The Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, has changed the perception of Israel and the definition of anti-Semitism for decades to come.
Post October 7, anti-Semitism is now primarily directed at Israel and its Zionist political roots, followed by the Mossad, other Israeli intelligence services, and the older tropes of Jewish control of the media, financial institutions, and cultural outlets. Entire nations are now referring to Israel’s genocide of the Gaza population, and Netanyahu’s policies that have made Israel more dangerous and unsafe.
The Gaza invasion has made Israel a pariah state, more dangerous, more isolated internationally, even as more people have started to question Zionism and the rationale for the state’s formation.
These are the new, reinvigorated forms of anti-Semitism worldwide, and they are being received by younger people who don’t know or care about the lessons of the Holocaust and the origins of Israel.
The new form of anti-Semitism is different. Aside from events in the Middle East, the rise in this new wave of anti-Semitism is based on Israel’s military and political conduct of the Gaza war, the high civilian casualty count, and the disproportionate show of military might against a terrorist army.
This is the political-military story covered by the media. But there is another war going on in the US between American MAGA Republican Jews and the vast majority of American Jews who are Democrats and anti-Trump.
The MAGA Republicans, Jews, who are members of AIPAC, and the Republican Jewish Coalition, have bankrolled the lobbying of Congress and Trump to put a wedge between Republican and Democratic Party Jews. A small group of wealthy American Jews has been Trump’s top donors for his two presidential campaigns. Their tremendous contributions (in excess of $700 million for both Trump campaigns) have been accompanied by pledges for Trump’s strong support of the right-wing Netanyahu government.
This reality was evident when AIPAC isolated its long-standing bipartisan political position at its April 2022 conference and put on a pro-Trump floor show. This was preceded by huge contributions to Trump from Sheldon and Dr. Miriam Adelson, and other major Jewish donors whose main purpose was to force Trump to enact specific pro-Israel policies, moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, and pushing to annex Judea and Samaria. These efforts would eliminate the possibility of a Palestinian state. The other purpose of the wealthy Republican donors was to receive tax breaks and federal subsidies to their specific industries, such as hedge and private equity funds, real estate development, technology, and crypto. In making their large donations to Trump, many of these wealthy Jews were also sending money to right-wing Christian nationalists, who were anti-Semitic.
How Dangerous is Anti-Semitism?
While many American organizations are focused on anti-Semitism, the bigger question is: How dangerous is it?
While violent anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise, so are attacks against Muslims. Statistics from the ADL and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) both report a record number of incidents (violent incidents, harassment, vandalism, violent attacks, and online hate speech) after the start of the Israel-Gaza War in 2023.
CAIR reported that since Oct. 7, 2023, and the start of the Israel-Gaza war, there was a significant increase in complaints, with nearly half of CAIR’s 2023 complaints occurring in the last three months of 2023.
ADL statistics found that “for the first time in the history of the (ADL) Audit, a majority (58%) of all incidents contained elements related to Israel or Zionism.” This is a direct result of the Israel-Gaza War, and it will not subside anytime soon.
But the ADL’s statistics have to be examined closely. Not all anti-Semitic incidents are of equal weight. For instance, the ADL found that “while many anti-Israel rallies did not contain antisemitic elements and were not represented in the Audit, about half (2,596) of the more than 5,000 such protests tracked by ADL contained antisemitic messaging in the form of signs, chants, or speeches.” This looks like one person’s free speech is another person’s anti-Semitic incident, and it seems like ADL statistics may be conflated to some degree.
Still, ADL, B’nai Brith, and FBI statistics on anti-Semitic incidents all show an upward trend since the start of the Israel-Gaza War. Still, the unpleasant and very sensitive question that is very rarely asked is: How does this rise in anti-Jewish events affect the daily lives of American Jews?
While being the target of a verbal attack for being Jewish is traumatic and unsettling, these sad events do not affect the vast majority of American Jews. This does not excuse the perpetrators of these slurs. Still, since the B’nai Brith began collecting statistics on anti-Semitism, American Jews have enjoyed their most incredible ascent of prosperity in over 2,000 years of Jewish history.
There has never been a pogrom on American soil, but there have been isolated, deadly attacks, most by lone individuals. From June 2025 to December 1862, there have been 38 killings of Jews in the U.S., according to this list on Wikipedia. This includes the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, a textile worker wrongly convicted of murdering a 13-year-old, up to the June 2025 firebombing of a synagogue in Boulder, Colorado, which killed one congregant.
During this same period (from 1862 to June 2025), American Jews have enjoyed more security and financial prosperity than at any time. A 2021 Pew Research Center study showed that 23% of U.S. Jews have household incomes of $200,000 or more, a significantly higher percentage than the general US adult population (4%).
An earlier 2014 Pew study found that 44% of Jewish households in the US had incomes of at least $100,000. The same study also found that 10% of U.S. Jews reported an annual household income of less than $30,000, much lower than the 26% of all U.S. adults who are below that threshold.
Among the ultra-rich in 2017, the Forbes 400 list included 139 Jewish Americans, or about 35% of the list, and previous years have shown Jewish individuals making up a large portion of the wealthiest Americans. Jewish Americans make up about 2% of the U.S. population.
So, while the statistics show that the number of anti-Semitic attacks and incidents is rising, it does not seem to be affecting the prosperity of many Jewish Americans. Many agree that anti-Semitism is a threat, but some Jewish scholars say the bigger danger to the religion is assimilation, not anti-Semitism.
