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New Survey Finds Startling Increase in Rates of Antisemitic Incidents Around the World
A woman holding an anti-semitic sign at a Pro-Palestine protest in Warsaw, Poland on Sat. Oct. 21, 2023. Source: Twitter / NEXTA
i24 News – “October 7 helped spread a fire that was already out of control.”
That’s the finding of an alarming new report from the Anti-Defamation League and Tel Aviv University, which shows that the rate of antisemitic incidents increased by dozens of percentage points around the world.
But the study also shows that the number was growing even before the Gaza war broke out in October.
In the US, the ADL said that antisemitism reached historic levels. In its recently released annual survey, the organization recorded 7,523 incidents in 2023 compared to 3,697 in 2022, and according to a broader definition, it recorded 8,873 incidents. The number of assaults increased from 111 in 2022 to 161 in 2023 and acts of vandalism rose from 1,288 to 2,106. Spotlighting specific cities, in New York City, the city with the largest Jewish population in the world, the NYPD recorded 325 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2023 in comparison to the 261 it recorded in 2022. In Los Angeles, the figure was 165 compared to the 86 incidents filed the previous year.
Other countries also saw dramatic increases in the number of antisemitic attacks, according to data collected from governmental agencies, law enforcement authorities, Jewish organizations, media, and fieldwork.
In France, the number of incidents increased from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, with the number of physical assaults increasing from 43 to 85. In the UK, the number grew from 1,662 to 4,103, and physical assaults nearly doubled (from 136 to 266). And in Germany, the number rose from 2,639 to 3,614.
In South America, Brazil saw the most alarming increase, from 432 incidents in 2022 to 1,774 in 2023, while Argentina saw a rise from 427 to 598. Meanwhile, Australia recorded a stunning 622 antisemitic incidents in October and November alone, compared to 79 during the same period in the previous year.
While the dramatic increases in comparison to 2022 largely followed October 7, the report emphasizes that most countries with large Jewish minorities saw relative increases also in the first nine months of 2023, before the war started.
In France, the number of incidents during January-September 2023 increased to 434 from 329 during the same period in 2022; in Britain – from 1,270 to 1,404. In Australia, 371 incidents were recorded between January and September 2023, compared to 363 in the same period in 2022. On the other hand, Germany and Austria, where national programs for fighting antisemitism are applied, saw decreases.
The ADL’s CEO and National Director, Jonathan Greenblatt, said: “The aftermath of Hamas’s horrific attack on Israel on October 7th was followed by a tsunami of hate against Jewish communities worldwide,” citing the recent survey released by the organization which found 2023 had the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the US ever recorded by the ADL.
While the report focuses on 2023, the recent headlines focusing on the intense pro-Gaza protests on American campuses have added to the sense that the ability of Jews, particularly younger generations, to present themselves in public spaces is at risk. Authorities are grappling with how to balance freedom of expression while protecting the rights and physical safety of others, and the recent passage of the Antisemitism Awareness Act in the US House of Representatives may help prevent the worrying trend from similarly inflating in 2024.
“The year is not 1938, not even 1933. Yet if current trends continue, the curtain will descend on the ability to lead Jewish lives in the West – to wear a Star of David, attend synagogues and community centers, send kids to Jewish schools, frequent a Jewish club on campus, or speak Hebrew,” warns Professor Uriya Shavit, head of the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University.
The report concludes that the effort to fight antisemitism on a global scale has failed. “One of our biggest challenges is how to fight antisemitism without making it the defining factor of Jewish identity in our times,” says Shavit.
The post New Survey Finds Startling Increase in Rates of Antisemitic Incidents Around the World first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Kanye West Releases ‘Heil Hitler’ Song, Music Video Featuring Audio of Nazi Leader’s Speech

Kanye West walking on the red carpet during the 67th Grammy Awards held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA on February 2, 2025. Photo: Elyse Jankowski/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Antisemitic rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) released on Thursday his new single titled “Heil Hitler” as well as its music video, but claimed that the controversial song has been “banned by all digital streaming platforms,” including iTunes and Spotify.
The Grammy winner and self-described Nazi, 47, uploaded his new track to SoundCloud on Thursday, but it has since been removed from that platform as well. The music video for “Heil Hitler” does not appear on Ye’s YouTube channel but has been shared on YouTube by other users. “Heil Hitler” is the greeting praising Nazi leader Adolf Hitler that is given as part of the Nazi salute.
On the track, Ye begins by addressing custody issues with ex-wife Kim Kardashian over their four children, while also claiming that banks are freezing his accounts. He claims he “became a Nazi yet b—h, I’m the villain” and includes toward the end of the song an audio clip of a German speech from Hitler. In the music video, a group of men chant, “All my n—as Nazis, n—as Heil Hitler.”
