The Revere

Mia Isacson ’26

Antisemitism was defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016 as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.”¹ Antisemitism is relevant today because it has been on the rise since conflicts have progressed in Israel and Palestine, especially in the United States. Though antisemitism is known for primarily impacting Jewish people in Europe, there has always been significant antisemitism in the United States since its founding. 

The United States was imagined to be free from religious persecution, as highlighted in the 1791 Bill of Rights. States, however, were allowed the right to impose limitations on the rights of religious minorities such as Jews, which they took no hesitation in doing. The first recorded group of Jews to arrive in America in 1654 were Sephardi refugees from Recife after Brazil had expelled its Jews that year following a Portuguese conquest.² They were soon petitioned to be removed by Governor Peter Stuyvesant, but the economic benefits of Jewish mercantile networks outweighed the petition. However, the Jewish immigrants were still denied public worship unless they embraced Christianity and the church, even when they petitioned for it in 1685.³ 

From 1830-1860, around 200,000 Jewish immigrants arrived from Central Europe, escaping antisemitic restrictions. However, the Jews became scapegoats and targets of racial tropes that had been present in Europe. For instance, during the Civil War, Jewish intolerance increased immensely as the Union and Confederacy both blamed Jews for aiding the opposing side. In newspapers, cartoons would depict Jews as unpatriotic merchants who sold military supplies at high prices to make a profit. General Ulysses S. Grant even issued an order to expel all Jews from the territory under his command and referred to Jews “as a class.” Jewish people were soon stereotyped as exploiting the financial markets and government.⁴ 

From 1881 to 1914, approximately 2 million Eastern European Jews immigrated to America, escaping violence from programs that destroyed tens of thousands of Jewish homes. As the States experienced economic downturns, again, Jews became the scapegoats, and the growing tensions resulted in a lot of public displays of antisemitism. Agrarian populists of the South and Midwest claimed that urban Jews were exploiting markets and the federal government. Some populists condemned Jews as a national threat.⁵ In 1913, Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank was abducted and lynched, having been wrongfully accused of murdering a young woman. Photos of him being lynched were placed on postcards, and the town that he was from thought of it as a joyous occasion. During World War I, mob violence against Jews increased, as well as quotas that restricted Jews from attending institutions of higher education,  fraternities, resorts, neighborhoods, hotels, and clubs.⁶ The revived Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s also threatened and attacked Jews.

 Prominent figures also rallied and encouraged antisemitic views. Henry Ford, one of the wealthiest and most influential Americans, created a book series called The International Jew that saw hundreds of thousands of copies bought. Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” later praised him for his efforts. Father Charles Coughlin, a catholic figure with a weekly radio show that had 15 million listeners per week, propagated antisemitic beliefs and justified Nazi violence against Jews overseas, encouraging  Americans to paint swastikas on Jewish businesses and gang up on Jews in the streets.⁷

 During the second world war, America turned away hundreds of migrants daily who sought refuge from the Nazi Reign. Among these, a ship carrying over 900 refugees was turned away from Cuba, even after ship members had sent telegrams to President Roosevelt, pleading for asylum. One-third of the passengers whom the United States had rejected would be murdered during the holocaust. Nazicism started spreading like wildfire in America. Neo-nazis hosted youth training camps across the country and even held a rally at Madison Square Garden, where they spewed antisemitism into a crowd of 20,000 cheering Americans. A poll from July 1939 found that fewer than 40 percent of Americans believed Jews should be treated “as any other Americans.”⁸

 After the United States entered World War II, Jews were blamed for dragging the nation into overseas conflict, while around 550,000 American Jews fought in the war. Newspapers published antisemitic articles, such as the Social Justice paper, that would circulate over 1,000,000 copies from 1940-1942. In 1944, 60 percent of Americans still claimed to have heard recent “criticism or talk against Jews.” During the civil rights movement, some white supremacists lashed out against Jewish communities, synagogues, and Jewish community centers became targets of bombings. However, the horror of the Holocaust resulted in a noticeable public decline in antisemitism in the United States, with the criticism of Jewish Americans dropping from 64 percent to 16 percent in 1951 and the rising of Judaism as a prominent religion in public discourse.⁹

