Many of us who live in frum enclaves may not realize that we are living through a time of unprecedented overt Jew hatred. Antisemitism and even violent antisemitism have become mainstream.
Although there has always been antisemitism, over the past eighty years it was largely contained. It wasn’t socially acceptable to be an antisemite. Today, especially in the aftermath of October 7, antisemitism, both from the far left and the far right, has become acceptable, even normal. In Europe, it is dangerous to walk around in visibly Jewish attire. Jewish buildings are targets. Even in traditionally tolerant America, there is rampant antisemitism on campuses, and in many semi-mainstream media platforms. New York City is even poised to elect an antisemitic Islamist mayor.
A child of Holocaust survivors, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, Nasi of Dirshu, has been observing these developments with mounting alarm. He recently accompanied Mark Walker, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom and a former Republican congressman from North Carolina, on a trip to Eretz Yisrael where he met with Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch and representatives of Jewish communities across the globe. Below are excerpts from an opinion piece that appeared on Fox News following Mr. Walker’s visit to Eretz Yisrael.
Eight decades after the Holocaust, “Never Again” has become a plea rather than a promise. How can it be that within the lifetime of survivors, the same toxic hatred is once again socially acceptable — shouted in the streets, trending online and rationalized by those who should know better?
We are living through one of the most dangerous moral moments in modern history. The world has seen the re-emergence of an ancient hatred that many thought had been buried forever. In America and across the West, antisemitism is not just rising — it is metastasizing. And if history has taught us anything, it’s that when antisemitism spreads unchecked, it doesn’t stop with the Jewish people. It threatens the very foundations of civilization itself.
We recently traveled together to Israel — one of us the son of Holocaust survivors who rebuilt his life by restoring Torah scholarship to the heights it reached before the war; the other, the President’s nominee to serve as America’s next Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom. What we witnessed there, and what it revealed about this moment in time, should alarm the conscience of every person who values freedom and faith.
Across the Western world, Jews are once again afraid. In Paris, London, New York and Los Angeles, the scenes are hauntingly familiar. Jewish students conceal their identity on college campuses. Synagogues are guarded like military bases. Businesses are boycotted for having Jewish owners. Families whisper before sending their children to school.
We must confront a hard truth: when hatred of Jews is tolerated, it is not merely a Jewish problem. It is a civilizational crisis. Antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred precisely because it is the most adaptable. It hides under new slogans, cloaks itself in political rhetoric and finds new justifications — but its essence is always the same: the denial of human dignity.
In Israel, at Yad Vashem, we saw what happens when humanity’s moral compass is lost. For Rabbi Hofstedter, whose parents survived that horror, it was a deeply personal moment — a reminder that evil can flourish when good people stay silent.
That lesson came alive again that evening at a gathering of thousands of Torah scholars who devote their lives to mastering sacred texts. Watching them, we were reminded that light endures — but only when it is protected. The world cannot take for granted that moral light will burn forever. It must be tended, defended and rekindled by each generation. The same is true of freedom.
This is why leadership matters. America’s voice — clear, principled and unapologetic — is needed now more than ever. We are proud to see a president and an administration that have made confronting antisemitism and defending religious liberty a central priority. The fight against hatred cannot be a talking point; it must be a policy imperative. Silence and neutrality are not options. History does not look kindly on those who stood by and watched.
Allowing antisemitism to grow unchecked is not just a threat to Jews; it is a threat to the moral survival of the free world. The hatred that begins with the Jews never ends there.
We know where this road leads. We’ve seen it before. The only question is whether we have the courage to stop it before history repeats itself. Faith demands it. Freedom depends on it. And civilization itself may hinge on it.