at something that strikes very close to the root of our own faith.

None of this means we need to weigh in on every geopolitical debate. It means something simpler and harder. When a man picks up a knife and hunts Jewish people on a public street, we name that evil. We pray for the victims. We ask God to protect communities under threat. And we examine our own hearts for the kind of indifference that lets hatred grow in the dark.

Pray for the two men recovering in London hospitals. Pray for Golders Green. Pray that the Church would not be found sleeping while our neighbors are under attack.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. How is your church responding when antisemitism makes headlines? Are we doing enough?