In recent weeks, popular music artist, record producer, and fashion designer Kanye West has been under intense criticism for his antisemitic statements and conservative views. However, antisemitic hate crimes, pro-Nazi propaganda, and casual bigotry has been on the rise since at least 2017. In 2021 alone, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which records incidents of antisemitic behavior, recorded at least 2,717 reports of violence, vandalism, and harassment against Jewish individuals and businesses. This was the highest annual total since the tracking of these incidents started in 1979. The common explanation for this recent rise in resentment and hatred connects Jewish Americans to the state of Israel for subjecting its Palestinian citizens to what has been referred to as a militant regime that refuses to make peace. But recently Prime Ministers, Naftali Bennett, and Yair Lapid, have been committed to keeping peace and supporting a very moderate government, even for the first time including a Palestinian Arab party in its ruling coalition. 

So why this sudden spike in hatred against Jewish people? To really understand we have to look at the United States as a whole, instead of just its tiny Jewish communities. 

The rise of the internet and social media as a main news source for many has brought on an unappeasable desire for conspiracy theories to explain every issue one may have with society. No matter how deluded and far-out these explanations may be, millions of people are ready to embrace them and their proprietors. On the surface many conspiracies seem lighthearted or childish. Most people don’t give the idea of lizard celebrities a second thought, but the unique thing about antisemitism and its relationship with conspiracies, is that it is a conspiracy theory. It’s a theory about how the world runs, or rather who runs it. And thanks to centuries of blaming Jewish people for the world’s troubles, anti-Jewish prejudice makes it into our everyday interactions, media, and news. 

Today, a populist Q-Anon myth of global elitists that drink the blood of kidnapped and tortured children to keep their youth and cement world power bears strong parallels to ancient myths of the “Blood Libel.” Blood libel is the belief that Jewish religious traditions required the blood of Christian children to bake into Passover matzos. In medieval Europe, Jewish communities faced mass expulsions based on the blood libel. As outlandish as these ideas may seem they still manage to worm their way into the minds of average people, and even those in positions of power. One member of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, managed to blame “Jewish space lasers” for wildfires in California. Green has also been most associated with Q-Anon and other alt-right theory forums. 

It’s no coincidence that some of America’s most popular and bizarre conspiracy theories carry resemblance to long-standing propaganda used against Jewish communities. A conspiracy theory known as “The Great Replacement,” has attracted supporters in much larger amounts than fringe reporters and communities already known for their lunacy. Tucker Carlson of Fox News has dedicated hours on the alleged effort of international elites to replace the white, American working class with a title wave of undocumented and non-English speaking immigrants, who would serve as more malleable labor to global elitists. These deep fears of the “Reset,” as its sometimes known, originated in France to explain the mass importation Muslim migrants. While on their own these absurd concepts may be too much for even the most gullible, echoes of the “Great Replacement” in more cryptic language made its way into everyday political conversation. By the time, the “Replacement threat” made it to America it had developed an unmistakably antisemitic tone. In 2017, Charlottesville Neo-Nazi groups had gathered for their “Unite the Right” rally. Lit by torchlights they chanted, “The Jews will not replace us!” as they marched around the town’s only synagogue. 

A more personal, and quite controversial, conspiracy theory is that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a false operation by Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel. According to one of the main perpetrators of this theory, Alex Jones, Mossad collaborated with American extremists in order to fake the mass killing. Jones even suggested that the “crisis actors” pretending to be grieving parents could be easily identified as Jewish. Even completing these accusations with fake Hasidic curls. Jones maintained for years that no children had died at Sandy Hook. This absurd, disgusting lie was brought to court and will now be the reason Alex Jones will pay billions of dollars in damage. 

Conspiracy theories are becoming more widespread in the 21st century. Powered by the rise of social media, they are spread under the guise of being “alternative facts.” And yet modern conspiracies are very strange collections of ideas, jumbled messages reminiscent of the fantastical blood libel. Antisemitism is not the same as other forms of bigotry. A common misconception about Conspiracies is that they are a perverse of the political alt-right, but the magical thinking required to believe conspiracy theories is prevalent across the political spectrum. 

The evolution and elusiveness of the language used in conspiracies combined with their portrayal as “hidden facts” makes them believable in the minds of, usually troubled, people and gives them an imaginary scapegoat to blame their difficulties on. Young people today are very susceptible to believing in conspiracies. Often, our only source of information is social media, where anyone can post their own ideas and observations as facts. I mean, why go on a long hunt for facts and credible articles when you could just read condensed, “reliable” information from a trending twitter thread. These theories also give a sense of understanding to people who are looking for answers to issues that seem unsolvable; they give people a tangible enemy, “the Jews,” to fight with. Conspiracies flatter their believers into thinking they possess hidden knowledge others lack. Conspiracy theories and their believers are a phenomenon of human social changes. Despite the claims that humanity brings itself together in the face of injustice, it seems like nothing brings people closer together than conspiring against imaginary enemies.