Antisemitism: Face it. Fight it. Finish it

When Hamas unleashed its massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, the world witnessed the barbaric result of organized hatred. In the two years since, StopAntisemitism has been working not as a bystander but as an active counterforce. We have exposed more than 1,000 egregious antisemites, causing over 400 of them to lose their jobs, while more than 300 remain under investigation. This is a record of moral clarity in dangerous times.

The work of StopAntisemitism is not an academic exercise but a necessary response. Jew-hatred was already rising before Oct. 7, with a strengthening alliance between the radical left and radical Islam. College campuses were already a hotbed of false narratives, bigotry and harassment of Jews and Israelis. And we were fighting it.

But since that earth-shaking day, the scale of Jew-hatred exploded, and almost overnight the reports flooding into our organization increased by roughly 1,500 percent. Our team had to double in size just to vet, verify and act on those alerts.

A protester climbs a lamppost breaking off U.S. flags in New York City, Friday, November 10, 2023. Over a thousand anti-Israel protesters march from Columbus Circle around midtown Manhattan, ending up at Grand Central. Though largely peaceful, the event ended with multiple arrests after a protester broke an American and a UN flag on a lamppost. (Fox News Digital)

And in the time since, in an unhappy new twist, the cancer of antisemitism is spreading to some previously reasonable voices on the political right. These voices, once well-known television anchors and personalities, seem to have bought into the hatred for no apparent reason but to take advantage of social media clicks to sustain their popularity. 

From day one, we adopted an expose and hold accountable model, showcasing people who espouse Jew-hatred whether they be public figures, workplace actors, academics or healthcare professionals. In each case, our goal is not vengeance but rather consequence. When those who traffic in antisemitic slurs and conspiracy theories realize they cannot hide behind anonymity, when their institutions feel pressure, that cost matters. That is true accountability.

Some will balk at that, asking, “Isn’t this cancel culture? Isn’t it enough to argue and debate?” Not in this case. Antisemitism is a metastasizing cancer. When society allows Jew-hatred to fester unchecked, it does not stop at targeting Jews. It corrodes trust, erodes institutions, infects public discourse and undermines the very foundations of pluralism and democracy.

We have seen what happens when antisemitism creeps in. University after university failed Jewish students, even as threats mounted. Our 2024 Report on Campus Antisemitism documented a 3,000% increase in anti-Jewish incidents. Students told us that 43% would not recommend their school to a Jewish peer.

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Protester waves Hamas flag while remaining masked in Washington DC protest, July, 2024. (Lucas Tomlinson/Fox News Digital)

Administrations too often responded with silence or worse. In a particularly egregious example of campus complicity in this scourge, the U.S. Department of Education reported that the Harvard Law Review “awarded a $65,000 fellowship—meant to ‘serve the public interest’—to a protester who faced criminal charges for assaulting a Jewish student on campus.”

When Jews are unsafe in universities, society lacks a moral backbone. When professors, doctors, journalists and media personalities traffic in antisemitic canards with impunity, then antisemitism is no longer a fringe pathology but part of the public discourse.

This is why StopAntisemitism wages this fight as aggressively as we do. A cancer left unchecked spreads. The longer Jew-hatred grows unfettered, the more it seeps into power structures, legal systems, educational institutions and cultural institutions.

By putting names, faces, documented statements and consequences front and center, with tips from Americans of all ages, religions and ethnicities, we erect a barrier. We alert the public and encourage law enforcement to act. Together, we work alongside employers, universities and professional associations to enforce codes of conduct. We refuse to treat antisemitism as a tolerated eccentricity.

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Antisemitic graffiti defaces Israeli-American Council HQ (The Israeli-American Council (IAC) national headquarters in Los Angeles)

In the last two years, we have shown that exposure works. Careers have ended. Investigations have been opened. Institutions have shifted. The rule is no longer “say anything and nothing happens.” The rule must be “if you spew Jew-hatred, the world sees you, institutions respond, accountability follows.”

But we cannot win alone. This is a civic responsibility. Every media outlet, every university board, every employer, every citizen who cares about justice must reject whitewashed excuses for Jew-hatred because, once normalized, it will devour the very foundation of our country.

History shows that antisemitism flourishes in weakening cultures heading toward a collapse from within. The once-mighty Roman Empire is no more. The Spanish Empire, the Nazi regime, the Soviet Union thrive only on the pages of old books.

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For centuries, Jewish life has been the canary in the coal mine. If the canary is sick, the air is toxic. We are working to extinguish this poison before it suffocates America, the greatest country in the history of the world.