Antisemitism growing among young North Americans, U.S. journalist tells Winnipeg audience

Winnipeg Free Press

08-05-2025

North American Jews are facing a frightening new reality, a U.S. journalist told several hundred Winnipeggers this week.
'It's not in your head,' Yair Rosenberg, a staff writer at The Atlantic magazine, said in his address Wednesday evening at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, referring to rising antisemitism.
'You're not paranoid.'
JOHN LONGHURST / FREE PRESS
Yair Rosenberg speaks to Alissa Schacter after his presentation Wednesday.
Rosenberg, who has been writing about the subject for more than a decade, said a big concern is the growth of antisemitism among younger people.
Citing research in the U.S., he said 27 per cent of people in their 20s said they had an unfavourable opinion of Jewish people, compared to less than five per cent of people age 60 and over who felt that way.
Research in Canada found people between the ages of 18 and 34 were twice as likely to have an unfavourable opinion of Jews as those over the age of 50.
'The younger you are, the less favourable opinion you have of Jews,' Rosenberg said. 'Antisemitism is growing in younger populations.'
Rosenberg provided several explanations, starting with disappearing knowledge of the Holocaust, as survivors and non-Jewish witnesses to the evil die off.
American and Canadian soldiers who returned from the Second World War's European battlefields brought back with them the stories of the Holocaust, Rosenberg said, calling it a 'pivot point for North American society.'
The Holocaust changed how people in North America viewed Jews, he said, noting that before the war, a majority of North Americans were not favourably disposed toward Jews.
'The Holocaust inoculated people against antisemitism after the war,' he said, adding the new generation does not have that same knowledge.
'We are returning to the state of affairs that existed before the Holocaust. Younger generations are not inoculated against antisemitism.'
Old conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the world contribute to the problem, he said.
'We like to think of antisemitism as personal prejudice, but these theories imagine Jews as a group running the world, a sinister cabal behind the scenes — string-pulling Jews,' he said.
Such conspiracy theories can be found on both the left and right of the political spectrum; blaming Jews for problems 'unites opposing ideologies,' he said.
The rise of conspiracy theories goes hand-in-hand with the collapse of trust in traditional media, he said.
'That's a perfect breeding ground for conspiracies,' Rosenberg said of the rise of social media, which impacts younger generations to a far greater degree.
About 85 per cent of Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) Canadians say they get news from social media, and 46 per cent from that group believe that information is more trustworthy than news from traditional media.
Rosenberg said there has been a collapse in the consensus that the State of Israel is a good thing.
'It's gone,' he said. 'Negative views of Israel are rising.'
Anger towards Israel is sometimes directed at Jewish people elsewhere because they and the State of Israel are viewed as a monolith. North American Jews are held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, he said.
Earlier Wednesday, the Winnipeg Police Service released its 2024 statistical report, which showed 44 recorded hate-motivated incidents, down slightly from 46 in 2023.
Most were mischief incidents targeting the Jewish community.
Last year, police said there was a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.
As a counter to anger directed at the Jewish community, Rosenberg suggested people try to be more active on social media and focus on education about Jews and Jewish life.
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'But just talking about the Holocaust is not enough,' he said, urging young people to tell their stories so when non-Jews hear conspiracy theories, 'They can say it 'doesn't track with the Jews I know.''
Jews should also get out and meet more people outside the community, Rosenberg said.
'People need to meet real Jews in all our complexity,' he said. 'If they did, they would know we can't agree with each other on how to adjust the thermostat, much less on how to run the world.'
Rosenberg was brought to Winnipeg by the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada for its annual Sol & Florence Kanee Distinguished Lecture series.
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John LonghurstFaith reporter
John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg's faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News.
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