FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 28, 2017

To condemn the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel and to condemn increasing incidents of anti-Semitism on Ohio college campuses.

Today, we stand before the Ohio Holocaust and Liberators Memorial to draw attention to a serious growing problem in the State of Ohio with the increased incidents of anti-Semitism on Ohio college campuses. This memorial was erected in observance of those Holocaust survivors that made Ohio their home after the war, and to the military personnel who were their liberators from the concentration camps some 70 years ago.

The Ohio Christian Alliance is pleased to lend its support to the resolution that Representatives Andy Thompson and David Greenspan, along with 25 other co-sponsors, have signed on to, a resolution to condemn the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against the State of Israel, and to condemn increasing incidents of anti-Semitism on Ohio college campuses.

We are here to remind the people of the State of Ohio that the Holocaust began with boycotts and discrimination. In 1933, the German government enacted a series of anti-Jewish laws restricting the rights of German Jews to earn a living, to enjoy full citizenship and to gain education, and to work in the civil service. The subsequent 1935 Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews of their citizenship and forbade Jews to marry non-Jewish Germans. These laws resulted in the exclusion of Jews from social and political life. These boycotts culminated in the Night of Terror on November 9, 1938, known as Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass, in which Jewish-owned businesses, homes, and synagogues were ransacked and burned. Many Jews were beaten and lost their lives. It is estimated that that night 30,000 Jewish men were incarcerated and sent to the concentration camps. This was the beginning of the Holocaust.

The recent boycotts and sanctions movement by some groups on college campuses in Ohio have created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation of Jewish students, as the State of Israel has been targeted, Jews specifically. Those liberators for whom this memorial is partly erected in their honor, would be ashamed to hear that this is happening again, for they were the eye witnesses of the atrocities as they liberated the concentration camps in Europe. Many who served with them died for the sake of liberty.

Our organization is working on an effort to add FDR's D-Day Landing Prayer at the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C. President Roosevelt announced to the nation by way of radio on June 6, 1944, that the liberation of Europe was underway, and asked for the nation to join him in prayer. He began by saying, "Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a might endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity." He closed with these words, "With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God."

After the war, in 1946, one of the Jewish synagogues was rebuilt in Berlin. It has to this day a plaque on it that reads, "Never Forget." That's why we are here today to stand with the State of Israel and with American Jews, that they will never have to face that ridicule and persecution again.

And, for that reason, we are proud to support HCR 10 today, to condemn the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel and to condemn increasing incidents of anti-Semitism on Ohio college campuses.

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Contact Chris Long 330-887-1922