Julia Ioffe
Image by YouTube
Target of Anti-Semitism and a Fiery Responder
The rise of the anti-Semitic “alt right” this year sent chills through the Jewish world and beyond. And no one was more affected or more spirited in her response than Julia Ioffe.
The virulent Jew hatred was worst online, where Jews were threatened and marked out by the (((echoes))) plugin, and Nazi-style memes were sent around by “alt-right” groups. Well-known Jewish figures were trolled brutally by pseudonymous Twitter personalities.
Ioffe, a 34-year-old Jewish journalist, found herself on the receiving end of a particularly toxic stream of Twitter hate in April, after her profile of Melania Trump was published in GQ magazine. Donald Trump has received and not disavowed alt-right and neo-Nazi support for months.
Ioffe received anonymous phone calls playing Hitler speeches and was sent images showing a stereotypical cartoon of a Jew being shot. Images of her face superimposed onto an Auschwitz mug shot in a concentration camp uniform with a yellow star were tweeted at her.
Instead of huddling in fear, Ioffe pushed back against the trolls — highlighting for the rest of us (and her 60,000 followers on social media) just how serious a problem online anti-Semitism in the era of Trump has become. Indeed, Ioffe’s experience was one of the high-profile racist attacks against Jewish journalists that prompted the Anti-Defamation League to launch its special task force on hate speech and journalists.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