The post Kanye West Releases ‘Heil Hitler’ Song, Music Video Featuring Audio of Nazi Leader’s Speech first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Campus Antisemitism Documentary Seeks to Show Jewish Students as ‘Inspirational’ Heroes, Not Merely Victims

George Washington University student Sabrina Soffer talking on stage with Noa Tishby at a GWU event highlighted in “Blind Spot.” Photo: Screenshot
A film streaming online that focuses on American campus antisemitism is told from the viewpoint of Jewish college students who had firsthand experiences with antisemitic abuse and, instead of staying silent about their trauma, are at the forefront pushing for a better, more welcoming environment at their schools.
“Blind Spot” says it is the first and only film to exclusively spotlight the existence of campus antisemitism in the United States both before and after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel and the subsequent explosion of rabid, sometimes violent campus antisemitism following the massacre. It reveals how antisemitism on college and university campuses is a longstanding problem that started well before the Oct. 7 attack and explains what can be done to help students feel safer at their schools.
The movie is available for viewing on the YouTube pages of StandWithUs and the Jewish Broadcasting Service. It has surpassed 100,000 views on both channels since premiering less than a month ago. It was directed and co-produced by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger of Ironbound Films.
“Blind Spot” aims to show viewers that, while antisemitism has been on college campuses for years, people “didn’t realize it, didn’t see it, and they didn’t want to see it” before Oct. 7, said executive producer Lenny Gold, whose own son experienced antisemitism in school.
The film references the “blind spot” in the context of people and universities in favor of protecting every other minority group, except Jews. The film tries to highlight the “double standard” and “injustice” that Jews and pro-Israel supporters face on college campuses, Gold said.
“Why are other groups protected and not Jews?” Gold asked. “Jews are a protected group under [Title VI of] the Civil Rights Act. So why is the law not enforced? Why is society so out of step with what the law says and what American values it should be upholding.”
“On many college campuses, even people who are committed to the civil rights of every other group in this country, often have a blind spot when it comes to Jews,” Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights, said in the film. “While the problems have gotten worse and worse, young people are taking the initiative more and more, fighting antisemitism, taking charge themselves.”
Interviews with college students began in 2021, but “Blind Spot” does include footage from incidents dating back to 2019. Filming continued until well past the Oct. 7 attack in 2023. Gold said after the Hamas invasion, “we had to pivot from making a film to educate people about a problem that most people didn’t know about before, to basically making a film that says, ‘Well, we told you so. Now we’re gonna show you how we got here.’ When we looked back at the footage we shot before Oct. 7, we thought it was even greater now post-Oct. 7 because it was more impactful and relevant and familiar to people seeing it because they would now know on their own, that we have a serious problem on American campuses.”
More than two dozen students speak in the film about their personal experiences with antisemitism at their schools, including the University of Notre Dame; University of California, Berkeley, University of Vermont, George Washington University, Tulane University, University of Chicago, Tufts University, and Baruch College of the City University of New York (CUNY). The students discuss incidents that include verbal antisemitic abuse and threats – from both teachers and fellow students – physical violence, and being targeted in boycotts by anti-Israel students.
They also experienced emotional and mental trauma. A student at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice talked in “Blind Spot” about being harassed by fellow students in stairwells at the school and in the gym, breaking down crying in the library from the torment and taking time off from class to cope with her trauma. Another student, from the University of Vermont, ultimately decided to transfer to the University of Florida because of the vast number of antisemitic incidents at his first school, Gold revealed to The Algemeiner. The filmmakers had to persuade the student to push through his trauma and return to UVM to film a segment about the abuse he experienced at the college, Gold added. In 2023, the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights ruled that UVM administrators failed to respond to several complaints of antisemitism, as well as anti-Zionist harassment and discrimination, at the school.
“I’ve stayed in touch with a number of the students, and my sense is that many of them were significantly affected. There is a definite sadness that I sense,” Gold said.
“Blind Spot” highlights the heartbreaking experiences these Jewish students endured. But it also draws attention to their bravery and courage in standing up against antisemitism, pushing for a change at their schools to make them more inclusive and safer environments, if not for themselves then for future students on campus.
The featured students are not portrayed as victims but as the heroes in their own stories. They are seen taking action to make their schools more welcoming and safer for Jewish students in areas where too many school administrators allegedly failed to act. “Blind Spot” says such students “are on the front lines of a modern-day civil rights movement,” and they include Yasmeen Ohebsion from Tulane University.
