The Nexus Newsletter: Watchdog Edition
This week shows how antisemitism spreads when systems meant to stop it collapse.
Jews murdered at prayer in a horrific attack in Manchester. A rabbi was attacked outside his home. And as hate surges online, the U.S. government is cutting ties with the very organizations built to track and fight it.
The contrast could not be clearer. For years, far-right figures have accused civil rights groups of being “political” while using those same accusations to dismantle them. Now those attacks are shaping federal policy. The people who turned “antisemitism” into a weaponized talking point are directly targeting those who have fought it for generations.
This is why our mission is more critical than ever. The void in confronting antisemitism is widening just as the threat grows. Nexus’s work begins from a democratic foundation: that fighting antisemitism must mean defending truth, protecting civil society, and building solidarity across communities. When institutions retreat, that responsibility shifts to all of us.
Two people were killed and three others wounded when a man armed with a knife stormed Manchester’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation during Yom Kippur services. The attack targeted Jews at prayer on the holiest day of the year, a reminder that antisemitism remains not just an idea but a deadly force.
Our statement on the attack made clear that this was not random violence. It arose in a global climate where antisemitic conspiracies and hate speech circulate freely, too often minimized or ignored until tragedy strikes.
Last week, FBI Director Kash Patel ended the bureau’s decades-long partnership with the Anti-Defamation League, calling it “a political front masquerading as a watchdog.” The decision came after weeks of pressure from Elon Musk, J.D. Vance, and Turning Point USA figures who attacked the ADL for including their movement in its database of extremist organizations. Within days, Patel also announced the end of the FBI’s cooperation with the Southern Poverty Law Center, long recognized for tracking hate groups nationwide.
This was not a policy change. It was a method.
Delegitimize watchdogs. Patel called a century-old Jewish civil rights group “extreme” and “terrorist-like.” The goal is to make the monitor the threat so the state can ignore what the monitor finds.
Invert reality. Those who track violent extremism are recast as extremists.. Documenting hate becomes “partisanship,” while excusing hate becomes “neutrality.”
Align with extremists. The move mirrors campaigns by Elon Musk and J.D. Vance to brand the ADL and SPLC “hate groups.” The government is now echoing the same ecosystem it once monitored.
Set the precedent. If the FBI can label the ADL a political enemy, other groups documenting organized hate can be framed as a national security risk. That is how democracies hollow out from within.
Break the safety infrastructure. Communities rely on cooperation between watchdogs and law enforcement for threat tracking and rapid response. Severing those ties weakens protection for synagogues, schools, and public spaces.
We have disagreements with the ADL on strategy, but this is about legitimacy. When the state targets those who monitor extremism, it shields the extremists.
Read more in our full statement.
A report from our friends at Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that nearly 700,000 antisemitic posts on X reached 193 million views, driven mostly by verified accounts that generate revenue for the platform.
Only one percent of the most viral posts carried a Community Note, the platform’s crowdsourced fact-check that appears under misleading content. Ten major “antisemitism influencers” accounted for a third of all engagement, earning the platform tens of thousands of dollars in advertising profit.
The report exposes a digital economy where antisemitism is not only tolerated but monetized.
Bergenfield, NJ: Rabbi Avraham Wein of Congregation Keter Torah was assaulted outside his home. Police have arrested a suspect and are investigating the motive. The attack came days after Manchester, leaving the North Jersey Jewish community shaken. (NorthJersey.com)
Far Rockaway, NY: A man on the A train threatened a Jewish passenger with antisemitic slurs before fleeing. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force has released surveillance photos and offered a reward for information. (QNS)
Lawrenceville, NJ: Antisemitic graffiti was discovered in a Rider University classroom, the third incident on campus in six months. Administrators condemned the vandalism and urged solidarity ahead of Yom Kippur. (The Rider News)
Each case alone is disturbing. Together they form a map of how hate spreads through intimidation, desecration, and violence that grows easier when systems fail to respond.
Support Nexus
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.
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.
