NARRATOR: Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein has never

been one to keep silent.

Whether he's standing up for the rights of religious people,

or expressing his views on the recent presidential election.

He teaches others that talking about religion

helps people from all belief systems,

shares how people of different faiths

can cross boundaries and work together.

Well, joining us now is the director

of Interfaith Affairs at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Rabbi

Yitzhock Adlerstein.

And thank you.

It is an honor to have you here.

It's an honor and a great pleasure to be here.

Real privilege.

You've written some very provocative things.

And I just want to lay it off with the first one, which

is you're saying Christians are the new Jews.

Why do you say that?

Well, I live in a community that values history,

that makes a mitzvah commandment our of studying history.

And we know what it's like to be persecuted.

My mother is a survivor of the concentration camp.

And we told our children, our grandchildren

that the world's the Bible.

Six million perished.

And then we expected in the next couple of decades

that there would be no more genocides.

After the Holocaust, that was it.

We can't even count the number of genocides that

have taken place since then.

There's something remarkably different about the Holocaust,

but that's not for our conversation today.

But look at the world today.

In a swath of territory around the world,

there are Christians who get up in the morning

and do not know whether they will return to their homes

in-- in-- in the evening, go to church on Sunday

and don't know whether the church will be there

or it will be bombed or torched.

And live in constant fear of their lives, their property.

And for the most part, the world is silent.

I think even more than just silent, completely unaware.

Uh, I've had experience with Christian persecution in Asia.

The Burmese soldiers of SLORC trying

to wipe out Christian communities,

the Quran, the Qurani.

The martial law, the Christians are not

allowed in India to live under.

The persecution of Christians in China.

It seems to relax and then come back, and relax.

It just seems to be sort of an ongoing story.

I think the Middle East is sort of the current headline,

if you will.

But at the same time that it's a headline,

the majority of people have no idea it's going on.

And there are two things, Gordon,

that I think have to change, if I can interrupt you.

GORDON: I'm all about change.

One is that the Christians are often

reluctant to show responsibility for other Christians.

Sometimes, it's the idea that Christian love

is supposed to be so universal, that it

can show no particularism.

It's PC to say you're not particularistic.

Now, our experience as Jews is that love

starts at the home in your own neighborhood,

and then expands in concentric circles.

And there's an infinite amount of love within God.

And if you're drawing on it, you wind up with a lot more

to share with others.

There's nothing wrong with promoting the interests

of your own community first.

And Christians have been reluctant to say

that we identify with it.

Sometimes, this denominational.

You know, they look a little different

and they're not the same church.

The other thing that I think has some-- some real possibility

is an initiative that we've tried shopping around

for quite a while.

And that is to universalize even the solution to the problem.

It's the idea that every government

ought to be responsible and accountable in the world

community, to protect the rights of minority

religious populations.

Well, that's in the UN.

The law exists-- if you will-- to the extent

that is enforceable.

Everyone signs on to say we respect--

as a basic human right-- the right to individual freedom

of conscience.

So the issue, then, is enforcement.

Who do you hold accountable?

If we would hold another other governments--

GORDON: The mechanism.

--or the mechanism.

GORDON: How?

Well, part of-- part of it is that if the United States is

motivated by its own citizenry to make this pla--

this plank part of its platform, then the way we deal with other

countries is then predicated on how they deal with human

rights.

Ronald Reagan did that.

Ronald Reagan did that, and it led to the freeing of Jews

behind the Iron Curtain.

Well, I would actually pause that the United States is

responsible for the current rise of anti-Christian bigotry

in the Middle East.

When you recognize Sharia law and the constitution

of the newly formed government of Iraq and Afghanistan,

you automatically create religious persecution.

And there are other parts to it as well.

For a while, if you've followed the story in Nigeria--

where, I mean-- stories we don't even

want to repeat on the air of the savagery of it,

and the scope of it.

And yet, the-- the Johnny Carson,

the undersecretary of state went for months, and months,

and months, And refused to use the word

Christian in regard to the people

who were being victimized.

