WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) — Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday that many Christian pastors, especially older evangelicals, do not grasp how far antisemitism and hostility toward Israel have spread among younger believers.

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Cruz made the remarks while accepting a leadership award at the American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) Lamplighter Awards at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. The Texas Republican said polling shows young evangelicals moving “systematically against Israel,” and that large sums of money are being spent to accelerate that shift.

“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.

He told the audience he has spoken with pastors in their 60s, 70s and 80s who insist they do not see antisemitism on the political right. Those leaders, he said, are not online and therefore “serenely unaware of what has happened.”

“I think the Christian Church is asleep. I think a great many Christian pastors are asleep,” Cruz said.

He called the trend an “existential” problem. If it continues, he warned, Americans could find both major parties “unambiguously anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic” within five years.

Cruz said the views are taking hold among teenagers and people in their 20s on the right, estimating that somewhere between a third and a half of that cohort is absorbing what he called “poison.” The only remedy, he said, is to confront the claims with facts.

“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.”

Jeff Miller, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council and a Republican lobbyist, received an award at the same dinner. Miller said antisemitism now travels mainly through social media, which rewards controversy and therefore amplifies hate.

“Hate used to need a mob to spread. Now it only needs an iPhone,” Miller said.

He argued that foreign adversaries are injecting antisemitism into American debates to divide the country, and that Jewish organizations should coordinate more tightly rather than work in isolation.

“Antisemitism is coming at us with a baseball bat. We cannot continue fighting back with a thousand toothpicks,” Miller said. He added that the fight is not partisan and that leaders should condemn the hatred whether it comes from the left or the right.

President Donald Trump and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent video greetings. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick introduced Miller. Event co-chairs included former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, lobbyist Norm Brownstein and Republican operative Eli Miller.

Guests included White House Counsel Will Scharf, acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, Sens. John Fetterman, John Barrasso, Bill Hagerty and James Lankford, and several House members and former officials.

The Lamplighter Awards honor public figures and raise support for Chabad’s educational and humanitarian work in Washington.

Cruz, an evangelical Christian and a longtime advocate of close U.S.-Israel ties, has spoken repeatedly this year about antisemitism inside conservative circles, particularly among younger audiences reached by online commentators. Wednesday’s speech tied that concern directly to church leadership.