Can We Do Better At Fighting Antisemitism?
Efforts to counter antisemitism - both on the right and the left - must be targeted and thoughtful, or they risk deepening the problem not alleviating it.
Antisemitism and the fight against it are front and center in American politics and Jewish life today.
Hatred of the Jewish people is an ancient scourge - one we know not just abstractly but in our bones and in our history.
My own family story includes the murder of relatives in the Holocaust, my mother’s flight to safety, and stories my father’s family tells of Russian pogroms and blood libels.
In 2025 America, antisemitism is real - sometimes in plain sight, sometimes encoded and winked at, and sometimes expressed as obsessive hatred of Israel and Zionism. The problem transcends left-right politics – stretching from Nick Fuentes and “great replacement” conspiracists on the far-right to those on the far-left who cast Jews globally as oppressors.
We see it everywhere - from chants in the streets to online memes in our social media feeds and conspiracies festering in the darker corners of the web.
As we wage this critical fight, we must take care not to undermine either our own interests or the health of American democracy.
And we must be honest that - at times - the fight against antisemitism is itself being politicized and weaponized. If we are not careful in our approach, we risk ending up less safe, less free, and more isolated.
So here are four principles to guide us in this vital work.
First: we cannot fight antisemitism alone or in isolation from the broader fight for civil rights.
We are safest when we are part of a broad coalition opposing hate, racism and bigotry of all kinds.
Many minorities – in other countries and in the US – are targets of persecution because of race, religion, ethnicity and identity. They know what it is to be vulnerable. They are the natural partners in our fight, and the people attacking them are often the same people attacking Jews.
This is why this week’s move by the Anti-Defamation League to remove from its website examples of the “second prong” of its work – to protect civil rights and liberties broadly – is so disturbing.
For a century, the ADL stood on two legs: opposing antisemitism and supporting civil rights for all. If the ADL and others retreat from broad civil rights work and narrow their focus only to “Jewish issues,” we weaken ourselves, cut ourselves off from the coalitions that made us stronger, and surrender the moral authority that comes from standing with others and not only for ourselves.
Second: we cannot define legitimate criticism of the Israeli government as antisemitism – especially not in law.
There is a dangerous movement underway, most recently in New Jersey, to codify a definition of antisemitism that would empower government authorities and disciplinary bodies to police the content of political speech about Israel.
This is not only a threat to basic democratic freedoms, it is contrary to Jews’ own tradition of debate, argument and dissent.
We cannot tell the world “Israel is not the Jews,” while simultaneously insisting that criticism of the State of Israel is “criticism of the Jews” and must be prohibited.
The noted Jewish Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis said a century ago that the proper remedy for speech we don’t like is “more speech, not enforced silence.”
Not all criticism of Israel on the left or the right is informed – and some is hateful – but in a liberal democracy the answer cannot be to criminalize political speech or fearmonger that, for instance, a New York Mayoral candidate is a “danger” to Jews because we disagree with his approach to Israel/Palestine.
Third: we cannot allow bad actors to weaponize Jewish fear to advance an agenda that harms Jews.
The clearest example right now is the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther,” a deeply illiberal effort that claims to “protect the Jewish community” while in fact using Jewish pain and trauma as cover for an effort to dismantle three foundational pillars that have enabled Jews to thrive in America:
Higher education has been the ladder by which Jewish immigrants and refugees climbed into the American mainstream. Of course, there are problems with antisemitism on campus. But the Heritage “solution” is not to fix them, it is to undermine the system of independent scholarship and free inquiry altogether.
Immigration. Emma Lazarus, a Jewish poet, wrote the verse on the Statue of Liberty welcoming the world’s “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” That is our history. Weaponizing antisemitism as justification to slam the gates shut is not “protecting Jews,” it is erasing a core American ideal that granted us protection.
Rule of Law. The current administration’s willingness to surveil student speech and to detain and deport foreign nationals because of their views about Israel is a direct assault on First Amendment protections that have always shielded minorities, including Jews, from majoritarian abuse.
To allow right-wing actors – including those willing to defend and platform dangerous figures like Nick Fuentes – to chip away at those pillars in the name of “protecting Jews” is not only hypocritical and ironic – it is deeply, dangerously self-defeating.
Fourth: we have to be willing to look in the mirror.
Not all the anger coming at the Jewish community today is rooted in ancient hatred. Some of it is rooted in protest against the policies of the government of Israel – policies that many Jews disagree with as well. While some protest on the left crosses a line into antisemitic narratives, that doesn’t negate the legitimate reasons for much of the protest.
To acknowledge this is not “victim blaming.” Even as we protect Jewish students and call out conspiracies and tropes, we can be honest that some of the rhetoric and actions of Israeli officials, ministers, and spokespeople adds fuel to the fire.
If the Jewish community wants the world to distinguish between Israel’s government and the Jewish people, then we must be willing to make that distinction ourselves. We have to demand change and accountability when our own leaders are charting a course that violates our morals and damages our interests.
The coming months and years will be immensely difficult. We are living in an era of intense polarization. And the tools of modern communication accelerate the problem at the speed of light.
We cannot fight antisemitism by censoring political speech, by withdrawing from civil rights coalitions, by letting the far-right weaponize our fear, or by refusing to look at our own agency and responsibility.
We should be honest that both the left and right ends of the spectrum have some antisemitic elements and not allow this important issue to be made into a political football.
We need to defend democracy. Defend free speech. Build alliances. Protect the rule of law.
And we need to do all this out of a firm conviction that Jewish safety in America will not come from isolating ourselves or policing ideas.
It will come only from solidarity, partnership, and the deep and universal American promise that freedom and equality are not for some, but for all.
Thank you! Right on point and thoughtfully articulated.
Thank you, Jeremy. That was a fine article indeed. I really admired the way it genuinely addresses the real issue of anti-Semitism that exists and should be countered with speech that seeks to overcome ignorance with education. Loved the Brandeis quote. I also admired the way the article made the case in a way that doesn't retreat into old, tired, inaccurate narratives of perpetual historical victimhood that merely self-reinforce that communal retreat, but rather ties the struggle to counter anti-Semitism to the wider, broader objective of defending democracy and liberties for all, captured most succinctly in the final 3 paragraphs of the article. Fabulous piece of writing, sir!!