Despite the trend, antisemitism was still vibrant during the 21st century, especially after the 2008 financial crisis for which Jews were alleged to be responsible, as well as the acceleration of the spread of antisemitism thanks to social media that have made it easier for antisemites to communicate and cultivate destructive communities.  Trump also started inspiring hate with his slogan “America first” when in August 2017, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other extremists gathered for the “Unite the Right” rally and chanted “Jews will not replace us!” as well as deliberately ran over peaceful counter-protesters.¹⁰ 

In 2018, Jews and Jewish institutions constituted the most frequent target of religion-based incidents by a large margin. Antisemitic murders were rampant, as a white supremacist shouted, “All Jews must die,” and opened fire on worshippers during congregation meetings. He echoed that Jews were master puppeteers and threatened white America. Later that year, a gunman opened fire at Chabad of Poway. In the year afterward, the FBI claimed to have taken action against at least 12 violent plots or threats against Jewish communities. In 2019, there was a rise in antisemitic violence in the New York City area against Hasidic Jews, where people in the area were murdered in their homes, in supermarkets, and on the streets. 

Today, Jewish hate has been rampant on social media, with celebrities such as Kanye West, a famous rapper who has said and posted hateful and sometimes violent comments about Jews in interviews and online, famously saying on Twitter, “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE. The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”¹¹ Another example is Nick Fuentes, a political commenter known for openly denying the holocaust and praising Hitler.¹² These men were invited to a dinner with former president Donald Trump, while Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and U.S. Representative Paul Gosar attended a Nick Fuentes fundraiser. Greene is known for believing that Jewish space lasers caused the California wildfires. Jews have been targeted on college campuses and in cities, and incidents have been occurring of people being attacked just for looking Jewish because of the rebirth of classic antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories that Jews are greedy and hold too much power.¹³ 

The Anti-Defamation League reports that there have been 3,697 incidents of harassment, vandalism, and assault targeting Jewish people and communities in the United States in 2022. There have been 91 bomb threats and 494 reports of young children and educators in K-12 schools who were victims of threats or assaults because of their Jewishness. The enduring shadow of antisemitism, revealed in historical struggles and today’s rising hate incidents, continues to loom over our society. In light of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the country is in need of united efforts in combating harmful prejudice and emphasizing the need for nuanced and sensitive discussions to prevent the spread of hate against Jewish communities.

1. https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism ↩︎
2. https://antisemitism.adl.org/antisemitism-in-american-history/ ↩︎
3. https://www.gale.com/primary-sources/political-extremism-and-radicalism/collections/history-of-anti-semitism ↩︎
4. https://antisemitism.adl.org/antisemitism-in-american-history/ ↩︎
5. https://antisemitism.adl.org/antisemitism-in-american-history/ ↩︎
6. https://www.gale.com/primary-sources/political-extremism-and-radicalism/collections/history-of-anti-semitism ↩︎
7. https://antisemitism.adl.org/antisemitism-in-american-history/ ↩︎
8. https://antisemitism.adl.org/antisemitism-in-american-history/ ↩︎
9. https://www.gale.com/primary-sources/political-extremism-and-radicalism/collections/history-of-anti-semitism ↩︎
10. https://www.adl.org/racists-converge-charlottesville/  ↩︎
11. https://www.ajc.org/news/5-of-kanye-wests-antisemitic-remarks-explained ↩︎
12. https://newrepublic.com/post/170149/white-nationalist-nazi-nick-fuentes-back-twitter ↩︎
13. https://antisemitism.adl.org/power/ https://antisemitism.adl.org/greed/ ↩︎