Deborah E. Lipstadt, the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, recently authored an article in The Atlantic. Lipstadt discusses increasing violence against Jews in the United States, including at the Chabad synagogue in Poway, California, and the escalation of anti-antisemitism in public discourse. She is, most recently, the author of Antisemitism: Here and Now (Schocken, 2019). Read an excerpt from her piece in The Atlantic below, as well as the full article: “Anti-Semitism Is Thriving in America: I assumed that, after the Holocaust, the world recognized where anti-Semitic rhetoric can lead. I was wrong.”

“In the wake of the Poway attack, law-enforcement officers, government officials, and the media kept stressing that the gunman had acted alone. They may have been trying to reassure the public, and in the narrowest technical terms, they may have been correct. 

“But this assailant was no lone wolf. He is part of a nexus of haters. The shooters in Charleston, Pittsburgh, Christchurch, and now Poway all relied on similar language and memes. The Christchurch and Poway shooters both posted manifestos prior to their rampages. They referred their social-media followers to some of the same websites and offered similar justifications for their actions.”