2016-07-27
1960
Graham visits Israel to preach, sparking controversy over his planned use of a Tel Aviv auditorium. Israeli newspapers accused Graham of coming to Israel to proselytize. He responded by thanking the people of Israel "for proselytizing me, a Gentile, who has committed his life to a Jew who was born in this country and reared up here in Nazareth. I want to thank you for being the nation through whom Jesus was brought to this earth in the divine plan of God."

1969
Graham is awarded The Torch of Liberty Plaque by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith

1971
Receives the International Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

1973
In a Christianity Today article, Graham raises concerns over the Key 73 evangelism effort, which strained Christian-Jewish relations because it was seen as targeting Jews for conversion. Graham writes, "I believe God has always had a special relationship with the Jewish people, as St. Paul suggests in the book of Romans. In my evangelistic efforts I have never felt called to single out the Jews as Jews nor to single out any other particular groups, cultural, ethnic, or religious."

1977
Graham receives the first interreligious award from the American Jewish Committee.

1999
In an interview with the Associated Press about how religion has changed during the 20th century, Graham says about Christianity and Judaism, "We have grown. The two don't see the vast differences and hold the prejudices they did. People have friends across all kinds of lines."

2000
Graham defends Jews during the Southern Baptist Convention's major proselytizing effort in Chicago. "I normally defend my denomination. I'm loyal to it. But I have never targeted Muslims. I have never targeted Jews," he told the Baptist Press. Graham won praise from many Jewish organizations for resisting attempts by the Southern Baptists to focus on conversion to Jews.

2002
Tapes released by the National Archives reveal anti-Semitic comments made by Graham in a conversation with President Richard Nixon in 1972. Jewish groups express outrage. "It is shameful that one of America's most respected religious leaders and a spiritual advisor to Presidents believed and espoused age-old classical anti-Semitic canards," said the Anti-Defamation League in a statement. The Simon Wiesenthal Center reacted similarly: "The fact that Billy Graham, 'America's man of God' not only agreed with the President, but was an active participant of this antisemitism is unconscionable," said the group's founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, in a statement.
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