This Week In Anti-Semitism: Conspiracy Theories Abound

Image by Getty Images
The Forward regularly monitors the surge of anti-Semitism across the country and around the world. The mission of this column is not to unduly alarm, but rather to raise awareness of a disturbing trend that, from some vantage points, can prove difficult to spot.
While Donald Trump was en route to Saudi Arabia last week, the Simon Wiesenthal Center sent a letter to the Saudi ambassador to UNESCO condemning a college course which contains anti-Semitic themes. “Judaism 241,” offered at Umm al-Qura University in Mecca. The school claims “that the Jews rely on three sources: ‘The Torah, The Talmud, [and] The Protocols of Zion.”
An elderly man wearing a kippah was attacked Monday on his way to a Los Angeles synagogue for morning prayers. Surveillance video shows the perpetrator punching and kicking the Jewish man to the ground. The assailant then walks away from the victim. Los Angeles police are currently treating the crime as a random attack instead of a hate crime, however.
An Orthodox family in France claims that the April 4th murder of Dr. Sarah Halimi was motivated by anti-Semitism, yet its motive was covered up by investigators. Relatives contend that Dr Halimi’s death was investigated as a routine murder to avoid inflaming religious tensions during the French elections.
Anti-Semites continue to make it rain in Bozeman, Montana, dropping anti-Semitic flyers at homes in the small Montana city for the second time this month. The actual flyers were different than the May 6 incident, this time showing a photo of Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a fake quote from Netanyahu calling the U.S. a welfare state under Israeli control. Police are not investigating the cases, categorizing the flyers as free speech.
Following the resignation of Bulgaria’s deputy minister after a photo emerged of him performing a Nazi salute at a Paris wax museum, the country’s deputy prime Minister, Valeri Simeonov, made a similar admission. Simeonov said that he may have “horsed around” by taking spoof photos with friends while visiting Buchenwald in the 1970s. “Who knows what gag photos we made there,” said Simeonov.
Alexander Oscar, president of the Shalom Organization of the Jewish in Bulgaria, condemned Simeonov’s comments. “Such behavior demonstrates a lack of political culture and sensitivity vis-à-vis the greatest tragedy in human history,” said Oscar. “When we talk about the Holocaust, joking is inappropriate.”
Steven Davidson is an editorial fellow at The Forward.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture In Germany, a Jewish family is reunited with a treasured family object — but also a sense of exile
-
Opinion Trump’s heedless approach to an Iran deal could be a big problem for Israel
-
Fast Forward In NYC, Itamar Ben-Gvir says he’s changed — and wants ‘the Trump plan’ in Gaza
-
Opinion Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to a Jewish society at Yale exposed deep rifts between US Jews
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.