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Antisemitism has a long history in theUnited States of America.Jewish people having beenliving in North America since thecolonial period, andantisemitism in the United States has roots in this time.
One early US governmental incident of anti-Jewish action came during theAmerican Civil War, when GeneralUlysses S. Grant issuedGeneral Order No. 11 (1862) to expel Jews from the portions of Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi then under his control. The order was quickly rescinded by President Lincoln. Grant himself later became a supporter of Jews.
From the 1870s to the 1940s, Jews were routinely discriminated against and barred from working in some fields of employment, barred from residing certain properties, not accepted as members by elite social clubs, barred from resort areas and limited by quotas in enrolling in elite colleges. Antisemitism reached its peak with the rise of the secondKu Klux Klan in the 1920s, antisemitic publications byHenry Ford, and incendiary radio speeches byFather Coughlin in the late 1930s.
FollowingWorld War II andthe Holocaust, antisemitic sentiment declined in the United States; nevertheless, there has been an upsurge in the number of antisemitichate crimes in recent years.
Historians continue to study and debate the extent of antisemitism in American history and how American antisemitism has similarities and distinctions withits European counterpart.
HistorianReena Sigman Friedman notes similarities between the form and substance of European and American antisemitism, and has stated "[t]hough antisemitism appeared in a number of forms during and after the American Civil War, it was amplified by the introduction of race theory in the United States, often linked to nativism, xenophobia and anti-urban sentiment, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries."[1]Hasia Diner provides a similar perspective, stating, "by the 1870s in Europe and the United States, the argument shifts to the Jews as defective. Not Judaism as defective, but the Jew as a particular social type who had defective mental and moral abilities."[2]
John Higham noted certain distinctions between European and American antisemitism, suggesting that in the United States "no decisive event, no deep crisis, no powerful social movement, no great individual is associated primarily with, or significant chiefly because of anti-Semitism."[3] Historian David A. Gerber stated that antisemitism "has been a distinctly minor feature of the nation's historical development" because historians such as Higham have previously "taken little interest it."[4] Historian Britt Tevis recognized this trend, noting "Handlin and Higham's ideas (especially Higham's) remain influential, and many American Jewish historians continue to present antisemitism as largely insignificant, momentary, primarily social.".[5] Tevis questions this trend, noting that "a major component of this argument is the claim that, unlike in Europe, anti-Semitism in the United States has been an insignificant force—fleeting and more or less harmless. For the most part. . . [r]elatedly, they've argued that neither the law nor the state has played a role in perpetuating anti-Jewish sentiments. My research challenges these long held ideas by revealing the ways in which the state condoned and sometimes promoted anti-Jewish animus."[6]
Historian Britt Tevis argues that, "Handlin and Higham's ideas (especially Higham's) remain influential, and many American Jewish historians continue to present antisemitism as largely insignificant, momentary, primarily social."[7] Krefetz (1985) asserts that antisemitism in the 1980s seems "rooted less inreligion or contempt and more rooted in envy, jealousy and fear" of Jewish affluence, and the hidden power of "Jewish money".[8] Historically, antisemitic attitudes and rhetoric have tended to increase whenever the United States has faced a serious economic crisis,[9] as well as during moments of political and social uncertainty and fear.
Jewish settlers made up a small percentage of the population in the colonial and federal periods.[10][page needed] At the time of theRevolution, one in a thousand Americans were Jewish—about 2,500 people. Most were in families of businessmen based in the port cities ofNewport,New York City,Philadelphia,Charleston, andSavannah. They prospered as well-connected traders handling imports and exports inside Britain's Atlantic empire. Nevertheless, antisemitism remained pervasive and state-based beginning at least as early as the mid-1600s, when in 1654, the Governor of New Amsterdam referred to the Jewish people as a "repugnant" and a "deceitful race," and sought to have them expelled from New Amsterdam.[11]
The colonial governments often imposed citizenship restrictions against the Jewish settlers, as they sometimes did with Catholics,Lutherans, andQuakers.[11] The harassment of Jews by both individuals and governments was typically less violent than in Europe, but was nevertheless frequent and systemic.[11] Business agreements between Christian and Jewish settlers gradually became a relatively accepted practice, although fees and inequitable practices disfavoring the Jewish settlers were common.[11]Intermarriage was not prohibited and occasionally occurred. The majority of Jewish settlers supported thePatriot cause in the Revolution.[12]
Throughout most of the 18th and 19th centuries, anti-semitism in America was common, though not typically to the extent that wasendemic in Europe during the same period.[13][14] Jews were viewed as a race in America as early as 1654, when the Governor of New Amsterdam referred to them as a "deceitful race" in his efforts to expel the Jews from New Amsterdam.[11]
On December 17, 1862, Major GeneralUlysses S. Grant issuedGeneral Order No. 11 expelling Jews from areas under his control inwestern Tennessee:[15][page needed]
The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by theTreasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled ... within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.
Grant later issued an order "that no Jews are to be permitted to travel on the road southward." His aide, Colonel John V. DuBois, ordered "all cotton speculators, Jews, and all vagabonds with no honest means of support", to leave the district. "The Israelites especially should be kept out ... they are such an intolerable nuisance."
This order was rescinded byPresident Lincoln but not until it had been enforced in a number of towns.[16] According to Jerome Chanes, Lincoln's revocation of Grant's order was based primarily on "constitutional strictures against ... the federal government singling out any group for special treatment." Chanes characterizes General Order No. 11 as "unique in the history of the United States" because it was the only overtly antisemitic official action of the United States government.[17] Grant apologized when he ran for president in 1868, and as president, 1869–1877, he was quite friendly toward Jews.[18]
According to historians Ronald J. Jensen and Stuart Knee, by the 1870s Russian-American relations were strained by the mistreatment of American Jewish visitors in Russia. President Grant quickly responded to American Jewish requests for action to protect visitors.[19] By the 1880s, the outbreak of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia and consequent mass emigration of Jews to New York made relations worse. After 1880, escalating pogroms alienated both elite opinion and public opinion in the United States.[20] In 1903, theKishinev pogrom killed 47 Jews, injured 400, and left 10,000 homeless and dependent on relief. American Jews began large-scale organized financial help and assisted in emigration from Russia.[21] More violence in Russia led in 1911 to the United States repealing an 1832 commercial treaty.[22]
The late 19th century in the United States saw a rise in antisemitic media that reflected and amplified public anxieties about Jewish immigration and economic influence. One notable example is an 1892 caricature "Their New Jerusalem" published in Judge magazine, which portrays Jewish immigrants and established Jewish businessmen as threats to American economic stability and cultural values.[23] The central figure, a wealthy Jewish man carrying a scroll labeled "Perseverance and Industry," stands amid a bustling New York street dominated by Jewish-owned businesses, while established American families are depicted heading westward in apparent flight. This image serves as a vivid illustration of how antisemitic tropes, such as Jewish economic dominance and cultural displacement, permeated late 19th-century American society. Americans, who were influenced by European antisemitic tropes and stereotypes, such as the greedy "moneylender" as such tropes were widely visible in Europe, as seen in books such as the Gentile Tales and Blood Libel.[24] Such depictions shaped societal attitudes, fueling nativist and exclusionary sentiments during a period of significant immigration.
Between 1881 and 1920, approximately 3 millionAshkenazi Jews fromEastern Europe immigrated to America, many of them fleeingpogroms and the difficult economic conditions which were widespread in much of Eastern Europe during this time. Jews, along with many Eastern and Southern European immigrants, came to work the country's growing mines and factories. Many Americans distrusted these Jewish immigrants.[16]
Between 1900 and 1924, approximately 1.75 million Jews immigrated to America's shores, the bulk from Eastern Europe. Whereas before 1900, American Jews never amounted even to 1 percent of America's total population, by 1930 Jews formed about 3.5 percent. This dramatic increase, combined with the upward mobility of some Jews, contributed to a resurgence of antisemitism.
