Latest / Antisemitism Watch / Antisemitism Watch - August 27, 2026, 09 AM Eastern

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Antisemitism Watch - August 27, 2026, 09 AM 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 rising threats, institutional failures, and critical responses to antisemitism worldwide,
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  Speaker 1: from severe threats in France to deeply concerning patterns in
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  Speaker 1: American schools and within teachers' unions. In France, an Irishman
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  Speaker 1: faces significant prison time for allegedly making antisemitic threats and
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  Speaker 1: Holocaust remarks. Reports from the journal IE, JFeed, and the
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  Speaker 1: Irish Times detail the arrest of a man in his
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  Speaker 1: 60s near Avignon. He is accused of telling an Australian
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  Speaker 1: Jewish couple that he was sorry Hitler didn't finish the
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  Speaker 1: job and issuing a death threat, saying he would put
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  Speaker 1: a bullet in the woman's head. French Interior Minister Laurent
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  Speaker 1: Nunez condemned the incident, stating that antisemitism must be fought
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  Speaker 1: firmly and relentlessly, adding that French authorities had arrested the
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  Speaker 1: suspect and he would be held accountable. Gender Equality Minister
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  Speaker 1: Aurore Berguet reiterated France's commitment, saying the country will never
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  Speaker 1: compromise with antisemitism and hatred. Under French law, such offences
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  Speaker 1: can carry up to five years in prison. On the
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  Speaker 1: campus front, federal investigators have found reasonable cause to believe
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  Speaker 1: discrimination occurred at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia. According
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  Speaker 1: to the Free Press, Jewish students there reported being subjected
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  Speaker 1: to Nazi salutes, Holocaust jokes, antisemitic slurs, and threats of
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  Speaker 1: being sent to gas chambers. Virginia investigators concluded that Arlington
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  Speaker 1: Public Schools was deliberately indifferent to a hostile environment for
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  Speaker 1: Jewish students. This follows similar federal probes into antisemitic incidents
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  Speaker 1: in schools in Baltimore, Florida, and Massachusetts. A retired teacher
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  Speaker 1: noted a double standard, where complaints of racism were taken seriously,
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  Speaker 1: but antisemitism complaints led to debate. In a disturbing trend
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  Speaker 1: impacting educators, the Anti-Defamation League released a report titled Antisemitism
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  Speaker 1: in U.S. Teachers' Unions. This study, based on a survey
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  Speaker 1: of 307 Jewish K-12 employees, documents alarming levels of anti-Jewish conduct,
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  Speaker 1: hostile rhetoric, and institutional failure within teachers' unions nationwide. ADL
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  Speaker 1: CEO Jonathan Greenblatt described the findings as a structural and
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  Speaker 1: cultural failure, where Jewish educators are self-censoring and fearing backlash.
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  Speaker 1: The report indicates that over 70% of surveyed Jewish Union
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  Speaker 1: members found Union statements about the Israel-Hamas war that fail
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  Speaker 1: to condemn Hamas problematic. And a similar percentage found resolutions
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  Speaker 1: accusing Israel of apartheid or genocide to be a problem.
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  Speaker 1: Jewish members also reported inconsistent enforcement of anti-harassment norms and
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  Speaker 1: the minimization or denial of the October 7th atrocities. An
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  Speaker 1: editorial discussing the scrutiny of past anti-Semitism investigations on college
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  Speaker 1: campuses points to a critique of Representative Jamie Raskin. The
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  Speaker 1: editorial argues that Raskin's focus on proving past investigations were
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  Speaker 1: politically motivated distracts from the need to develop clearer governmental
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  Speaker 1: standards and university procedures. This comes as whistleblower lawyers speaking
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  Speaker 1: to the House Judiciary Committee and reported by the New
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  Speaker 1: York Times, stated that Trump administration officials used antisemitism as
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  Speaker 1: a pretext to cut federal grants to pressure Brown, Columbia,
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  Speaker 1: and Harvard. Representative Raskin himself denounced the DOJ, characterizing the
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  Speaker 1: administration's actions as using the goal of investigating antisemitic discrimination
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  Speaker 1: as a pretext for retaliating against universities for engaging in
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  Speaker 1: protected speech disfavored by President Trump. In the political arena,
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  Speaker 1: Senator Cory Booker has publicly condemned left-wing influencer, Hassan Piker's rhetoric.
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  Speaker 1: Booker called Piker's claim that American Jews are inviting violence
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  Speaker 1: against themselves, dangerous and antisemitic. Adding there is zero justification
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  Speaker 1: for threats. Bloomberg reporting notes this incident comes as Democrats
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  Speaker 1: confront antisemitism within their party, with some officials having previously
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  Speaker 1: buried their heads in the sand. Reporting reviewed for this episode,
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  Speaker 1: also highlights divisions among Democrats in Michigan concerning associations with
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  Speaker 1: a streamer described as threatening and antisemitic, and notes a
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  Speaker 1: former staffer for Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia posting swastika
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  Speaker 1: and KKK imagery. Moving to institutional responses, London's Mayor Sadiq
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  Speaker 1: Khan is expanding funding for the Shared Endeavor Fund to
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  Speaker 1: Combat Hate Crime, including antisemitism. Public Sector Executive reports this
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  Speaker 1: initiative aims to support community organisations amidst a reported 24%
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  Speaker 1: increase in antisemitic incidents in London since the start of
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  Speaker 1: the year, according to the Community Security Trust. Mayor Khan
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  Speaker 1: stated that there's absolutely no place for hate crime in
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  Speaker 1: our capital, acknowledging rising rates of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate,
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  Speaker 1: with a minority using the Middle East conflict to sow division.
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  Speaker 1: In legal accountability, an Ontario court has expanded the tort
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  Speaker 1: of internet harassment into networked harassment, enabling lawsuits against influencers
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  Speaker 1: who weaponize their online audiences. Reporting on the Miller v.
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  Speaker 1: On Case indicates an influencer was found to have orchestrated
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  Speaker 1: a campaign against a Toronto employment lawyer, including anti-Semitic abuse
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  Speaker 1: targeting her perceived Jewish and Israeli identity. The court granted
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  Speaker 1: an interim injunction, holding the influencer accountable for mobilizing her
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  Speaker 1: audience and enabling such attacks. Online, Dolly Parton's Wikipedia page
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  Speaker 1: was vandalized with anti-Semitic content, including a Nazi swastika and
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  Speaker 1: offensive text, shortly after her death announcement. According to reporting
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  Speaker 1: reviewed for this episode, the edits were quickly reversed. This
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  Speaker 1: highlights how open-source platforms can be targets during high-traffic events. Internationally,
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  Speaker 1: Construction of a new German military base in Lithuania's Rudninkai
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  Speaker 1: forest is raising concerns over access to historical bunkers where
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  Speaker 1: Jewish partisans fought Nazis. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports these
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  Speaker 1: bunkers are the only memorial to their resistance in the country,
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  Speaker 1: and access is being restricted by military construction signs as
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  Speaker 1: Germany deploys troops. Jewish former partisans and their descendants have
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  Speaker 1: visited for decades, but these historical sites now face increasing barriers. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: on a more hopeful note, reporting reviewed for this episode
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  Speaker 1: indicates that middle school students receiving a revised Holocaust education
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  Speaker 1: curriculum showed substantial gains in their recognition of antisemitism and
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of the Holocaust, underscoring the importance of effective educational programs.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Rachel Adler, thank you for listening to Antisemitism Watch.
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  Speaker 1: This report was generated with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies.
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  Speaker 1: Please verify important details with primary sources.