There was a time when “Never Again” was not a slogan. It was a moral commitment. Today, Jewish Americans are increasingly wondering whether that commitment still applies to them.

Across the United States and around the world, antisemitic attacks are rising at alarming levels. In 2025, physical assaults against Jews in America reached the highest level recorded in more than four decades, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Synagogues now require armed security. Jewish students increasingly report feeling unsafe on college campuses. Protest movements that claim to target the Israeli government too often spill into intimidation of Jewish people simply because they are Jewish.

And now, some political leaders are adding fuel to the fire.

One recent example came from a New York State Comptroller candidate who argued that New York pension funds should stop investing in Israel bonds because Israel is allegedly committing “genocide.” That word matters. It is not simply criticism of policy. It is among the most inflammatory accusations one nation can level against another. And when repeated recklessly and relentlessly, it does not merely criticize Israel. It delegitimizes the very existence of the Jewish State. For the surviving relatives of six million Holocaust victims, it feels vile and outrageous.

Criticism of any government, including Israel’s, is fair game in a democracy. Israelis themselves criticize their own government every day. But there is a profound difference between policy disagreement and language designed to portray the world’s only Jewish state as uniquely evil.

The genocide........

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