As the European immigration swelled the Jewish population of the United States, there developed a growing sense of Jews as different. Indeed, the United States government's Census Bureau classified Jews as their own race, Hebrews, and a 1909 effort led bySimon Wolf to remove Hebrew as a race through a Congressional bill failed.[25] Jerome Chanes attributes this perception on the fact that Jews were concentrated in a small number of occupations: they were perceived as being mostly clothing manufacturers, shopkeepers and department store owners. He notes that so-called "German Jews" (who in reality came not just from Germany but fromAustria-Hungary and other countries as well) found themselves increasingly segregated by a widespread social antisemitism that became even more prevalent in the twentieth century and which persists in vestigial form even today.[26]
In the middle of the 19th century, a number ofGerman Jewish immigrants founded investment banking firms which later became mainstays of the industry. Most prominent Jewish banks in the United States were big cityinvestment banks, rather than localcommercial banks.[27] Although Jews played only a minor role in the nation's small town banks, system, the prominence of Jewish investment bankers such as theRothschild family in Europe, andJacob Schiff, ofKuhn, Loeb & Co. in New York City, made the claims of antisemites believable to some.[28]
Another focus of antisemitic fear was the allegation that Jews were at the center of aninternational conspiracy to fix the currency and thus the economy to a singlegold standard.[29]
One example of allegations of Jewish control of finances during the 1890s isMary Elizabeth Lease, a leading Populist from Kansas, who said, "the government, at the bid of Wall Street, repudiated its contracts with the people . . . in the interest of Shylock."[30]
Historians have debated the importance of antisemitic rhetoric in the Populist movement in rural America in the 1890s.Richard Hofstadter, a leading historian, in 1955 argued that the Greenback-Populist tradition was responsible for most of the popular antisemitism in the United States. He notes that there were various forms of anti-Semitism but, "It was chiefly Populist writers who expressed that identification of the Jew with the usurer and the 'international gold ring' which was the central theme of the American anti-Semitism....for many silverites, the Jew was an organic part of the conspiracy theory of history."[31] Historians no longer agree with Hofstadter. Several prominent Populists did express hostile images, but most did not.[32] Historian Walter Nugent read through 200 Populist newspapers and pamphlets and found little evidence to support claims of widespread antisemitism.[33]
According toDeborah Dash Moore, populist antisemitism used the Jew to symbolize bothcapitalism and urbanism so as to personify concepts that were too abstract to serve as satisfactory objects of animosity.[34]
In 1877, the rich New York City bankerJoseph Seligman and his family were turned away from the elite Grand Union Hotel inSaratoga Springs, New York. They had often been guests, but the new ownerHenry Hilton decreed that no Jews be admitted. Hilton and Seligman belonged to rival political factions in New York, and took their cases to the media. Hilton stated his goal was to satisfy his other guests; they did not want to associate with Jews. It was a newsworthy event. Across the Northeast, elite hotels and private clubs began excluding Jews. The exclusion remained legal until the middle 20th century.[35][36]
Jews encountered resistance when they tried to move into higherwhite-collar and professional positions. Banking, insurance, public utilities, medical schools, hospitals, large law firms and faculty positions, restricted the entrance of Jews. In major cities, Jews established their own financial and legal facilities. By the early 20th century, the surge of Jews attending elite colleges was seen as a threat to established traditions; many quietly imposedquotas to keep the Jewish element under 10 or 20 percent. Less prestigious schools without large endowments relied on tuition and seldom imposed quotas.[37][38] Likewise elite medical and law schools established quotas. The quota system ended in the 1940s.[39]
In the first half of the 20th century, Jews were discriminated against in employment, access to residential and resort areas, membership in clubs and organizations, and in tightenedquotas on Jewish enrollment and teaching positions in colleges and universities. Restaurants, hotels and other establishments that barred Jews from entry were called "restricted".[40]
In 1913, aJewish American in Atlanta namedLeo Frank was convicted for the rape and murder of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old Christian girl who he employed. In the middle of the night on April 27, 1913, Mary Phagan was found dead by a night watchman in the basement of a pencil factory inAtlanta,Georgia.[41] Leo Frank, the superintendent of the factory, was the last person to acknowledge seeing her alive earlier that day after paying her weekly wages. Detectives took Frank to the scene of the crime and the morgue to view the body. After further questioning, they concluded that he was most likely not the murderer. In the days following, rumors began to spread amongst the public that the girl had been sexually assaulted prior to her death. This sparked outrage amongst the public which called for immediate action and justice for her murder. On April 29, following Phagan's funeral, public outrage reached its pinnacle.[citation needed] Under immense pressure to identify a suspect, detectives arrested Leo Frank on the same day. Being a Jewish factory owner, previously from the north, Frank was an easy target for the antisemitic population who already distrusted northern merchants who had come to the south to work following theAmerican Civil War.[42][43] During the trial, the primary witness was Jim Conley, a black janitor who worked at the factory. Initially a suspect, Conley became the state's main witness in the trial against Frank.[citation needed]
Prior to the trial, Conely had given four conflicting statements regarding his role in the murder. In court, the Frank's lawyers were unable to disprove Conley's claims that he was forced by Frank to dispose of Phagan's body.[citation needed] The trial gathered immense attention especially from Atlantans, who gathered in large crowds around the courthouse demanding for a guilty verdict. In addition to this, much of the media coverage at the time took an antisemitic tone and after 25 days, Leo Frank was found guilty of murder on August 25 and sentenced to death byhanging on August 26. The verdict was met with cheers and celebration from the crowd.[citation needed] Following the verdict, Frank's lawyers submitted a total of five appeals to theGeorgia Supreme Court as well as theU.S. Supreme Court claiming that Frank's absence on the day of the verdict and the amount of public pressure and influence swayed the jury.[citation needed] After this, the case was brought to Georgia governorJohn M. Slaton. Despite the public demanding for him to hold the verdict, Slaton changed Frank's verdict fromdeath sentence tolife imprisonment, believing that his innocence would eventually be established and he would be set free.[42] This decision was met with immense public outrage, causing riots and even forcing Slaton to declareMartial Law at one point. On August 16, 1915, 25 citizens stormed a prison farm inMilledgeville where Leo Frank was being held. Taking Frank from his cell, they drove him to Marietta, the hometown of Mary Phagan, and hanged him from a tree. Leaders of thelynch mob would later gather atStone Mountain to revive theKu Klux Klan.[citation needed]
In response to the lynching of Leo Frank,Sigmund Livingston founded theAnti-Defamation League (ADL) under the sponsorship ofB'nai B'rith. The ADL became the leading Jewish group fighting antisemitism in the United States. The lynching of Leo Frank coincided with and helped spark the revival of theKu Klux Klan. The Klan disseminated the view thatanarchists,communists and Jews were subverting American values and ideals.[citation needed]
With theAmerican entry into World War I, Jews were targeted by antisemites as "slackers" and "war-profiteers" responsible for many of the ills of the country. For example, aU.S. Army manual published for war recruits stated that, "The foreign born, and especially Jews, are more apt to malinger than the native-born." When ADL representatives protested about this to PresidentWoodrow Wilson, he ordered the manual recalled. The ADL also mounted a campaign to give Americans the facts about military and civilian contributions of Jews to the war effort.[44]
Antisemitism in the United States reached its peak during the 1920s and 1930s.[2][45] The attraction of theKu Klux Klan in the mid-1920s, the antisemitic works ofHenry Ford, and radio speeches by Father Coughlin in the late 1930s indicated the strength of suspicions about Jews.[citation needed]
One element in American antisemitism during the early 1920s was the identification of Jews withBolshevism where the concept of Bolshevism was used pejoratively in the country (see article on "Jewish Bolshevism").[citation needed]
Immigration legislation enacted in the United States in 1921 and 1924 was interpreted widely as being at least partly anti-Jewish in intent because it strictly limited the immigration quotas of eastern European nations with large Jewish populations, nations from which 3 million Jews had immigrated to the United States by 1920.[citation needed]
In 1924, Congress passed theJohnson–Reed Act severely restricting immigration. Although the act did not specifically target Jews, the effect of the legislation was that 86% of the 165,000 permitted entries were from Northern European countries, with Germany, Britain, and Ireland having the highest quotas. The act effectively diminished the flow of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe to a trickle.[citation needed]
Henry Ford was apacifist whoopposed World War I, and he believed that Jews were responsible for starting wars in order to profit from them: "International financiers are behind all war. They are what is called the international Jew: German Jews, French Jews, English Jews, American Jews. I believe that in all those countries except our own the Jewish financier is supreme ... here the Jew is a threat".[46] Ford believed that Jews were responsible for capitalism, and in their role as financiers, they did not contribute anything of value to society.[47][full citation needed]
In 1915, during World War I, Ford blamed Jews for instigating the war, saying "I know who caused the war: German-Jewish bankers."[48] Later, in 1925, Ford said "What I oppose most is the international Jewish money power that is met in every war. That is what I oppose—a power that has no country and that can order the young men of all countries out to death'". According to author Steven Watts, Ford's antisemitism was partially due to a noble desire for world peace.[48][49]
Ford became aware ofThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion and believed it to be a legitimate document, and he published portions of it in his weekly magazine sent to Ford dealerships, theDearborn Independent. In 1920–21 it carried a series of articles expanding on the themes of financial control by Jews, entitled:[50]
One of the articles, "Jewish Power and America's Money Famine", asserted that the power exercised by Jews over the nation's supply of money was insidious by helping deprive farmers and others outside the banking coterie of money when they needed it most. The article asked the question: "Where is the American gold supply? ... It may be in the United States but it does not belong to the United States" and it drew the conclusion that Jews controlled the gold supply and, hence, American money.[51]
