Latest / Antisemitism Watch / Antisemitism Watch - October 1, 2026, 01 PM Eastern

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Antisemitism Watch - October 1, 2026, 01 PM Eastern · Antisemitism Watch

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Antisemitism Watch. I'm Rachel Adler. Today, we're
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  Speaker 1: tracking deadly violence, escalating threats, and critical policy debates impacting
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  Speaker 1: Jewish communities here and abroad. We begin with the devastating
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  Speaker 1: consequences of antisemitism, reporting from AOL.co.uk on the attack at
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  Speaker 1: Heaton Park Synagogue on Yom Kippur last year, which resulted
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  Speaker 1: in the deaths of two Jewish men, Melvin Kravitz and
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  Speaker 1: Adrian Dalby. The article details that the attacker allegedly shouted,
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  Speaker 1: This is what you're going to get for killing our children.
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  Speaker 1: In the aftermath, the report notes, Sherelle Dressner, Kravitz's stepdaughter,
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  Speaker 1: received abusive anti-Semitic messages justifying the murder, and another victim's
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  Speaker 1: son received death threats. The author expresses frustration with government responses,
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  Speaker 1: stating there have been too many words and not enough action,
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  Speaker 1: and highlights how hatred of Israel is routinely used as
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  Speaker 1: cover for hatred and violence against Jews. In the US, JNS.org,
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  Speaker 1: reports the arrest of Jonathan Marks Suzer in Georgia on
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  Speaker 1: charges including terror threats. According to a criminal complaint filed
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  Speaker 1: in U.S., District Court, Suzer allegedly made social media threats
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  Speaker 1: on July 28th against U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and
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  Speaker 1: his family, demanding that Hegseth kill Jews at a Chabad
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  Speaker 1: synagogue to be spared. The complaint states the account had
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  Speaker 1: previously posted threats and pictures of Hegseth's children. Suzer was
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  Speaker 1: charged with multiple counts, including disseminating information related to terrorism
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  Speaker 1: and making terror threats. He was arrested on September 25.
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  Speaker 1: Turning to international politics, French far-right leader Jordan Bardella is
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  Speaker 1: facing significant allegations. Reporting from Ecostilia.com, Rusbane.com, and Forward.com indicates
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  Speaker 1: that the investigative outlet Mediapart claims to have verified private
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  Speaker 1: messages from 2013 to 2015. Attributed to Bardella. containing antisemitic
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  Speaker 1: tropes about Jewish control of banks and conspiracies, Bardella has
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  Speaker 1: vehemently denied authorship, calling the material crude fakes and announcing
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  Speaker 1: legal action. The controversy has drawn international attention, with French
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  Speaker 1: President Emmanuel Macron calling the reported messages extremely serious and
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  Speaker 1: unacceptable and demanding an immediate explanation. Meanwhile, Israeli Diaspora Affairs
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  Speaker 1: Minister Amichai Chikli has defended Bardella. stating that a man
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  Speaker 1: is not defined by his actions at age 17 and
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  Speaker 1: highlighting Bardella's post-October 7th engagements. Bardella's party, the National Rally,
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  Speaker 1: has a history rooted in antisemitism, and leaders have sought
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  Speaker 1: to distance the party from that past. In the entertainment world,
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  Speaker 1: JTA reports a public dispute between actor Adam Brody and
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  Speaker 1: Rabbi Steve Letter. Rabbi Letter, who served as a consultant
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  Speaker 1: for Brody's role in the Netflix series Nobody Wants This,
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  Speaker 1: publicly denounced Brody's recent comments calling Israel's actions in Gaza genocide.
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  Speaker 1: Leder asserted his view that there is no genocide in Gaza,
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  Speaker 1: calling Brody's statements flippant and disgusting, and stating Brody's ignorance
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  Speaker 1: really showed. Brody had stated to GQ, put me down
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  Speaker 1: as thinking it's a genocide, put me down as wanting
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  Speaker 1: a free Palestine. Also in media, DeLaMail.com revisited a 2014
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  Speaker 1: controversy involving rapper Macklemore. The report features Michael Wants Wantsley,
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  Speaker 1: a longtime friend of McLemore, who claims a costume worn
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  Speaker 1: by the rapper featuring a fake hooked nose, black beard
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  Speaker 1: and hat was intended as a disguise for a surprise
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  Speaker 1: pop-up show, not as an antisemitic caricature. Wantsley stated that
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  Speaker 1: no one backstage interpreted it as a Jewish costume. McLemore
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  Speaker 1: himself apologized at the time, acknowledging how the costume could
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  Speaker 1: be viewed as a Jewish caricature, though he insisted it
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  Speaker 1: was not his intention. In domestic policy, New York City
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  Speaker 1: Mayor Zoran Mamdani announced the city's first-ever strategy to combat anti-Semitism,
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  Speaker 1: as reported by TheGuardian.com and Qcron.com. However, the plan has
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  Speaker 1: drawn criticism for its omission of explicit discussion on Israel,
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  Speaker 1: particularly given Mamdani's past rhetoric describing Israel's actions in Gaza
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  Speaker 1: as genocide. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Mamdani the
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  Speaker 1: anti-Semitic mayor of New York at the UN. The city's strategy,
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  Speaker 1: which cites NYPD data showing antisemitic crimes account for over
