Rabbi Sharon Brous told her congregation on Rosh Hashanah that she no longer trusts the tools most Jewish organizations use to track antisemitism. She is not alone. When the count includes a watermelon but excludes a Holocaust denier, people stop believing the count. And once they stop believing it, the real threat has nowhere to register.
That is the cost of weaponization that rarely gets named. It doesn’t only harm the people falsely accused. It drains the credibility that fighting antisemitism depends on. Getting it back means being precise about what antisemitism is and what it isn’t, every time.
Midway through her Rosh Hashanah sermon at IKAR, Rabbi Sharon Brous paused to explain why the popular tools for tracking antisemitism have lost her confidence:
Organizational leaders who treat every Palestinian flag or watermelon as hate speech, which demonizes, catastrophizes, and turns actual threats into white noise.
The impulse to use antisemitism to justify what she called objectively indefensible behavior in Gaza and the West Bank.
The exploitation of real Jewish fear to advance a political agenda: defunding universities, dismantling DEI, suppressing speech.
She was equally clear that antisemitism is rampant today and that denying it would be foolish and self-defeating. Holding both of those at once, in front of a full congregation on the holiday, is harder than it sounds. Watch the clip or watch/read the full sermon.
Ofir Akunis, Israel’s consul general in New York, told JTA that Mayor Mamdani’s support for boycotting Israel follows the method of Nazi Germany, and that “these people will force the Sharia laws on you.”
Boycotts are constitutionally protected speech. Comparing one to a regime that murdered six million Jews trivializes the Holocaust for a political jab, three weeks before Israel’s election. The Sharia line gives the game away: an official charged with representing Israel to American Jews reached for anti-Muslim conspiracy to make his case. Weaponized antisemitism accusations and bigotry against Muslims travel together. This is what it looks like.
CT House candidate William Gifford asked on camera whether it’s antisemitic to dislike someone for being Jewish, given “what the Jewish religion says against white Christian men.” Watch it here.
There is no version of this that qualifies as a question. It’s a centuries-old canard about Jewish hostility toward Christians, delivered with a question mark so the speaker can deny saying it. Rep. Tim Ackert endorsed Gifford. He and the Connecticut GOP should say whether they still do.
After Robert Kraft had Macklemore removed from Ed Sheeran’s tour over “Free Palestine” remarks, Religion News Service asked Jonathan Jacoby whether the rapper’s advocacy crosses the line. His answer: he may disagree with it, and “however uncomfortable it may make me feel, it’s not hate speech.” Labeling it antisemitism makes real antisemitism harder to confront and shuts down the education that changes minds.
Ronn Torossian, founder of Betar US, the group that agreed this year to stop operating in New York after the state attorney general found it had run a campaign of harassment and intimidation, published an op-ed in JNS titled “The problem with the Nexus Project.” Always open to criticism, we took a read. Here is some of what Torossian uncovered:
Nexus has become a go-to source for The New York Times, JTA, and Axios on antisemitism policy.
Snopes cited our Project Esther analysis.
Our Washington director told the Senate that the IHRA definition, used as an enforcement tool, conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
Our national director said no definition of antisemitism should be written into law.
Our board chair argued the Antisemitism Awareness Act would weaken the fight against antisemitism.
He concludes that progressive Diaspora Jews who think this way are among “our worst enemies.” If you’d like to be an enemy of that kind, donations are here.
Manchester, NH: Vandals broke windows and spray-painted two swastikas with “WHITE POWER” between them on The Moka Pot, a downtown cafe, early Wednesday. Police are investigating it as a hate crime. By late morning the graffiti was painted over and the mayor, city officials, and a line of customers had turned up to keep the shop busy. (Union Leader)
Ventura, CA: Swastikas, “death to Jews,” and “they want to replace you” were spray-painted at Temple Beth Torah, a park, and a church tagged “Zionist traitors” over Labor Day weekend. Police are investigating all three as hate crimes. (JNS)
Miami Beach, FL: An antisemitic slur carved into a bathroom stall at Miami Beach Senior High, steps from the Holocaust Memorial, appears to have been there for some time before a visiting church group reported it. (WSVN)
Newton, MA: A 12-year-old girl found two swastikas and “Sieg Heil” chalked onto playground equipment at an apartment complex on Needham Street. Police identified the suspects from surveillance footage; one has been charged with defacement of property. (The Heights)
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.
