In Every Generation

In Every Generation בכל דור ודור: A Perspective on the Recent Surge in Antisemitism

I’d like to talk about the biggest threat to Israel and the Jewish people today and nope, Iran’s nuclear proliferation is not the topic of discussion. Nor is Hezbollah, Hamas or the Yemenites. I’m talking about the resurfacing of antisemitism in its most pure and potent form on an unprecedented scale. The age-old virus has been spreading like wildfire in a new internet-era wave, with this digital strain leaving those infected seeing everything through a lens of Jewish orchestration—and no vaccine or antidote is currently in sight.

The Digital Underground: A First Encounter

Let’s start with a little background. As many late teens did, I spent a lot of time online between 2017 – 2020 and during that period, I witnessed an explosion of vicious antisemitic rhetoric as it spilled over from dark corners of the web onto major platforms. It started on YouTube with accounts whose profile pictures were caricatures straight from Julius Streicher’s Der Stürmer, along with usernames like “Schlomo Shekelstein”. They could be found flooding news snippets, WWII commentary and clips from Schindler’s List with disturbing comments.

Another striking example was during an intense but short-lived chess phase I’d been through, where any material relating to Bobby Fischer, even those just reviewing a game he’d played in, had many antisemitic comments praising him as a world class “pattern recognizer”. For context, Fischer, regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, who was Jewish himself, made vehemently antisemitic statements later in his life.

In other cases, after clicking on a profile to see what else they’ve engaged with, I’d stumble upon small nests of antisemitic content creators and their fan bases, where sometimes they’d be strangely analyzing the Talmud or the Kabbalah. While, of course, alongside all of this I was exposed to the classic (((triple parentheses))), “109”, “shut it down” and all the other common emblems you may have seen by now.

These examples were just the tip of the iceberg. I kept coming across this phenomenon unwittingly in unrelated places, making it impossible to just explain away as the work of YouTube’s algorithm or other platforms’ recommender systems. It appeared to be far more than that. And to be clear, these weren’t generic anti-Israel stances about the conflict, or slogans from pro-Palestine campus protests—these were genuine neo-Nazis operating openly in digital spaces.

Groypers, Conspiracies and the Radicalization Pipeline

At some point in 2018 I came across, among others, the character of Nick Fuentes. A self-described paleoconservative, leader of the “Groypers” and the America First movement. At least on the surface, they’d purport to be an innocent socially right coalition, in support of traditional values, nationalism and isolationism. In practice however, they were—and still are—effectively a group of young neo-Nazis. Fiscally their opinions may vary but it just isn’t their main concern, as their hatred far outweighs anything else: Along with Nick, many of his followers are extremely racist and antisemitic, even proudly and openly so, with a common theme among them being that “the truth is antisemitic”.

Conspiracies about Jews and Israel run rampant in those circles, with the whole ordeal, from both Kennedy assassinations to 9/11 and the control of every major power center in America. They believe we are corrupting and degenerating their “clean” society by “browning” it and pushing a “communist, hedonistic, godless, socially left agenda”. They see the holocaust as a ruse, laughing with each other “six gorillian” every time it’s mentioned, all while yearning for another one to occur. They are absolutely obsessed with Jews and our apparent over-representation in media and politics, and they say “Every. Single. Time.” when someone in a publicized saga of a certain ideology or orientation turns out to be Jewish. As disturbing as these beliefs are, it is their recent overwhelming popularity that is even more disheartening, but we will get back to that later.

The question of how people fall down this conspiracy pipeline is an interesting one. I don’t have all the answers, but the funnel clearly has many entry points. Some start already on the bizarre fringe while in other cases it begins somewhere more mundane: A young man, reasonably considering anti-establishment positions, may be lured down the wrong rabbit holes for too long without exposure to contrasting perspectives. Their first point of contact could be an edgy meme, a viral thread or a virulent clip of Fuentes. One thing leads to another, and the word “Jew” starts appearing in almost every piece of content they consume: every conspiracy, every grievance, every problem and explanation. Before long, extreme beliefs start developing and through reinforcement by an online echo chamber, they solidify. All nuance just fades away—the virus takes hold.

