The world promised “Never Again,” yet the escalating antisemitism of today mirrors the ominous signs of the 1930s—and silence is no longer an option.
There are moments in history when the shadows of the past grow so long they cast a chilling menace over the present. We are living in such a moment now.
Since October 2023, the rise in global antisemitism is no longer a series of disconnected incidents—it is a coordinated eruption of hate echoing a darker era in Jewish history. And we ignore it at our peril.
Last month, I spoke to Holocaust survivors. More than one remarked that the mood for Jews in the UK today feels eerily similar to Germany in the 1930s. These are not alarmists. These are people who remember the warning signs—because they lived them.
And they’re right.
The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers. It began with graffiti, slurs, and suspicion. With people questioning Jewish loyalty, identity, and belonging. In 2025, that question sounds like: Are you a Zionist?
That was the question a friend of mine was asked—point-blank—by a bartender at the Three Crowns pub in St. James. He had just attended a Jewish cultural event. The tone wasn’t curious—it was accusatory. The implication: support for the Jewish state carries a moral taint. A litmus test for belonging. This is not political disagreement. It is a modern shibboleth—a marker used to socially exile Jews.
🔥 When Rhetoric Becomes Incitement
What we are witnessing today is antisemitism on a scale unseen for generations. It’s not subtle. In some places, it’s violent and unapologetic.
In Amsterdam, what was dismissed as football hooliganism was later revealed to be a premeditated lynching of Jews, driven by unfiltered racial hate. Not anti-Zionism. Pure Judenhass.
At Glastonbury, a lead performer from British act Bob Vylan openly called for the death of every IDF soldier—an implicit call for the deaths of nearly every young Israeli man and woman. The crowd cheered.
That is not protest. That is incitement.
Words matter. They shape moral boundaries. They signal what is permissible and what is punishable. When such statements are met with applause, it sends a green light to every latent antisemite who no longer feels the need to hide.
🎭 The Lie of “Anti-Zionism”
This hate is not accidental. It is strategically fed, daily, by propaganda machinery unlike anything we’ve seen since the Cold War.
Groups like Hamas and their global enablers have mastered the digital playbook: manipulate imagery, fabricate casualty figures, strip context, and weaponize human suffering. They demand that the inevitable civilian toll of war—exacerbated by their own use of human shields, hospitals, and schools as weapon depots—be labeled genocide.
Meanwhile, humanitarian aid into Gaza is flowing at record levels, often exceeding pre-war averages. But the activists cry famine. Because truth doesn’t matter when the lie is more powerful.
Perhaps the greatest linguistic deception is the false separation between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. The claim is: “I’m not against Jews. I’m only against Israel.” But the targets are Jewish schools, Jewish homes, Jewish businesses—and Jews who dare wear a Star of David in public.
👁️ Real-World Impact: The New Fear
I had dinner recently with a Jewish friend in London. She no longer wears her necklace openly. She avoids certain conversations in social circles. Online, she’s accused of supporting genocide for merely being Jewish.
This is not paranoia. It is survival.
- Jewish students are being harassed on campuses.
- Mezuzahs are being torn off doorposts.
- Synagogues require armed security.
- The Israeli Embassy in London was the target of a foiled terror plot.
- A hostage memorial in Brighton was defaced with human waste.
This is not discomfort with Israeli policy. It is the systematic dehumanization of Jews.
🛑 From Slogans to Stones
Most people cheering these slogans may not recognize the antisemitism in their actions. Some do—and now feel licensed to express long-held prejudice. Others are swept up in propaganda, manipulated into believing they are on the side of justice.
But motivation doesn’t matter when the consequences are the same.
Words become violence. The trajectory from slur to slogan to stone is always shorter than we think. And we are watching that spiral unfold in real time.
We are not yet in 1938. But we are alarmingly close to 1933.
The scapegoating. The slogans. The silence.
📢 Words Matter. And So Does Action.
The world once vowed Never Again. But vows are meaningless unless they come with courage, clarity, and confrontation.
So let us be clear:
- This is antisemitism, not activism.
- This is dehumanization, not dissent.
- This is a test of moral resolve, not politics.
If we do not speak now, louder than the hate, we will find ourselves standing in a familiar darkness—one we promised never to revisit.
