By European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, FRA

Antisemitism is still a reality for many Jewish people in the EU today. Faced with prejudice and hostility, most feel unable to live openly Jewish lives. This report presents the results of FRA’s third EU survey of Jewish people’s experiences and perceptions of antisemitism. The survey took place before the Hamas attacks in October 2023 and the war in Gaza; however, it includes evidence from a consultation with national and European Jewish umbrella organisations since. It covers 13 EU Member States that together account for around 96 % of the EU’s Jewish population.

Vienna: FRA, 2024. 109p.

By Lili Levi

On May 25, 2023, the Biden Administration released The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism—America’s first national strategy of this kind. In early November 2023, the White House announced the establishment of the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia. These historic commitments respond to increases in identity-based bias incidents and expression against Jews and Muslims. Antisemitic incidents, which were already rising even before the pandemic, increased by almost 400% since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The war also triggered a sharp upturn in Islamophobic incidents in the U.S., including the shooting of three college students and the murder of a child. Although there has been fresh contestation in the U.S. over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is also a particularly pressing moment for the effective implementation of the national strategies to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia here.

This Article focuses on The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism (hereinafter National Strategy). The National Strategy laudably recognizes that rising antisemitism—linked, as it is, to white nationalism—poses risks not only to Jews, but to the nation and to democracy. The self-professed centrality of antisemitism to the broadly racist white nationalist goal of enhanced political power in the United States makes that clear. By recognizing this, the National Strategy implicitly highlights the risks posed both by those conservatives who downplay associations with antisemites and those progressives who discount antisemitism. In centering anti-antisemitism as a national goal, the National Strategy additionally makes three key contributions: (1) by focusing on antisemitism as a broad social challenge rather than principally a problem on college campuses; (2) by its recognition of the role of social media in disseminating and amplifying antisemitism; and (3) by emphasizing the need for more empirical research aimed at the idiosyncrasies and impacts of antisemitism.

To be sure, as the Article points out, some of the National Strategy’s recommendations to reverse the normalization of antisemitism—its specific proposals regarding social media, its slant on “speaking out” and public condemnation, and its reliance on voluntary corporate sanctions—could benefit from further consideration, refinement, and empirical study. Nevertheless, it would be regrettable for American democracy if some under-analyzed policy recommendations, partisan politics, or concerns about disagreements over the Middle East were to cause the White House’s important anti-antisemitism commitment for the U.S. to be discounted as mere political theater

 78 University of Miami Law Review 745 (Spring, 2024) , 96p.

By The Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

This parliamentary inquiry report addresses the prevalence, nature, and experiences of antisemitism at universities, finding current frameworks for prevention and response leave Jewish students and staff feeling unsafe. The report makes recommendations for regulatory changes to better address and prevent antisemitism on campuses, noting the need to balance between protection with upholding academic freedom and freedom of speech.

The report contains additional comments from Senator Lidia Thorpe, who argues for the inquiry to take into account the full historical and current context, and suggests the Committee should have broadened its approach and recommendations to reflect a comprehensive anti-racism framework to oppose the escalating threat of white supremacy.

Kylea Tink MP also provides comment, in favour of adopting a formal definition of antisemitism that distinguishes between antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli Government and/or Zionism. She emphasises the need to address racism more broadly, noting that the rise in antisemitism has been accompanied by a rise in other forms of racism, particularly Islamophobia.

Recommendations

University leaders should meet with Jewish students and staff to discuss antisemitism on campus, and then publicly comment on actions taken.

Universities should make their complaints processes simpler, have a central place to handle them, use a clear definition of antisemitism and offer ways to resolve issues without formal processes.

Universities should be more open about the outcomes of complaints.

Government should consider changing employment laws to allow universities to take action against staff who engage in antisemitic behaviour.

Universities should publish regular, anonymous reports on the number, type and resolution of complaints they receive.

Universities should put more resources into researching antisemitism.

Universities should provide ongoing training for students, staff and leaders on how to recognise and deal with antisemitism.

The government should consider further empowering the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency to make sure universities are keeping students safe.

The National Student Ombudsman should review what universities are doing to reduce antisemitism.

If universities do not take sufficient action, the government should consider a formal judicial inquiry.

Canberra: Parliament of Australia, 2025. 135p.

By The Australian Human Rights Commission

A study is being undertaken into the prevalence, nature and impact of racism in Australian universities for both staff and students, at the individual and systemic level. This interim report outlines how this will be done and provides initial insights reflecting stakeholder feedback, emerging themes and early issues for consideration. It highlights a range of concerns from both students and staff in relation to their experience of racism on university campuses.

