Jews seem to be becoming increasingly defensive about the prospects for fighting anti-Semitism. Even prominent figures who have previously seen it as a priority are becoming more defensive.
[corrected version]
Such defensiveness is understandable. Jews feel increasingly isolated. Those considerable efforts that have been made to tackle animosity to Jews do not seem to have quelled the tidal wave.
Nevertheless it is important to examine what is fuelling this sense of powerlessness. That is a precondition for developing a better understanding of how to tackle anti-Semitism.
The latest debate was triggered by a speech by Bret Stephens, a New York Times columnist and leading figure in America’s Jewish community, earlier this month (available in an adapted form [paywall] in the March 2026 issue of Commentary magazine). His main argument was that “‘the fight against anti-Semitism,’ which consumes tens of millions of dollars every year in Jewish philanthropy and has become an organizing principle across Jewish organizations, is a well-meaning but mostly wasted effort.” His conclusion was that the money would be better spent within the Jewish community itself.
Naturally it is up to any community, including Jews, to decide how it spends its money. But such a pessimistic take coming from someone who has frequently spoken out against anti-Semitism is notable.
The reaction to Stephens’ speech was also mostly defensive. Shabbos Kestenbaum, a young Jewish-American who has achieved considerable prominence over the past couple of years for opposing campus anti-Semitism, endorsed the argument. He started a post to his many thousands of followers on Facebook by arguing: “American Jews: If you are spending millions to ‘fight antisemitism’ instead of building Jewish life, you are both out of touch with the needs of Gen Z Jews and have not learned the lessons of post-October 7th Jewry.”
David Suissa, the editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles-based Jewish Journal, argued that Stephens had exaggerated the argument but that he had a point. For Suissa the lesson to draw was that Jews need to fight back smarter.
An alternative approach, which has the merit of switching the terms of debate, still has drawbacks. For example, Adam Louis-Klein has gained attention recently for insisting that the focus should be on anti-Zionism rather than anti-Semitism. While the counter-position between the two is unhelpful – anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism – it is vital to recognise that the visceral hostility to Israel is central to contemporary anti-Semitism. Anyone who tries to dodge this reality, by simply dodging older tropes, is bound to fail.
But the focus of Louis-Klein too is on the Jewish community. His concern is what Jews in particular can do to tackle anti-Zionism.
Even Melanie Phillips – in the best riposte I have seen to Stephens – to some degree falls into this trap. Like Suissa and Louis-Klein, in their different ways, she argues that Jews need to fight smarter against anti-Semitism. But there focus too is primarily on what Jews should do to tackle it. She finishes her piece by concluding: “Jews have a moral obligation to fight for their survival. We just need to stop playing defence, get onto the front foot and for the first time start taking the fight to the enemy.”
Although I dislike the expression all of these takes miss the elephant in the room. They fail to see that any attempt to tackle anti-Semitism will almost inevitably fail if it does not involve a substantial number of non-Jews.
The statistics tell a significant part of the story. Jews account for less than 2.5% of the American population even by the most generous estimates. In Britain it is less than 0.5%. In both cases Jews are vastly outnumbered by the non-Jewish population.
The hard core anti-Semitic portion of the population is also small although difficult to quantify. A survey conducted for the Campaign Against Antisemitism last year estimated that 21% of the British public agreed with four or more anti-Semitic statements. This was up from 11% in 2021. But although the trend is clearly upwards it is hard to be sure of the accuracy of the absolute figures. There is clearly a margin of error in both directions.
In any case the battle is on for the mass of the population. Without a sizeable number of non-Jews willing to take a stand Jews will be vastly outnumbered.
The catch is that historically it is hard to think of any substantial non-Jewish movement which has stood up for the rights of Jews. Typically even those which have defined themselves as anti-racist have either evaded the question or adapted completely to anti-Semitism.
It is true, as Dara Horn has provocatively argued, that people love dead Jews. That is they are happy to retrospectively talk about how terrible the Holocaust was but they are all too often unwilling to defend Jews in the here and now.
It is a tragedy, although sadly not surprising under the circumstances, that so many Jews feel politically embattled. The challenge is for those – from whatever background - opposed to all forms of anti-Semitism to stand up against it.
Note on correction: The crucial phrase "does not" was omitted above (in bold) in the original published version of the article.