What Happened in Minneapolis?
On August 27, 2025, a shooter opened fire during a morning Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, targeting students and families gathered in the church. The attack claimed the lives of two children, ages 8 and 10 – and left at least 17 others injured, sending shockwaves through the community at the start of the new school year.
The shooter, 23-year-old Robin Westman, fired repeatedly through the church’s windows before taking their own life. The authorities later confirmed that Westman had legally obtained multiple firearms and left behind online writings and videos filled with extremist rhetoric.
Investigators also found that the shooter’s belongings and journals contained a range of hateful and racist messages targeting multiple groups. Among the most disturbing were antisemitic writings, including the statements, “If I will carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist Jews” and “6 million wasn’t enough”—a direct invocation of Holocaust glorification. Other materials included the phrase “Destroy HIAS” (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), directed at the Jewish refugee aid organization, while one of Westman’s gun magazines was inscribed with the words, “Israel must fall, release the files”. A smoke canister was also found, labeled “Jew Gas” on it. Together, these messages underscored how deeply antisemitism was embedded in the attacker’s worldview.
Even with clear photo evidence showing the shooter’s hostility toward Jews, antisemitic users quickly flooded social media with harmful rhetoric, distorting the tragedy to spread hate. Instead of mourning the two children who were killed and the many others injured, some claimed that the shooter was Jewish, while others alleged that Jews orchestrated the attack. When news of the shooting broke, CyberWell sadly anticipated this type of rhetoric online, just as it has been documented after other real-world tragedies, including the Potomac River mid-air collision in February 2025 and the New Orleans terror attack in January 2025.
What We Observed Online
Between August 27-August 31, CyberWell researched and analyzed dozens of posts in English, most of them from X, that spread antisemitic rhetoric in response to the Minneapolis shooting. According to social listening tools used by CyberWell, the posts collectively garnered nearly 1.4 million views, while reaching an engagement rate of 51,170.1
The spike in antisemitic discourse on X was also evident in keyword trends: keyword combinations that normally have very low volume surged in the days after the shooting. For example, in the six months leading up to the shooting, posts containing the keywords “Jews” AND “Minneapolis” averaged just 48 per day. In the four days following the attack, that number rose to a daily average of 4,842 posts, reflecting a 9,987% increase. The peak occurred on August 28, with 12,599 posts, marking a 26,148% increase from the prior average. Between August 27–30, these posts generated over 152,000 engagements and had a potential reach of 107.6 million.
A similar trend was seen with the keywords “Jews” AND “Minnesota”. In the six months prior, the average was 48 posts per day. Following the shooting, the daily average surged to 3,772 posts, a 7,758% increase. The peak again came on August 28, with 10,409 posts, representing a 21,585% increase from the earlier baseline. Between August 27–30, these posts generated 96,200 engagements and gained a potential reach of 40.4 million.
Below, we examine a few of the top narratives that surfaced, highlighting the need for platforms to better in addressing hateful accusations that can translate into real-world harm.
Top three online antisemitic narratives following the Minnesota shooting:
- Scapegoating Jews
- Religious antisemitism and blood libel
- Classic tropes and harmful generalizations against Jews
Scapegoating Jews in Two Ways
A central narrative that emerged after the Minneapolis tragedy was the scapegoating of Jews. This longstanding antisemitic tactic assigns blame to Jews for events and crises, regardless of evidence, a dominant theme in the online reaction. In this case, scapegoating took two primary forms:
1. Blaming Jews for the Attack
Many users broadly accused Jews of orchestrating the shooting, framing the tragedy as part of a larger conspiracy. This type of scapegoating portrays Jews as collectively responsible for violence and chaos, regardless of evidence. In this case, posts claimed that Jews as a group had organized or directed the attack.
In the tweet below, the user blames Jews collectively for the killing of the two children in the shooting, further alleging that the attack was deliberately orchestrated by Jews to divert public attention from current events in Israel.
2. Claiming the Shooter Was Jewish
Another variation of scapegoating involved falsely identifying the shooter as Jewish. Despite photo evidence of antisemitic messages on the shooter’s belongings, some users spread the narrative that the attacker was Jewish. This tactic redirects blame by falsely portraying the perpetrator as Jewish, giving users a pretext to spread antisemitic rhetoric online.
In the tweet below, the user falsely identifies the shooter as a Jewish American and then escalates the accusation by demanding that every synagogue be investigated. This narrative not only misrepresents the attacker’s identity but also seeks to cast suspicion on the Jewish community as a whole. This post reached over 907k views!
