Unmasking Antisemitism: A Teen Perspective

To unmask antisemitism, we need to know what it is. At its most simple, it is hate, hostility and discrimination against the Jewish people. 

Noa Tishby, co-author of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew, boils down antisemitism into four main stereotypes that have been used throughout history to scapegoat Jews and are still in play today:

1. Peoplehood: “Jews are weird, dirty, scheming and threatening - they need to go.”

2. Religion: “Jews are God killers and baby killers and/ or not Christian or Muslim - they need to convert or go.”

3. Racial/Political: “The Jewish race* is inferior, revolting, and evil; they can’t convert out of it - we can blame them for political gain. . . and they should go.”

4. Anti-Israel: “Israel is all of the above. And it should go.” 

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, an organization made up of 35 member countries and 9 observer countries, lists, in a more serious way, the following as examples of contemporary antisemitism:

• Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.

• Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.

• Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.

• Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).

• Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.

• Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

• Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

• Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.

• Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

• Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

FACTS: Antisemitism is real and thriving today. In 2023, antisemitic incidents of  assault, harassment and vandalism in the United States were up 140% from the previous year and are at their highest level since 1979, when this data first started to be collected. Since October 2023, incidents of Jewish hate in Europe have increased by 400%. On social media, from February 2023-February 2024, 56% of users reported seeing antisemitic content more than once on sites such as Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and YouTube. You can help get rid of hate speech, calls for violence and misinformation found on each site by reporting the post and user.