US Social Work’s Antisemitism Blind Spot When Silence Becomes Complicity
Antisemitism — the world’s oldest bigotry — has returned with sharp force since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. More than 1,200 civilians were murdered, hundreds abducted, and countless others scarred by terror and sexual violence.
In the months that followed, antisemitic incidents in the United States surged. The Anti-Defamation League reports a 337 percent increase in the three months after October 7, after doubling between 2018 and 2023. FBI data show that nearly two-thirds of all religion-based hate crimes in 2023 targeted Jews — just 2.5 percent of the US population.
Jewish social workers have felt this surge firsthand: scapegoated, harassed, excluded, and silenced, many struggling to support Jewish clients frightened by the re-blossoming of Jew-hatred now cloaked as antizionism. Yet the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the profession’s largest organization, has responded with hesitation, dilution, and sometimes overt antisemitic tropes. For many Jewish professionals, NASW has abandoned both its Jewish members and its own principles.
Even before October 7, the record was troubling. NASW’s 2022 Anti-Racism Statement made no mention of antisemitism, though the incidence was already surging. After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, NASW issued a forceful statement within three days. After October 7? It waited two and a half months. And when the statement finally came, it condemned antisemitism only alongside Islamophobia in pursuit, it seems, of balance. Islamophobia may well be a fair topic, but pairing the two in that moment blurred the particular danger facing Jews who have, unlike the Islamic community, suffered disproportionately from hate for millennia. It was the rhetorical equivalent of responding to the Pulse nightclub massacre of LGBTQ patrons by coupling it with discrimination against conservative Christians: both prejudices exist but combining them obscures the reality of the moment.
That indifference carries real-world consequences. The Jewish Social Work Consortium has documented clinicians called “colonizers” and “Nazis.” In NASW’s online forums, Jewish members — including those with no involvement in Middle East advocacy — have faced blanket harassment and accusations of genocide simply for being Jewish. Holding any group collectively responsible for geopolitical events is as irrational as blaming all Christians for Nazi atrocities. When a professional body dedicated to equality and advocacy against hate fails to challenge such behavior, it betrays the spirit of its own Code of Ethics, which calls on social workers to act against oppression and discrimination.
NASW’s reticence extended abroad. In 2025, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), of which NASW is a member, censured Israel’s professional union for “not working to promote peace.” It has issued no similar action against the associations of Russia or China, despite those governments’ well-documented repression of minorities. NASW again said nothing. This selective outrage undermines the very principle of equity the profession espouses.
Even NASW’s public presence reveals the gap. Its website offers extensive materials on racism, LGBTQ+ issues, and other forms of discrimination, but scarcely mentions antisemitism. National conferences in 2024 and 2025 included sessions on eco-activism and veterinary social work but none on antisemitism. A new curriculum for graduate social work students about antisemitism was created in coordination with Social Work’s educational council. A proposal to present it at the 2024 conference, however, was declined. Omission communicates exclusion.
Educational blind spots reinforce the problem. Fordham University professors Carole Cox and Dana Marlow’s 2023 study found that antisemitism is nearly absent from social work curricula. Despite its long history and sharp rise, their reports from hundreds of respondents reflected antisemitism as rarely included in coursework on oppression or diversity. This omission allows prejudice to proliferate unchecked and undermines the profession’s credibility. Cox and Marlow urge integrating Holocaust and antisemitism education, adopting the IHRA definition, and training students to recognize conspiracy theories as modern bigotry. NASW has yet to act.
In personal correspondence with a senior NASW staff member, Jewish identity was framed through stereotypes about wealth and influence — a reminder that institutional cultures can replicate the very antisemitic biases they claim to oppose. The staff member wrote that “Jewish Americans are about 2.4 percent of the population but now account for one-third of U.S. billionaires and have high education rates… the advocacy focus has changed.” The implication was unmistakable: Jews are too wealthy, too educated, too privileged to merit protection. Yet 11% of Jewish households live in poverty — more than 250,000 families. Social justice is not means-tested; the NASW Code of Ethics does not say “challenge injustice unless the victims are educated.”
Antisemitism is not a side issue. It is a mirror reflecting how selectively NASW applies its values. When it speaks forcefully against some hatreds but hesitates on others, it teaches every marginalized group that solidarity is conditional. If social work’s moral voice is to remain credible, it must model the inclusion it preaches — naming antisemitism, supporting affected members, and standing against the selective use of justice.
Silence is not neutrality. It is complicity. Our profession can — and must — do better.
After publication, the author became aware that the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) issued a statement on October 13, 2023 addressing the Hamas attack and humanitarian conditions in Gaza. While that statement is acknowledged here for completeness, it does not alter the article’s concerns regarding the framing and implications of NASW’s response, including the introduction of moral equivalence and the absence of meaningful action in other areas affecting Jewish social workers.
