Oct. 7, 2023, was the Kristallnacht moment of our time, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s envoy for combating antisemitism, said on Sunday at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem, warning that the world’s failure to respond mirrors the blindness to rising threats in the 1930s.
“Antisemitism is not the problem of the Jews, but of the antisemites and the places that allow them to infect and spread lethal hate,” Cotler-Wunsh said. “It is not a Jewish issue, but an issue for all who cherish our shared life and liberties. The sirens are blaring.”
She expressed deep concern over the normalization of antisemitism, particularly during the current period between Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day and Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Victims of Terrorism, noting that atrocities, war crimes and genocide are always preceded by a gradual normalization of lethal hate.
Following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 Israelis and the subsequent war in Gaza, antisemitism has surged across the Western world. The Anti-Defamation League reported a record 9,354 antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in 2024—the fourth consecutive year of increases.
“Antisemitism mutates. New resilient strains, like anti-Zionism, deny Israel’s right to exist, demonize the Jewish people, and have become so mainstream that they have unleashed all forms of antisemitism,” Cotler-Wunsh said.
She warned that antisemitism now festers in international institutions, human rights organizations, universities and online platforms—spaces originally intended to uphold “Never again” values.
“Silence, denial, justification and outright attacks on Jews and Zionists—you need not be Jewish to be targeted, just believe in Israel’s right to exist,” Cotler-Wunsh said. “The tsunami of antisemitism sweeping the world, including the United States, is proof of the normalization of this ever-lethal, ever-mutating hatred.”
Speaking at the summit’s Antisemitism Forum, Malcolm Hoenlein, CEO and vice chairman emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, called for a global conference on antisemitism. He urged non-Jewish leaders to formally adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and publicly commit to fighting the hatred.
Cotler-Wunsh agreed, stressing the importance of a clear and comprehensive definition.
“If we don’t establish a global authority committed to combating antisemitism across all major fronts—international bodies, academia, and online spaces—the pledge of ‘Never again’ means nothing,” she said.
“The IHRA definition is our most critical tool. If we cannot properly identify antisemitism, we cannot fight the tsunami of Jew-hatred unleashed in our time,” Cotler-Wunsh said.