Another of the articles, "Jewish Idea Molded Federal Reserve System" was a reflection of Ford's suspicion of the Federal Reserve System and its proponent,Paul Warburg. Ford believed the Federal Reserve system was secretive and insidious.[52]
These articles gave rise to claims of antisemitism against Ford,[53][full citation needed] and in 1929 he signed a statement apologizing for the articles.[54]
Antisemitic activists in the 1930s were led by FatherCharles Coughlin,William Dudley Pelley, andGerald L. K. Smith. Ford's old attacks on Jews continued to be circulated by other people. They promulgated various interrelated conspiracy theories, widely spreading the fear that Jews were working for the destruction or replacement of white Americans and Christianity in the U.S.[55][56]
According to Gilman and Katz, antisemitism increased dramatically in the 1930s with demands being made to exclude American Jews from American social, political and economic life.[57]
During the 1930s and 1940s, right-wing demagogues linked theGreat Depression in the United States to theNew Deal, and thePresidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. They attributed the threat of war in Europe to the machinations of an imagined international Jewish conspiracy that was both communist and capitalist. A new twist appeared which accused "the Jews" of dominating Roosevelt's administration, of causing the Great Depression, and of dragging the United States into a war against a new Germany which deserved nothing but admiration. Roosevelt's "New Deal" was derisively referred to as the "Jew Deal".[57]
FatherCharles Coughlin, a Catholic radio preacher increasingly attacked "the Jews" after 1936.Gerald L. K. Smith, aProtestant minister, founded the Committee of One Million in 1937, declaring that "Christian character is the basis of all realAmericanism." Other antisemitic agitators includedFritz Julius Kuhn of theGerman American Bund,William Dudley Pelley of theSilver Legion of America, and the Rev.Gerald Winrod of the Defenders of the Christian Faith.[58]
In the end, promoters of antisemitism achieved no more than a passing popularity as the threat of Nazi Germany became more and more evident to the American electorate. Steven Roth asserts that there was never a real possibility of a "Jewish question" appearing on the American political agenda as it did in Europe; according to Roth, the resistance to political antisemitism in the United States was due to the heterogeneity of the American political structure.[59]
In a 1938 poll, approximately 60 percent of the respondents held a low opinion of Jews, labeling them "greedy," "dishonest," and "pushy."[60] 41 percent of respondents agreed that Jews had "too much power in the United States," and this figure rose to 58 percent by 1945.[61] Several surveys taken from 1940 to 1946 found that Jews were seen as a greater threat to the welfare of the United States than any other national, religious, or racial group.[62]
The main spokesman for antisemitic sentiment was Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest whose weekly radio program drew between 5 and 12 million listeners in the late 1930s. Coughlin's newspaper,Social Justice, reached a circulation of 800,000 at its peak in 1937.[63][page needed]
After the1936 election, Coughlin increasingly expressed sympathy for thefascist policies ofHitler andMussolini, as an antidote toBolshevism. Starting in 1938 his weekly radio broadcasts became suffused with overtly antisemitic themes, such as blaming the Great Depression on an international conspiracy of Jewish bankers.[64] Coughlin began publication of a weekly magazine,Social Justice, during this period, in which he printed antisemitic polemics such asThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[65] LikeJoseph Goebbels in Berlin, Coughlin claimed that Marxist atheism in Europe was a Jewish plot. The December 5, 193,8 issue ofSocial Justice included an article by Coughlin which closely resembled a speech made by Goebbels on September 13, 1935, attacking Jews, atheists and communists, with some sections being copied verbatim by Coughlin from an English translation of the Goebbels speech. On November 20, 1938, two weeks afterKristallnacht, when thousands of Jews across Germany were attacked, and Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues burned, Coughlin blamed the Jewish victims, saying that "Jewish persecution only followed after Christians first were persecuted."[65] After this speech, and as his programs became more antisemitic, some radio stations, including those in New York and Chicago, began refusing to air his speeches without pre-approved scripts; in New York, his programs were cancelled byWINS andWMCA, leaving Coughlin to broadcasting on the Newark part-time station WHBI. This made Coughlin a hero in Germany, where papers ran headlines like: "America is Not Allowed to Hear the Truth."[66]
On December 18, 1938, 2,000 of Coughlin's followers marched in New York protesting potentialasylum law changes that would allow more Jews (including refugees from Hitler's persecution) into the US. They chanted "Send Jews back where they came from in leaky boats!" and "Wait until Hitler comes over here!" The protests continued for several months. Donald Warren, using information from the FBI and German government archives, has also argued that Coughlin received indirect funding from Nazi Germany during this period.[67]
After 1936, Coughlin began supporting an organization called theChristian Front, which claimed him as an inspiration. In January, 1940, the Christian Front was shut down when the FBI discovered the group was arming itself and "planning to murder Jews, communists, and 'a dozen Congressmen'"[68] and eventually establish, inJ. Edgar Hoover's words, "a dictatorship, similar to the Hitler dictatorship in Germany." Coughlin publicly stated, after the plot was discovered, that he still did not "disassociate himself from the movement," and though he was never linked directly to the plot, his reputation suffered a fatal decline.[69][full citation needed]
After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war in December 1941, the anti-interventionist movement (such as the America First Committee) sputtered out, and isolationists like Coughlin were seen as being sympathetic to the enemy. In 1942, the new bishop of Detroit ordered Coughlin to stop his controversial political activities and confine himself to his duties as a parish priest.[citation needed]
William Dudley Pelley founded (1933) the antisemiticSilver Legion of America; nine years later he was convicted ofsedition.[70]Gerald Winrod, leader of the Defenders of the Christian Faith, received strong support from theMennonites of Kansas. During World War II, he was indicted for conspiracy to cause insubordination in the military, but the charges were dropped.[71]
The avant-garde of the new non-interventionism was theAmerica First Committee, which included the aviation heroCharles Lindbergh and many prominent Americans. TheAmerica First Committee opposed any involvement in the war in Europe.[citation needed]
Officially, America First avoided any appearance of antisemitism and voted to drop Henry Ford as a member for his overt antisemitism.[citation needed]
In a speech delivered on September 11, 1941, at anAmerica First rally, Lindbergh claimed that three groups had been "pressing this country toward war": theRoosevelt Administration, the British, and the Jews—and complained about what he insisted was the Jews' "large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government."[45]
In his diary Lindbergh wrote: "We must limit to a reasonable amount the Jewish influence. ... Whenever the Jewish percentage of total population becomes too high, a reaction seems to invariably occur. It is too bad because a few Jews of the right type are, I believe, an asset to any country."[72]
TheGerman American Bund held parades in New York City in the late 1930s which featuredNazi uniforms andflags featuringswastikas alongsideAmerican flags. Some 20,000 people attended their big rally where Bund leaderFritz Julius Kuhn criticized PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt and ridiculed him as "Frank D. Rosenfeld", calling hisNew Deal the "Jew Deal", and espousing his belief in the existence of aBolshevik-Jewish conspiracy in America.[citation needed]
In the years before and during World War II theUnited States Congress, the Roosevelt Administration, and public opinion expressed concern about the fate of Jews in Europe but consistently refused to permit immigration ofJewish refugees.
In a report issued by theState Department during the Clinton Administration, Undersecretary of StateStuart Eizenstat noted that the United States accepted only 21,000 refugees from Europe and did not significantly raise or even fill its restrictive quotas, accepting far fewer Jews per capita than many of the neutral European countries and fewer in absolute terms than Switzerland.[73]
According to David Wyman, "The United States and its Allies were willing to attempt almost nothing to save the Jews."[74] There is some debate as to whether U.S. policies were generally targeted against all immigrants or specifically against Jews in particular. Wyman characterized FDR advisor and State Department official in charge of immigration policyBreckinridge Long as anativist, more anti-immigrant than just antisemitic.[75]
TheSSSt. Louis sailed out ofHamburg into theAtlantic Ocean in May 1939 carrying one non-Jewish and 936 (mainly German)Jewish refugees seekingasylum fromNazi persecution just beforeWorld War II. On June 4, 1939, having failed to obtain permission to disembark passengers inCuba, theSt. Louis was also refused permission to unload on orders of President Roosevelt as the ship waited in theCaribbean Sea betweenFlorida and Cuba.[76][77][full citation needed]
DuringWorld War II and theHolocaust, antisemitism was a factor that limited American Jewish action during the war, and it also put American Jews in a difficult position. It is clear that antisemitism was a prevalent attitude in the US, and it was even more widespread inAmerica during the Holocaust. In America, antisemitism, which reached high levels in the late 1930s, continued to rise in the 1940s. During the years before theAttack on Pearl Harbor, over a hundred antisemitic organizations were responsible for pumping hate propaganda to the American public. Furthermore, especially inNew York City andBoston, young gangs vandalizedJewish cemeteries andsynagogues, and attacks on Jewish youngsters were common.Swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans, as well as antisemitic literature, were all spread. In 1944, a public opinion poll showed that a quarter of Americans still regarded Jews as a "menace." Antisemitism in theState Department played a large role in Washington's hesitant response to the plight of European Jews persecuted by Nazis.[78]
In a 1943 speech on the floor of Congress quoted in bothThe Jewish News of Detroit[79] and the antisemitic magazineThe Defender of Wichita,[80] Mississippi RepresentativeJohn E. Rankin espoused a conspiracy of "alien-minded" Communist Jews arranging for white women to be raped byAfrican American men:
When those communistic Jews—of whomthe decent Jews are ashamed—go around here and hug and kiss these Negroes, dance with them, intermarry with them, and try to force their way intowhite restaurants, white hotels and white picture shows, they are not deceiving any red-blooded American, and, above all, they are not deceiving the men in our armed forces—as to who is at the bottom of all this race trouble.
