Charles Krauthammer has a magnificent column today on the vicious anti-Semitism of the American Studies Association. He points to an effective response:

Facing a similar (British) academic boycott of Israelis seven years ago, Alan Dershowitz and Nobel Prize–winning physicist Steven Weinberg wrote an open letter declaring that, for the purposes of any anti-Israel boycott, they are to be considered Israelis.

Krauthammer suggests we can bear witness against “the new anti-Semitism” by doing the same:

Express your solidarity. Sign the open letter or write your own. Don the yellow star and wear it proudly.

Obviously we don’t deserve to call ourselves Christians if we don’t fight ferociously against hatred, including hatred of non-Christian religions. And one of the oldest and most widespread methods of bearing witness against hate is to identify yourself as a member of the hated group.

But moving from “identify as an Israeli for boycott purposes” to “don the yellow star” brings in a new question. Can a Christian “don the yellow star” without compromising another witness – our witness to the exclusivity of Christ as the only way to God? I say, if the Jewish editors of the New York Sun can endorse Santa, I see no reason Christian bloggers can’t endorse the Star of David. Symbols are fluid in this kind of context.

And we are, after all, people of David, grafted in by the work of Christ. And Christ is, lest we forget, not only “Son of Man” but “Son of David,” not only the Messiah but the inheritor of the Israelite monarchy, the final and perfect Davidic king.

I am a Christian, but for purposes of all boycotts against Jews, count me as a Jew.