Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania
working for the unity of the church and the wholeness of communities through collegiality, collaboration, and connectedness
Register for our next text study on June 11
Submit your sermon for publication
Dismantling antisemitism is work for Christians to do. Because Christians have perpetuated this form of oppression for centuries, so must we be the ones to end it. To do that, we first must reckon with the ways antisemitism has lived within our traditions and even inside ourselves.
Reckoning with Antisemitism as Christians, co-founded by Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania and the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, provides support for Christians of all denominations to wrestle with the complex legacy of antisemitism in the Christian tradition, and offers practical tools for clergy and lay leaders to dismantle antisemitism in their communities.
Our inaugural program in June 2024, “Reckoning with Antisemitism as Christians,” featured three Christian leaders who shared their journeys to understanding that anti-Jewish perspectives have distorted the Christian tradition and their work to undo this oppression in their own lives and walks of faith.
Our second program in November 2024, "Reckoning with Antisemitism: Listening to Jewish Voices," brought contemporary and historical voices of our Jewish neighbors into the conversation, helping us understand the impact of antisemitism on our community.
We continue to encourage Christians to see, confront, and disrupt antisemitism in themselves and their faith communities. We challenge preachers to reckon with antisemitism from the pulpit in 2025. We encourage clergy and laity alike to join in planned text studies that wrestle with complicated texts from the Christian Bible. We invite Christian neighbors deeper into this journey of reckoning through introspection, dialogue, and action.
We offered text studies in February and March, 2025, and plan another on June 11. Sign up below!
To stay connected to this project, please subscribe to our email list by completing the form below.
Text Study: Reckoning with Romans 9-11
Wednesday, June 11
10:00-11:15 a.m.
via Zoom
Please join us for Reckoning with Antisemitism as Christians' third text study, offered via Zoom. We’ll be diving into one of the most challenging, yet foundational, passages for exploring the relationship between Jews and Christians: Romans 9-11. What is the relationship between Christ and the Law? What does it mean for Christians to be grafted in to God's covenant?
This participatory discussion will be co-facilitated by Rabbi Aaron Meyer and the Rev. Dr. Laura Strauss. This event is free; please be sure to register using the form below so we can send you the Zoom link.
Image by Wannapik.
Accept the Preaching Challenge!
In 2025, Christian Associates of Southwest PA and the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh are challenging preachers in our region to model reckoning with antisemitism from the pulpit: to give a sermon that reckons with ways that the scripture has been interpreted in anti-Jewish ways and reimagines readings of these texts that help us better love our neighbors.
We will be collecting and publishing these sermons in a volume of The Word in Our Voices series in the coming year.
Your sermon might:
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Reflect on your personal journey of reckoning with antisemitism in the Christian tradition
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Deepen your parish’s understanding of the Jewish context of the New Testament
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Connect specific interpretations of Christian texts to concrete antisemitic actions towards the Jewish community, across history and in the present day
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Name and explore the emotional experience (discomfort, anger, sorrow, defensiveness, deflection, etc) of wrestling with cherished scriptures that have nevertheless been used for harm
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and/or offer fresh readings of texts that move beyond the surface interpretations that have led to anti-Jewish perspectives taking hold in Christian communities
Sermons may be submitted using the form below as a text document, or as an audio or video recording. Essays, memoirs, newsletter articles, and other pieces of writing are also appropriate for submission.
Preachers whose pieces are selected for publication will receive a printed copy of the book and will be recognized at a book launch event in late spring 2026; due to limited space, we may not be able to include all submissions.