An AI-generated image of a Jewish candidate with devil horns is still the same image antisemites have drawn for centuries. A conspiracy theory about Israel engineering a migrant crisis is just another form of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory. New technology and new politics keep giving antisemitism new ways to spread, and the people spreading it new ways to deny what they’re doing. Nexus is here to make that denial harder. This week, in at least one case, that kind of pressure worked.
After roughly 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, influencers and politicians began suggesting Israel was behind it. In our new explainer, we break down why those claims extend the antisemitic Great Replacement conspiracy theory, and why the versions now spreading on the left are just as dangerous as the right’s.
The core move is the same: a hidden hand inserted behind an event with documented explanations, and brown people stripped of agency, recast as tools of a shadowy power. Morocco has its own history of using this border as leverage against Spain. No conspiracy required. When Israel becomes the default explanation anyway, that’s a well-established antisemitic structure at work.
Primary season has made “pro-Israel money” one of the most visible campaign finance debates in the country, and candidates across the spectrum are being asked whether they take it. Our new issue brief for policymakers shows how to have that debate well: name the specific PAC, cite FEC figures instead of aggregated “pro-Israel lobby” totals, and critique conduct rather than identity.
Done right, this conversation is a credible case for campaign finance reform. Done wrong, it slides into centuries-old tropes about Jewish money and control, endangers Jewish voters, and hands bad-faith actors an excuse to dismiss legitimate criticism as bigotry.
Our issue brief was also featured in thoughtful pieces by Dov Waxman and Steven Windmueller.
A Republican county commissioner in Colorado shared AI-generated images of Attorney General Phil Weiser, the Democratic nominee for governor, with devil horns against fiery skies. GOP nominee Victor Marx endorsed the post. Weiser is Jewish; his mother was born in a Nazi concentration camp.
Depicting Jews with horns is one of the oldest antisemitic images in existence, used since the Middle Ages to associate Jews with the devil. The creator claims he didn’t know Weiser is Jewish. That doesn’t excuse the careless use of vicious imagery, and it doesn’t explain the refusal to take it down once he learned.
The Trump administration has withdrawn its demand that the University of Pennsylvania hand over a list of its Jewish employees, ending a legal fight that alarmed Jewish groups on campus and beyond.
We said from the start that compiling lists of Jews protects no one. Penn resisted, Jewish groups objected, and the pressure worked. Good. The EEOC’s broader investigation continues, and so does our attention.
CNN turned to Nexus Communications Director Nate Wolfson for its coverage of the Met’s decision to build its next Costume Institute show and gala around John Galliano, who was convicted in France over antisemitic statements. Nate noted that with fear of antisemitism running high, the choice will understandably discomfort many in the American Jewish community.
In JTA’s analysis of the debate over Mayor Mamdani’s Netanyahu video, Nexus President Jonathan Jacoby addressed the conflation of Jews and Israel, calling it one of the most serious challenges we face, and one that requires honesty from all sides about who is doing the conflating.
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.
We’ll continue offering clear responses, frameworks, and resources as these stories develop.
