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Antisemitism Watch - August 18, 2026, 09 PM Eastern · Antisemitism Watch

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to antisemitism. Watch, I'm Rachel Adler. We begin
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  Speaker 1: today with disturbing incidents of hate motivated violence in New
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  Speaker 1: York City. Federal hate crime charges have been filed against
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  Speaker 1: Larry Montes, forty six, of the Bronx. According to Gothamist
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  Speaker 1: and the Department of Justice, Montes is accused of disrupting
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  Speaker 1: a Shabbat service at Central Synagogue on August fourteenth. Prosecutors
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  Speaker 1: allege he shouted antisemitic statements, struck two ceremonial silver candlesticks,
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  Speaker 1: and punched a female congregant, causing injury as security attempted
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  Speaker 1: to remove him. Montes's allegedly directed racial slurs at a
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  Speaker 1: black security guard, spat on him, and head butted him.
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  Speaker 1: The Justice Department stated Montes also made comments like f
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  Speaker 1: the Jews its racial and all religious motivated. These federal
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  Speaker 1: charges carry maximum penalties of ten years for each hate
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  Speaker 1: crime count, and up to twenty years for destruction of
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  Speaker 1: religious property resulting in bodily injury. Police have also charged
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  Speaker 1: Mantis with state level hate crimes, as reported by The
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  Speaker 1: New York Post and Just the News, adding context to
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  Speaker 1: the persistence of antisemitic violence recent FBI data for twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five indicates that reported single bias anti Jewish hate
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  Speaker 1: crime incidents constituted sixty three percent of all religion based
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  Speaker 1: hate crimes nationwide. According to the FBI data highlighted by JTA,
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  Speaker 1: this marks the third highest year on record for anti
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  Speaker 1: Jewish hate crimes, a significant increase since the October seventh,
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three Hamas led terror attack on Israel. ADL
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  Speaker 1: data similarly found twenty twenty five to be the third
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  Speaker 1: highest year for reported antisemitic incidents since they began tracking
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine, and the deadliest year for antisemitic
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  Speaker 1: attacks in the Jewish diaspora in over three decades, as
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  Speaker 1: reported by the ADL. In a separate incident reported by
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  Speaker 1: The Boston Globe, a driver in Brighton, Massachusetts, allegedly sped
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  Speaker 1: up and yelled antisemitic slurs at a Jewish couple attempting
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  Speaker 1: to attend Shabbat services. Rabbi Daniel Aldrich of Congregation Cadimatura's
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  Speaker 1: motion stated the couple had to jump out of the
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  Speaker 1: way to avoid being hit, and that the driver's actions
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  Speaker 1: were triggered by their visible Jewish identity. The Civil Rights
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  Speaker 1: Unit of the Boston Police Department is investigating for bias indicators.
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  Speaker 1: We turn now to significant allegations regarding institutional responses to antisemitism.
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  Speaker 1: A whistleblower complaint filed by former Justice Department attorney Hailey
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  Speaker 1: van Irem and other career civil rights attorneys alleges that
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  Speaker 1: antisemitism investigations conducted by a Trump administration task force into Harvard, Brown,
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  Speaker 1: and Columbia universities were politically motivated, rushed, and lacked sufficient evidence.
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  Speaker 1: As detailed by j TA, the Associated Press, and Inside
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  Speaker 1: Higher ed the plaint claim's investigations were predetermined, disregarded evidence,
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  Speaker 1: and aimed to force schools into settlements with federal funding threatened.
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  Speaker 1: The DOJ has stated that van Erem did not work
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  Speaker 1: on university investigations and stands by the integrity of their probes.
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  Speaker 1: The claims have prompted a congressional investigation led by Representative
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  Speaker 1: Jamie Raskin. Adding to this, a federal judge has dismissed
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  Speaker 1: the Trump administration's antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard University. As reported
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  Speaker 1: by the Associated Press and other outlets. In politics and media,
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  Speaker 1: antisemitic rhetoric has surfaced in primary campaigns. JTA reports that
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  Speaker 1: Florida Republican representative Randy Fine won his primary against Dan
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  Speaker 1: Bulzirian in a race marked by antisemitic tropes, including Bulsarian
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  Speaker 1: calling Fine a fat Jew, spreading conspiracy theories, and referencing Hitler. Similarly,
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  Speaker 1: candidate James Fishback, running for governor, has courted the far right,
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  Speaker 1: using terms like geislop and praising figures associated with Holocaust denial.
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  Speaker 1: The Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is
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  Speaker 1: facing backlash over a questionnaire scent to local candidates asking
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  Speaker 1: about their stance on Zionism and support for BDS. ADL
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  Speaker 1: Midwest condemned the questionnaire, stating at risks fueling anti Jewish sentiment.
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  Speaker 1: In Brooklyn, Democratic District leader Carmela Cherrington is facing calls
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  Speaker 1: for resignation after blaming Zionists for a personal property dispute
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  Speaker 1: and referencing Henry Ford's antisemitic publication The International Jew. As
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  Speaker 1: reported by The New York Jewish Week and Jewish Insider,
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  Speaker 1: Mark Trader of the Jewish Community Relations Council stated Cherrington's
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  Speaker 1: rhetoric traffics in dangerous antisemitic scapegoating Internationally. An Australian judge
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  Speaker 1: has criticized the IHR definition of antisemitism. The n s
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  Speaker 1: W Supreme Court judge reportedly called the definition verbose and imprecise,
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  Speaker 1: and noted a potential conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
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  Speaker 1: Regarding campus incidents, the provided evidence for specific twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: six back to school events is limited to the title
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  Speaker 1: of an opinion piece, making it insufficient for a detailed
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  Speaker 1: report at this time. Finally, we note positive developments. Saudi
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  Speaker 1: Arabia's educational curriculum has reportedly been updated to be entirely
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  Speaker 1: free of antisemitic content, promoting peace and coexistence. According to JNS,
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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.