Anti-Semitism: A Year in Review

The aftermath of a calamitous 2020, as the virus and lockdown trapped people inside with their own fears, is the growth of conspiracy theories in American society that blame Jews for the country's troubles. This dangerous development has taken root not only among ideological extremists but in groups with a dangerous purchase on the mainstream. Demonizing Jews as nefarious agents of power and oppression, a trope that readily draws on classic anti-Semitic sources like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the blood libel, shows up among the supporters/manifestations of critical race theory and in the paranoid investigations of QAnon. Predictably, left to fester, these ideas have fostered violence. The first outburst came over the summer as anti-racist protests turned into riots that targeted Jewish districts and, more recently, as right-wing fury erupted from online chat rooms into real life when rioters stormed through the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.