In a panel discussion hosted by Political Research Associates (PRA) entitled “Safety Through Solidarity: How Authoritarians Use Antisemitism and How to Fight Back,” authors and researchers Ben Lorber and Shane Burley explored the historic and modern weaponization of antisemitism by authoritarian movements.
Their conversation comes amid a growing trend of antisemitism being invoked, not to protect Jewish communities, but to suppress political dissent—particularly around support for Palestinian rights.
Recent events highlight the urgency of the discussion. At this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), speakers openly made Nazi salutes, and were met with applause.
In another development, the U.S. Department of Education announced it was investigating 60 universities for alleged antisemitic discrimination, including Columbia University, which had its $400 million federal funding canceled after pro-Palestinian protests.
Days later, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student at Columbia and a U.S. permanent resident, was arrested by ICE agents. Khalil, an organizer advocating for Palestinian rights, was swiftly transferred from New York to a detention facility in Louisiana, more than 1,000 miles from his home and pregnant wife.
Panel moderator Naomi Washington-Leapheart, PRA’s Director of Strategic Partnerships, opened the discussion by pointing to these examples as evidence that antisemitism is being used as a tool to attack free speech and target marginalized groups.
“We know that antisemitism remains baked into the MAGA agenda of white and Christian nationalism, conspiracism, division, and fear,” she said.
Lorber, a senior researcher at PRA and co-author of Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism, explained that antisemitism historically functions as a conspiracy theory.
“It’s an ideology that locates a Jewish cabal as the hidden source of power in society—controlling governments, economies, the media,” Lorber said. “Throughout modern history, these tropes have been used by authoritarians to scapegoat enemies and gain power.”
According to co-author Burley, a writer and filmmaker who has studied the far right for more than a decade, these conspiracies evolve but serve the same purpose.
“From the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ to George Soros conspiracy theories today, antisemitism is repackaged as populist rage,” Burley said. “It’s a way to explain complex societal problems through an imagined Jewish plot—instead of pointing at capitalism, white supremacy, or imperialism.”
Both speakers highlighted that antisemitism is now being deployed to discredit and punish pro-Palestinian activism.
“The framework of labeling Palestinian rights movements as antisemitic is not new,” Lorber said. “The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) started talking about ‘the new antisemitism’ in the 1970s—shifting the focus from the far right to Black Power, the New Left, and Arabs.”
Lorber pointed to legislative efforts criminalizing criticism of Israel, such as state laws penalizing supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
“It’s now being used to shut down campus organizing, intimidate professors, and silence students—with serious First Amendment implications,” he added.
Burley noted that this strategy also builds on Christian nationalist ideologies, particularly Christian Zionism.
“Millions of evangelical Christians support Israel not because they care about Jewish people, but because of apocalyptic theology,” he said. “In their worldview, Jews must gather in Israel to trigger the Second Coming—which ends with Jews converting or dying. It’s a fundamentally antisemitic belief dressed up as support for Israel.”
According to the panelists, this Christian Zionist bloc has become a major force in U.S. politics. Figures like Pastor John Hagee and political appointees such as Mike Huckabee and Pete Hegseth push aggressive pro-Israel policies while simultaneously undermining the rights of Jews, Muslims, and other marginalized groups at home.
Both Lorber and Burley stressed the intersectional nature of antisemitism, linking it to anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, and transphobia.
“Antisemitism is never isolated—it rises alongside other forms of bigotry,” Lorber said. “The same Christian nationalist movement attacking trans people and immigrants is driving this version of weaponized antisemitism.”
Burley pointed to conspiracy theories fueling attacks on trans rights, where figures like George Soros are blamed for social changes. “They claim trans rights are part of a Jewish plot to destabilize Western society—it’s textbook antisemitism,” Burley said.
The authors argue that true safety for Jewish communities—and all communities—comes not from state surveillance or policing, but from solidarity across movements. “More police in synagogues or deporting Palestinians is not how we fight antisemitism,” Lorber said. “It’s about tackling the root causes—inequality, alienation, and the systems that create scapegoats.”
The discussion also addressed Project Esther, a Heritage Foundation initiative that lays out plans for a future Trump administration to criminalize Palestinian solidarity organizing. “It calls for surveillance, deportations, and stripping nonprofits of their status—all under the guise of fighting antisemitism,” Lorber explained. “But the real goal is to crush the entire left.”
The panel closed by urging participants to join movements that connect the fight against antisemitism to broader struggles for justice—from immigrant rights to trans rights to Palestinian freedom. “The far right is uniting their forces,” Burley said. “We need to do the same—build coalitions, deepen relationships, and refuse to let antisemitism be used as a wedge.”
“antisemitism being invoked, not to protect Jewish communities, but to suppress political dissent”
You mean like how leftist activists use “isms” and “phobias” to suppress political dissent?
racism, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, homophobia, etc…
Both things can’t be wrong?
“Both things can’t be wrong?”
Agreed.
Now point me to the Vanguard article where it’s pointed out that racism or transphobia or xenophobia or Islamophobia or homophobia was invoked to suppress political dissent.
https://davisvanguard.org/2024/11/uc-davis-gets-failing-grade-from-advocacy-group-stopantisemitism/
LOL, you miss the point.
