This week, antisemitism came from the new White House press secretary and from a UN special rapporteur, two people who would each say they oppose it. Nexus holds both to the same standard, whatever cause they claim to serve.
The week also brought attacks on a Hindu temple and a Muslim congresswoman. We have included them in this issue because the fight against antisemitism includes standing with all targeted minorities.
Katie Zacharia, named White House Press Secretary last week, and fired mere hours ago, has claimed that the abortion pill contains the same chemicals used in Nazi extermination camps. Nexus’s Ella Messler broke it down in a video with our friends at NCJW.
The claim is false. Mifepristone is a progesterone blocker developed in France in the 1980s. Its only link to Zyklon B is a corporate family tree stretched across eighty years.
Worse, she invoked the murder of six million Jews to argue against reproductive rights, using the Holocaust as a prop, all while representing an administration that claims to fight antisemitism on our behalf.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese shared a video about Israeli investors building gated communities in Cyprus with the caption “Globalizing apartheid one brick at a time,” naming Cyprus, Greece, Serbia, and southern Italy. She later deleted it.
Criticizing foreign investment, including Israeli investment, is fair game, and Cypriots worried about being priced out of their own island have a real grievance.
Her post folded Israeli real estate into a story about creeping domination across Europe, one community at a time. That draws on the old antisemitic image of Jews spreading quietly, buying up land, and taking control from within.
Police in Palatine, Illinois arrested 19-year-old Alexandros Paporakis on Sunday after a coworker reported his plans for a mass shooting at a Hindu temple in Aurora. Prosecutors say he was in the temple’s parking lot that afternoon and left only because his rifle jammed.
Court documents describe an eight-page manifesto he wrote calling Indian, Jewish, and Black people “subhumans” and laying out a plan to kill as many as possible. He described himself as a neo-Nazi and, according to police, had been planning the attack for two years.
We stand with Hindu and Indian Americans. The same document that targeted them targeted Jews, and showing up for them is also how we protect ourselves.
Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a Justice Department warrant at Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home Monday, reportedly over immigration paperwork her late father filed when she was a child. The search came weeks before the midterms, inside the window the Justice Department has historically avoided for actions involving candidates.
Nexus condemns this undemocratic attack on an elected official, part of a wider pattern of threatening and targeting lawmakers. Going after a Somali-born Muslim congresswoman through documents from her childhood tells every naturalized citizen that their status can be reopened whenever it becomes politically useful. One of Nazi Germany’s first laws, in 1933, revoked naturalizations granted after World War I, and it was aimed largely at Jews.
Los Angeles: Antisemitic graffiti was spray-painted on a clothing donation box at Third and Vista on Oct. 7, down the street from an Orthodox school. A resident painted over it within hours. Neighborhood council members say the area is hit regularly. (Beverly Press)
Toms River, NJ: A Hatzolah volunteer described being turned away by an injured driver at a crash scene who told him, “I don’t want your kind touching me.” According to his account, the man then refused two Orthodox EMTs responding with Toms River 911 and waited for non-Jewish responders, delaying his own care. The paramedics who eventually arrived were Hasidic. (Facebook)
Manhattan: The NYPD arrested a 48-year-old Philadelphia man on charges of aggravated harassment and disrupting a religious service. Police say he entered Shuva Israel synagogue on East 58th Street during evening services in July 2025, recorded without permission, and shouted at worshippers before fleeing. (PIX11)
San Anselmo, CA: Police identified two children, ages 12 and 13, as the suspects behind a swastika and antisemitic message scrawled at Brookside Elementary School on Oct. 3. (NBC Bay Area)
Newton, MA: Police detained a 20-year-old resident after two swastikas and “Sieg heil” were chalked on playground equipment at an apartment complex. A 12-year-old Jewish girl visiting her aunt found them. (Jewish Journal)
Boca Raton, FL: A preschool on the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County campus was evacuated Monday after a bomb threat police found not credible. It was one of four hoax threats called into Jewish schools in Los Angeles, Boca Raton, and Brooklyn in a single week. (The Forward)
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.
