An anti-Israel march in Manhattan on April 17, 2026. Photo by Selcuk Acar /Anadolu via Getty Images America’s growing antisemitism problem is proving an existential test for Democrats across the country, but it’s incumbent on all of good will to fight it — and not with lame “Holocaust education” initiatives.
In an April poll by McLaughlin Associates, 15% of Long Islanders said the Holocaust is exaggerated to some extent (or refused to answer the question); 30% said Jews should just “move on” from the history-breaking barbarity of the camps.
Disheartening sad results from a largely suburban region with a significant Jewish population — and this is far from the only data.
In a national poll done for Blue Square Alliance in December, 27% of respondents said Jews “cause problems in the world”; 18% saw Jews as a threat to America’s unity.
And both numbers nearly doubled on the same questions in 2023.
An Anti-Defamation League report last May found that antisemitic incidents in the United States rose for the fourth consecutive year in 2024, to 9,354 —the highest ever in the 45 years of ADL record-keeping.
And the trend’s been brewing since well before Oct. 7, 2023 and Israel’s response: A 2020 study found that double-digits percentages of Gen Zers and millennials in most US states believed Jews caused the Holocaust.
No doubt, the growing presence of radical Islamist movements in America (as witness the Gracie Mansion would-be terror bombers) plays a role here, but these numbers suggest this is becoming a “normie” phenomenon, no longer confined to the surging hard left.
Well-meaning liberals have long hoped to combat these attitudes with “education” — on the Holocaust, on the ugly history of antisemitic rhetoric, etc.
Sorry, that’s wishful thinking: The Holocaust is endlessly taught, researched, and discussed in America in schools at all levels and via novels, films, and other media; such lecturing doesn’t move the ball forward.
No: What this evil requires is confrontation in the public sphere, from culture high and low to media and politics.
Yes, President Donald Trump condemns Jew-hate even among his one-time allies, and most other Republicans are OK.
Right here in New York, home to the nation’s biggest Jewish population, Dems elected a mayor who spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories.
In Michigan, rising star Abdul al-Sayed justified the attempted terrorist attack on a synagogue on the grounds that Israel is fighting Hezbollah.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson spread the blood libel that Israel’s fight against Hamas was genocide.
2028 Dem frontrunner Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed the lie that Israel is an apartheid state.
And returning to the Big Apple, Rep. Dan Goldman — a Jew facing a primary challenge from constantly-deploring-Israel ex-comptroller Brad Lander — threw his own wife under the bus for daring to express solidarity with Israel.
That’s how deep the brain rot goes.
The midterms will be a major test of whether Democrats, especially their left-leaning elements, have the moral fiber to fight this scourge by making clear the party has no room for it — or instead opt to “coexist” with the haters because it can help them win an election or five.
The 2028 presidential contest will be an even bigger, more public battle over the question, one likely to involve the GOP more deeply.
All Americans of good will must make standing up to the hate a top priority, or it will explode.
