Antisemitism does not always arrive in obvious ways. Sometimes it is loud and explicit. Sometimes it hides behind humour, political discourse, coded language, or imagery people have become desensitised to seeing. But its impact remains the same.
Recent discourse surrounding Zack Polanski has included antisemitic caricatures and imagery directed at him, including a widely criticised cartoon published in The Times. Regardless of political disagreement, imagery rooted in historic stereotypes used to dehumanise Jews should concern all of us.
People are allowed to criticise public figures. Debate and disagreement are part of any healthy society. But when criticism relies on antisemitic tropes or caricatures, it stops being about accountability and becomes prejudice. Antisemitism does not become acceptable because of who it is directed at.
At the same time, there are real conversations happening within the Jewish community about how rising antisemitism is understood and addressed. Representation alone is not protection, and Jewish communities are not a monolith. Those disagreements should be able to exist without antisemitic rhetoric overshadowing them.
What is especially concerning is how insidious antisemitism has become in modern public life. It appears across both right-wing and left-wing spaces, often presented differently depending on the environment. Sometimes it is blatant and recognisable. Other times it is subtle, coded, or excused because it appears in a political context people agree with.
But antisemitism does not become less dangerous because it is repackaged.
Whether it comes from the right or the left, it carries the same history, the same conspiracy theories, the same dehumanisation, and the same potential for harm. If we excuse it in one space, we create room for it everywhere else.
Jewish people should not have to prove themselves “good enough” for antisemitism against them to be taken seriously. Recognising antisemitism consistently, even when it is uncomfortable or politically inconvenient, is the bare minimum of solidarity.
#TheTruthAboutJudaism #Antisemitism