Advocates Seek Expanded Understanding Of Antisemitism
American Jews are facing more hate than ever and advocates point to one clear step forward for local governments and institutions: Adopting a comprehensive definition of antisemitism.
The Combat Antisemitism Movement released the latest findings from their survey of more than 1,000 American Jews. The report, released last month, found that 58% of respondents say they feel less safe than a year ago, while 59% said they had encountered antisemitic content online.
Commenting on the findings, CAM’s President of U.S. Affairs Alyza Lewin said AI-generated videos have proliferated on social media. The videos that show fake rabbis and other faith leaders saying things that re-affirm antisemitic tropes — but when the videos are removed, they often pop up again on other platforms or in other languages, Lewin said.
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There has been an ongoing national conversation about how and to what extent platforms should vet or censor user-generated posts regarding several topics, including antisemitism.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields online platforms from legal liability for user-generated content, and several bills are working their way through Congress that may help update the 1996 law to reflect the realities of modern-day social media platforms.
In the meantime, Lewin called for social media platforms to clearly label videos or posts that use AI elements and to tweak their algorithms so that fewer users are served antisemitic messages.
Users are getting fed hard-core antisemitic content, Lewin said, including posts that say Jews are controlling society in a way that will harm them. New users that are just interested “in health and wellness” are, within just a few short days of joining a platform, served these videos, she said.
“Here you have the social media platforms pushing out antisemitic content to unsuspecting users who didn’t even ask for it,” Lewin said.
A problem from all sides
Antisemitism spans the political spectrum, Lewin and former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said. On the far right, antisemites may support a vision of America under white supremacy, while on the far left, antisemites may consider Jews oppressors and white colonialists.
Federal officials monitoring antisemitism seem to agree. Deborah Lipstadt, a former U.S. ambassador, said in 2024 that “studies have shown that a better predictor of antisemitism is not a right or left-wing perspective but a conspiratorial worldview and a penchant for authoritarian type of government. Rather than the right-left dichotomy, a more accurate predictor of antisemitic worldviews is the adherence to conspiratorial worldviews, anti-hierarchical aggression, and a preference for authoritarianism. This, of course, can describe someone at either end of the political spectrum.”
Miyares, who in his previous role as attorney general established the nation’s first statewide antisemitism task force, said he suspected that people and groups from foreign countries were spending money on social media ads that push “dumb conspiracy theories” and to influence political candidates and institutions.
There are already federal laws on the books prohibiting foreign financial influence on candidates and elections, but cases are “difficult to prosecute,” Miyares said.
He added that he would like to see widespread laws that force state governments and institutions receiving government funding, like colleges, to disclose any foreign investments.
“Foreign governments are using America’s very open society to influence American public perception,” Miyares said.
Complicating matters, the general public and law enforcement officers often misunderstand what constitutes antisemitism, often only identifying explicit derogatory references to the Jewish religion as a hate crime, he said.
More than a religion
But 78% of American Jews said Judaism “is more than a religious belief and practice, with the same number viewing Israel as the “ancestral homeland of the Jewish people,” according to the CAM study.
This means, experts said, laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of shared ethnicity or ancestry, like the Civil Rights Act, should also broadly apply to Jewish people, even if they do not actively participate in the religion.
Lewin called for this broader understanding of antisemitism: “Denying that we are a people, denying that we have a shared history, is antisemitism,” she said.
With that understanding, calling a Jew a “Zionist” in a derogatory manner may be considered antisemitism as it elicits the idea that Jews do not have a right to their ancestral homeland, she said.
The vast majority of American Jews delineate between what is clear antisemitism and bias, and what is fair political commentary: 97% of American Jews agree that “Israeli government policies are worthy of criticism, just as the policies of any country can be,” according to the study.
CAM and other advocacy organizations have been pushing for the last several years for local governments and institutions to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which includes more expansive examples of how antisemitism can manifest. The IHRA definition has been adopted by 47 national governments, including the United States in 2019.
Yet, for American Jews, experiences of antisemitism have skyrocketed since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas, according to ADL. Those who are “most visibly Jewish” are hit the hardest, according to CAM.
Fear of antisemitism is also reshaping how American Jews live, with 38% avoiding wearing or displaying anything that identifies them as Jewish, and 23% skipping Jewish events or observances out of fear.
“The more identifiably Jewish you are, perhaps because of the clothes you are wearing … if you look Jewish, or if you are more involved in Jewish activities, you are more likely to experience antisemitism,” Lewin said.
Cassidy Grom is the managing editor of Religion Unplugged. Her award-winning reporting and digital design work have appeared in numerous publications.