Antisemitism is up but is it worth panicking?

This month we have lots of statistics and questions about what those statistics mean. The truth is that antisemitic incidents are up nationwide (and in Europe). How bad is it? Jewish Americans disagree, you’ll see below.

Here’s my concern: that Jewish Americans are being demonized for the actions of the nation-state of Israel. No matter what we think about the Israel-Hamas War, the painting of any and all Jews as targets of protest and even attack is unfair and unjustified.

Take this city council meeting in California, where a Holocaust survivor was harassed as a protest against the war and a protestor said all Jews are traitors, spies, and “racist Zionists.” Not only is it wrong but it is the rehashing of old antisemitic trope of Jews as traitorous (e.g. Dreyfus Affair).

This is where I am calling Christians – no matter your opinions on the Israel-Hamas War – to push back when you hear someone blaming all Jews for what is happening Gaza.

Reminder: These headlines are presented as a snapshot of what our Jewish neighbors are thinking and feeling. CMJ USA does not necessarily agree with all the opinions expressed in these articles.

On rising antisemitism

📈CAM Tracks Daily Average of 17.1 Antisemitic Incidents in March, a 315% Year-Over-Year Rise (Combat Antisemitism Movement)

📝The growing panic about antisemitism isn’t a reflection of reality (Forward)

Yes, antisemitism is up — but prominent voices are confusing protest with bigotry

🤔Has the term ‘antisemitism’ been overused – or overblown – beyond usefulness? (Times of Israel)

Historians criticize use of word as ‘super-category’ for all anti-Jewish discrimination — from antiquity through Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel and global surge in Jew-bashing

😢When hate comes to your hometown (Forward)

Chants of “We don’t want no Zionists here” felt like a “knife through the heart” to a Montclair mom

🫴🏻American Jews Should Become a Little More Israeli (Tablet)

Instead of playing defense, we should learn how to stand up for ourselves better

🤨Jews have been cursed to be lonely. The war is a reminder to fight back against that fate (Forward)

Many Jews feel isolated in this time of conflict — but it doesn’t need to be that way

Note: The Jews are called to be a peculiar people, yes to sometimes stand alone. Christians share that call. For too much of history, Christians have seen our call to stand separated as distinct and in opposition to the call of the Jewish people. But what if it’s the same call?

If the Gentile followers of Jesus are indeed grafted into the root of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Rom 11:17ff), then our call to be peculiar is to be peculiar WITH the Jewish people. So as antisemitism boldly raises its head, Christians – who follow the best-known Jewish man in the world – need to stand up and stand with our Jewish neighbors in their loneliness and be alone together.

😔BBYO survey reports that 71% of Jewish teens have experienced antisemitism (Jewish Chronicle)

Research shows high-schoolers encounter hate both in person and online.

✡️ Jewish Students Feel Less Safe on Campus – But Are Still Showing Their Jewish Pride (Jewish Journal)

The ICC/Schoen survey findings came from interviews with 1,000 U.S. adults, 400 American college students and 200 Jewish college students.

❓Has the Golden Age of American Jewry Come to a Close? (complied by Jewish Journal)

A rise in antisemitism has many American Jews wondering if the era of American exceptionalism when it comes to antisemitism has come to a dramatic end.

• The End of an Era  - Franklin Foer, The Atlantic: “Liberalism helped unleash a Golden Age of American Jewry, an unprecedented period of safety, prosperity, and political influence… But that era is drawing to a close. America’s ascendant political movements—MAGA on one side, the illiberal left on the other—would demolish the last pillars of the consensus that Jews helped establish."
  
  
• A Campaign of Violence - John Podhoretz, Commentary: “It is, as we go to press, four months since October 7. And the passage of time is not causing the forces arrayed against American Jews to relent or stand down. Supporters of Houthi terrorist attacks from Yemen against Israel (one Houthi drone was shot down just before it would have hit the Israeli city of Eilat) blockaded the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C."
  
  
• Becoming Like Europe - Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, AJC: “While Americans have seen rising antisemitism in recent years, this level is uncharted territory. For Europeans, it is heartbreakingly familiar. Some of us have long warned that the antisemitism in Europe would cross the Atlantic and land on American shores. Seeing that gloomy prediction fulfilled has been profoundly depressing."

🚫 Is Anti-Zionism Really the New Antisemitism? (complied by Jewish Journal)

Is Anti-Zionism simply the new form of antisemitism for a new generation of Jew haters?

• An Evolving Hatred - Steven Windmueller, Jewish Journal: “Extremist politics, both right and left, have readily adopted an array of new charges against Jews. And most recently, with the rise of postmodernism has come a whole new vocabulary that joins race and politics in framing Jews and Israel as “whites,” “colonialists” and “occupiers.”
  
  
• A Tedious Word Game - Seth Mandel, Commentary: “No one is just finding out that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Everyone already knew that. But many people were content to lie about this fact and claim ignorance. There is no real debate about what people mean when they say “Zionists."
  
  
• A Creative Reinvention - Noah Feldman, TIME: “The core of this new antisemitism lies in the idea that Jews are not a historically oppressed people seeking self-preservation but instead oppressors… This view preserves vestiges of the trope that Jews exercise vast power. It creatively updates that narrative to contemporary circumstances and current cultural preoccupations with the nature of power and injustice.”

✡️ Should American Jews Blame Israel for Antisemitism? (complied by Jewish Journal)

A controversial new essay from Rob Eshman of the Forward (below) argues that American Jews should wake up to the fact that Israel is the cause of antisemitism:

• The Consequences of Israel's Actions - Rob Eshman, Forward: “Israel’s choices about how to conduct it matter for Jewish safety everywhere — not just in Israel. Israel’s retaliatory attack against Hamas in Gaza has to date claimed more than an estimated 30,000 Palestinian lives. The images of death, destruction, terror and struggle are posted hourly on social media. They are, plainly, horrifying. 
  
  
• The Real Source of Antisemitism - Matthew Schultz, Instagram: “The wave of antisemitism we see right now is not a response to Israel’s war. It is a thrilled response to Hamas’ attack from people who want to get in on the action.”
  
  
• The Problem with Eshman's Argument  - Jonathan S. Tobin, JNS: “The first flaw in his reasoning is the way he accepts without much argument the smears of the Israel Defense Forces’ counter-offensive in Gaza.

▶️✡️◀️ Far Right and Far Left Converge — Against the Jews (Jewish Journal)

The world of antisemitism has become so muddled that it’s almost impossible to tell one from the other.

“Can you tell which of these haters is coming from the political right, and which from the political left? The world of antisemitism has become so muddled that it’s almost impossible to tell one from the other.

Consider: One of these three haters was recently arrested for painting the slogan “White Power” on synagogues. One co-chaired the Women’s March on Washington. One is a former New York Times correspondent and speechwriter for Ralph Nader. Can you tell which one is which?

One of the three is a Presbyterian minister. One is a devout Muslim. One owns a Ku Klux Klan robe. Still can’t tell who’s who?”

✡️ Spielberg fears repeat of history: ‘We may again have to fight for right to be Jewish’ (Times of Israel)

Filmmaker deplores ‘machinery of extremism’ stirring antisemitism on campus since Oct. 7; Jews can both ‘rage against heinous acts’ by terrorists and decry deaths of Gaza civilians

Interesting reads

✅ 5 Israeli politicians every Christian should know besides Netanyahu (All Israel)

A quick primer from Christian news site All Israel.