Religious Antisemitism & Modern Blood Libel
Religious antisemitism was another prominent theme in the online reaction to the Minneapolis shooting. This type of rhetoric casts Jews as spiritual enemies — portraying them as responsible for killing Jesus or invoking terms like “Synagogue of Satan” from the New Testament to vilify Jewish identity.
One of the most disturbing expressions of this came through a modernized form of blood libel — the false and centuries-old accusation that Jews murder children for ritual purposes. In this case, users adapted the myth by claiming that Jews were tied to the deaths of Catholic children in Minneapolis, framing Catholics as the natural enemies of Jews and using the tragedy as evidence of that hostility.
In this tweet, the blood libel myth is adapted into a modern form, portraying Jews as exploiting or benefiting from the deaths of Catholic children. By calling Jews “perfidious”, a classic slur implying treachery, the post reinforces religious antisemitic themes that frame Jews as eternal enemies of Catholics or Christians.
The tweet below also blends multiple antisemitic tropes. It scapegoats Jews by calling the shooting a “Jewish psyop” and accusing them of playing the victim, while also layering in religious antisemitism by framing Catholics as the enemies of Jews. The post goes further by describing the murders of the two children as a “Jewish sacrifice to Moloch”. Moloch is a figure from ancient Near Eastern texts associated with child sacrifice, and in modern antisemitic rhetoric it is often invoked to falsely accuse Jews of ritual murder — a direct extension of the blood libel myth.
Classic Tropes & Harmful Generalizations Against Jews
Alongside scapegoating and religious antisemitism, many posts about the Minneapolis shooting relied on classic antisemitic tropes — stereotypes and myths that have circulated for centuries. One example is the Khazar myth, a conspiracy theory that falsely claims Ashkenazi Jews are not truly descended from the ancient Israelites but instead from the Khazars, a Turkic people who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages. This narrative is used to frame Jews as “fake” or “imposters”.
Other posts leaned on broad generalizations, such as portraying Jews as inherently untrustworthy, insisting that Jews always paint themselves as victims, or accusing them of secretly controlling events behind the scenes. By recycling these long-standing tropes, users tied the tragedy in Minneapolis to a broader antisemitic tradition that continues to adapt and resurface in moments of crisis.
In the tweet below, the user claims that Jews maintain a “global network” and accuses them of forcing the issue of antisemitism onto others — essentially suggesting that Jews always portray themselves as victims.
Lastly, this X user targets Jacob Frey, the current mayor of Minneapolis, in connection to the shooting, labeling him a “Khazar” because of his Jewish identity. The post then broadens the attack by generalizing all Jews as evil.
Lessons From the Shooting’s Aftermath
CyberWell’s heart goes out to the two children who were killed in the Minneapolis shooting and to their families, who are facing unimaginable grief. 🕯️
This tragedy should have been a moment of mourning and solidarity.
Yet even though the shooter’s belongings carried openly antisemitic slogans — including “6 million wasn’t enough” and “If I will carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist Jews” — large parts of the online reaction still twisted the event into an excuse to scapegoat Jews. Instead of recognizing the hatred that fueled the attack, users doubled down on spreading false blame.
This matters because scapegoating does not remain confined to social media. It shifts sympathy away from victims, reinforces dangerous conspiracies, and normalizes antisemitism as a default explanation for tragedy. In Minneapolis, two children were murdered, and still Jews were accused of being responsible. It is a cycle where antisemitism drives violence — and then grows stronger in the aftermath.
This pattern echoes what CyberWell has consistently documented since October 7. According to our 2024 Annual Report, the most persistent online narratives include scapegoating Jews — whether for global events or for the very violence directed against them — as well as the denial and distortion of attacks on Jews, such as October 7.
It is important to put a stop to the recurring pattern of scapegoating Jews for tragedies with which they had no involvement. When devastating events occur, blame should remain where it belongs — on the perpetrator — while communities grieve for the victims. Yet, as this report has shown, antisemitic scapegoating consistently emerges online, and this rhetoric is not without consequence. Such narratives fuel conspiracy theories, reinforce age-old stereotypes, and can create the conditions for real-world harm. Social media platforms must take note of how quickly these posts spread and act more decisively to curb their reach. Moving forward, the focus should remain on condemning the actions of attackers, honoring the victims, and breaking the cycle of hate. By doing so, tragedies like the one in Minneapolis can be remembered for the innocent lives lost, rather than being exploited to spread antisemitism.
