
Randy/Yisroel Settenbrino - is the artist behind the Historic Blue Moon Hotel, Sweet Dreams Café, and Last Jewish Tenement Tours—recognized by National Geographic as one of the top 150 projects in the Western Hemisphere. He writes on art, psychology, theology, and Jewish identity. He and his wife are proud parents of two IDF soldiers.
“La Pietà” means pity or compassion. It refers to the famous sculpture of Mary cradling the lifeless body of her son by Michaelangelo— a mother holding her child. But how fitting that so many mistakenly call it “La Pietra” — the stone. For that is what Europe’s heart became: a stone to the cries of the Jewish mothers.
Tens of thousands of Jewish mothers knelt beside their sons’ Roman-crucified remains. Millions more, many pregnant with life, clutched their infants and toddlers as they were gassed and burned in the death factories of a continent that still floats on Jewish blood.
They say: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou among women..."
But what of those taken while still in the womb? What of the children torn from loving arms?
A man later turned into a deity, born of a Jewish woman — 100% Jewish in flesh and spirit — was crucified by Rome, like countless Jews before and after Him. And yet the Christian faith that emerged turned its back on its source.
Taken as Slaves by the Romans, and suffering Crusades, Blood Libels—while the Pope "drank the blood" of a Jew. Digital painting, Randy Settenbrino
Instead of honoring the daughter of Zion who bore what they called their redeemer, Europe repaid her with betrayal, demonization, and death.
The cradle that nurtured civilization itself was desecrated by the crime of deicide.
This is not a condemnation of all Christians.
In America — especially among Bible-believing Christians — a radically different spirit took hold: one of respect, covenant, and support for the Jewish people. That contrast, so vital and precious, will be returned to later.
But first, the stone must be examined.
Christianity’s Betrayal of Its Own Origins
Taken as slaves by Rome. Hunted in Crusades. Accused of black plague, charged in blood libels, while the Pope "drank the blood" of a man born a Jew.
Grotesque images of the Jew still haunt Europe—projections of societies that once seized, branded, and possessed him like property. They stole his wealth, burned his books, and crushed his faith. From the Church Fathers to the Inquisitions, Christian Europe maintained a relentless, ecumenical obsession with the Jew—at once a theological necessity and an existential threat—culminating in the venomous fixation of Martin Luther.
In 1523, Martin Luther wrote That Jesus Was Born a Jew. In it, he lamented how the corruption and ignorance of the Catholic Church had alienated the Jewish people:
“If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would rather have been a pig than a Christian.”
He pleaded for kindness and humility. But when the Jews refused to convert, Luther’s love turned to venom. By 1543, in On the Jews and Their Lies, he advocated for total persecution.
His seven-point plan included:
- Burning synagogues and schools
- Destroying Jewish homes
- Confiscating Jewish books and sacred writings
- Banning rabbis from teaching
- Abolishing safe passage for Jews
- Seizing all Jewish wealth
- Forcing Jews into slave labor
These ideas were resurrected centuries later by Nazi propagandists.
Luther’s writings were republished by Der Stürmer and quoted by Hitler in Mein Kampf.
In 1933, Nazis honored Luther as a “German prophet” who anticipated their vision.
The Church That Turned Its Back
The Nuncio to Germany during the Nazi era, Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, has been widely criticized for his silence in the face of Jewish persecution. One man who tried desperately to intervene was Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandl, a Slovakian resistance fighter who escaped from a cattle car and grasped the full scope of the Final Solution. He pleaded with Catholic leaders to help rescue Jewish children.
In one chilling exchange, he appealed to the Vatican’s ambassador to Hungary, Nuncio Angelo Rotta, who coldly replied:
“There are no innocent Jewish children. All Jewish blood is guilty and must be exterminated.”
This was no isolated sentiment.
While the gas chambers burned, the Vatican looked away.
And when the war ended?
They moved heaven and earth—not to save the remnants of Jewish life—but to rescue the murderers.
Under Pope Pius XII, the Vatican facilitated escape routes for Nazis through ratlines spanning Italy and Austria. Bishops and priests helped men like Eichmann, Mengele, and Barbie flee to Argentina, Brazil, and Syria—under false names and forged papers.
At the same time, the Church fought to keep Jewish orphans “rescued” during the war, refusing to return them to surviving parents or the Jewish community.

A Cancer in Remission, Never Cured
European antisemitism is not a relic of the past. It is a virus — mutating and adapting across centuries.
It lies dormant in good times. But when crisis hits — it activates.
- War? Blame the Jew.
- Plague? Blame the Jew.
