US Evangelicals Leave Nova Memorial With a Mission on Antisemitism
At the Nova music festival site near the Gaza border, a thousand American pastors walk through rows of photographs and burned-out fields, confronting a massacre many had only seen on screens. In their report for The Media Line, Felice Friedson and co-author Gabriel Colodro follow this unprecedented delegation as it turns raw shock into a mission plan for when they go home. From the first quiet steps at Re’im to ceremonies in Jerusalem, the week-long journey pushes church leaders to rethink how they talk about Israel, antisemitism, and October 7 from their pulpits and on campuses.
The story tracks encounters that make the statistics personal: freed hostages standing in front of their own portraits, a survivor of Hamas captivity describing his return to Nova, and pastors realizing how little of this reality reaches US audiences. Evangelical leader Johnnie Moore uses the closing ceremony to issue a vow that if hatred targets Jewish communities, “it will have to get through us first.” Friends of Zion founder Dr. Mike Evans lays out an ambitious plan to train one million pastors and one million churches as “ambassadors” for Israel starting in 2026.
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Friedson also traces quieter spiritual reckonings: Native American leaders tying their own histories to Jewish suffering, younger pastors wrestling with anti-Israel sentiment in their churches, and longtime visitor and psychologist JoAnna Dias Sanchez sensing a sharpened calling “to be a healing presence.”
This is not just a travel piece; it is a snapshot of how a slice of American Christian leadership is preparing to carry the memory of October 7 into US debates about Israel and antisemitism. To see how those conversations begin at Nova and ripple outward, read Friedson and Colodro’s full piece and watch the video report.