From Isolated Circles to A Mass Movement

Fuentes has played a major role in this radicalization pipeline and like others in his camp, during that 2017-2020 period, he faced suspensions due to content policy violations. Despite this, he repeatedly found his way back to major platforms as a guest on other streamers and content creators’ channels, each time gaining many new impressionable eyeballs in the process. In some cases, these channels had millions of subscribers with no indication of fan-base overlap prior to his first appearance, in other words, providing him with a brand-new stage with vastly broader reach and visibility. One more recent example I recall is “Sneako” who quickly became a full-blown antisemite himself. Alongside this, began the development and adoption of alternative platforms for their own kind, in part serving as havens for the base to congregate and remain unfragmented when future bans would occur. A turning point of its own.

The sense I had at the time was that these small cliques were growing very fast into large communities, particularly during this phase of infamous characters constantly showing up as guests on another well-known channel. In fact, it left me feeling like I’m watching a boiling volcano on its way to eruption, so I started drafting an article about what I had witnessed and where it is headed, but never got around to finishing it. Better late than never, I guess.

Fanning the Flames: Epstein and Covid-19

Over that stretch of time, one point of peak activity, exposure and excitement among these groups occurred when the Epstein saga broke in 2019. It was as if their dream had come true: A connected Jewish financier, trafficking children to an island and blackmailing influential figures. Goebbels himself could not have come up with such a diatribe, and it was real. They were more than pleased and have been pushing it relentlessly ever since. It may still be their most highly cited example when making their case in various comment sections.

Further fueling and facilitating a shift from isolated circles to a large movement was the COVID-19 pandemic the following year. It pushed social media use to an all-time high and severely deepened distrust in mainstream institutions, providing perfect conditions for radicalization to flourish. More people than ever found themselves online and disillusioned—only to be pulled into these echo chambers where conspiracy and resentment thrive.

How They Operate: Shifting the Overton Window

Onto their Modus Operandi, well, at the very beginning my first instinct was to brush this off as a few dumb edgy kids, after all what serious person could hold such beliefs?! I quickly realized how wrong I was: These people were on a mission and were extremely dedicated. They would publish content on all major platforms with thinly veiled antisemitic hints meant to plant seeds in viewers minds, while carefully avoiding content violations. You could occasionally find them arguing in the comments showing their true colors, meticulously describing a set of horrifying beliefs and why they share them. Specifically, how we, the Jews and our culture are “a cancerous mechanism on the racial scale that must be eradicated”.

For the most part though, they were not overtly explicit and irony was their go-to weapon. After all, it buys one plausible deniability and does not scare off prospective “normies” they would try to lure in and recruit. Many would speak somewhat carefully, slightly hiding their agenda and loved to joke about “optics” (that is, tailoring the message to avoid revealing what you truly believe) and about slowly feeding people the “pill”. They often hid behind their own little word games and inside jokes which seemed to change over time, and they’d prey and joke around with the oblivious folk who’d respond to their seemingly innocuous statements, which in truth were far more sinister, just packaged in layers of sarcasm and projected onto the nearest point in the “Overton window”.

The Overton window is the set of socially acceptable opinions one could voice without being shunned. Ever since these groups formed, A primary goal has been shifting it by slowly pushing the boundaries often accompanied with an innocent “I’m just asking questions”. A notable example of this was during the so-called “Groyper Wars”, where they would ask provocative questions at events hosted by popular conservative figures like Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk.

A Breaking Point: Kanye West

Well, they achieved their goal, shifting the Overton window, perhaps completely shattering it with the 2022 Kanye stint and the ensuing events. To recap if you’ve forgotten, on the 14^th of October 2022, Kanye West—one of the most famous music-artists in the world—tweets about going “defcon” on Jewish people and all these same groups rally behind him and amplify his message, with direct links between Kanye and Fuentes becoming clear later on. Meanwhile, many new voices are also suddenly out of the woodwork in Kanye’s support, with tweets garnering tens of thousands of likes, a serious indication of how widespread it has all become. In the following days, Kanye does various interviews, including the Lex Fridman podcast, where he doubles down. Countless short clips with hundreds of thousands of likes supporting him go viral on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube shorts with top comments garnering tens of thousands of likes. One of them was of Kanye holding up a chart of all the CNN employees who are Jewish, another thing commonly shown off in these communities.

