“There is not an anti-Semitic bone in my body,” Falwell boasted to the Jerusalem Report. “I doubt the Jewish people have a better friend outside their own community than Jerry Falwell.”

To be sure, plenty of Jews remained suspicious of Falwell. His Christocentrism, his eagerness to convert Jews, his understanding of the end-of-days, his declaration (for which he later apologized) that the anti-Christ, Christianity’s evil false savior, “has to be Jewish,” and his outspoken opposition to secularism, feminism, gay rights, abortion, and indeed to much of modern culture, led many Jews to recoil from the Fundamentalist leader. He was not the kind of friend that they wanted.

But over time, as worldwide antisemitism waxed and support for the State of Israel waned, Falwell’s staunch embrace of Israel and its leaders, coupled with his unqualified condemnation of antisemitism and his public expressions of goodwill toward the Jewish people, won increasing numbers of Jews to his side. The enemies of the Jewish people became Falwell’s enemies too. Falwell’s supporters, meanwhile, became Israel’s strongest allies.

Generations of suspicion and enmity cannot be reversed in a few decades, and Falwell continued to espouse positions on a wide range of issues that many Jews found anathema. But thanks to Falwell, support for Israel and opposition to antisemitism, became dominant features of Evangelical Christianity.

This transformation of Evangelical –Jewish relations stands as one of his most significant legacies.