The White House Plan to Combat Antisemitism Meets Antisemitic Responses

As the White House released the first-ever U.S. national strategy to counter antisemitism, targeted online antisemitism brought into stark relief exactly why such a plan is so urgently needed.

Just 80 years prior to the momentous publication of the strategy, Dr. Josef Mengele — the Nazi war criminal nicknamed the “Angel of Death” — arrived at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Among other atrocities, Mengele carried out cruel medical experiments on Jewish and Romani prisoners and sentenced people to die in the gas chambers.

Amid this historical backdrop, the White House’s plan to combat antisemitism garnered a range of reactions from individuals and organizations, including CyberWell. However, some reactions on social media included blatant antisemitism about the motivations behind the plan.

CyberWell characterized three major trends in the antisemitic discourse online:

Jewish Control over the Biden Administration

A version of the common antisemitic conspiracy theory that governments are puppets of the Jewish people, this antisemitic narrative alleges that the Biden Administration in particular is controlled by Jews, and that the key players in his administration are all Jewish. These Jewish individuals allegedly are working to limit criticism of their work.

Note: As of May 25, 2023, the first Tweet below received nearly 450,000 views and counting!

Jewish Plans for World Domination

This thread of online antisemitism suggests that the new White House strategy is part of wider Jewish efforts to take over the world and destroy white Christians.

In the Tweet below, the original poster uses the term “cabal” from the QAnon conspiracy theory, alleging that a group of powerful, Satan-worshiping, pedophilic people, including President Joe Biden, control the world. In the video attached to the Tweet, Biden calls himself a Zionist, supposedly proving that Zionists control the cabal and influenced the White House plan.

Religious Antisemitism

Some of the posts CyberWell identified included the use of the antisemitic trope “Synagogue of Satan.” This term originates from a passage in the New Testament and has been revived in recent years by the Black Hebrew Israelites, the Nation of Islam, extremist Christian groups and public figures such as Kanye West and Kyrie Irving. Through the use of this term, they suggest that the Jewish people are pretending to be monotheists when in reality they are Antichrist and worship the devil.

Less than a century after the United States closed its doors to Jews during World War II, sealing the fates of countless victims of the Holocaust, the same country has published, for the first time, a document with an operative plan on how to fight antisemitism.

The White House plan to address rising antisemitism across the country is a positive step toward Tikkun Olam, but the struggle is far from over, particularly in our online spaces. CyberWell continues to fight online antisemitism every day, and we urge you to take action by reporting antisemitic content through our platform at app.cyberwell.org.