The damage at this point was unimaginable, I remember wondering if Mount Doom had just erupted, the orcs can now roam freely and it’s only a matter of time before the dark forces consolidate. Metaphors aside, it appeared to be a real breaking point with many feeling far more comfortable expressing openly what they would otherwise not have, not to mention countless people becoming radicalized in real-time. The following steps taken to cut ties with Kanye prove ineffective and complicate things even more. These communities perceive it as another indication of control and thus receive a burst of reinforcement. For them it appears to be a win: one tongue cut, but a million new ones spewing the same rhetoric. Moreover, they point to it as further evidence in their recruitment efforts.

The Perfect Storm: October 7th

This was the scale it was already at, long before October 7^th, 2023, and the recent Israel-Hamas war which escalated all of this to an unnerving new level of popularity. Nowadays, neo-Nazi like beliefs have become so pervasive it’s almost impossible to avoid on social media of any kind, and discussion of these taboos has turned completely mainstream. Moreover, there’s no more concern for optics or PR, people are going “full mask off”. This includes many extremely popular figures, each with their own sphere of influence, who have taken an antisemitic turn. Just recently, we’ve seen everything from famous internet personalities, comedians and podcasters to political commentators and professional athletes. And then there’s Kanye—amid his second meltdown—airing a Super Bowl ad that directed viewers to his website, where the only item for sale was a Swastika T-shirt.

But beyond the new loud voices already in the mix, there are many more I suspect are radicalized, just not yet fully out of the closet, due to dog whistles, subtle undertones and specific lingo they tend to use.

Not Just a Passing Fad: The Long-Term Consequences

Going even further, vast portions of the population are thoroughly conditioned to the idea of an all-controlling elite, making them highly susceptible to this antisemitic virus—no doubt what its spreaders have learned to capitalize on. It takes no more than a day for a large number of new fingers to start pointing in our direction, and this virus does not—and will not—conveniently pass-over those with influence in all institutions. It penetrates every corner, creed, and class of society. At some point soon, all of this will trigger a shift in social norms and government policy, both foreign and domestic. The recent Trump appointments may provide a false sense of security, but that support is a relic of the older generation and will leave along with them.

This isn’t just my impression—recent worldwide polling done by the ADL tells the exact same story: We are in the midst of a pandemic. Moreover, simply prompting Google Trends with key phrases unique to extreme communities reveals a similar pattern.

So, whatever your beliefs may be, I’d caution against shrugging this off as some kind of passing fad. Sure, this virus is nothing new, it has always been around, and like time and time again, we, the Jewish people will prevail—right?! Absolutely, but as mentioned, people are being infected in real time, at this very moment, so even if you’re certain of an inevitable outcome due to history or prophecy, the height and severity of this oncoming wave still lies in every one of our hands.

Fighting Back to Flatten the Curve

The pressing question then remains: How can we possibly flatten the curve? Well, those infected see everything through a rigid lens of Jewish orchestration and it’s not clear if any words can unwind their world view. There is however, something to be done: Be decent, generous and honorable in your day to day life—not as some weak plea for acceptance, but an authentic demonstration of strength and integrity. Simple interactions can help shatter these lenses and prevent others from forming. This may sound like naive idealism, but it sets in place a corrective current working against this new wave of radicalization.

Beyond that, reclaim digital spaces, stand firm, challenge lies, raise awareness and fear no evil. Be active as decay thrives in passivity. Although no sweeping gesture will undo the damage already done, if every person who knows the truth speaks it and every person who values decency embodies it, then the tide begins to turn.

But the burden cannot rest solely on individuals—social media giants must take responsibility. At the very least, they must ensure their algorithms do not amplify savage extremism, and they must safeguard against these radicalization pipelines. Without meaningful action on their part, their platforms will continue to serve as incubators for this monstrous menace.

That is the only advice I have to offer.

Conclusion: The Cycle Repeats

It seems we are nearing that point where history rolls over once again. Sure, there’s always a chance of science or AGI completely revolutionizing the world, making current human affairs and conflicts dissipate, but I’m not counting on it, and neither should you. It appears the cycle of  בכל דור ודור won’t end in this generation. But whatever may come, one thing remains certain—we will still be here proudly singing it fifty years from now.