The Jews are not the cause of antisemitism, according to Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute.
"I think there are a lot of forces underway across the West that are leading to the return of antisemitism in this pronounced way," Kurtzer told ILTV News this week. "This includes climate pessimism, economic pessimism, distrust in government, the decline of institutions, polarization of all of our democratic societies, and the way social media amplifies conspiracy theories and loneliness."
Kurtzer made these comments just days after an anti-NATO protest in Montreal turned violent, targeting Israel and the Jews, which led to several arrests. Additionally, a string of antisemitic incidents on college campuses last week has sparked fresh concerns within the Jewish community.
Many worry that 2025 may see as much antisemitism and unrest as the previous year.
In the three months following the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, the Anti-Defamation League reported a more than 360% increase in antisemitic incidents in the United States alone. Similarly, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights revealed earlier this year that some organizations experienced up to a 400% rise in antisemitism since the start of the war. Even before the conflict, an FRA survey found that 80% of European Jews believed antisemitism had grown in their countries over the prior five years.
"When we look at cases of antisemitism, the more pressing thing to do is to examine the conditions in a society that allow something like this to rise," Kurtzer said. "Because antisemitism is a symptom of a societal problem, rather than a problem in and of itself."
He explained that addressing antisemitism requires tackling broader societal issues.
"I want to resist the suggestion that if you fix one thing, you'll solve the [antisemitism] problem," Kurtzer said.
He pointed out that while Jewish leaders often believe Holocaust education or security measures like hiring guards for Jewish institutions will solve antisemitism, these steps alone are not enough.
"What we really need to do is start investigating what's going wrong in our liberal democracies and start addressing that set of problems," he said.
Kurtzer emphasized that unlike during the Nazi era, when governments persecuted Jews, today, Jews are equal citizens of Western societies. This position allows them to push public officials to address societal challenges and partner with the Jewish community.
"In turn, I want our Jewish community to be investing more resources in the infrastructure of liberal democracy rather than simply screaming about this hatred that's happening to us," Kurtzer said. "I fear that it actually moves us back into enclave thinking, as opposed to saying, how do we help build trust in institutions? How do we play a role in improving the culture around the media?"
He continued, "Those types of things are very different from what oftentimes passes for the Jewish communal discourse around antisemitism."
Some analysts suggest that history is cyclical and that Jewish communities rarely thrive in any diaspora for over a century. Kurtzer, however, said he disagrees and expressed optimism about the future of American Jews.
"American Jews are experiencing right now the greatest continuity on the planet of any single Jewish community," he told ILTV. "It's hard to think about, but we've been going strong in America for a long time, and I would hate to start becoming pessimistic about the future of our community because, you know, it never lasts that long."
Instead, Kurtzer urged Jews to focus on their contributions to American society.
"Now we have a responsibility to invest in this story, our own thriving, and America itself," he told ILTV.
Reflecting on the relationship between American Jews and Israel, Kurtzer, a fourth-generation American and liberal Zionist, said he once worried about the growing distance between the two communities.
"I think that those are completely compatible ideas," Kurtzer said, noting that on October 7, both Israel and American Jews experienced a shared "sense of collapse," highlighting their deep, if sometimes unspoken, connection.
"It kind of indicated to us that these are actually communities that are leaning heavily on each other, even if we don't talk about it all the time," Kurtzer said. "I kind of feel like it's in the long-term interest of the Jewish people to build a strong, vibrant democratic Israel and a strong, vibrant democratic American Jewish community. Those simultaneous big bets that defy history are going to actually reinforce each other."
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