More than 1,100 law enforcement officials attending the National Sheriffs’ Association’s 2026 Annual Conference in Omaha, Neb., were urged this week to update their understanding of modern antisemitism through training focused on identifying anti-Jewish symbols, rhetoric and other warning signs that can precede violence.
Alyza D. Lewin, president of U.S. affairs for the Combat Antisemitism Movement, told JNS after addressing the conference on Monday that helping officers recognize contemporary forms of antisemitism is essential to protecting Jewish communities.
Lewin said CAM’s training teaches officers to recognize antisemitic imagery and rhetoric beyond traditional Nazi symbols such as the swastika. Examples include the inverted red triangle and the bloody red hand, symbols that have increasingly appeared in anti-Israel activism and, in some cases, have been used to target Jews and Jewish institutions.
“If you define antisemitism narrowly, then you will miss what is a significant, if not a majority, of the kind of antisemitic harassment, discrimination, even assault and vandalism, that’s targeting Jews today,” she told JNS. “It matters when it’s a swastika, but it also matters when the vandalism is ‘kill the Zionist.’”
Lewin said hate-crime investigators must determine whether criminal acts are motivated by bias, making it important to analyze when anti-Israel rhetoric crosses the line into antisemitism.
“Some will say, ‘Oh, this wasn’t motivated by an antisemitic bias; this is just a political debate,’” Lewin said. “If you allow that, it permits those who are deliberately trying to mask their Jew hatred under the guise of political debate to get away with that masquerade.”