Racism in universities is a long-standing problem, with research showing it is a persistent and systemic issue for students and staff from First Nations and other negatively racialised backgrounds. The severity of recent incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia combined with other experiences of racism across different groups, creates an urgent need to act decisively.

The findings reveal trends in racism and structural discrimination with significant impacts on wellbeing, participation and performance. At the conclusion of the study, the Commission will deliver comprehensive research findings and recommendations on how to effectively address and reduce racism, in all its forms, at universities.

Key findings

First Nations students and staff – Indigenous participants report enduring structural and interpersonal racism.

Jewish students and staff – Jewish students and staff cited a rise in antisemitism including extremist propaganda, intimidation and exclusion.

Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students and staff – participants described hostility, threats and discriminatory practices, including restrictions on cultural expression and prayer spaces.

African and Asian students and staff – African students and staff frequently encountered severe racism, often feeling the need to moderate their natural ways of expressing themselves. Asian participants reported being stereotyped as high achieving but limited to specific academic disciplines.

International students – reports of exclusion, social isolation and fears of visa repercussions were common. Many felt reduced, viewed as ‘cash cows’ for universities.

Sydney: Australian Human Rights Commission, 2024. 137p

Edited by Matthias J. Becker, Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton, and Alexis Chapelan

This open access book is the first comprehensive guide to identifying antisemitism online today, in both its explicit and implicit (or coded) forms. Developed through years of on-the-ground analysis of over 100,000 authentic comments posted by social media users in the UK, France, Germany and beyond, the book introduces and explains the central historical, conceptual and linguistic-semiotic elements of 46 antisemitic concepts, stereotypes and speech acts. The guide was assembled by researchers working on the Decoding Antisemitism project at the Centre for Research on Antisemitism at Technische Universität Berlin, building on existing basic definitions of antisemitism, and drawing on expertise in various fields. Using authentic examples taken from social media over the past four years, it sets out a pioneering step-by-step approach to identifying and categorising antisemitic content, providing guidance on how to recognise a statement as antisemitic or not. This book will be an invaluable tool through which researchers, students, practitioners and social media moderators can learn to recognise contemporary antisemitism online – and the structural aspects of hate speech more generally – in all its breadth and diversity.

Cham: Springer Nature, 2024. 541p.

Edited by Matthias J. Becker, Laura Ascone, Karolina Placzynta and Chloé Vincent

The normalisation of hate speech, including antisemitic rhetoric, poses a significant threat to social cohesion and democracy. While global efforts have been made to counter contemporary antisemitism, there is an urgent need to understand its online manifestations. Hate speech spreads easily across the internet, facilitated by anonymity and reinforced by algorithms that favour engaging--even if offensive--content. It often takes coded forms, making detection challenging. Antisemitism in Online Communication addresses these issues by analysing explicit and implicit antisemitic statements in mainstream online discourse. Drawing from disciplines such as corpus linguistics, computational linguistics, semiotics, history, and philosophy, this edited collection examines over 100,000 user comments from three language communities. Contributors explore various facets of online antisemitism, including its intersectionality with misogyny and its dissemination through memes and social networks. Through case studies, they examine the reproduction, support, and rejection of antisemitic tropes, alongside quantitative assessments of comment structures in online discussions. Additionally, the volume delves into the capabilities of content moderation tools and deep-learning models for automated hate speech detection. This multidisciplinary approach provides a comprehensive understanding of contemporary antisemitism in digital spaces, recognising the importance of addressing its insidious spread from multiple angles.

Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. 2024.262p.

By Blyth Crawford

This report examines the often under‑studied connections between antisemitism and anti‑gender sentiment within the neofascist militant accelerationist (NMA) movement. It considers the central importance of family within the NMA mission to maintain white racial ‘purity’, before outlining dominant antisemitic conspiracy theories prevalent between accelerationist movements such as the ‘Great Replacement’. Closely related is the ‘Cultural Marxism’ conspiracy theory which is a key point of focus of this paper. This narrative frames Jewish people as having disproportionate influence within cultural institutions, such as the media, with Jews often imagined as using this power to influence society subtly in a variety of ways that might lead to the white race being ‘replaced’. In particular, this report focuses on how the NMA movement imagines Jewish people as influencing sexual politics in ways that are regarded as being ‘anti‑family’ and therefore constitute a threat to the white race.

Key Findings

• The rigid conceptions of what constitutes a ‘real’ family typical among NMA movements has direct implications for sex and gender norms. Any sexuality or aspect of sexual politics that falls outside these strict constructions is regarded as a threat to the white race and is attributed to hostile Jewish influence.

• NMA groups’ anti‑gender narratives therefore constitute a multi‑pronged threat, combining hatred towards feminists and the LGBTQ+ community with antisemitism.

London: ICSR King’s College London 2022. 40p.