When she first appeared in the film, the Israeli-Persian student admitted that she “couldn’t muster up the courage” to speak out against a professor who required students to read a writing by an antisemitic author, who promoted the narrative that Israel is a white supremacist and apartheid state. By the end of “Blind Spot,” Ohebsion is seen testifying in Washington, DC, in March 2024 in front of the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, urging policymakers to pressure school administrators to take action against anti-Israel hostility and violence on her campus and others. Ohebsion concluded her testimony by proclaiming “Am Israel Chai” (“Long Live Israel”).
“The first word that comes to my mind is: inspirational,” Gold said of Ohebsion and other students featured in “Blind Spot” during an interview with The Algemeiner. “I don’t know that I would’ve had what it took to do what they have done. I was just blown away by each and every one of them. Their pose, courage, brilliance, articulateness, and their decision to stand up rather than just keep their heads down and do nothing and say nothing. And without them, none of the other non-students in the film would be able to help them.”
As noted by Gold, “Blind Spot” also features interviews with many non-Jewish pro-Israel supporters who are allies of these students, including Forham University President Tania Tetlow, Tulane University student Raymell Green, US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), and Carly Gammill, director of legal policy at StandWithUs.
“Attorneys need clients. Without these students as clients, the attorneys would not be able to use the law as a tool to help the students,” Gold explained to The Algemeiner. “The students had to come forward first, and they had to do so knowing that their cases would likely not be resolved before they left school. These students knew they were doing it at best for students to come and not for themselves. And to have that kind of selflessness, at that age or any age, is just so inspirational to me and so notable. It just confirmed the wisdom of the conscious decision that we made from the beginning to tell this story through the eyes and voices of the students who were impacted by it.”
Others in the film who speak in support of the Jewish college students experiencing antisemitism is New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov; llya Bratman, executive director at the Hillel at Baruch College; Alyza Lewin, president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights; Dr. Naya Lekht, a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy; and Susan Tuchman, director of the Center for Law and Justice at the Zionist Organization of America.
“We went out of our way to show scenes of adults talking to students, to show the mentorship and the attention to address their feelings and comfort them, encourage them and support them,” Gold said. “We tried to show that these students do have some support. It’s not necessarily coming from the people it should, like school administrators, but other people are stepping in.”
Gold said he and the co-producers of the “Blind Spot” have been discussing making a film focused solely on campus antisemitism for four years, starting at a time when it was “not well-known in America, among Jews and non-Jews, but we knew it was a serious problem.”
“So, we decided to look for a way of telling the story to educate, re-educate, and inspire as many people as possible,” he added. He said throughout the making of “Blind Spot,” he and his team were determined to make a film “that was beholden to nothing but the truth and nobody but the students … the focus was on the students – first, last and always.”
“Blind Spot” not only highlights the struggles Jewish students face on college and university campuses but also calls attention to some achievements that schools have made, such as Fordham University becoming the first school in late 2016 to refuse to recognize the anti-Zionist group Students for Justice in Palestine, a move that was then later mimicked by several other schools. “Blind Spot” also features interviews with CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez and CUNY Chairman of the Board of Trustees Bill Thompson in which they are boldly confronted about the rise of antisemitism on CUNY campuses and the lack of action taken to combat it. The facility among the CUNY schools includes two prominent anti-Zionist and anti-Israel professors who have made what critics have described as antisemitic remarks in the past – Peter Beinart and Marc Lamont Hill.
“The evil of indifference that seems to permeate this problem, is perhaps the most shocking,” Gold said, when talking about how he felt making “Blind Spot.”
“There’s hostility, but that’s been going on for ages. There’s ignorance, but that can fixed,” he added. “But in the 21st century America, after all we’ve been through – and I’m old enough to remember the civil rights movement and Jim Crow – here we are back in the Middle Ages when it comes to Jews. How can you be in favor of civil rights and social justice for all these other groups and not for one? When you explore that question, what we heard a lot from the students is about the evil of indifference … And when you consider that school officials, people who lead large and great universities committed to the ideals of open discussion and civil discourse, cannot recognize that one group is being subjected to a hostile learning environment and discrimination in and out of the classroom, it is shocking.”
Gold concluded by saying that “Blind Spot” is in part a call to action that hopefully will inspire other college students not to remain silent in the face of antisemitism at their schools.
“This film can show all the students, who can serve as role models for future generations of students, that you’re not alone if you’re facing this problem, and you can stand up to it,” ” Gold said. “Your Jewish identity is on the line. And if that’s important to you, these are the steps that you can take, this is what you might experience and there are resources available to you.”
Watch the trailer for “Blind Spot” below.
Note: The Algemeiner‘s campus correspondent, Dion J. Pierre, is featured in “Blind Spot.”
