Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Dutch Jew: I Stay Off Social Media To Avoid Anti-Semitic Abuse

The deputy prime minister of the Netherlands said that he had stopped interacting on social media because of anti-Semitic abuse against him.

Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher, who has Jewish ancestors, wrote this in a post on Facebook on Tuesday titled “Disrespectful Dog.”

In it, he lists the handles of several Twitter users who used anti-Semitic language against him.

One such user wrote: “Asscher would rather crawl into a Muslim burrow than stand with his own nation! Just like his grandfather, who was happy to work for the occupier.”

Asscher, a politician for the left-leaning Labor party, wrote that this reference is actually to his great grandfather, Abraham Asscher, who was a member of the Jewish Council set up by the Nazis to control Dutch Jews ahead of their extermination in death camps. He sarcastically congratulated those who traced back his lineage for their “great interest in history.”

Another user wrote: “The Zionist dog Asscher skips U.N. meeting on racism, not anti-Semitism. The former doesn’t interest him.”

For many users, Asscher wrote, “my Jewish last name is a plausible explanation for my behavior and attitude,” such as simultaneously giving Muslims too much and too little” attention.

Due to this discourse, he added, “I often no longer react to people who approach me on social media.” In conclusion, he asked social media users to show the posts they intend to publish about him to their mothers or daughters before posting.

“If they also think it’s a good idea, go ahead and post,” he wrote.

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

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.