Why Today’s Antisemitism is Different

It has been common to refer to the surge in antisemitism as fitting into the historic patterns of Jew-hatred. Particularly, there is the tendency to blame American Jews for what Israel does as part of an age-old impulse to blame Jews for societal problems.

In recent years, classic examples of this in America include the largest massacre of Jews in American history—the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting by an individual who attributed his actions to his belief that Jews are responsible for the loss of control of the borders—and the accusation after the killing of George Floyd that the police in America learn their brutal ways from the Israel Defense Forces.

There is no doubt that the current surge manifests itself in classic ways and is a key reason why some of us were telling American Jews prior to the surge not to become complacent about antisemitism because of its nature.  

Spoken about less is in what ways today’s manifestations are different than past experiences and may be why this rise caught so many American Jews off guard.  

The first that comes to mind is the ideological source of today’s hate. Many of us have emphasized a theme that has characterized antisemitism for years: that it has no ideological monopoly. It could stem from the right, it could stem from the left, it could arise in majority communities, it could arise in minority communities.  

Having said that, there is no doubt that American Jews, many of whom had never experienced antisemitism in their lifetime, associated Jew-hatred—particularly after the Holocaust—with right-wing, fascist ideology together with traditional religions, whether Christian or Muslim.  

What is so stark about today’s version, which represents the most disturbing antisemitism that Jews in America have lived through for decades, is that it stems far more from the left than from the right. The idea that the left is a source of antisemitism is not new. One of its major manifestations in this country, and a precursor to today’s far worse example, was the explosion of antisemitism surrounding Israeli policies during the 1960s and ‘70s. At that time, ADL published a book about it called The New Antisemitism, labeling the phenomenon as representing a sanitized version at a time when classic antisemitism—only 20 years after the Holocaust—was considered shameful and largely unacceptable.  

Having said that, while recognizing the New Antisemitism, it never rose in the attitudes of American Jews as the greatest danger facing the community. While the extreme right was overall not threatening the safety of American Jews, the extreme attitudes they represented still seemed like the largest thing to worry about, if one worried at all.  

Now, as ADL’s 2024 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents indicated, more than 50 percent of incidents were connected to Israel, which fits into the pattern we saw years earlier.  

Second, it is taking place in sectors of society where, as Jews gained greater equality over the years, they found a level of comfort that had not existed before. Most notable is the explosion of antisemitism on campuses across the country, where the sense of freedom and integration that characterized the Jewish experience on campus beginning in the 1950s—when the quota system that limited Jewish life at universities and sent a clear signal to the community that Jews still were not equal was challenged by the community—had flourished.  

The evolution of Jewish life on campus over the next half century was one of the glories of the American Jewish experience. It was one of the prime representations of the description of American Jewish life over the last 50 years as the most comfortable in the 2,000-year history of the diaspora.  

Now, for the first time in years, many Jewish parents are wondering what schools will be safe for their children instead of which schools offer the best education and preparation for success.  

Third, for a community that sees one of its missions in the world as tikkun olam, it is ironic that the assaults on the Jewish community in America today are premised on the notion that the alleged failures of the Jewish state—and by association of Jewish citizens—in the area of human rights are the motivating factor in the attacks and exclusion of Jews. Long assaulted by the right for their leadership in the civil and human rights agenda, now they are being attacked for alleged “genocide,” the worst of all crimes.  

What is so striking about this development is the gravitation toward this approach long before Israel’s military response to Hamas following the massacre of October 7th had taken place. The failure by so many to empathize with Israel after the worst day in Israeli history—the murder of over 1,200 innocents, the rape of women and killing of babies, and the taking of over 250 hostages—could not compete with the attitude that Israel was oppressing the Palestinians and in effect got what it deserved on October 7th.  

The point has been made quite often that antisemitism is an evolving disease and finds new ways to appear. This is true here, but something more specific may be at work: a calculated but unstated effort to find a societal way to revive antisemitism in a deep way after the Holocaust. It wasn’t considered acceptable to be openly and classically antisemitic after six million Jews were murdered. Scattered attempts in the years after to find more acceptable versions were tried. Now, however, the legitimization of antisemitism after the Holocaust has found its permanent home.  

We will have to expose it for what it is—a battle that will be more important than ever and more challenging than ever, but one that we must fight.