October 7, 2023—the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah—marked the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The barbaric mass killing, rape, torture, and kidnapping of innocents in Israel was broadcast to the world in real time by thousands of proud perpetrators from their smartphones. Just as the slaughter carried out by Gazan terrorists on that day was not limited to Jews, the anti-Semitism that has followed 10/7 has not been limited to Israel.
With Americans remaining captive in Gaza, Yemen’s Houthis disrupting global shipping, and Iran sowing chaos throughout the Middle East while building up its nuclear program, many argue that the attacks demand an American foreign policy response stronger than what the Biden administration has delivered to date. Less has been said, however, about what domestic policy response is warranted by post-10/7 conditions in the United States.
Since the attacks, Hamas sympathizers in the U.S. have blocked highways, disrupted congressional proceedings, forced Jewish students to barricade themselves in libraries or escape through underground tunnels during violent campus protests, and committed acts of arson, vandalism, and assault. In the most egregious instances documented, Jewish Americans have been subject to home invasion and homicide. Allowing anti-Semitism free rein has created a climate of lawlessness and danger. Jews feel less safe in America today than they did a generation ago.
That instinct is justified and borne out by data. The number of anti-Semitic crimes reported by the FBI has almost doubled since hitting a low in 2014. Even before the 10/7 massacre, more such hate crimes were reported in 2022 than at any point on record. The Anti-Defamation League has estimated that rates continued to rise in 2023, including a more than threefold increase since the attacks. In fact, per the ADL’s estimates, almost as many anti-Semitic incidents took place between 10/7 and the end of last year as occurred in all of 2022—itself a record-breaking year for Jew-hatred.
Hamas’s destruction is an existential necessity for Israel; it is also in America’s interest. But it will take more than the annihilation of one terrorist organization to reverse the anti-Semitic currents and broader feeling of disorder now prominent in the United States. The American response cannot be limited to foreign policy. In this symposium, our contributors outline recommendations for a U.S. domestic policy response to growing anti-Semitism—proposals that address everything from immigration, public safety, and education to civil rights and national identity.
Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
