History rarely repeats itself in precisely the same form. The faces change. The technology changes. The slogans change. But the methods by which societies are divided and the people chosen to carry blame often remain disturbingly familiar.

For centuries, Jews have been among history’s most persistent targets of scapegoating. During the Black Death, they were falsely accused of poisoning wells. In medieval Europe, blood libels accused Jews of murdering Christian children. In the modern era, conspiracy theories portrayed Jews as secretly controlling governments, finance, and global affairs. These accusations changed with the times, but the underlying message remained the same: complex problems could be explained by blaming a minority.

Nazi Germany transformed those prejudices into state policy.

After Germany’s defeat in the First World War, the humiliation of Versailles, economic collapse, hyperinflation, political instability, and the Great Depression created a society searching for answers. Adolf Hitler exploited that desperation by offering a simple explanation for complicated failures: Jews were to blame.

The result was catastrophe.

The lesson of history is not only that antisemitism is dangerous. It is that societies facing uncertainty can become vulnerable to narratives that replace complexity with conspiracy and accountability with scapegoating.

Today, the world is different from 1930s Europe, but some of the mechanisms that spread hatred deserve attention.

Antisemitism has always adapted to the language of the era. In the Middle Ages it appeared through religious accusations. In the nineteenth century it adopted racial theories. In the twentieth century it became a political weapon for fascism. In the twenty-first century, many argue that antisemitism can sometimes appear through political language, including forms of antizionism.

This requires an important distinction.

Criticism of the policies or actions of the Israeli government is legitimate and is part of democratic debate. Israel, like every country, should be subject to scrutiny. However, many Jewish........

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