The Deeper Purpose of Antisemitism

Antisemitism is surging worldwide, and enormous effort is being invested in combating it through facts, rebuttals, and counter-narratives. These efforts are well intentioned—but they miss the point.

Rabbi Tal Chaimowitz recently argued that antisemitism is not a logical phenomenon that can be dismantled through reason. Attempting to refute antisemitic claims distracts us from the deeper message this hatred carries for the Jewish people.

An Anti-Defamation League survey found that almost half of the world’s adults harbor antisemitic views. Rabbi Chaimowitz describes this hatred as one with “no name and no face, no reason and no logic.” The hatred comes first. The justification follows.

Refuting the flawed reasoning of every claim will not lead to understanding its purpose.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai captured this truth succinctly: “It is a known law that Esau hates Jacob.” The Talmud asks, why is it called Mount Sinai? Because from it descended hatred [sinah] from the nations toward Israel.

But why would God create such hatred?

The Sages taught that Israel should thank God for the hatred that separates Jews from the nations, because without it they would assimilate and disappear. The hatred descended at Mount Sinai precisely when Israel was separated from the nations through the Torah. It exists to preserve Jewish distinctiveness and purpose.

History confirms this. Whenever Jews seek to become “a nation like all nations,” they do not escape hatred—they intensify it. The more Jews try to blend in, the more they are singled out.

Rabbi Chaimowitz advances an even more uncomfortable claim: the nations are not entirely wrong to blame Jews for the world’s dysfunction—not because Jews cause evil, but because they fail to fulfill their role. Israel, the Sages teach, is the heart among the nations. When the heart fails, the body weakens. When Israel abdicates its mission, the world suffers—and responds with hostility.

This framework helps explain why Israel’s embrace of victimhood and its frantic attempts to join the global club of nations have backfired.

Israel constantly seeks sympathy by portraying itself as the victim of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Authority. These groups are indeed evil, and countless Jews have suffered at their hands. But Israel and its supporters rarely acknowledge that Israel itself empowers all three.

Southern Lebanon was twice captured and twice abandoned, allowing Hezbollah to entrench itself. The Palestinian Authority was created through Israeli initiative and continues to receive land, weapons, jobs, and legitimacy from Israel. Hamas rose to power after Israel expelled Jewish families from Gaza, withdrew militarily, released senior terrorists, and transferred suitcases of cash.

When the world sees a nation with unrivaled intelligence, technological excellence, and overwhelming military superiority repeatedly refusing to act decisively, it does not see a victim. It sees incompetence—or worse, a moral failure.

This is not victimhood. This is self-sabotage masquerading as restraint.

Just as retreating into victimhood is a mistaken response to antisemitism, so too is assimilation. Where individual Jews once sought acceptance through personal assimilation, the Jewish state now seeks it through institutional submission. If only we defer to the International Criminal Court. If only we respect the United Nations. If only we prove we are reasonable.

The result has been predictable. Israel’s cooperation with the ICC lent legitimacy to libelous claims of genocide and famine. Submission did not yield acceptance—it yielded contempt.

Jerusalem was meant to be the moral center of the world. “For from Zion shall go forth Torah… He shall judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples” Instead, Israel allows The Hague to lecture it on morality and warfare. The student is scolding the teacher, and the teacher is accepting it.

When Israel refuses to lead and instead begs for approval, it distorts the cosmic order. The body knows the heart is malfunctioning—and lashes out against it.

Judaism’s gift to humanity is not weakness. It is law, purpose, and a vision of justice.

Victimhood and assimilation guarantee continued hatred. Victimhood breeds contempt, not sympathy. The world sees Israel empowering its enemies and then pleading for understanding—and responds with disgust.

But does the opposite approach work?

Israel’s strikes against Iran provide the answer. Israel acted without UN approval, without ICJ rulings, and without international consensus—guided only by its own moral judgment of necessity and justice.

The result was not condemnation. It was respect.

When Israel acts with strength and clarity—when the heart pumps properly—the body responds with recognition and admiration.

The hatred exists to push Jews away from assimilation and toward their mission. When Israel refuses to conquer, settle, judge, and teach as it must, the dysfunction intensifies—and so does the hatred.

That vision calls for Jews to be unafraid of their identity ready to lead without apology.

The illness has been named, and the cure is already known. The choice is ours: live our purpose—or endure the consequence.