- Financial collapse? Blame the Jew.
- Islamic terror? Somehow... still, blame the Jew.
Even now, in the wake of Hamas atrocities, we hear cries of “genocide” echoing across Europe — not against the butchers of babies, but against the descendants of survivors, defending their homeland.
The old blood libels return.
This time in keffiyehs.
What the World Cannot Bear
After the Holocaust, there were no Jewish riots.
No burned villages.
No pogroms of revenge.
There was no Jewish Hamas.
Instead, we returned — to life, to Torah, to Israel.
“The Lord, the Lord, Compassionate and Gracious, Slow to Anger, Abundant in Kindness and Truth.”
That is the Jewish soul. That is what has endured.
And that — more than anything — is what shames the world.
Because if the Jew can survive crucifixion, gas chambers, exile, and annihilation — and respond with life — what excuse does the world have for its hatred?
None.
And so it must flip the narrative.
It must portray the survivor as the oppressor.
It must call the cradle of civilization a genocidal state.
It must turn the Miriams into monsters.
But we remember. We know the truth. And the Stone will not bury the Child.
✨ The Contrast: America’s Blessing
Not all Christians hardened their hearts.
As John Adams wrote:
“I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation...
They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth.
The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews.”
Across the ocean, a different spirit took root — one that saw the Jew not as a threat, but as the bearer of promise.
Not as alien, but as a brother in faith. They preached: “I will bless those who bless you…” (Genesis 12:3)
In America, the Jew discovered the Christian was not the Inquisitor.
Not the Crusader.
Not the cold-eyed European priest who roused a pogrom or watched the flames in silence.
He looked upon Israel not with suspicion, but with awe — as prophecy fulfilled, as covenant returned.
It was not in Rome or Paris, but in the churches of Georgia and Texas,
that the words of Isaiah stirred again:
“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.— Isaiah 40:1
In the American heartland, the Jew is no longer the accursed wanderer,
but the bearer of light — the keeper of the flame that first lit the path to G-d.
For the first time in history, Jews were not at the mercy of quixotic rulers,
but supported by a wellspring of believers.
Christian Zionism: A Return to Prophecy
From the early Puritans to modern Evangelicals, American Christians — especially those grounded in Scripture — saw what Europe refused to see: That the God of Israel keeps His covenants.
They did not call Israel “the problem.” They called it “the miracle.”
They stood by Israel’s side —when bombs fell, when media slandered, when nations betrayed.
They petitioned Congress, embraced survivors, stood vigil after terror.
They worked the soil of Samaria and Yehudah.
They prayed with us, broke bread with us, and gave of themselves — with their hearts and with their hands.
It is no exaggeration to say: The survival of the Jewish people in this age has depended, in part, on the faith and friendship of righteous Gentiles in America.
While Europe buried its conscience under stone, America stirred a moral revolution.
As Rabbi Irving Greenberg wrote:
“The re-articulation of Christian attitudes toward Judaism, and the determination to end the teaching of contempt, already constitute one of the great moral cleansing revolutions of all time — in any religion.”— For the Sake of Heaven and Earth
Europe still hasn’t gotten the memo.
Clinging to the comfort of antisemitism and the habit of impunity, it projects cruelty onto the Jew—while its true predators gather at the gate. Hearts sealed, minds shut, it ignores the final chance to resist an imminent collapse.
The Projection That Consumes a Continent
Carl Jung spoke of the collective unconscious—a reservoir of inherited memory and instinct.
Within the European psyche lingers a primal hysteria: a deep, ancestral fear of the “Semitic other.” They conjured myths of Asiatic invaders—alien, unassimilable—who would erase their identity, subjugate their women, and claim their inheritance.
But alas, they feared the wrong Semites.
Europe cannot face its true threat—the enemy within—because to do so would mean confronting reality. So antisemitism becomes the safer outlet, the familiar drug. It soothes their collective anxiety. It offers psychological refuge. And in classic projection, they call the Jew merciless—while the truly merciless breach their gates.
Antisemitism grants Europe comfort.
Impunity gives it fuel.
And cognitive dissonance shields it from the truth.
Now, as Europe hurtles toward cultural extinction, the irony is complete. And it saddens me.
Once, Europe bequeathed to the world unmatched treasures: philosophy, classical music and art, scientific brilliance, and a legacy of hard-won order. She fought bloody wars to preserve her Christian soul, her national identity, her sacred traditions.
But in the end, it seems Europe’s obsession with the Jew may have sealed her own fate.
The Jew was never the danger. Israel was—spiritually and now physically—the buttress of the West.
But now… perhaps none of it matters.