I got your point, I just think it’s too narrow. The irony of raising it on this issue is that this is really an issue where I see both sides with legitimate grievances, where I see the rhetoric as completely unhelpful. However at the end of the day, the Khalil case is appalling – if Trump wanted to hand the left a cause celebre, I doubt he could have done much better than this.
DG say: “if Trump wanted to hand the left a cause celebre, I doubt he could have done much better than this.”
On that, DG, I agree with you.
“Antisemitism is never isolated- it rises alongside other forms of bigotry.”
This is why all forms of bigotry should be opposed or as my father would say “The Jews are next.”
Seems to me that it’s the other-way around: That antisemitism is being used to suppress and silence criticism of groups like Hamas.
(Not sure if anyone has “noticed”, but Hamas is the government of Gaza. And they’ve called for the destruction of Israel, and have taken action to accomplish that.)
In this situation, “Palestinian Rights” equates to “German Rights” (or “Japanese/Italian Rights”) prior to and during World War II. Their own populations apparently supported those regimes.
In the case of Gaza, its own residents would probably be better-off if it became part of Israel.
RO say: “Seems to me that it’s the other-way around: That antisemitism is being used to suppress and silence criticism of groups like Hamas. ”
That is also happening. The issue is being ‘weaponized’, as the kids say, in several directions.
RO say: “In this situation, “Palestinian Rights” equates to “German Rights” (or “Japanese/Italian Rights”) prior to and during World War II. Their own populations apparently supported those regimes.”
Yeah, but Japanese Americans overwhelmingly didn’t. And on the west coast (but weirdly not most of the US) they were locked up in camps.
That’s why I’m not comfortable with DT using this foreign enemies act. I am fine with people who are not citizens who actually commit acts of violence being deported. Even organizing violent events. But this needs to be proven while they are here, and simply ‘saying stuff’ isn’t to me grounds for such extreme action.
I agree.
Also, I suspect that there were German-Americans who were supportive of the Nazi party who weren’t locked up on either coast.
Interestingly-enough, I recently learned of “balloon attacks” launched from Japan (one of which killed a family in Oregon) but that this was kept quiet to avoid alarming the population. The attacks were intended to start forest fires (which “somehow” still occurred even before climate change became a thing).
I was also told that the house I grew up in had “sand buckets” stored in the attic, in case the Japanese attacked the city.
MAGAs with swastikas screaming “Blood and Soil”, “Jews Will Not Replace Us” and killing Heather Heyer with an automobile is considered “acceptable antisemitism” by MAGA.
“There were very fine people on both sides” – DJT
However, direct and weighted criticism Netanyahu, Ben Gvir, and Bezalal Smotrich rather then the whole of the diaspora is considered “unacceptable antisemitism” by MAGA.
I wonder how many of you “LawnOdah” advocates are aware that Smotrich got caught by Shin Bet with 50 gallons of gasoline trying to light a freeway on fire in Tel Aviv, because he was upset witn Yitzak Rabin’s pending peace plan, and could not control his emotions.
Enough of this 2+2=5 War Is Peace Ignorance Is Strength hypocrisy.
“At this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), speakers openly made Nazi salutes, and were met with applause.”
I got this far. Is it even worth continuing to read the article. Surely y’all have seen the photos of Barack Obama and Kamala Harris doing what appear to be Nazi salutes. I don’t lean CPAC, but c’mon, this talk of labeling everyone the far-left doesn’t like as Nazis is nothing short of stupid. The article claims to be about weaponizing antisemitism, but then goes on to weaponize stupidity.
“In a panel discussion hosted by Political Research Associates (PRA) entitled “Safety Through Solidarity: How Authoritarians Use Antisemitism and How to Fight Back,” . . . ”
Did this take place in Davis, on campus, online? You don’t say where this was at.
I said it was a webinar, I believe
I believe not
My bad. I called it a discussion not a webinar. The group is based near Tufts University in Massachusetts
Ok, I was just wondering if it was an in-town event, because I would have attended
There are so many nuances in this article. Strange, extreme hatred of the Jewish people is a real thing. I do, however, think DT is messing this up for not only those being deported, but for the Jewish people by citing ‘antisemitism’ by using this ‘foreign enemies’ law and picking such sympathetic figures to deport as he’s creating martyrs (by deportation, not death) and appearing as if he’s ‘controlled by the Jews’ which just extends the stereotype. I also seriously don’t appreciate the weird far-right Christian obsessive love of Jews – I comes across as creepy and just the polar extreme of hatred, but on the same pole. The ADL is a mixed bag. The basic mission is worthy, but sometimes they see antisemitism where there is none, or use it for political aims. I am appreciative of DT (finally!) shutting down the non-peaceful campus protests and demanding that people not wear masks. I know the argument that ‘they’ are being targeted — but guess what, *they* know who you are, and my belief in a ban on masks goes also for Jewish tools like Edan On who I despise more than most any other human (and they figured out who he was too, despite his full face mask).
I am absolutely for free speech, including speech I despise. But nonviolently. And once demonstrations get violent, I am all for those people being arrested and in some cases deported, but for actual violent acts. In my book, this includes taking over buildings on campus, as Jewish students and everyone else should not be denied access to services they paid for, and in at least two cases university employees were injured in the building takeovers. How free speech rights applies to non-citizens I am less certain. I have heard serious arguments on both sides, and clearly this is going to go to the supreme court.