This is an opinion column

Antisemitism is at a record high in our country.

It is up 400% since the start of the war in Israel.

Jewish people in America do not feel as safe as they did before October 7 – the day Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip breached the Israel border in numerous places and slaughtered Israelis in their homes. They killed 1,400 people, injured over 5,000, and kidnapped over 200.

Witnesses told what they experienced. The Israeli government released a video of the Hamas attacks proving the atrocities happened as the witnesses and survivors claimed.

The attacks on October 7, has been described as a day of hell on earth, and while historically different, it marked the darkest day in Jewish history since the end of the Holocaust.

Just as there were – and still are – Holocaust deniers, there are Americans who do not believe the brutal assaults actually took place on October 7.

It was this ‘Holocaust denial-like phenomenon’ that prompted the Israeli government to release the unedited video of collected footage from bodycams taken by the Hamas terrorists. The footage is raw and gruesome.

Yet here in America, anti-Israel protests continue. Anti-Israel protesters have ripped down posters of missing hostages.

Jewish students are afraid to walk to class on certain college campuses. Palestinian supporters at UCLA chanted, ‘Israel, Israel you can’t hide, we want Jewish genocide.’ Similar chants were heard at Penn State.

Antisemitism threats caused classes to be canceled Friday at Cornell University due to what is being described as “extraordinary stress.”

It’s not the 1930s though, this is 2023. Many people thought there would never be anything that resemble what happened during the Holocaust.

One of the many things that has changed since the end of the holocaust, or the end of World War II, is the talk about sin. With Israel in the news, it being the Holy Land, it tends to make us think of sin again. Especially in the wake of October 7 and those horrid atrocities.

I am not implying that there were not then or still those now aware of sin, but it seems it became gradually over time since the middle of the last century more of a hushed personal concern than a subject of conversation.

At the end of World War II, the majority of people shared the same definition of sin. It gave society a collective moral compass.

But it was also a time when America was fatigued from war. There was a societal shift towards positivity. The shift led from realism to romanticism, it evolved into the self-esteem movement and through that evolution our moral vocabulary was squelched.

Today if there is any discussion about wrong or evil it is within the structure of society as it relates to racism or inequality, some type of oppression, not moral choice.

There are disagreements across America about whether evil is evil – whether the horrors that happened in Israel were justifiable.

Have we lost our moral compass?

Amanda Walker is a columnist and contributor with AL.com, The Birmingham News, Selma Times Journal, Thomasville Times, West Alabama Watchman, and Alabama Gazette. Contact her at [email protected] or at https://www.facebook.com/AmandaWalker.Columnist.