The better element of the Jews, and especially the old line American Jews throughout the South and West, are not only ashamed of, but they are alarmed at, the activities of these communistic Jews who are stirring this trouble up.
They have caused the deaths of many good Negroes who never would have got into trouble if they had been left alone, as well as the deaths of many good white people, including many innocent, unprotected white girls, who have been raped and murdered by vicious Negroes, who have been encouraged by those alien-minded Communists to commit such crimes.
Josiah DuBois wrote the famous "Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews," which Treasury SecretaryHenry Morgenthau Jr. used to convince PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt to establish theWar Refugee Board in 1944.[81][82][83]Randolph Paul was also a principal sponsor of this report, the first contemporaneous Government paper attacking America's dormant complicity inthe Holocaust.
Entitled "Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews", the document was an indictment of theU.S. State Department's diplomatic, military, and immigration policies. Among other things, the Report narrated the State Department's inaction and in some instances active opposition to the release of funds for the Jews inNazi-occupied Europe, and condemned immigration policies that closed American doors to Jewish refugees from countries then engaged in their systematic slaughter.[citation needed]
The catalyst for the Report was an incident involving 70,000Romanian Jews whose evacuation from theKingdom of Romania could have been procured with a $170,000 bribe. The Foreign Funds Control unit of the Treasury, which was within Paul's jurisdiction, authorized the payment of the funds, the release of which both the President and Secretary of StateCordell Hull supported. From mid-July 1943, when the proposal was made and Treasury approved, through December 1943, a combination of the State Department's bureaucracy and the British Ministry of Economic Warfare interposed various obstacles. The Report was the product of frustration over that event.[citation needed]
On January 16, 1944, Morgenthau and Paul personally delivered the paper toPresident Roosevelt, warning him that Congress would act if he did not. The result was Executive Order 9417,[84] creating theWar Refugee Board composed of the Secretaries of State, Treasury and War. Issued on January 22, 1944, theExecutive Order declared that "it is the policy of this Government to take all measures within its power to rescue the victims of enemy oppression who are in imminent danger of death and otherwise to afford such victims all possible relief and assistance consistent with the successful prosecution of the war."[85]
It has been estimated that 190,000–200,000 Jews could have been saved duringWorld War II, had it not been for bureaucratic obstacles to immigration deliberately created byBreckinridge Long and others.[86]
Antisemitism rose during the postwaranti-Communist political movement known asMcCarthyism or theRed Scare.[87] Academic David Greenberg has written inSlate, "Extremeanti-communism always contained an antisemitic component: Radical, alien Jews, in theirdemonology, orchestrated the Communist conspiracy." He also has argued that, in the years which followedWorld War II, some groups on "the American right remained closely tied to the unvarnished antisemites of the '30s who railed against the 'Jew Deal'", a bigoted term which was used against theNew Deal measures of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt.[88]
Liberty Lobby was apolitical advocacy organization which was founded in 1955 byWillis Carto in 1955. Liberty Lobby was founded as aconservative political organization and was known to hold stronglyantisemitic views and to be a devotee of the writings ofFrancis Parker Yockey, who was one of a handful of post-World War II writers who reveredAdolf Hitler.
TheNixon White House tapes released during theWatergate scandal reveal that PresidentRichard Nixon made numerous anti-Semitic remarks during his presidency.[89] For example, he repeatedly referred to National Security AdvisorHenry Kissinger as "Jew boy", and blamed theanti-Vietnam War movement and leaking of thePentagon Papers on Jews.[89][90][91]
Antisemitic violence in this era includes the 1977 shootings atBrith Sholom Kneseth Israel synagogue inSt. Louis, Missouri, the 1984 murder ofAlan Berg, the 1985Goldmark murders, and the 1986murder of Neal Rosenblum.
In 1984, civil rights leaderJessie Jackson speaking toWashington Post reporterMilton Coleman referred to Jews as "Hymies" andNew York City as "Hymietown." He later apologized.[92]
During theCrown Heights riot, marchers proceeded carrying antisemitic signs and anIsraeli flag was burned.[93][94] Ultimately, Black and Jewish leaders developed an outreach program between their communities to help calm and possibly improve racial relations inCrown Heights over the next decade.[95]
According toAnti-Defamation League surveys begun in 1964,African Americans are significantly more likely than white Americans to hold antisemitic beliefs, although there is a strong correlation between education level and the rejection of antisemitic stereotypes for all races. However, Black Americans of all education levels are nevertheless significantly more likely than whites of the same education level to be antisemitic. In a 1998 survey, Black Americans (34%) were found to be nearly four times as likely as white Americans (9%) to be antisemitic. Among Black people with no college education, 43% fell into the most antisemitic group (vs. 18% for the general population), which fell to 27% among Black people with some college education, and 18% among Black people with a four-year college degree (vs. 5% for the general population).[96]
During the early 1980s,isolationists on thefar right made overtures toanti-war activists on theleft in the United States in an attempt to join forces and protest against government policies in areas where they shared concerns.[97] This was mainly in the area ofcivil liberties, opposition toUnited States military intervention overseas and opposition toUS support for Israel.[98][a] As they interacted, some of the classic right-wing antisemiticscapegoating conspiracy theories began to seep into progressive circles,[98] including stories about how a "New World Order", also called the "Shadow Government" or "The Octopus",[97] was manipulating world governments. Antisemiticconspiracies was "peddled aggressively" by right-wing groups.[98] Some on the left adopted the rhetoric, which was made possible by their lack of knowledge about the history offascism and its use of "scapegoating,reductionist and simplistic solutions,demagoguery, and a conspiracy theory of history."[98]
Towards the end of 1990, as the movement against theGulf War began to build, a number offar-right and antisemitic groups sought out alliances with left-wing anti-war coalitions, who began to speak openly about a "Jewish lobby" that was encouraging the United States to invadeBa'athist Iraq. This idea evolved into conspiracy theories about a "Zionist-occupied government" (ZOG), which has been seen as equivalent to the early-20th century antisemitic hoax,The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[97] The anti-war movement as a whole rejected these overtures by the political right.[98]
In the context of the first US-Iraq war, on September 15, 1990,Pat Buchanan appeared onThe McLaughlin Group and said that "there are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the Middle East – theIsraeli defense ministry and its 'amen corner' in the United States." He also said: "The Israelis want this war desperately since they want the United States to destroy the Iraqi war machine. They want us to finish them off. They don't care about our relations with the Arab world."[99]
Research has shown a rising level of antisemitism since the 2010s.[100][101] According to the ADL, there were 8,873 antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2023, a 140% bump from the 3,698 incidents in 2022 and the highest since 1979. Compared to 2022, assaults, vandalism and harassment rose by 45%, 69% and 184% respectively in 2023.[102] The ADL reported a 200% increase in antisemitic incidents from October 7, 2023, to September 24, 2024, vis-à-vis 2022–23. They explained that the increase was due partly to their new methodology,[103] which was disputed by some current and former staff disagreeing with the ADL's methodology, e.g.definition of antisemitism being used.[104]
However, according toFBI's 2023 statistics, antisemitic incidents accounted for 68% of all religion-based hate crimes, a 63% bump vis-à-vis 2022. TheAmerican Jewish Committee (AJC) said that it was likely much lower than the actual number as hate crimes had been widely underreported across the country.[105]
Scholars claimed the rise signaled a shift in the nature and prevalence of antisemitism in United States that portended a return to the era of explicit and pervasive antisemitism.[106][107][108] According to an August 2024 survey by theCombat Antisemitism Movement, 3.5 million Jews in America have experienced antisemitism since the2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Of the 1,075 American Jews interviewed, 28% claimed to have heard "Jews care too much about money", 25% heard "Jews control the world", 14% heard "American Jews care more about Israel than about the US", and 13% heard "the Holocaust did not happen" or its severity has been "exaggerated".[109][110]
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In recent years some scholars have advanced the concept ofNew antisemitism, coming simultaneously from thefar-left, thefar right, andIslamists, which tends to focus on opposition to the creation of aJewish homeland in theState of Israel, and argue that the language ofAnti-Zionism andcriticism of Israel are used to attack the Jews more broadly. In this view, the proponents of the new concept believe thatcriticisms of Israel andanti-Zionism are often disproportionate in degree and unique in kind, and attribute this to antisemitism.[111]
