There has been a historic rise in antisemitism in the U.S. since the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. According to the American Jewish Committee’s most recent State of Antisemitism in America Report, one-third of American Jews have been the target of antisemitism in the past year.
The rise in antisemitism also has been emphasized by recent highly publicized actions like Elon Musk’s inauguration salute, which many interpreted as a Nazi salute, and Kanye West’s Super Bowl stunt, in which he sold swastika T-shirts on his website.
All Americans should be concerned about this alarming trend, according to Mark Oppenheimer, a professor of practice at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert on Jewish life and culture.
“No society survives free and liberal when Jews are under attack. Virulent antisemitism is always a sign that the autocrats are coming,” said Oppenheimer, who also serves as executive editor of the Danforth Center’s online journal, Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera.
But President Trump’s recent executive order to fight antisemitism is not the answer, Oppenheimer said. “I don’t think this executive order will do much. The promises to enforce laws are redundant — all laws should be enforced, of course. It’s showboating.”
Below, Oppenheimer discusses the multifaceted reasons why antisemitism has risen in recent years and the societal shifts that will be required to address it.
Antisemitism in the U.S. has been rising for years, predating the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Why?
I have a very boring answer to this important question, which is, ‘It’s complicated. There are a lot of reasons.’ Certainly, the increased tolerance for open expressions of bigotry, principally but not only on the political right, gave permission to a lot of people who harbored antisemitic views that they’ve always wanted to express. But also, the censoriousness of the political left, what has been called ‘wokeness’ and ‘cancel culture,’ has also contributed to a climate of illiberalism and polarization that has made people angrier and meaner. That’s not good for any minority group, but it’s been especially bad for Jews, who in the game of identity politics are seen as ‘white’ — which we often are not — thus ‘oppressors,’ thus fair game for attack. There also has been a worldwide surge in nativism and nationalism, which is never good for the Jews. So, it’s come from all directions.
But above all, there’s social media, which has been bad for the world on so many fronts. People who 30 years ago would have had no outlet for their views except passing out pamphlets on a street corner can now have a worldwide audience.
What does antisemitism look like?
It looks like a lot of things. Antisemitism is mainly a set of conspiracy theories, so any insinuation that Jews are behind the scenes, controlling things, is a classic example of antisemitism. The intense association of Jews with money and capital — like (U.S. Rep.) Ilhan Omar’s famous tweet, ‘It’s all about the Benjamins baby’ — is antisemitic. The use of geopolitics to scrutinize Jews everywhere is antisemitic, too. An example of this is when Jews running for student council at universities are cross-examined about their views of Israel. Can one imagine Black American students being questioned about their views of the Nigerian government? And then there are the crude, recognizable forms of antisemitism, like swastika graffiti.
According to the American Jewish Committee, more than half of American Jews have changed their behaviors out of fear of antisemitism. How do you interpret this?
My hunch is that this is both overstated and understated. On the one hand, I have seen a surge in young people wearing Star of David jewelry or clothing; conversions to Judaism are up, and many people are reconnecting with their heritage. On the other hand, for Jews who are unsure about their affiliation, it is surely a disincentive that their Judaism seems like it can be held against them. If you are a freshman on campus, deciding shyly whether to go to a Shabbat dinner at Hillel, or whether to take a Jewish studies class, the animosity toward Jews will make you think twice. And in some industries — like the two I know best, academia and publishing — a lot of people suspect all Jews of Zionism, and they think there is nothing worse than Zionism.
In your opinion, is hate being normalized in America?
I think hate has been normalized, to a shocking extent. But I think that this normalization is part of a bigger loss of civility. In online forums, people on the right are no crueler or more dehumanizing than people on the left. I hate Nazi salutes —and I also hate doctors and nurses saying they won’t treat Jews, Israelis or Zionists, which unfortunately has happened. We have become a remarkably juvenile culture. We have a senator who wears sweatshirts and a president who has bragged about the size of his genitals and grabbing women in their crotches. We’ve invented new slurs, like ‘Karen,’ which manages to be ageist and misogynist at the same time. We need a renaissance of decency and civility.
What can be done to stop antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world?
I have no idea. Levels of antisemitism fluctuate; this one will subside. But it seems never to go away. Well, OK, I have one idea: We need to know more about history and religion. The humanities don’t inoculate against hatred, but they give us the tools to fight it. Nineteen-year-olds who know only computer science and math are bad at finding government waste — as we’re seeing — but they are also bad at talking about Jews, politics, Zionism and the rest, on the left or the right. We need to bring back reading. Colleges and universities could start by doubling their humanities requirements.