Writing in the book, The Vanishing American Jew,* legal scholar Alan Dershowitz writes that “American Jews have an ambivalent relationship with anti-Semitism.” He goes on to say that because social acceptance leads to assimilation, anti-Semitism would be Judaism’s ally, “since it preserves cultural-religious identity. This would be a positive element of outsiders stigmatizing or restricting the access of Jews to the social and business structures. 
But that has not been the case, just the opposite.
More Jews have climbed the ladder of success in business, academia, the professions, and government. As part of this ascent, many have achieved notoriety, awards, and accolades. But some of these people have crossed the line and used their success to become criminals (mostly white-collar), or engaged in unethical, unsavory, cringeworthy, illegal actions.
Among the Jews on the Shanda list, this complete assimilation into Americanism has violated Jewish ethical and moral norms. These people have become a public disgrace to other Jews, and this Shanda list is a marker of the dangers of assimilation without a moral-ethical grounding.
Could a degree of anti-Semitism have made this list smaller? We will never know. Every religious, ethnic, and racial group has criminals, but sometimes a bit of prejudice can build stronger individual and group identity and social cohesion.
New Anti-Semitism Requires a New Offensive
The new form of anti-Semitism is more pervasive and affects all Jews, regardless of their political party. Not only do Jewish organizations that have worked to educate people about anti-Semitism for over 100 years (the B’nai B’rith was founded in 1843 and the ADL in 1913), but these groups will now find their fundraising messages complicated by sending them to American Jews who are increasingly conflicted.
American Jews have never been a monolithic group, but the Gaza War, Trump, and the popularity of Netanyahu have fragmented American Jews more than ever before. These groups are as follows:
- Jews who like Israel, and support Netanyahu and Trump;
- Jews who hate Netanyahu, Trump-MAGA, but like Israel;
- Jews who dislike Israel, Netanyahu, and Trump;
- American Jews who dislike MAGA Republican Jews, the Netanyahu government, but like Israel.
These political combinations are occurring against the backdrop of wealthy MAGA Republican Jews who are fostering bad relations with the majority of Democratic Party Jews.
Then there are the antisemites who have good reason to reignite the dual-loyalty argument against American Jews. In a telling moment when Trump addressed the Israeli Knesset on Oct. 13, 2025, he spoke directly to Dr. Miriam Adelson (net worth: about $60 billion), the widow of Sheldon Adelson, who was in the audience and is one of the top contributors to Trump’s presidential campaigns. Trump publicly asked Adelson if she liked Israel more than the US. Never one to be tactful, Trump just waited a beat, and when Adelson did not react, Trump said she liked Israel more. Dr. Miriam Adelson is an Israeli citizen and remains a top Trump donor.
The new anti-Semitism is more complicated than it was before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. This should be reflected in the messaging and fundraising efforts of the major Jewish organizations formed to combat anti-Semitism. These groups should also recognize that a wing of Trump’s MAGA Republican Party has links to right-wing white nationalist groups. This means that Jewish Republican donors are also under the same tent and contributing to people who are anti-Jewish.
This means fundraising should not be based on the Holocaust, which happened over 80 years ago. That tragic event worked on older Americans who lived through World War II, but it does not work on younger American Jews who are increasingly sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians.
It also means that American Jews will become increasingly intolerant of MAGA Republican Jews who back Trump’s authoritarian domestic policies yet endorse his support of the increasingly unpopular Netanyahu and his right-wing policies. Liberal Jews who are Democrats (an estimated 75% of Jews) have little in common with MAGA Republicans on domestic and international affairs.
This will be a challenge to traditional Jewish groups, including AIPAC, which is viewed as being too intrusive in American politics and its foreign affairs. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have publicly commented on the unchecked power of the Israeli lobby to influence US foreign policy. This could easily be another significant source of anti-Semitism.
More Bad News Ahead for Israel?
There are other potential damaging reputational minefields for Israel. This includes Israel’s possible link with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who may have been working with Mossad. If this proves true, Israel will face its biggest PR challenge in its history. Israel’s intelligence companies and agencies are also in the news for providing spy and hacking software to police agencies worldwide that have been used to collect data on average citizens. While firms, such as Palantir, deny their products are used for this purpose, Israel’s reputation as a spy tech provider automatically puts it on the defensive.
Will a Failed Palestinian State Contribute to Anti-Semitism?
The odds of creating an independent Palestinian state within the next few decades are low. According to many Middle East experts, Donald Trump’s peace plan, 80% of which was developed by former president Joe Biden, will not result in a Palestinian state. Israel does not want a Palestinian state. Plus, there are 700,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, many of whom are violent, who will not be removed and will never live under a Palestinian authority.
While it would be trite to say that today’s anti-Semitism is “old hate in a new bottle,” that would be incorrect. The post-Israel-Gaza War means the new form of anti-Semitism is “new hate in a new bottle.” The new hate is global, driven by social media, AI, and an Israel that is regarded as a genocidal state, that has more in common with apartheid South Africa than a prosperous, educated, tech-savvy democracy, and an American ally. The stigma of Netanyahu, Trump, and the televised destruction of Gaza and the sad plight of its people should all be accepted as the new reality.
Developing arguments and more fundraising to counteract any arguments about what is visible in Israel will not be taken seriously. However, real actions by Israelis within this new reality can change minds, but it will take generations. Nothing will happen until Israelis themselves decide what they want and how fast they want it. No one knows what, if anything, a peace agreement produces, plus key leaders (Netanyahu, his coalition government, and Trump) are on weak political ground. This means American Jewish groups, based on fighting anti-Semitism, should step aside until this new direction is established.
*Alan Dershowitz, The Vanishing American Jew, 1997, Little Brown & Co., page 57.