In October 2014 the controversial operaThe Death of Klinghoffer was staged in theMetropolitan Opera in New-York. The opera tells the story of the1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship byPalestinian terrorists, and the killing of Jewish passengerLeon Klinghoffer. Some of the criticism opposed to the opera claimed it's partly antisemitic and glorifies the killers,[112] as American writer and feministPhyllis Chesler, an opera aficionado, wrote:
The Death of Klinghoffer also demonizes Israel—which is what anti-Semitism is partly about today. It incorporates lethal Islamic (and now universal) pseudo-histories about Israel and Jews. It beatifies terrorism, both musically and in the libretto.[113]
TheNation of Islam is considered to beantisemitic by several organizations, including theSouthern Poverty Law Center and theAnti-Defamation League.[114][115] They claim that the Nation of Islam has engaged in revisionist and antisemitic interpretations of the Holocaust and exaggerates the role of Jews in theAfrican slave trade.[116] TheAnti-Defamation League (ADL) alleges that Nation of Islam Health Minister, Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, has accused Jewish doctors of injecting Blacks with thehuman immunodeficiency virus.[117]
According to a 2005Anti-Defamation League (ADL) survey, 14 percent of U.S. residents had antisemitic views. It found "35 percent of foreign-bornHispanics" and "36 percent ofAfrican-Americans hold strong antisemitic beliefs, four times more than the 9 percent for whites".[118] The 2005Anti-Defamation League survey includes data onHispanic attitudes, with 29% being most antisemitic (vs. 9% for whites and 36% for blacks); being born in the United States helped alleviate this attitude: 35% of foreign-born Hispanics, but only 19% of those born in the US.[119]
The ADL's 2011Survey of American Attitudes Toward Jews in America, found that the recentworld economic recession increased the expression of some antisemitic viewpoints among Americans. Most of the people who were surveyed expressedpro-Jewish sentiments, with 64% of them believing that Jewish people have contributed much to U.S. social culture. Yet the polling also found that 19% of Americans answered "probably true" to theantisemitic trope that "Jews have too much control/influence onWall Street" (seeEconomic antisemitism) while 15% of Americans concurred with the related statement that Jews seem "more willing to use shady practices" in business than other people do. Reflecting on the lingering antisemitism of about one in five Americans,Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL's national director, has argued, "It is disturbing that with all of the strides we have made in becoming a more tolerant society, anti-Semitic beliefs continue to hold a vice-grip on a small but not insubstantial segment of the American public."[120]
Escalatinghate crimes which targeted Jews and members of other minority groups prompted the passage of the federalHate Crimes Statistics Act in 1990. On April 1, 2014,Frazier Glenn Miller, a former member of theKu Klux Klan arrived at the Jewish center ofKansas City andmurdered 3 people.[121] After his capture, the suspect was heard saying "Heil Hitler".[122]
In April 2014, the Anti-Defamation League published its 2013 audit of antisemitic incidents, the audit pointed out a decline of 19 percent in the number of reported antisemitic incidents. The total number of antisemitic attacks across the U.S. was 751, including 31 physical assaults, 315 incidents of vandalism and 405 cases of harassment.[123]
The VassarStudents for Justice in Palestine published aNazi World War II propaganda poster in May 2014. The poster displayed Jews as part of amonster who tries to destroy the world. Vassar College presidentCatharine Hill denounced the poster.[124] A few months later, a physical attack occurred inPhiladelphia, when a Jewish student on the campus of Temple University was assaulted and punched in the face by a member of the organizationStudents for Justice in Palestine, who called him an antisemitic slur.[125]
In May 2014, a Jewish mother fromChicago accused a group of students at her eighth-grade son's school ofbullying and antisemitism. They used themulti-player video gameClash of Clans to create a group called "Jews Incinerator" and described themselves by stating: "we are a friendly group of racists with one goal- put all Jews into an army camp until they are disposed of. Sieg! Heil!" Two students wrote apology letters.[126][127]
In June 2014, there were several antisemitic hate crimes. A swastika and other antisemitic graffiti were scrawled onto a streetside directional sign inSan Francisco.[128] More graffiti was found at the Sanctuary Lofts Apartments, where graffiti artists drew antisemitic, satanic and racist symbols inside the apartment complex.[129] Towards the end of the month a young Jewish boy was attacked while he was leaving his home in Brooklyn. The suspect, who was on a bike, opened his hand while passing and struck the victim in the face, then yelled antisemitic slurs.[130]
In July 2014, during the2014 Gaza War, there was an increase in the occurrence of antisemitic incidents. In the beginning of the month an antisemitic banner was flown aboveBrighton Beach andConey Island. The banner contained symbols that meant "peace plus swastika equals love". The word "PROSWASTIKA" also appeared on the banner.[131] Additionally, there were more than 5 incidents of antisemitic graffiti across the country. InBorough Park, Brooklyn,New York, three man were arrested for vandalizingyeshiva property and a nearby house in the Jewish neighborhood by spraying swastikas and inscriptions such as "you don't belong here".[132] Later that month swastika drawings were found on mailboxes near a national Jewish fraternity house inEugene, Oregon.[133] In another case, swastikas and the phrase 'kill Jews' were found on a playground floor inRiverdale, Bronx.[134] There were also two incidents of graffiti inClarksville, Tennessee andLowell, Massachusetts.[135][136]Some vandalism incidents occurred on a cemetery inMassachusetts.[137] and in country club inFrontenac, Missouri[138] Toward the end of the month there were two places were the word 'Hamas' was scribbled on Jewish property and on aSynagogue[139][140]In addition, anti-Jewish leaflets were found on cars in the Jewish neighborhood inChicago. The leaflets threatened violence if Israel did not pull out of Gaza.[141]
In August 2014, there were two incidents inLos Angeles andChicago where people passed out leaflets of posters fromNazi Germany. InWestwood nearUCLA, a Jewish store owner got swastika-marked leaflets which contained threatens and warnings.[142] A few days earlier, during a pro-Palestinian rally in Chicago, antisemitic leaflets were handed out to people. There were more than six[143] incidents of graffiti and vandalism aimed at the Jewish populations in various cities in the United States. Some of the graffiti compared Israel to Nazi Germany.[144] There was also an antisemitic attack on fourOrthodox Jewish teens inBorough Park, Brooklyn towards the mid-month.[145] Another physical attack occurred inPhiladelphia, when a Jewish student on the campus ofTemple University was assaulted and punched in the face by a violent member of Students for Justice in Palestine.[125]
In the beginning of September 2014, there were more than 6 incidents of antisemitic graffiti across the country,[146] three of them outside religious buildings such as asynagogue oryeshiva.[147] Most of the drawings includedswastika inscriptions, and one of them had the words "Murder the Jew tenant".[148] Later that month, another antisemitic graffiti was found on the Jewish Community Center inBoulder, Colorado.[149] Then, a few days later a violent attack occurred inBaltimore, Maryland duringRosh Hashanah, where a man drove near a Jewish school shot three man after shouting "Jews, Jews, Jews".[150]
Towards the end of the month, a rabbi was thrown out of a Greek restaurant when the owner found out he was Jewish.[151] Besides the above, Robert Ransdell, a write-in candidate forUS Senate fromKentucky used the slogan "With Jews we lose" for his running.[152] Another incident occurred in theUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte, when a Jewish student was told "to go burn in an oven." The student had also told the media she is "hunted" because of her support in Israel: "I have been called a terrorist, baby killer, woman killer, [told that] Iuse blood to make matzah and other foods,Christ killer, occupier, and much more."[153]
In October 2014, a coffee shop owner inBushwick wrote onFacebook andTwitter that "greedy infiltrators" Jewish people came to buy a house near his business.[154] Later that month, two synagogues were desecrated inAkron, Ohio, and inSpokane, Washington. One of them was sprayed with swastika graffiti[155] and the other one was damaged by vandalism.[156] During the month there was also a physical attack, when the head of a Hebrew association was beaten outsideBarclays Center after aNets-Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball game. The attacker was a participant in a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the hall.[157] During another incident in October, fliers were handed out in theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara that claimed "9/11 Was an Outside Job" with a large blueStar of David. The fliers contained links to several websites that accusing Israel of the attack.[158] A few days later, antisemitic graffiti was found on Jewish fraternity house inEmory University in Atlanta.[159]
During December 2014 anIsraeli Jewish young man was stabbed in his neck while standing outside ofthe Chabad-Lubavitch building inNew York City.[160] Another antisemitic incident in New York occurred when a threatening photo was sent to aHasidic Jewish lawmaker. The photo showed his head pasted on the body of a person beheaded byISIS.[161] Besides those incidents, several antisemitic graffiti found across the country,[162] and a couple of synagogues were vandalized inChicago[163] and inOcala, Florida.[164]
January 2015 started with some antisemitic graffiti throughout the country, such as racist writing on a car[165] and on an elevator's button.[166] In February, there were more incidents of antisemitic graffiti and harassment. InSacramento, California,Israeli flags with aswastika were hung out of a house. AnAmerican flag with a swastika on it was also taped to the house's door.[167] Earlier that month there were two incidents of antisemitic graffiti outside and inside the Jewish fraternity house atUC Davis.[168] InLakewood, NJ a Jewish-owned store was targeted with graffiti. That followed several other antisemitic messages found spray-painted and carved around town.[169]
An incident atUCLA on February 10, 2015, where a Jewish student was questioned by a student council regarding whether being active in a Jewish organization constituted a "conflict of interest", illustrated the existing confusion among some students on this point.[170]
In April 2015 theAnti-Defamation League published its 2014 audit of antisemitic incidents. It counted 912 antisemitic incidents across the U.S. during 2014, constituting a 21% increase from the year before. Most of the incidents belonged to the category of "harassments, threats and events". The audit shows that most of the vandalism incidents occurred in public areas (35%). A review of the results shows that duringOperation Protective Edge, there was a significant increase in the number of antisemitic incidents, compares to the rest of the year. In all of these states, more antisemitic incidents were counted in 2014 than in 2013.[171]
On January 2, 2018, a gay Jewish man namedBlaze Bernstein was murdered by Samuel Woodward, who is a member of aneo-Nazi terrorist organization calledAtomwaffen Division.[172]
On October 27, 2018,11 people were murdered in an attack on theTree of Life – Or L'Simcha synagogue inPittsburgh,Pennsylvania. The shooting was committed byRobert Bowers, a prolific user of thealt-techsocial media serviceGab where he promoted antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories as well as the white nationalist doctrine ofwhite genocide, which is claimed to be a Jewish conspiracy.[173]
On April 27, 2019, theChabad of Poway inCaliforniawas attacked by a 19 year old gunman who killed 1 and injured 3. The shooter in question, John T. Earnest, had written an open letter which he posted on8chan's /pol/ messageboard specifically blaming Jews for white genocide and other ills.[174]
On December 10, 2019,a mass-shooting attack took place against a kosher grocery store inJersey City, killing six (including both perpetrators). The attackers invoked tenets of an extremist version ofBlack Hebrew Israelite philosophy.[175] In December 2019, theJewish community of New York suffered a number of antisemitic attacks, including amass stabbing in Monsey on the 28th.[176]
In May 2021 there was an upsurge of antisemitic actions in the United States at the same time as theclashes between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.[177]
On January 15, 2022,four people were taken hostage by a gunman at a synagogue inColleyville, Texas. After a standoff with the police, the gunman, aBritish Pakistani, was killed and the hostages freed.[178]
Later in 2022, right-wing political commentatorNick Fuentes blamed Jewish people themselves for antisemitic actions being carried out against the Jewish community. He further claimed that such actions would only get worse if "the Jews" did not support "people like us". Due to comments like these, Fuentes is regarded as an antisemite.[179][180]
On April 3, 2006, theU.S. Commission on Civil Rights announced its finding that incidents of antisemitism are a "serious problem" on college campuses throughout the United States.[181]
Stephen H. Norwood likens what he describes as antisemitism in contemporary American universities to antisemitism in American campuses during the 1930s. His article says thatanti-Zionist and antisemitic opinions are often conflated by pro-Palestine protesters imvoking theblood libel and attacks on Jewish students during protests.[182]
During April 2014 there were at least 3 incidents of swastika drawings on Jewish property in University dormitories. AtUCF for example, a Jewish student found 9 swastikas carved into walls of her apartment.[183]
On the beginning of September 2014 there were two cases of antisemitism in College campuses: two students fromEast Carolina University sprayed swastika on the apartment door of a Jewish student,[184] while on the same day, a Jewish student from theUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte was told "to go burn in an oven." The student had also told the media she is "hunted" because of her support in Israel: "I have been called a terrorist, baby killer, woman killer, [told that] I use blood to make matzah and other foods, Christ killer, occupier, and much more."[153]
In October 2014 fliers were handed out in theUniversity of California in Santa Barbara that claimed "9/11 Was an Outside Job" with a large blue Star of David. The fliers contained links to several websites that accused Israel of the attack.[158] A few days later antisemitic graffiti was found on a Jewish fraternity house inEmory University in Atlanta.[159] Another graffiti incident occurred inNortheastern University, where swastikas drawn on flyers for a school event.[185]
A survey published in February 2015 byTrinity College and theLouis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law found out that 54 percent of the participants had been subject to or witnessing antisemitism on their campus. The survey included 1,157 self-identified Jewish students at 55 campuses nationwide. The most significant origin for antisemitism, according to the survey was "from an individual student" (29 percent). Other origins were: in clubs/ societies, in lecture/ class, in student union, etc. The findings of the research compared to a parallel study conducted in United kingdom, and the results were similar.[186]
In October 2015, it was reported that a few cars in the parking lot of theUC Davis were vandalized and scratched with antisemitic slurs and swastika sketches.[187] A few days later, antisemitic slurs were found on a chalkboard in a center of the campus atTowson University.[188]
During his2016 presidential campaign andpresidency,Trump was repeatedly criticized for antisemitism.
Jewish journalistJulia Ioffe received antisemitic death threats in 2016 after writing a profile ofMelania Trump which revealed Melania Trump had a half-brother she was not in contact with. Neo-Nazi websiteThe Daily Stormer denounced Ioffe as a "filthy Russiankike", while other Trump supporters made memes of Ioffe being executed in the Holocaust. Ioffe received an anonymous phone call from a person who played a Hitler speech. Melania Trump was critical of Ioffe for researching her relatives. When asked about Ioffe's antisemitic death threats, Melania Trump replied "I don't control my fans, but I don't agree with what they're doing. I understand what you mean, but there are people out there who maybe went too far. [Ioffe] provoked them."[189][190]
In July 2016, Donald Trump tweeted an image ofHillary Clinton over a stack of dollar bills with asix-pointed star, saying "most corrupt candidate ever!" After being criticized by many Jewish communal leaders, his staff took down the tweet, replaced the star with a circle, and then reposted it. However, Trump regretted the decision to take down the star, remarking, "I would have rather defended it — just leave it up and say: No, that's not a Star of David. That's just a star."[191]
In his2017 inaugural speech, Trump stated, "from this day forward, it's only going to beAmerica first. America first." This slogan was criticized for antisemitism because it referenced the"America First" policy taken by many American Nazi sympathizers during the second World War. Despite its history with antisemitism, this slogan has been continually used byTrump supporters to this day.[192]
When questioned about his antisemitism, Trump responded by saying he is the "least antisemitic person you've ever seen in your entire life."[193]
Steve Bannon, who was the CEO of Trump's 2016 campaign and later served in the Trump administration, was alleged by his ex-wife to have made antisemitic remarks in private.[194] When Bannon was chief editor ofBreitbart, he said that Breitbart was "the platform for thealt-right." Bannon employed alt-right authorMilo Yiannopoulos at Breitbart and pushed him to make public appearances and speeches. Yiannopoulos was privately friendly with neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and surreptitiously promoted their ideas in his Breitbart articles before his ties to antisemitic alt-right figures, includingBaked Alaska andAndrew Auernheimer, were exposed in October 2017. During the 2016 presidential election, antisemitic personalities on the alt-right saw the Trump campaign as an opportunity to promote their views.[195] Jewish commentatorBen Shapiro, who resigned from Breitbart in 2016, accused Bannon of "making common cause with the racist, anti-Semitic alt-right." Yiannapoulos launched a series of personal attacks against Shapiro after his resignation, which coincided with Shapiro receiving a wave of anti-semitic abuse.[196][197] Whenprotests against a planned speech by Yiannapoulos in February 2017 turned violent, President Trump threatened to pull funding fromUC Berkeley, tweeting that "If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?"[198]
In August 2017, theUnite the Right rally took place inCharlottesville, Virginia. During the rally,neo-Nazis chanted antisemitic slogans such as "Jews will not replace us!" and "Blood and soil!" The rally quickly turned violent and 30 protestors were injured on the first day. On the second day, a white supremacist ran his car into a crowd of counterprotestors, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 people.[199] Trump sparked national outrage by claiming there were "very fine people on both sides."[200] After his statement initiated national outcry, he stated, "racism is evil" and specifically condemned theKu Klux Klan andwhite nationalists.[200]
During the Trump presidency, theQAnon conspiracy theory became popular. The theory claims that a powerful cabal ofcannibalisticchild molesters are conspiring against Trump. Believers think Trump is secretly fighting this cabal of pedophiles. They also believe that this cabal harvestsadrenochrome from children they kill, which is directly related to traditional antisemiticblood libel conspiracy theories. QAnoners also believe that Jewish billionaireGeorge Soros and infamous Jewish banking familyThe Rothschilds are implicated in this conspiracy theory.The Anti-Defamation League has stated that QAnon has had a massive impact on American politics, saying "...the damage has already been done. Many of QAnon's most notable claims have already made it into the mainstream, where its toxic impact on our national politics will be felt for decades to come."[201] AcademicGregory Stanton has called QAnon "a rebranded version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and called QAnon a "Nazi cult".[202] A supporter of QAnon was initially scheduled to speak at the2020 Republican National Convention, but was disinvited after she endorsed an antisemitic Twitter thread which falsely claimed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an authentic document.[203] AQualtrics survey found that supporters of QAnon tend to hold antisemitic beliefs. Numerous believers in QAnon participated in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6.[204] While Donald Trump said in 2020 he was unfamiliar with the tenets of QAnon, he said that believers in QAnon are "people that love our country" and that he appreciated their support.[205] According toMedia Matters, Trump amplified QAnon-supporting accounts on Twitter at least 315 times.[206] After being banned from Twitter in 2021, Trump continued to amplify QAnon content onTruth Social.[207]
In December 2019, Trump signed theExecutive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism, which uses theIHRA definition of antisemitism. Early reports of the executive order claimed the order defined Judaism as a nationality, sparking criticism and fear amongst the Jewish criticism for its similarities to Nazi-era policies. However, this turned out to not be the case.[208] The order has sparked controversy amongstantizionist activists for appearing to combat speech againstIsrael rather than antisemitism.[209]
Trump has repeatedly criticized the majority of Jewish-American voters who support theDemocratic Party. In 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, Trump made a series of comments disparaging Jewish Democrats as "disloyal", claiming they were insufficiently appreciative of his administration's support for Israel. Trump suggested Jewish Democrats were betraying Israel by supporting the Democratic Party's alleged hostility towards Israel. Trump has declared that "Any Jewish person that votes for Democratshates their religion." and that Jewish Democrats "hate Israel."Biden administration officials have condemned Trump's rhetoric as antisemitic.[210][211][212][213][214][215] Trump has also praised several people who have made antisemitic comments, includingHenry Ford,[216]Michelle Malkin,[217]Paul Nehlen,[218][219]Jack Posobiec,[220]Ann Coulter,[221][222][223] andTed Nugent,[224][225] he has also shared posts from multiple antisemitic social media accounts.[226] In 2017, Trump endorsed thePhilippine drug war, tellingPresident of the PhilippinesRodrigo Duterte he was doing an "unbelievable job on the drug problem."[227] Duterte had compared the drug war to the Holocaust in 2016, saying he wished to kill millions of drug users just as Hitler killed millions of Jews.[228] According to Trump's formerChief of StaffJohn F. Kelly, Trump made favorable remarks about Adolf Hitler in private, saying that "Hitler did some good things."[229][230]
Numerous participants in theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack wore clothing with antisemitic slogans or had a history of expressing antisemitic sentiment. Members of the antisemiticProud Boys participated in the attack.[231] Antisemitic activistBaked Alaska pleaded guilty to participating in the riot.[232]Riley Williams, who was sentenced to prison for stealing Nancy Pelosi's laptop during the attack, was a self-identified "Groyper" and supporter of white supremacist Nick Fuentes.[233] Fuentes himself and his supporters were present outside the Capitol on January 6.[234] Neo-Nazi Timothy Hale-Cusanelli was sentenced to prison for his participation in the attack. In 2022, Hale-Cusanelli's aunt spoke at a Pennsylvania rally headlined by Donald Trump and called for her nephew's release from prison.[235]
The Proud Boys were founded byGavin McInnes, who once released a video entitled "10 things I hate about the Jews."[236] Numerous members of the Proud Boys have ties to racist and antisemitic groups, including former memberJason Kessler, organizer of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.[237] The Proud Boys have collaborated with Republican Party organizations inNew York,Nevada,Oregon, andFlorida.[238][239][240][241] Trump adviserRoger Stone is a member of the Proud Boys.[242] During the2020 United States presidential debates Joe Biden asked Donald Trump to condemn the Proud Boys, to which Trump replied "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by." The comment was interpreted by members of the Proud Boys as a gesture of support for the organization by Trump.[243] Trump has suggested he would pardonEnrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, who was sentenced to twenty two years in prison for his involvement in the January 6 Capitol attack.[244]
In 2022, four elected officials- RepresentativesMarjorie Taylor Greene,Paul Gosar,Lieutenant Governor of IdahoJanice McGeachin, and state senatorWendy Rogers- attended theAmerica First Political Action Conference, which was hosted by Nick Fuentes and is associated with the antisemitic Groyper movement.[245] Greene, Gosar, and Rogers have all been accused of antisemitism.[246][247][248] All three politicians were endorsed in their re-election campaigns by Donald Trump,[249][250][251] while Trump also endorsed McGeachin's candidacy forGovernor of Idaho.[252] Another candidate Trump endorsed in 2022, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidateDoug Mastriano, supported antisemitic social media websiteGab and attacked his opponent,Josh Shapiro, for sending his children to a Jewish private school.[253][254][255] During the 2022 midterms, QAnon supporter and Republican nominee forNevada Secretary of StateJim Marchant organized theAmerica First Secretary of State Coalition, a slate of Trump-supporting Republican candidates for state secretaries of state in fourteen states who supported the false theory that the2020 United States presidential election was stolen. The coalition also endorsed Mastriano and Arizona gubernatorial candidateKari Lake.[256] In 2024, Marchant endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory about a secretive Jewish cabal controlling America's financial system.[257] In 2022 congressional candidateCarl Paladino, who called Hitler "the kind of leader we need today", received the endorsement ofElise Stefanik, chair of theHouse Republican Conference.[258]
In late 2022, the American rapperKanye West stirred up a national controversy over his continuous antisemitic remarks. On October 3, 2022, West showed off a"white lives matter" shirt, a slogan which is commonly used bywhite supremacists. On October 6, 2022, West conducted an interview withFox News commentatorTucker Carlson, in which he made various antisemitic and otherwise conspiratorial statements.[259] On October 7, 2022, he implied in an Instagram post thatPuff Daddy wasbeing controlled by Jews. The next day, after being banned fromInstagram, West tweeted out that he was going to go "death con 3 on Jewish people" and that he can't be antisemitic because"Black people are the real Jews."[260] Multiple celebrities, such asJamie Lee Curtis, publicly condemned his antisemitic rant.
A few days later, an episode ofLeBron James' show,The Shop: Uninterrupted, was cut from the air due to West's antisemitic comments. When news broke about West's recently public antisemitic remarks,Van Lathan, a formerTMZ staffer and host of theHigher Learning podcast, wrote that he was unsurprised about Kanye's comments and that an episode of his podcast had previously been unaired due to West remarking that he "lovedHitler and theNazis."[261]
As a result of his antisemitic rampages, multiple companies and celebrities publicly denounced and cut ties from West. On October 21, 2022,Balenciaga publicly cut their ties with West.[262] A few days later, West's ex-wife,Kim Kardashian spoke out, saying, "Hate speech is never OK or excusable. I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end."[263] On that same day,MRC announced that it would not release a finished documentary on West as he "has now helped mainstream" antisemitism.[264] On October 25, 2022,Adidas announced that they were cutting their ties from West.[265] West was also dropped byFoot Locker,[266]TJ Maxx,[267]Madame Tussauds,[268] and more.
On November 22, 2022, West dined with the former PresidentDonald Trump andwhite nationalistNick Fuentes, stirring up even more controversy around the country. Trump wrote on his social media platform that he "never knew and knew nothing about" Fuentes and, of West, "...we got along great, he expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on 'Tucker Carlson.'"[269]
On December 1, 2022, West went onAlex Jones's showInfoWars. On this show, West claimed that he saw "good things aboutHitler."[270] In response to West's comments on the show, PresidentJoe Biden tweeted, "I just want to make a few things clear:The Holocaust happened.Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides. Silence is complicity."[271]
West had previously received support from congressional Republicans when the Twitter account of the House Judiciary Committee posted "Kanye. Elon. Trump." after West was photographed wearing a "White Lives Matter" t-shirt. The tweet was deleted after West praised Hitler.[272][273]
On December 26, 2023, months after his very long antisemitic outburst, West wrote a public apology to the Jewish community inHebrew on Instagram.[274]Adidas, who had been in a years-long legal battle with West over his antisemitic comments, formally ended the battle in October 2024.[275]
Elon Musk has been repeatedly criticized for antisemitic tweets and for allowing a massive surge in antisemitism on his social media platform,X (formerly known as Twitter). Studies have shown that right after Musk bought the social media, antisemitic tweets immediately increased dramatically.[276] After Musk bought Twitter, the website restored several accounts previously banned for extremism, including multiple accounts belonging to neo-Nazis.[277]
TheAnti-Defamation League has repeatedly expressed concerns about Musk's personal antisemitism and the persistence of antisemitism on the platform. In response to these concerns, Musk tweeted, "Since the acquisition, The @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic. Our US advertising revenue is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that's what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter! If this continues, we will have no choice but to file a defamation suit against, ironically, the 'Anti-Defamation' League."[278] After Musk tweeted this, a campaign called #BanTheADL trended on X/Twitter. Musk liked a tweet by Keith O'Brien, who once called himself "a raging antisemite", endorsing the #BanTheADL campaign.[279][280]
On November 17, 2023, Musk endorsed a tweet claiming that Jews are pushing "hatred of whites" and "hordes of minorities" into the Western world, causing him to be widely condemned by the Jewish community for antisemitism.[281] Importantly, this was during a massive uptick in antisemitism that began during the2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel only a month prior. After being widely condemned, Musk agreed to visitAuschwitz in January 2024. During the visit, he expressed that he had been "naive" on antisemitism, yet insisted that he sees "no antisemitism" in his circles on X.[282] In 2024, Musk declared his opposition to the prosecution of far-right European politicians, includingDries Van Langenhove andBjorn Hocke, who had been criminally charged for espousing Nazi rhetoric.[283][284] In 2024, X intervened to remove numerous posts which revealed the identity of neo-Nazi cartoonistStonetoss.[285]
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Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs on college campuses have been accused of ignoring or even contributing to antisemitism. Critics alleged that in general they do not include antisemitism as an evil to be fought, that they do not include Jews as an oppressed group, and that they sometimes include Jews as an oppressor group.[286][non-primary source needed] The relationship between DEI and campus antisemitism came under further scrunity after theOctober 7 attacks, and the subsequentGaza war.[287][288]
Tabia Lee, a former DEI director atDe Anza College in California and DEI critic, has claimed that DEI frameworks foster antisemitism due to its "oppressors and the oppressed" dichotomy where "Jews are categorically placed in the oppressor category",[289] and described as "white oppressors".[290] She has claimed that her attempts to include Jews under the "DEI" umbrella was resisted.[291] When her critics asked the college trustees to oust her from her role, one counselor explicitly referenced her attempts to place Jewish students "on the same footing as marginalized groups".[291] TheBrandeis Center likewise notes how the DEI committee atStanford University alleged that "Jews, unlike other minority group[s], possess privilege and power, Jews and victims of Jew-hatred do not merit or necessitate the attention of the DEI committee", after two students complained about antisemitic incidents on campus.[292]
Following a widely reported perception that antisemitic incidents on American campuses had increased in 2023, several Republican congressmen laid the blame at[clarification needed] DEI, withBurgess Owens stating DEI programs "are anything but inclusive for Jews".[293] DEI's lack of inclusion for Jews, and contribution to fueling antisemitism, was similarly criticized by businessmanBill Ackman,[294] and columnistHeather Mac Donald.[295] Following the antisemitism controversy at the University of Pennsylvania, one donor pulled a $100 million donation "because he thought the school was prioritizing D.E.I. over enhancing the business school's academic excellence."[296]
Supporters of DEI have alleged that the Trump administration's opposition to DEI policies does not help Jews and that opposition to antisemitism is being invoked to justify attacking academic freedom and the defunding of universities.Wesleyan University presidentMichael S. Roth has said that Trump is "using antisemitism as a cloak" as part of an effort to force universities to "express loyalty to the president".[297] The historian and antisemitism scholar Lila Corwin Berman called Trump's claims to combat antisemitism an "irony", given his anti-DEI measures were forcing universities to gut DEI inititaives dedicated to opposing antisemitism.[298]
In December 2023, theAnti-Defamation League (ADL) reported a 337% increase in incidents they recorded as antisemitic since the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.[299] However, these numbers have been viewed as controversial because the ADL has recorded that protests led by Jewish organizations such asJewish Voice for Peace andIfNotNow as antisemitic.[300][better source needed] Some chants which have been shouted by supporters of thePro-Palestine movement, such as "From the river to the sea" have been deemed antisemitic by institutions such as the ADL.[301]
In response to an increase in antisemitic incidents, particularly oncollege campuses, theUS Congress passed House Resolution 894 on December 12, 2023, claiming thatantizionism is antisemitism and urging world leaders to fight against antisemitism.[302][non-primary source needed]
Under intense pressure at a Congressional hearing, the presidents ofHarvard University and theUniversity of Pennsylvania gave weak answers to the allegations of antisemitism on their Ivy League campuses. PresidentClaudine Gay of Harvard and PresidentLiz Magill of Pennsylvania were forced to resign in January 2024.[303][304][305] In February, RepresentativeVirginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican and chair of the House education committee, attacked Harvard. Foxx stated that its "Jewish students continue to endure the firestorm of antisemitism that has engulfed its campus....Congress will not tolerate antisemitic hate in its classrooms or on campus."[306]
In an op-ed about rising antisemitism on campuses,Dara Horn wrote, "The through line ofanti-Semitism for thousands of years has been the denial of truth and the promotion of lies. These lies range in scope fromconspiracy theories toHolocaust denial to theblood libel to the currently popular claims thatZionism isracism, that Jews aresettler colonialists, and thatJewish civilization isn'tindigenous to the land of Israel. These lies are all part of the foundationalbig lie: that anti-Semitism itself is a righteous act of resistance againstevil, because Jews are collectively evil and have no right to exist. Today, the big lie is winning."[307]
Throughout the United States, there have been many instances of posters ofhostages being ripped down,[308] Jewish people being assaulted,[309][310][311] antisemitic graffiti and vandalism,[312] and bomb threats against Jewish community centers.[313]
Additionally, there has been an increase indenial of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, with false suggestions that theIDF and theMossad faked the attacks or that those killed in the attack were principally victims of friendly fire circulating online.[314] According to Haaretz, disproven atrocity stories, such as theHamas baby beheading hoax and stories of the burning alive of Israeli children, have further strengthened this false narrative.[315]
As a result of this uptick in antisemitism, many Jewish people have reported feeling unsafe in the US. Recent studies by theAmerican Jewish Committee have reported that 78% of American Jews felt unsafe upon hearing about the Hamas-led attack, with 46% claiming that they have altered their behavior out of fear of antisemitism.[316]
By the 1890s antisemitic feeling had crystallized around the suspicion that the Jews were responsible for an international conspiracy to base the economy on the single gold standard.
Throughout 2023, antisemitism persisted as a serious threat to Jewish communities. The year was marked both by an increase in antisemitic harassment, vandalism and violence as well as by concerted efforts by the federal government and community organizations to confront these threats. The number of active antisemitic hate groups remained relatively stagnant compared to the previous year; their activities, however, continued to affect communities across the country.
With the FBI reporting that hate crimes against Jews increased a staggering 63% year over year, from 1,124 in 2022 to 1,832 in 2023, AJC recognizes that the actual numbers of incidents is likely greater, as hate crimes are widely underreported across the country. Despite Jews only accounting for 2% of the U.S. population, the community was the target of 68% of religiously motivated hate crimes committed in 2023.
Although Jews only make up around 2 percent of the U.S. population, reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crimes comprised 15 percent of all hate crimes and 68 percent of all reported religion-based hate crimes in 2023, which is consistent with patterns from prior years.
Antisemitic incidents were 15% of all hate crimes in 2023, and 68% of all religion-based hate crimes, according to the data — even though Jews only make up some 2% of the US population.
The FBI reported 1,832 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2023, the second-largest category of hate crimes reported last year
This article incorporates text from this source, which is available under theCC BY 4.0 license.A total of 10,000 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the US since October 7 – the highest number of incidents in the ADL's history.
Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community," [the questioner asked] "how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?
Four of the speakers – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin, Rep. Paul Gosar, and Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers – are elected officials.