And you know, it's tribal.

There's some-- there's a tribal component.

But a lot of that tribal component

has to do with religion as well.

And in the end, it's churches that are--

that are getting firebombed.

If you recall the execution of the Egyptian Copts in Libya.

Under a banner, a gift to the nation of the cross.

But the United States government--

for the first couple of days-- refused to own up to the fact

that they were Christian.

They just called them Egyptian workers.

GORDON: Laborers, yeah.

Until they had-- until they had no choice.

So the government has been unwilling to inject

a religious flavor or theme into some of the conflict.

And many people feel that if you don't own up to it,

you're just going to make matters worse.

We don't want to start a holy war with Muslims or anybody

else, nor should we.

But we cannot deny the fact that there is religious tension

around the world.

And we have to deal with it directly.

And the first--

Well, I'm not interested in the holy war,

but I think a war of ideas, that that idea is a bad idea that

leads to repressive cultures, that leads

to humanity being diminished.

And I've got this-- this question for you,

because it's-- it's sort of bugging me.

I find the Jewish people are the leaders

in waving the flag that there's Christian persecution going on

in the Middle East.

And you're actually leading the charge.

The Christian community is either unaware

or, for a variety of reasons, not really taking up the cause.

And I've got to ask why?

I mean, if I said to a rabbi years ago, if I were Jewish,

I probably wouldn't trust the Christians, given the history.

Why?

Well we have learned to trust Christians a little more.

We have an uphill battle with many, many Jews

who have a 2,000 year history that

has to be unlearned in a rather small period of time.

But we're conscious of the fact that from before the founding

of the state of Israel, the most reliable ally

of the Jewish state has been the Christian community.

Why Christians haven't been more forthcoming

is an interesting question.

It bugs the heck out of us.

We know that by adding a Jewish note to it,

we sometimes can stir enough conscious consciousness

in Christian communities, that they can then

take the bull and then and run with it in their own court.

And there have been great exceptions.

We partner with Open Doors, which we think

is a great organization.

And we certainly have been taking the message.

I'm here today because of somebody we both

regard very highly, Johnny Moore, who

has been doing terrific work shuttling back and forth

and who knows where on behalf of persecuted

Christian minorities.

But some of this again, comes back to the idea

that many Christians look at others

and say, well, you know, they're kind of orthodox.

And we're Catholic, or they're of a different stripe

and their skin color is a little different.

And we-- we're not perfect.

We have not gotten rid of all of our, uh,

intolerance and subliminal racism out there.

And they have cost people their lives.

Again, there is this reluctance of people

to say that I feel closer to my individual group.

There are many, many exceptions out there.

But there are too many people who are still reluctant.

And it's part of the general culture that, you know,

can't we be one big happy family with no differences,

and post-nationalism and all that that's

forming a part of Europe today with Brexit and that stuff.

And as people committed to the word of God,

we have to be more comfortable with the idea

that there's nothing wrong with starting that love

within your own community.

Love is something that grows with you,

that you draw more and more of it

down from the infinite reservoir within God.

You do it by practice.

And you start practicing with those

who are you are closest to.

With your family, friends, your own community, your neighbors.

And it goes from there.

And it goes from there.

Um, would you lead us in a prayer?

I just feel that it would be appropriate to have us pray

for the peace of Jerusalem.

I think with the peace of Jerusalem,

then we will see peace in the world.

Dear God.

Thank you, thank you for this-- for this moment of bringing

Jews and Christians together in a way that

was impossible for 2,000 years.

Two communities who are pledged to bring

your word and your mission to the world,

and to have more of us recognize that one

of the tools for bringing that is what you write about

in your own holy word: [SPEAKING HEBREW] We'll

go out of Zion with the var Hashem and the word of God

from Jerusalem.

Israel is a special place.

Help keep it special.

Let it be a beacon of light, of guidance and spiritual

illumination to the entire world.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, thank you for being with us.

It's been an honor.

Honor and a privilege.

Very privileged.