New Year's Day has a long history as a day for persecuting Jews. Pope Gregory, who imposed January 1st on the Western world through his calendar reforms in 1582, used the day for anti-Jewish measures. On New Year's Day 1577 he decreed that all Roman Jews, under pain of death, must listen to a compulsory conversion sermon in their synagogues. In 1578 he imposed a tax forcing Jews to pay for a house of conversion, and in 1581 he ordered troops to confiscate all sacred Jewish literature, and thousands of Jews were murdered in the campaign. Throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods, January 1st, supposedly the day Judaism died and Christianity took over, was reserved for synagogue and book burnings, public torture, and simple murder. Gregory was not the first. In 324 AD Pope Sylvester persuaded Constantine to bar Jews from living in Jerusalem, and at Nicea the following year he arranged a host of viciously anti-Semitic legislation. Sylvester became a Catholic saint whose day is December 31st, so Jews in Europe and Israel call New Year's Eve "Sylvester." This anti-Semitic baggage, added to the pagan fertility rites, drunkenness, and revelry, shows the depth of perversion in the celebration and is one more reason true Christians should stay away from it.

Anti-Jewish sentiment emerged among many Gentile groups, not due to scriptural teachings, but through human reasoning and pride. Church leaders started to distance themselves from anything deemed Jewish, viewing the 7th day Sabbath, God's appointed feasts, and obedience as problematic. Over time, confusion grew within the church, and in 325 AD, Roman authorities replaced God's instructions with man-made traditions. God's Sabbath was substituted with Sunday worship, Passover was replaced by Easter, God's calendar was discarded, and obedience was redefined as legalism. This shift marked a rejection of God's authority, replacing it with human tradition, resulting in a system of worship unrecognizable to Him.

Muslim immigration into Europe has a religious dimension that endangers Jewish communities. In Belgium in early April 2002, an anti-Ariel Sharon march turned violent when North African activists tried to march into a mostly Jewish area. Similar Muslim-on-Jew riots and crimes have surfaced in England, Germany, Denmark, and France. In some European nations Muslims already outnumber Jews, a fact that bodes ill for the peace of their communities. These hostilities belong to the wider friction that arises when cultural and religious differences collide as migrants settle among an established people, and they add to the pressures that are leading European nations to tighten their immigration laws.

Haman, a descendant of the Amalekites who hated the Jews, rose to power through political maneuvering and became chief minister to the king. When Mordecai refused to bow to him, Haman extended his personal wrath into a plot to destroy every Jew throughout the kingdom, portraying them as a people with different laws who did not keep the king's laws and therefore should not be allowed to remain. He secured the king's approval for a decree of annihilation by offering silver into the royal treasuries. This anti-Jewish scheme unfolded within the violent, chaotic world of a capricious ruler and corrupt court, where the law proved powerless and the wicked surrounded the righteous. Mordecai recognized the threat and urged Esther to intercede, reminding her that deliverance would come from another place if she remained silent, yet she and her father's house would perish. Esther responded by calling for a fast among the Jews and then approached the king uninvited, placing her life in his hands with the words "if I perish, I perish." Through her patient, faith-filled actions rooted in the fear of God learned from Mordecai, the plot was reversed, Haman was executed on the gallows he had prepared, and Mordecai received honor. This episode demonstrates how the virtuous wife of Christ is prepared under the most adverse circumstances, learning to fear letting God down rather than fearing men, to wait on His sovereign power, and to act with wisdom so that His purpose is accomplished even when His name is never mentioned.