Politics

Antisemitism

It comes from the left and the right. This page is about the part inside the movement I left, and why being pro-Israel does not cancel it.

The argument

Antisemitism is not a one-party problem. Jews have been attacked by people shouting about Palestine and by people shouting about immigrants. This page says both, plainly. It also says that criticizing the Israeli government is not antisemitism, and that sometimes it crosses the line anyway.

The Republican Party presents itself as the party that protects Jews: pro-Israel, and tough on campus antisemitism. Over the same years, its leader had dinner with a white nationalist who has questioned the Holocaust, said Jews who vote for Democrats hate their religion, and its leading think tank defended the man who gave that white nationalist a platform. Supporting Israel does not cancel any of that.

Antisemitism is at historic levels.Five times what it was a decade ago.

Some of it comes from the far right.Including the deadliest attack on Jews in American history.

The movement made room for it.A dinner, a quote, an interview, and a think tank that defended it.

Some of it comes from the left.Two attacks in 2025 by men shouting about Palestine.

Being pro-Israel is not the same as being safe for Jews.One is a foreign policy. The other is how you treat your neighbors.

1. The numbers

The Anti-Defamation League counted 9,354 antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2024, the most it had ever recorded. In 2025 it counted 6,274, a 33% drop, but “five times higher than a decade ago.” In a 2025 survey by the American Jewish Committee, 91% of American Jews said they felt less safe because of violent attacks, and 31% said they had personally experienced antisemitism in the past year.

2. On the right

Pittsburgh, 2018. On October 27, 2018, a gunman killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue, the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. Before the attack he posted: “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people.” HIAS is a Jewish refugee-aid group. He was convicted on all 63 federal counts in 2023. The idea behind his post, that Jews are bringing in immigrants to replace white people, is the antisemitic version of the “Great Replacement” theory.

Charlottesville, 2017. Marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us.” Afterward he said there were “very fine people, on both sides.” Said fairly, he also said, in the same exchange, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.” He did not call neo-Nazis fine people. He did say the crowd on that side included people who were there over the statue, and called some of them “very fine people.”

Exhibit A

Mar-a-Lago dinner

November 22, 2022

He had dinner with Kanye West, who had just made a string of antisemitic statements, and Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who has questioned the Holocaust. He said he did not know who Fuentes was.

What it establishes: Mitch McConnell responded: “[T]here is no room in the Republican Party for antisemitism or white supremacy.”

Exhibit B

Interview remarks

March 18, 2024

“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion.”

What it establishes: A test of loyalty for Jews, set by a non-Jewish politician, based on how they vote.

Exhibit C

Elon Musk on X

November 15, 2023

“You have said the actual truth.”

What it establishes: His reply to a post accusing Jewish communities of hatred against white people. He later apologized: “I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and to those who are antisemitic.” A year later he was the largest individual donor of the 2024 election.

Exhibit D

Tucker Carlson and the Heritage Foundation

October to November 2025

Carlson gave Nick Fuentes a long interview. When conservatives objected, the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, posted a video defending Carlson and calling his critics a “venomous coalition.” Jewish groups left Heritage’s own antisemitism initiative. Roberts later apologized, and board member Robert P. George resigned.

What it establishes: The movement’s most important think tank defended the platforming of a white nationalist who has questioned the Holocaust, then apologized when its Jewish partners walked out.

3. Pro-Israel is not the same thing

The administration has been strongly pro-Israel, from the Gaza ceasefire push in 2025 to the joint war on Iran in 2026. It also went after universities over antisemitism: Columbia agreed in July 2025 to pay $200 million to the government and $21 million to settle discrimination claims after its federal funding was cut.

Critics argue the campus campaign used antisemitism as a reason to punish universities and deport protesters. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and green-card holder, was arrested by ICE in March 2025 and held for months; he was never charged with a crime. Both things can be true: Jewish students faced real harassment, and the response reached people who had committed no crime.

A government can send weapons to Israel and still tolerate the people who hate Jews at home. Foreign policy is not a substitute for how a movement treats the Jewish family down the street.

4. On the left

Antisemitism on the left is real, and this page will not pretend otherwise.

Washington, May 21, 2025. Two Israeli embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were shot dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum. Witnesses said the suspect shouted “Free, free Palestine.” He has been charged and has not been tried; the Justice Department says it will seek the death penalty.
Boulder, June 1, 2025. A man attacked a walk for the hostages in Gaza with firebombs, yelling “End Zionist” and “Free Palestine.” He pleaded guilty to state charges and was sentenced in May 2026 to life without parole.

Criticizing the Israeli government, its war in Gaza, or its settlements is not antisemitism. Blaming Jews everywhere for what Israel does, or attacking them for it, is.

5. The Church, and Utah

Latter-day Saints have an unusual history here. In 1841 the apostle Orson Hyde stood on the Mount of Olives and dedicated the land for the return of the Jews. In 1976 President Ezra Taft Benson gave a talk called “A Message to Judah from Joseph,” describing the two peoples as brothers. The Church condemned antisemitic rhetoric after the Pittsburgh shooting in 2018.

In Utah, Senator John Curtis opposed a State Department nominee, Jeremy Carl, over his past remarks about Jews and Israel; the nomination was withdrawn in March 2026. In December 2025 an Ogden man was arrested after antisemitic threats, with explosives reported found at his home; he has not been convicted. In September 2026 a synagogue in Park City was vandalized before the High Holy Days.

What is true on the other side

Many Republicans condemned it. McConnell, Collins, Thune, and others criticized the Fuentes dinner on the record. Utah’s own Senator Curtis helped stop a nominee over his remarks about Jews.
The administration’s support for Israel is real, and many Jewish Americans welcome it.
Campus antisemitism is real. The AJC found 42% of Jewish college students reported it.

Claims that do not hold up

“Trump called neo-Nazis very fine people”: he explicitly excluded them in the same answer. “Antisemitic incidents kept rising in 2025”: the ADL’s count fell 33%, though it remains five times the level of a decade ago. And “Jewish space lasers” is a critics’ label; Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 2018 post, as reported, blamed a beam from space for a wildfire and named the Rothschild banking firm, a family that has been the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories for two centuries.

What this means

Antisemitism is not a left problem or a right problem. But a movement is responsible for whom it invites to dinner, and this one set a place at the table.

This page is part of a 109-topic library. Every claim links to its source, most of them the Church’s own. Read it on the full site or browse every topic.