Since its founding by Ignatius Loyola in 1534, the Society of Jesus has been one of the most influential Catholic orders. In a new book, James Bernauer, himself a Jesuit priest, describes the deafening silence—and worse—that characterized many of his fellow Jesuits reaction to Nazi persecution of the Jews, as well as the heroic actions of a select few. Rich Tenorio writes:

When the Nazis launched the Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews during November 9-10, 1938, the reaction from many religious leaders was muted. Most Catholic leaders in Germany did not criticize the destructive pogrom and across the Atlantic, there was similar silence from the flagship Jesuit journal America.

But a new book portrays how not all Jesuits . . . kept silent about the Nazis. The daringly titled Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance depicts how some priests joined the resistance, some gave their lives to it, and fifteen even became recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.

Yet it’s those who did not speak out—or who even joined the Wehrmacht as chaplains—who remain a primary source of concern for [the] author. . . . The book discusses individual Jesuits’ hostility to Jews and Judaism through World War II, expressed not only through anti-Semitism but also what Bernauer calls “asemitism”—a belief in a world without Jews.

In October, a young Mauritanian national murdered an Orthodox Jewish man on his way to synagogue in Chicago. This alone should be sufficient sign of the rising dangers of anti-Semitism. Nathan Diament explains how the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act (AAA) can, if passed, make American Jews safer:

We were off to a promising start when the AAA sailed through the House of Representatives in the spring by a generous vote of 320 to 91, and 30 senators from both sides of the aisle jumped to sponsor the Senate version. Then the bill ground to a halt.

Fearful of antagonizing their left-wing activist base and putting vulnerable senators on the record, especially right before the November election, Democrats delayed bringing the AAA to the Senate floor for a vote. Now, the election is over, but the political games continue.

You can’t combat anti-Semitism if you can’t—or won’t—define it. Modern anti-Semites hide their hate behind virulent anti-Zionism. . . . The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act targets this loophole by codifying that the Department of Education must use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism in its application of Title VI.