To a growing number, every Jew represents Israel, making Jews everywhere a convenient target for Israel’s actions. Other nationalities, ethnicities and religions are not held responsible for the actions of foreign governments—not Iranian Americans, Russian Americans or Chinese Americans. Only Jews.
On a New York City subway recently, a 23-year-old Jewish nurse was choked by a stranger screaming, “Jews are eating kids!” It was likely a reference to false propaganda about Gaza. The nurse had no part in any war and was attacked for only one reason: She’s Jewish.
Knicks star and music icon punished for relationships with Jews
When the New York Knicks recently won the NBA championship, a conspiracy theory quickly spread online that the title had been rigged because the team’s star is married to a Jewish woman. A beautiful love story about high school sweethearts Jalen Brunson and physical therapist Dr. Ali Marks Brunson became twisted into an example of “hidden” Jewish power.
Pop-music star Taylor Swift wasn’t spared either. Anti-Israel activists turned on her for attending a Knicks game with two sisters from the American rock band Haim. Their crime? Their dad was a drummer in an Israeli army band during his mandatory service.
Hotels of hate: Jews not welcome here
This hostility greets Jews, even at hotel desks, around the world. In California, a hotel employee recently confronted a Hebrew-speaking couple as they checked in, demanding to know: “Are you a baby killer? Are you a Zionist?” He later went online to brag that he had “stared into the soul of the devil” and to urge others to “GIVE THEM HELL.”
Two weeks later, British hotel chain Travelodge apologized after a clerk refused to look at a visibly Jewish guest, taunting him and his friend with “Free Palestine” messages in their hotel rooms.
In Germany, a hotel recently turned Israeli guests away with a single line: “There are no Jews allowed,” barring the Israelis as Jews. Israeli Consul General Talya Lador asked, “Are we back in the 1930s?” Booking.com promptly removed the hotel from its platform. In the former Asian Soviet nation of Kyrgyzstan, no clerk was needed at all: An engraved metal sign at the entrance bars “JEWS AND ANIMALS.”
An old hatred with new excuses
None of this started recently. The hatred is age-old and deep, and it has always worked the same way. Signs banning “blacks, Jews and dogs” hung across hotels, stores and country clubs across America only a few decades ago. For centuries, Jews have been cast as the disloyal outsider and blamed for plagues, financial turmoil and even wars.
Myths about Jews run from the medieval Christian blood libel to the forged Russian Protocols of the Elders of Zion propaganda that still resonates across much of the Muslim world today. The lie that all Jews secretly control world events is a well-worn antisemitic conspiracy theory. Holding every Jew responsible for Israel’s alleged actions is textbook antisemitism.
The faces and their excuses may change over time, but the same hatred always follows. These accusations often lead to all Jews being accused of supporting wars and killing babies—and they can turn deadly. The firebombing at a pro-Israel march in Boulder, Colo., the shooting of two Israeli staffers at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and a synagogue car-ramming attack on a Michigan synagogue were all tragedies that happened within the last year.
Activists cheer terrorist who murdered a Jewish grandmother
The attacks are not random. They are the work of an organized hate movement to isolate Jews, boycott them, ban them and drive them out of everyday life.
Mohamed Soliman threw firebombs into a peaceful walk for Israeli hostages about a year ago, burning more than a dozen people and killing 82-year-old Karen Diamond. On the recent anniversary of the attack, the banned University of Colorado Students for Justice in Palestine chapter in Boulder publicly honored the terrorist.
The activists wrote: “We stand in solidarity with Mohamed. We condemn the life sentence imposed by Colorado courts. We honor a man who sacrificed his comfort, willingly expending his own liberty in attaining his objective.” A convicted murderer became a hero and most of Colorado’s politicians failed to condemn this statement.
SJP is part of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement that regularly pressures businesses to drop Jewish partners, pushes schools to shun Jewish students and treats every Jew as a target. The BDS mob also targets everyone associated with Israel. SJP led a walkout of more than 100 students from a Stanford University graduation ceremony because Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the commencement speaker, runs a company that does business in Israel.
Politicians and prosecutors respond to surging hate
Jewish Americans are not facing this alone, and the pushback is bipartisan.
In the U.S. Senate, Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced the Jewish American Security Act, which would strengthen civil-rights protections on campus; expand security funding for synagogues and other nonprofits; and require social-media companies to confront antisemitism. In the U.S. House of Representatives, Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill to force universities to investigate antisemitism complaints or lose their federal funding.
The courts are moving as well. The U.S. Department of Justice expanded its civil-rights case against Harvard and is pursuing action against the University of California, Los Angeles. Federal prosecutors indicted eight University of Michigan activists for threatening Jewish students and institutions. Diana Smith, the woman on the New York City subway who choked a Jewish woman and ripped hair from her head, has been arrested and faces hate-crime charges.
Jews and their allies refuse to back down
The answer to these attacks is defiance, not fear. Recently, 50,000 Americans marched through New York City for Israel Day, and a record-breaking 60,000 turned out in Toronto—a city with less than half the population of New York—for its annual pro-Israel walk.
American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council founder Anila Ali led the first-ever Muslim delegation in Manhattan. She marched proudly and declared that “Zionism is in the Quran,” despite threats by a city councilwoman who condemned her to hell. Tens of thousands openly stood together against a hate movement that wants Jews to disappear from public life.
Points to consider:
1. Blaming every Jew for Israel’s every action is antisemitism.
No American Jew determines Israeli policy, yet well-funded, coordinated activists and random strangers demand that they answer for it—riding the subway, at work and on college campuses. Holding an entire people responsible for a foreign government’s decisions is one of the most common forms of the world’s oldest hatred. This is not criticism of a country. It is prejudice against the Jewish people, plain and simple.
2. No other group is judged by a foreign government’s actions.
Imagine demanding that any other community denounce a war on another continent —or be shunned, harassed and assaulted for refusing. Iranian Americans are not blamed for the Islamic regime’s wars, Russian Americans are not denounced for their country’s invasion of Ukraine, and Chinese Americans are not judged for the decisions of Beijing. Only Jews face this collective blame. A standard applied to one group alone is not principle; it is bigotry.
3. Antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred, and it always turns deadly.
From the medieval blood libel to the forged Russian Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Jews have been cast as the secret villains behind every world crisis, and the accusation too often ends in violence. Today, it wears a new costume: Jews are open targets for Israel’s choices. The distance between that slogan and a gun is short, and treating the idea as normal makes the next attack easier.
4. The anti-Israel hate movement is well-organized and well-funded.
Students for Justice in Palestine activists recently celebrated the terrorist who murdered an 82-year-old grandmother in Colorado. Groups like this present themselves as a grassroots, organic movement. They are not. SJP was founded by Hatem Bazian, who also launched a group tied to organizations that U.S. federal courts discovered helped fund Hamas, a terror group funded by Qatar. The repeated slogans on American campuses, city streets and social media did not rise on their own; they are promoted by a coordinated group of hostile organizations.
