Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Natan Sharansky Blames American Anti-Semitism On Right — And Left

Natan Sharanksy, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, condemned anti-Semitism perpetrated by the right in the United States, linking it to anti-Zionism in the left.

“If ever there was a line between the anti-Semitism of the far right and the anti-Israelism of the radical left, the demonization of Jews and the demonization of their state, it no longer exists,” he said in a statement. “These two ugly phenomena feed on one another and both run counter to the foundations of democratic societies in Europe and America.”

Commenting after bomb threats at Jewish Community Centers across the country and vandalism at two Jewish cemeteries in St. Louis and Philadelphia left American Jews shaken, Sharansky expressed confidence in the U.S. government to take care of the problem.

“I trust that U.S. authorities will act resolutely to find those responsible, bring them to justice, and prevent such incidents from reoccurring,” he said.

The Jewish Agency for Israel, the largest Jewish not-for-profit in the world, facilitates Jewish immigration to Israel as well as other activities. Sharansky is a Soviet-born refusenik who was held in Russian prison for nine years before he was allowed to immigrate to Israel.

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.