Ugoji Adanma Eze, Esq., founder and president of The Eng Aja Eze Foundation. Photo: Eng Aja Eze Foundation.

The climate for the spread of anti-Semitism is worse now than it was during the holocaust due to the rise of information-based platforms, women’s and children’s rights activist Ugoji Adanma Eze, Esq. said at a recent forum.

“I think it’s worse now because we have social media helping, we have to think about that too. Anti-Semitic views can get out there more quickly than it could’ve a few years ago,” Eze, who is Jewish, said. “Social media, is it a curse or something positive? It is not something positive, it is a curse in that sense.”

Eze, who is president and founder of the Eng Aja Eze Foundation, made the remarks at a special United Nations event in honor of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, also known as Yom HaShoa. The forum featured five panelists, with Eze serving as moderator, addressing the topics of human rights and anti-Semitism.

Eze, a London native who now lives in New York , said anti-Semitism is growing at “such an alarming state level” in the United Kingdom and Europe, but is not being addressed sufficiently by the media or government officials.

“[It] is something I particularly feel which has been constantly swept under the carpet,” she said. “There’s a need to confront intolerance where it exists and to prevent it from spreading. It is imperative for all wishing to live in societies that are free from hatred. Diversity is a source of immense economic value. If not managed effectively, it may bring the world to its knees.”

Other panelists at the event asserted a religious imperative to support Jews in the fight against anti-Semitism. Laurie Cardoza Moore, NGO special envoy to the UN for the World Council of Independent Christian Churches, said Christian nations have an “obligation” to tackle the issue.

“We are reminded in [the book of ] Genesis what God told Abraham. He said ‘I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you, and all the nations of the world will be blessed through you.’ This biblical reference is God telling Abraham about the national blessings that will come to the nations if the nations will bless Abraham’s descendants. If the nations will bless Israel,” said Moore, who was raised Catholic. “But, if they do not. God tells Abraham that he will curse those nations who curse Israel… The faithful have an obligation to stand with their Jewish brethren against anti-Semitism… We have a responsibility to uphold God’s word and to love what he loves.”

Moore serves as president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate Christians around the world about their “biblical responsibility” to stand with and support Jews against global anti-Semitism. Even Protestants, she said, need to “adhere to the word of God. We can’t work in opposition [to it].”

Like Moore, Reverend German Castro, Hispanic coordinator for Christians United for Israel and a panelist at the event, also spoke of a biblical responsibility to stand against resurgent anti-Semitism. He too cited examples from the Bible, in which God blessed nations that aided Israel. He also mentioned the downfall of empires that oppressed Jews.

“Empires like the Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Babylonian and Roman, are all characterized by their domination and oppression of the Israelites, whom they conquered and enslaved for decades. The history of each of these empires have shown their fall from their splendor, power and beauty, to ruins to this day,” he said. “Four thousand years of history cannot be denied or ignored.”

Among the audience members at the forum was Dr. Caleb Otto, ambassador and special representative of the Republic of Palau to the UN. Otto also referred to the Bible when explaining his support for Israel. The Protestant said the “the only reason” he loves the Jewish state is because he understands his obligation to it, as stated in the Bible.

“We trace our belief to the God of Abraham and Issac and Jacob, who are the parents of the nation of Israel,” he said. “So if we believe in this God, the God of Abraham and Jacob and Issac, we could not possibly go against Israel because he’s their God.”