Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned on Wednesday that Christian leaders are “asleep” and failing to recognize the degree to which antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment have spread among Christian youth. 

The Texas senator made the comments while accepting the leadership award at the American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) annual Lamplighter Awards in Washington. Cruz voiced concern that older Christian leaders, specifically evangelicals, were not acknowledging that younger adherents have ideologically drifted from previous generations. “If you look at the polling, young evangelicals are turning systematically against Israel, and there are millions of dollars that are being spent to turn them against Israel,” he said.

“There has been no community in America that is more passionately pro-Israel than evangelical Christians in America, but all is not well,” Cruz said. “I think the Christian Church is asleep. I think a great many Christian pastors are asleep. I’ve spoken with a lot of pastors, particularly older pastors who are 60 or 70 or 80, and I get that that doesn’t sound all that old, but they say to me, ‘Ted, what are you talking about? I don’t see antisemitism on the right.’ If you’re not online, you’re sitting there serenely unaware of what has happened.”

Cruz argued that this shift marks an “existential” crisis because it could cause Americans “to wake up in five years and find ourselves in a country where both major parties are unambiguously anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic.”

“If we do not fight back, if we do not wake up leaders of the Christian Church to take on these lies … if we don’t stop this now, that’s where this could lead,” he said. “This cancer does not end, and I will tell you it is penetrating especially among young people, among teenagers, and 20-somethings on the right. Somewhere between a third and a half are listening to this poison. The only answer to lies is truth. We’ve got to engage. We’ve got to fight it.”

Cruz was honored at the Chabad gala alongside Jeff Miller, a leading Republican lobbyist and the board chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

Miller, who also serves on the Republican Jewish Coalition’s board, called for “a new strategy for a new kind of threat” facing the Jewish people while describing how antisemitism has surged in the digital age. 

“The world’s oldest hatred has returned with new slogans, new accusations, and new platforms. It is the same ancient manipulation — delivered, amplified, and weaponized in new ways,” Miller said. “The delivery system is social media. These platforms are engineered to maximize engagement. Controversy drives engagement. Antisemitism drives controversy, and so the platforms amplify it. Antisemitism, it turns out, unfortunately, is good content. Hate used to need a mob to spread. Now it only needs an iPhone.”

“In the past, antisemitism often rose within societies during times of trouble. Today, foreign adversaries are deliberately injecting it into our society and weaponizing it against America to weaken us, confuse us and divide us, and it is working,” he continued. “We need a new strategy for a new kind of threat — one that protects free speech while exposing manipulation, demanding transparency, and confronting the foreign actors who are deliberately using antisemitism to divide our country.”

Miller urged Jewish Americans of all political stripes to look past partisan disagreements and come together, “because the scourge of antisemitism is not a Republican fight or a Democrat fight.”

“This is not a partisan fight, nor should it ever become one. We may disagree about politics, but tonight, in this room and in this fight, we must be one,” Miller said. “Whether antisemitism comes from Hasan Piker or Tucker Carlson, we must call it for what it is. Anyone who condemns antisemitism from the other side while excusing it from their own is not fighting hatred. They are exploiting it.”

Miller also called on Jewish leaders and organizations to join forces on their efforts to combat antisemitism, arguing that more unity was needed to effectively respond to the problem.

“This room is filled with people who fund and power the fight against antisemitism every day. That commitment matters, but we must also confront an uncomfortable truth: We have hundreds of organizations fighting the same enemy — and too often, we are fighting separately,” Miller said. “Antisemitism is coming at us with a baseball bat. We cannot continue fighting back with a thousand toothpicks.”

“We do not need less commitment, we need greater coordination. We do not need fewer voices, we need those voices speaking together,” he continued. “Antisemitism does not care which organization gets the credit. Neither can we. We need one strategy. One coalition. One united front.”

Miller was introduced on stage by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and through video addresses from President Donald Trump and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger credited Miller with helping propel his 2006 campaign to victory and with fundraising “for project after project” once in office, adding that “what makes Jeff special is that he doesn’t just show up when it is easy or when someone is watching. He’s always determined. He’s determined to help the Jewish community.”

The event was co-chaired by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA); Eli Miller, a Republican operative in the private equity space; and Norm Brownstein, a veteran Washington lobbyist and a founding member and chairman of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP.

Among those in attendance were Will Scharf, who took over as White House counsel this month; acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling; Jacob Reses, Vice President JD Vance’s outgoing chief of staff; Mark Isakowitz, chief of staff to Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA); White House Jewish liaison Martin Marks; Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman; Jonathan Burkan, a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council; and Real Estate Roundtable President and CEO Jeff DeBoer.

Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA), John Barrasso (R-WY), Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and James Lankford (R-OK) also stopped by, as did Reps. Craig Goldman (R-TX) and John James (R-MI) and former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC).