A CAIR official told the Ohio Senate that Israel is skinning Palestinian bodies. AIPAC called a congressman’s question about Gaza a “blood libel.” One is the real thing. The other drains the term of meaning. Both happened the same week.
When actual antisemitism and the weaponization of antisemitism happen side by side, each makes the other harder to fight. Stretching the term to cover legitimate political questions makes it easier to dismiss when the hatred shows up in a state capitol, on a college campus, or in a post seen by millions.
The U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran beginning Saturday. They are now at war with Iran — and the conflict is expanding throughout the region. It is critical that we have a robust debate about this war. And it is also critical that this debate not be marred by antisemitism – or by weaponized false accusations of antisemitism.
We have already seen antisemites pounce at the opportunity to blame Jews, legitimate criticism labeled as antisemitic, and well-meaning commentators tumbling down slippery slopes of dangerous tropes.
The Nexus Project put together an explainer of facts on the ground, what is and what isn’t antisemitic to say, and rhetorical danger zones that should be trodden carefully so as not to end up in antisemitic rabbit holes.
Former Survivor contestant Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick responded to criticism from fellow contestant Eliza Orlins with an Instagram rant that included antisemitic tropes about Jewish wealth. CBS cast LaGrossa Kendrick on Survivor’s 50th season anyway. According to Semafor, Paramount then called a meeting with Orlins and implied that her political posts were harming other contestants. Orlins has continued to speak out. Credit to her. CBS should answer for this.
Graham Platner, a leading candidate in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary, shared a post from Stew Peters, a known alt-right antisemite who rose to national infamy when Kash Patel was confronted during his confirmation hearing for appearing on Peters’ podcast eight times. Platner’s team said it was posted in error and removed it.
But it wasn’t an isolated incident. Jewish Insider reported that weeks earlier, Platner sat for a lengthy interview with Nate Cornacchia, a YouTube commentator who has promoted the conspiracy theory that Israel was involved in the assassination of Charlie Kirk and claimed JFK was killed in a joint CIA-Mossad operation. Platner called himself “a longtime fan” of Cornacchia’s show. This is also the candidate who had a tattoo closely resembling a Nazi SS Totenkopf skull on his chest for years before having it covered up last October, claiming he didn’t know what it was.
One accidental repost can happen. A pattern raises different questions.
Ana Kasparian is the co-host of The Young Turks, one of the largest progressive media outlets online. She’s broken publicly with the left over the past two years and built a massive cross-partisan audience. Her posts regularly reach millions of people.
Last week, in a debate about a potential U.S. war with Iran, she posted: “Hey, bitch, the goyim are waking the f*ck up. Deal with it.”
That phrase comes directly from antisemitic and neo-Nazi spaces. It was popularized on 4chan, an online message board that is notorious for fomenting antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, appeared on signs at the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, and frames Jews as a collective threat that non-Jews are finally “waking up” to. She doubled down with a post calling Israel “evil, genocidal” and lumping together “Israelis and their braindead supporters.” That post got 2.3 million views. Candace Owens replied “Amen.”
Criticizing Israel is legitimate. Using the language of white nationalists to do it is something else.
Khalid Turaani, executive director of CAIR’s Ohio chapter, testified before the state Senate Judiciary Committee that Israel operates “the largest human skin bank in the world” and is “literally skinning the dead bodies” of Palestinians. He cited a report from Israel’s Channel 10 that does not exist.
This is blood libel. The accusation that Jews harvest body parts from non-Jews descends directly from the medieval conspiracy that Jews murder Christians to use their blood. It has fueled violence against Jewish communities for centuries. That it was delivered in official testimony before a state legislature makes it worse. CAIR should condemn these comments.
When Representative Ro Khanna called on the DNC to release the full 2024 autopsy report and confront what he called “hard truths about the genocide in Gaza,” AIPAC accused him of seeking “cover to repeat a modern blood libel.”
The charge of genocide can be antisemitic when it maps onto the blood libel framework, attributing to Jews a collective, ritualistic desire to kill. But that is not what happened here. Khanna was making a political argument about U.S. policy. Calling that a “blood libel” weakens the very language Jews need to identify the real thing, like what happened in Ohio this same week.
The posts that go viral get the attention. But antisemitism also shows up in places that never trend.
Stanford, CA: Hours before hundreds of Jewish students were set to celebrate Purim, Stanford’s Chabad House received an email with the subject line “The coming Holocaust 2.0?” The message was the latest in a series of hateful emails sent to Jewish students from the same address. (The Free Press)
San Luis Obispo, CA: A member of Cal Poly’s Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi was assaulted in an antisemitic hate crime. Men in a truck yelled antisemitic slurs at the house, then parked, entered the property through an unlocked gate, and punched a resident in the head. Police are searching for four to five suspects. (Mustang News)
San Francisco, CA: At a protest led by the Democratic Socialists of America against a local tax repeal, a woman was caught on video chanting “tax Israel” and “tax the Jews.” Mayor Daniel Lurie, who is Jewish, condemned the remarks. The DSA said the woman was not a member. (Times of Israel)
Olney, MD: Antisemitic graffiti was spray-painted across the main sign of Congregation Shaare Tefila, including over the Star of David and a “Hate Has No Home Here” poster. The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and Montgomery County officials condemned the vandalism. (Daily Voice)
Cape May, NJ: A swastika was found drawn on a bathroom wall at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center. New Jersey’s congressional delegation demanded DHS Secretary Kristi Noem restore hate symbol policy language that was weakened in 2025, when the Coast Guard’s handbook replaced “prohibited hate incident” with “potentially divisive.” (Insider NJ)
This is what we do: track real antisemitism, call out when it’s weaponized, and make clear the difference. If you’d like to support this work, you can donate here. We’d love to connect.
The word “antisemitism” is being stretched so thin it’s starting to tear. Actual Jew-hatred is finding its way into congressional primaries and left-wing coalition politics.
Antisemitism is not a feeling, and fighting it is not a vibe. It is concrete work. It looks like enforcing a content policy you wrote.
