Key points
Jews are worried about rising antisemitism. Images of antisemitic violence in cities around the world from Amsterdam to Montreal to Dubai, have Jews concerned about increasing antisemitism and the inability of friendly countries to stop the antisemitism in their countries. Antisemitism has risen by over 500% in pro-Israel countries.
The US struggles to combat antisemitism. President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have tried to combat antisemitism, but efforts to stop antisemitism have largely failed.
Protect free speech and stop hate speech. Finding a balance, especially across US campuses became a near impossible task.
Antisemitism never stops with Jews. "People everywhere who believe that all humans are created equal know that the presence of antisemitism in a society has often been the forerunner of other visceral, irrational hatreds, from racism to homophobia to Islamophobia," writes Noah Feldman in Time magazine.
Antisemitic attacks keep rising
More than 10,000 antisemitic incidents occurred between October 7, 2023, and September 2024 in the United States, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which is up from 3,325 incidents in the prior year. The report marks the most antisemitic incidents recorded in 12 months since the ADL began tracking threats in 1979.
The US isn’t the only Israel-friendly country experiencing antisemitism, After the October 7 massacre, Canada experienced a significant surge in antisemitism, marked by a 670% increase in incidents compared to the previous year.
Before the October 7 attack on Israel’s south, a survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights found that 96% of respondents in Europe had experienced antisemitism than in the previous year, between January and June 2023. Eighty-four percent of the respondents considered antisemitism to be a “very big” or “fairly big problem” in their country, while less than one in five believed governments were handling it effectively.
Read more on Should Jews in Europe be scared?
Struggling to stop antisemitism
In his “National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism,” President Biden wrote, “History teaches that hate never fully goes away; it only hides until it is given just a little oxygen. That is why we must confront antisemitism early and aggressively whenever and wherever it emerges from the darkness. Toward that aim, my Administration has developed the first U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.”
While the US government released the plan in May of 2023, antisemitism keeps rising. In August of 2024, in a speech about antisemitism, Trump argued that Jews are facing a climate akin to the run-up to the Holocaust due to the actions of anti-Israel forces. He said, “What’s going on now is exactly what was going on before the Holocaust.”
In May 2024, The United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would expand the federal definition of antisemitism. The bill was passed by a margin of 320 to 91, largely seen as a reaction to the ongoing anti-Zionism, anti-Israel, and some pro-Palestinian protests unfolding on US university campuses.
What does “From the River to the Sea” really mean?
Some pro-Israel countries have freedom of speech laws that inhibit authorities from stopping antisemitic demonstrations. Law enforcement and college campuses have seemingly struggled to balance freedom of expression and suppressing hate speech. Hate is a phenomenon that reflects a core problem in how a community relates to its members.
Uri Pilichowski is an author, speaker, and senior educator at institutions around the world.