The post Campus Antisemitism Documentary Seeks to Show Jewish Students as ‘Inspirational’ Heroes, Not Merely Victims first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pro-Hamas Protesters Clash With New York Police at Brooklyn College, Encampment Thwarted

Handcuffed man screams at law enforcement during a student-led protest against the ongoing war in Gaza at Brooklyn College on May 8, 2025, in Brooklyn, New York City. Photo: Michael Nigro/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect.
Pro-Hamas students clashed with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) on Thursday during an unauthorized demonstration at City University of New York, Brooklyn College, continuing a series of days in which law enforcement has been deployed to quell extremist disturbances.
As seen in footage captured by “FreedomNews.TV,” students rocked officers with blow after blow to obstruct their being arrested for trespassing, prompting as many as six others to rush in to help with detaining one person at a time. The melees are unlike any seen on a US college campus this semester.
BREAKING: Complete chaos is unfolding at Brooklyn College in NYC after terror supporters began attacking police.
The police are now fully engaged and making arrests. Pro-Palestinians only know violence. pic.twitter.com/Fp0WJGs0St
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) May 8, 2025
The aim of the group was to establish a pro-Hamas encampment on the East Quad section of campus, which they called a “Liberated Zone,” and several reports said that it attempted to block the entrance to the Tanger Hillel House after being prevented from doing so. FreedomNews captured several more fights between protesters and officers which were filmed in front of the Hillel building, where Jewish students socialize and seek support from their community.
“Tanger Hillel at Brooklyn College is appalled by the anti-Israel protest and encampment that took place on May 8, 2025 and violated campus policies and feared deeply troubling antisemitic rhetoric, including chants of ‘Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here,’ and banners with inverted red triangles, a symbol widely recognized as a call for violence,” Tanger Hillel told The Algemeiner in a statement. “Targeting Hillel, the Jewish student center, is not a peaceful protest. It is harassment, intimidation, and an antisemitic act of aggression.”
The inverted red triangle has become a common symbol at pro-Hamas rallies. The Palestinian terrorist group, which rules Gaza, has used inverted red triangles in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets about to be attacked. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “the red triangle is now used to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence.”
Brooklyn College told the New York Times on Thursday that it could not tolerate the group’s attempting to occupy the East Quad for an extended period of time, for which it appeared to be preparing by pitching tents. The students, a spokesman said, had been given “repeated warnings” to decamp and relocate their activities away from campus.
“The safety of our campus community will always be paramount, and Brooklyn College respects the right to protest while also adhering to strict rules meant to ensure the safe operation of our university,” he told the paper.
Law enforcement arrested a total of seven students, according to a local outlet, PIX11. The campus was later closed after successfully repelling the encampment.
Brooklyn College is one of several schools to foreclose the possibility of pro-Hamas students commandeering sections of campus for an extended period of time in recent weeks. Swarthmore College, Columbia University, and the University of Washington (UW) all did so between Saturday and Wednesday, securing arrests of over 100 students combined.
At Columbia University a pro-Hamas student group, Apartheid Divest (CUAD), occupied the school’s Butler Library and vowed not to leave unless school officials acceded to a list of five demands calling for, among other things, a boycott of Israel and divestment from armaments manufacturers.
According to The Columbia Spectator, the demonstration soon faltered after CUAD was out maneuvered by Columbia’s private security forces, who effectively detained the students inside the Butler Reading Room by locking it from the outsider to prevent others, including faculty who wished to offer themselves as “mediators,” from coming in. Meanwhile, the Spectator said, the university dispatched a team of “special patrol officers” and others who initiated negotiations to end the occupation but were unsuccessful.
Having reached an impasse, interim Columbia University president Claire Shipman — the school’s third new chief executive in two years — requested the help of the NYPD, a decision she justified in a statement as “necessary” for preserving Columbia’s academic mission. By the time the remarks were published, two Columbia officers had been assaulted by a crush of agitators who resolved to enter Butler by storming it.
The NYPD’s operation to clear Butler was quickly completed after officers arrived there at 7:25 pm, the time cited by the Spectator. Bundling them “20 at a time,” the officers relocated the students to an NYPD bus used for mass arrests. According to the last numbers, 80 people — students, non-students, and alumni — were arrested and issued court notices.
On Friday, the New York Post reported that Columbia has begun meting out disciplinary sanctions to those who participated in seizing Butler Library. Some 65 students have been suspended, the paper said, while 33 alumni and other persons have been banned from campus. According to Fox News, the US Department of Homeland Security has enquired about the immigration status of those involved, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that he intends to revoke the visas of any who are visiting students.
“We are reviewing the via status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library,” Rubio said, writing on the X social media platform. “Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Pro-Hamas Protesters Clash With New York Police at Brooklyn College, Encampment Thwarted first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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