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  Speaker 1: half of all hate crimes, uses multiple definitions of antisemitism
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  Speaker 1: and allocates funds for security and Jewish cultural initiatives. Critics,
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  Speaker 1: including a coalition of Jewish organizations, argue the plan fails
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  Speaker 1: to address the central issue of rhetoric that demonizes Israel,
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  Speaker 1: which they contend leads to attacks on Jewish New Yorkers. Meanwhile, Counterfire.org
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  Speaker 1: offers a critique of Canada's Combating Hate Act, arguing it
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  Speaker 1: is framed to stifle Palestine solidarity rather than genuinely combating
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  Speaker 1: racist violence. The article notes recent Islamophobic threats and a
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  Speaker 1: violent attack on a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, where the
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  Speaker 1: attacker reportedly used anti-Semitic slurs online. The outlet argues that
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  Speaker 1: while hateful ideas are evident, the official response inadequately addresses
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  Speaker 1: anti-Semitism directly. On the critical issue of community security, reporting
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  Speaker 1: from Jewish Federations of North America highlights that the Nonprofit
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  Speaker 1: Security Grant Program, or NSGP, funded less than 23% of
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  Speaker 1: applications in 2026. This comes amidst a surge in violent
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  Speaker 1: anti-Semitic attacks across the United States. According to Jewish Federations
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  Speaker 1: of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut, the Jewish community spends
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  Speaker 1: over $ 1 billion annually on security infrastructure. He emphasized the
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  Speaker 1: need for increased federal funding and called for the passage
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  Speaker 1: of the bipartisan Jewish American Safety Act. On the educational front, JPost.com
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  Speaker 1: reports that Pennsylvania lawmakers utilized research from CAMERA, the Committee
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  Speaker 1: for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, during a
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  Speaker 1: Senate hearing on combating antisemitism. CAMERA's report, Shaping Minds, Spreading Hate,
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  Speaker 1: examined how curriculum in Philadelphia schools can create environments hostile
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  Speaker 1: to Jewish students. The report found the district's social studies
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  Speaker 1: curriculum employed an oppressor-slash-oppressed binary, casting Jews and Israel as oppressors,
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  Speaker 1: thereby teaching students to view history through a predetermined ideological framework.
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  Speaker 1: Watchdog organizations continue to provide crucial data. ADL announced the
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  Speaker 1: launch of its State of the Arts research, documenting the
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  Speaker 1: systemic exclusion and marginalization of Jewish and Israeli artists. ADL
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  Speaker 1: CEO Jonathan Greenblatt stated that Jewish artists are being cancelled, blacklisted,
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  Speaker 1: and pushed out of American cultural life. The research found
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  Speaker 1: that 30% of 40 major U.S. art museums were rated
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  Speaker 1: critically deficient in their inclusion efforts, and that Jewish and
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  Speaker 1: Israeli art collections are often absorbed into broader narratives that
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  Speaker 1: obscure their significance. Online, the TimesOfIsrael.com reports that watchdogs, including
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  Speaker 1: the combat antisemitism movement, found antisemitic conspiracies regarding the Flyjubai
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  Speaker 1: attack spreading rapidly across social media. These theories reportedly portray
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  Speaker 1: Jews or Israelis as orchestrating attacks against themselves. In Canada, cjpme.org
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  Speaker 1: reports that Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle
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  Speaker 1: East is condemning a document from Public Safety Canada that
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  Speaker 1: designates anti-Zionism as antisemitism. cjpme calls this a dangerous attack
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  Speaker 1: on legitimate political speech. and argues that conflating anti-Zionism with
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  Speaker 1: anti-Semitism silences debate about Palestinian rights and Israel's actions. Regarding accountability, CatholicReview.org
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  Speaker 1: reports that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, has
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  Speaker 1: sued Bonds-Secker's Mercy Health. The lawsuit alleges that a Jewish
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  Speaker 1: orthopedic surgeon was subjected to religious and racial discrimination, including
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  Speaker 1: anti-Semitic remarks and hostility. which intensified after the October 7th attacks.
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  Speaker 1: The suit states the doctor faced criticism for what the
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  Speaker 1: Jews were doing in Gaza and was ultimately fired shortly
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  Speaker 1: after the events in Israel. Finally, WSBT.com reports on an
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  Speaker 1: attempted flight hijacking from Dubai to Tel Aviv. While authorities
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  Speaker 1: confirm no direct threat domestically, the incident has caused anxiety
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  Speaker 1: within the Mikiana Jewish community. The Consul General of Israel
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  Speaker 1: suggested antisemitism may have played a role in the hijacker's motive.
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  Speaker 1: Community leaders noted that such events amplify existing concerns for
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  Speaker 1: Jewish families, viewing it as a symptom of a larger problem.
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  Speaker 1: That's all for this edition of Antisemitism Watch. I'm Rachel Adler,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for listening. Follow Antisemitism Watch in your podcast
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  Speaker 1: app so you don't miss the next update. This report
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  Speaker 1: was generated with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies. Please
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  Speaker 1: verify important details with primary sources. Thank you.