To Stop Antisemitism, Find the Source

People aren’t born antisemetic; they learn to hate Judaism from their surrounding culture. To counteract the rapid spread of antisemitism in the West, we must identify the source of its influence in our societies. Here are a few points to understand how this recent wave of judeophobia works and spreads.  

How it began:

Recent animosity towards Jews has been most apparent in the stark increase of antisemitic language and expressions online and especially on college campuses throughout the West. According to an ADL survey, this worrying trend peaked after Hamas’ invasion of Israeli territory, and was reported in a large number of countries, especially among people under 35 years of age.

“Hitler was right” is just one of the phrases that members of the Jewish community have had to endure from self-defined “pro-Palestine” activists. Jewish students were violently attacked on the campuses of prestigious universities, stores were vandalized and Jewish women were threatened with rape. 

How it spread: 

Antisemitism is not a recent phenomenon and can hardly be explained by a single cause. But the most recent wave of Jew-hate in the West is unique in that it seems to have gained traction through a narrative latent within Western culture, uncovered by the conflict in the Middle East. 

Alejo Schapire, renowned journalist and author of “The Kidnapping of the West,” spoke with me about this topic and shared his understanding of the rising anti-Jew narrative:  

“Antisemitism always is described as a narrative in itself,” he said, “but it is always mutating as if it were a virus, which is renewed in some aspects and suppressed in others. We must understand this phenomenon as geological layers. Today’s antisemitism is exercised in the name of anti-Zionism, but its innovation lies in the fact that it considers the Jew as the latest variation of the imperialism and the colonialism of the white man, whose new victim is no longer the worker men, but the Palestinians.”

Thus, even before the conflict began in the Middle East, Westerners were predisposed to hate Jews as the latest example of white colonialists. But no one could have imagined how rapidly this narrative would spread through the mechanisms of modern media.

Like everything that comes into contact with the virtual world, antisemitism takes on a completely new dimension on social media. Just a quick search on Tik Tok or Instagram yields a slough of videos, comments, and memes that show the frequent trivialization of the horror experienced by Jewish communities. 

In this sense, Schapire expresses that “social media did not invent anything, but they spread messages much faster and for free. Anonymity allows this and even through accounts with many followers and therefore with the capacity to generate great impact. In the past, to have an impact it was necessary for a person to be identified in order to circulate certain ideas.”

Why in the West — among young people? 

Among all the paradoxes and contradictions intertwined in this new wave of anti-Jew rhetoric, the generational factor is uniquely disturbing. Students and young people are particularly keen to draw a precise dividing line that separates the good from the bad, to integrate into discourses that are established as politically correct, and even to follow trends simply to fit in. 

These impulses might explain — at least in part — why suddenly hundreds of young people from Western countries, who live and breathe the benefits of modern democracy on a daily basis, come out not only to share messages of hate without blushing, but even to call for a “new intifada.” In this way, students and young people have become the uninvited allies of terrorist groups, and unwittingly serve as pawns for their extremist agendas. By wholeheartedly embracing the narrative that Islam and Islamic Palestinians are “oppressed” by the Jewish state, young people make themselves vulnerable to manipulation by terrorist organizations.  

“Today it is easy to reach youth with short, high-impact clips. But this new antisemitism increases fundamentally among the youngest because the left no longer supports secularism as a principle. On the contrary, from their vision, Islam is the religion of the oppressed, then no one has to question or offend them,” Schapire said. 

Where do we go from here? 

Any communication or marketing expert could agree that the effectiveness of a narrative lies in the elevation of some facts above others, the strong emotional connection with an audience, and the impetus of a system of ideas and values. So if current antisemitism ignores the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups against Jewish communities and is projected onto the younger generations by appealing to their altruistic sensibilities, what is the value system on which this narrative is based? 

Always transversal, but never in the shadows, woke culture offers a tailored theoretical framework for the dissemination of this type of Manichaean and victimist messages suitable for anyone who feels guilty for not being part of an oppressed minority. 

Schapire explained, “Neither young people, nor certain sectors of journalism, cultural personnel, or even elite universities want to go against the consolidated narratives. Turning your back on group logic means questioning your work, your ethics, or being turned into “the enemy.” 

The prejudiced hatred of Jews will never go away entirely, but each generation has a responsibility to recognize the unique narratives that perpetuate and spread Judeophobia. In our time, this perspective can only be gained by stepping back from social media long enough to escape the persuasive rhetoric of trendy-thinkers. To overcome these hate narratives, we must do what we can to remember that reality is more complex than the algorithm tells us. 

Agustina Sosa is an Argentine journalist and international relations specialist. She is a Young Voices Contributor and serves as President of Ladies of Liberty Alliance Argentina, an NGO that promotes female leadership with a classical liberal approach.