On January 30th, the DOJ released over 3 million pages of Epstein documents. Within hours, millions of people were watching posts that framed a dead sex trafficker’s private emails as proof of how “Jews” think. Meanwhile, headlines blared about a 182% spike in NYC hate crimes without context, a senator threatened to pull education funding over a definition, and a Border Patrol commander mocked a Jewish prosecutor for observing Shabbat.
This week we tracked the Epstein amplification in real time, corrected the record on hate crime stats in New York City, and called out a weaponization stunt in Congress. Here’s what you need to know.
Candace Owens told 1.1 million viewers to search for “goyim” in the files, calling it “the literal, religious worldview of many people in power.” Sneako’s post about “Jewish supremacy” got 1.1 million views and 58,000 likes. An account using Nazi SS imagery and calling for “physical removal” of Jews reached 96,000 views. Former Bernie Sanders press secretary Briahna Joy Gray’s post about “rampant Jewish supremacy” hit 1.1 million views.
Our Instagram thread (later cited by JTA) tracks how fast this spread and who is driving it, from the far right to some voices on the left. One man’s emails became a collective confession. A convicted sex trafficker became the spokesman for an entire people. That is the oldest move in the antisemitic playbook.
You may have seen headlines about a 182% spike in antisemitic hate crimes in New York City. Our new research arm, the Nexus Center for Antisemitism Research (NCAR), took a closer look.
The 182% number compares January 2026 to January 2025, the single lowest month for anti-Jewish hate crimes in two years. From such a low baseline, any return to average looks like a spike. The real story is the longer trend: average monthly incidents have risen from 17.3 in 2021 to 27.2 in 2025. Read Aryeh Tuchman’s full analysis.
Senator Bill Cassidy threatened to pull billions in federal education funding from New York City over its decision to rescind an executive order adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
In a new op-ed, Nexus Vice President Kevin Rachlin calls this what it is: political theater. The IHRA definition does not fund a single hate crime unit or train a single campus security officer. A senator who built his brand on states’ rights is now demanding a mayor explain local policy to a Senate committee. The weaponization of antisemitism for partisan purposes does not make Jews safer. It makes us pawns.
Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol field leader overseeing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, mocked the Jewish faith of U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen on a phone call with federal lawyers. Rosen, an Orthodox Jew, was unavailable on Shabbat. Bovino used the term “chosen people” sarcastically and asked whether Rosen understood that Orthodox Jewish criminals don’t take weekends off.
Xenophobia and antisemitism are intimately interwoven. Sometimes that’s true in subtle ways and sometimes in obvious ones. This is the obvious kind. The man leading armed federal operations in American cities belittled a fellow government official for being Jewish. On a call with lawyers. With people listening. Bovino has since been reassigned from Minneapolis after two fatal shootings by agents under his command.
The posts that go viral get the attention. But antisemitism also shows up in places that never trend.
Forest Hills, NY: A rabbi was physically assaulted and verbally harassed on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The suspect was taken into custody. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called it proof that antisemitism “is not a thing of the past.” (Jerusalem Post)
Crown Heights, NY: A young Jewish man shoveling snow was targeted with an antisemitic slur near Empire Boulevard and Albany Avenue. The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating. (COLlive)
Manhattan, NY: A Columbia University student was targeted with antisemitic slurs outside the Jewish Theological Seminary. Columbia took nine days to issue a two-paragraph statement. (JNS)
Sunny Isles Beach, FL: A 71-year-old man faces a felony charge after allegedly shouting antisemitic death threats and shoving a 79-year-old Jewish man during a road rage incident. (Local 10)
Arlington, MA: Police are investigating a large swastika carved into the ice on a reservoir. The town’s Human Rights Commission called antisemitic graffiti a “consistent occurrence” in the area. (Patch)
San Lorenzo, CA: A man was arrested after spraying antisemitic graffiti, performing Nazi salutes, and blasting audio from a Nazi rally on a public street near a middle school. He was charged with two felonies. (J. Weekly)
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.
