What is antisemitism?
Antisemitism is a conspiracy theory that shape-shifts, adapting itself to the dominant prejudices of the time. It manifests as prejudice, discrimination, oppression, or violence directed toward Jews as individuals or as a group, because they are Jewish.

The International Holocaust Remebrance Alliance (IHRA) offers this working definition.

What are the current stats on antisemitism in America?
According to the American Jewish Committee’s State of Antisemitism in America 2024 survey, 33% of U.S. Jews reported being targeted by an antisemitic incident in 2024, ranging from physical attacks and in-person remarks to vandalism and online harassment.

Antisemitism is not just a Jewish issue: 9 in10 U.S. adults surveyed believe it harms society as a whole and that everyone has a responsibility to fight it.

What is the Jewish Diaspora?
The Jewish People originated in the Land of Israel, now the modern State of Israel. Jews lived there for centuries under self-rule, until successive expulsions, most notably the Romans in 70 CE. While some Jews remained, most dispersed across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and later the Americas—forming the Jewish Diaspora.

Today world Jewry numbers about 15.7 million—just 0.2% of the global population—with over 80% living in Israel or the United States. Jews comprise about 2% of the American population.

Are Jews white?
Jews live around the world and reflect racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and political diversity. They are not exclusively white or European Ashkenazi. There are Black Jews from Ethiopia, brown Jews from India and Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews from North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey and Iran—as well as Jews by choice of every race and ethnicity. While most American Jews are Ashkenazi, over half of Israeli Jews are Sephardi or Mizrahi.

Portraying Israel or Jews as “white oppressors” ignores this diversity and distorts history, including the reality of antisemitism. Jews were not considered white in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—and neo-Nazis and white supremacists still do not consider them white today. Learn more.

Is it antisemitic to criticize Israel?
Criticism of the Israeli government or its policies, whether by its citizens or the global communities, is not antisemitic. Peaceful opposition is a cornerstone of Israeli democracy, as shown by the mass protests in 2023.

However, criticism becomes antisemitism when it includes calls to eliminate the Jewish state, invokes antisemitic tropes about Jewish power or greed, depicts Jews derogatorily, uses “Zionist” or “Zionism” as euphemisms for Jews or involves harassment or attacks on Jews or Jewish institutions. Learn more.

What is anti-Zionism?
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Jews having a Jewish state in their ancestral homeland and denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.

When is anti-Zionism considered antisemitic?
Criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. However, when anti-Zionism denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination or calls for the elimination of the Jewish state, that is antisemitism. The belief that Jews alone lack this right, or that their historic and religious connection to Israel is illegitimate, is inherently antisemitic.