The Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi is home to the country’s most iconic beach and at the same time one of the largest Jewish populations Down Under who have lived there in peace and security. On a beautiful sunny late-autumn day that tranquil illusion was shattered. A gunman opened fire on the peaceful crowd killing fifteen and wounding forty. And, seven months later, we are still asking ourselves “Why?”

Tensions existed from the outset between early Christians and the Jewish religious leaders. Though Christianity was a distinctly Jewish movement, the book of Acts reveals persecution soon arose against the new teaching turning violent with the stoning of Stephen and Saul’s zealous imprisonment of believers...

So where would you go in your Bible to find the first antisemite according to Jewish tradition?

If you went to the story of Pharaoh and the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, you would be right… but also wrong!!  You would be right because the first antisemite is mentioned in the context of the Jewish Passover.  But the one mentioned is someone much earlier in history.