Antisemitism

Antisemitic hate groups hold Jewish people collectively responsible for society’s ills, believing they possess outsized, worldwide societal influence that they use to create social, economic and political instability for their own benefit. Antisemitism undergirds much of the far right, unifying adherents in their belief that Jewish people pose the primary threat to white social dominance. Antisemitic groups and actors also distort and deny the reality of the Holocaust to cast Jews as conniving opportunists.

Top Takeaways

The number of antisemitic hate groups increased from the previous year, and a significant development was the emergence of Network Radio, the organization responsible for founding and hosting the inaugural “Jewish Problem Conference.” In 2024, SPLC tracked antisemitic incidents and continued to see an increase that began with the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that initiated the Israel-Hamas war. These incidents included vandalism of Jewish institutions and places of worship, flyering from known hate groups, and assaults on Jewish people and business.

Antisemitism is a central feature of the white power movement, with Jewish people cast as all-powerful manipulators who use Black people and other marginalized communities to challenge white social and political dominance. Recent years have seen a rise in incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and violence as well as concerted efforts by the federal government and community organizations to confront these threats.

Antisemitism is often paired with other forms of bigotry. As the far right has ramped up its efforts to attack the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people, for example, hate groups and other bigoted actors have perpetuated the antisemitic narrative that Jewish people are helping to further the normalization and acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities in order to further social strife. Likewise, the far right argues that Jews are orchestrating a “great replacement” in which they aid the immigration of non-white people — especially those who are Muslim — into majority-white counties to challenge and erode white supremacy.

While many of the groups the SPLC monitors are antisemitic, we reserve this designation specifically for those that focus their hatred most intently on Jewish people, including Holocaust deniers, who either deny that such a genocide took place or minimize its extent. Most groups listed in a variety of other categories, including white nationalist, neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan, neo-Confederate, racist skinhead and Christian Identity, also deeply embrace antisemitism.

Key Moments

Throughout 2024, antisemitism persisted as a serious threat to Jewish communities. After Oct. 7, 2023, reports of bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions across the United States surged dramatically, marking an unsettling trend of escalating antisemitic threats. This wave of intimidation affected synagogues, schools and community centers that were targeted by arson and vandalism, including one historic synagogue in Philadelphia that was targeted three times in just one day. According to one 2024 survey, over one in four Jewish people report they feel unsafe spending time in Jewish institutions.

On June 30, the hate group Network Radio held a “Jewish Problem Conference” in Somerset, Kentucky, demonstrated how antisemitism persists as a powerful unifier among extremists, drawing Holocaust deniers, white nationalists and other conspiracy theorists together under a common, hate-fueled narrative. Attendees promoted dangerous tropes — including claims that Jews control powerful institutions and pose an existential threat to Western civilization — disguised in pseudo-academic language to lend a false legitimacy. While the conference itself was small, organizers leveraged the expansive social media reach of its speakers, several of whom have large online followings, enabling its antisemitic content to spread quickly beyond Somerset. Fringe figures like Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf are platformed by influencers like Stew Peters, an antisemite with an online video platform and more than 750,000 followers on the social media platform X.

What’s Ahead

Antisemitic groups and rhetoric are likely to increase. The social media platform X has become increasingly tolerant of racist, antisemitic and other bigoted rhetoric from its users, allowing extremists a space to further spread their noxious ideology and mount harassment campaigns. Hate groups and far-right influencers have used the platform to direct threats toward progressive individuals and institutions like those that support the LGBTQ+ community. Extremist groups and figures continue to seize on Israeli political and military activity as a vehicle for mainstreaming their ideologies. Right-wing figures are expected to continue leveraging Jewish identity to advance their agenda of transforming the United States into a Christian nation, framing any criticism of Israel as inherently antisemitic. Christian nationalist leaders such as Sean Feucht will likely amplify this instrumentalization by presenting conditional support for the Jewish community as a guise for their broader religious nationalism.

Antisemitic hate groups like Network Radio are already preparing for a second Jewish Problem Conference, actively fundraising for the event and a corresponding publication to promote their harmful narratives.

Background

Antisemitism and White Supremacy

As anti-racist organizer Eric K. Ward has argued in his essay “Skin in the Game,” antisemitism provides a foundational ideological basis for white supremacy. “Antisemitism,” Ward writes, “is a particular and potent form of racism so central to [white] supremacy that Black people would not win our freedom without tearing it down.” 

Antisemitic myths, such as the belief in Jewish control of government or media, are key elements of white nationalist ideologies. White nationalist Nick Fuentes, for instance, employed antisemitic tropes at a “Stop the Steal” rally in 2020, alluding to “global special interest groups” that he alleged manipulated the election outcome. Fuentes’ remarks mirrored industrialist Henry Ford’s century-old conspiracy theories. White nationalist groups like Counter-Currents Publishing, led by Greg Johnson, still credit figures like David Irving for their conversion to extremist ideologies.

Antisemitism takes many forms, from blatant displays to insidious tropes embedded in American socio-political rhetoric. Visible symbols, such as those used by the Goyim Defense League in its numerous flyering campaigns, utilize antisemitic language and imagery. The Southern Poverty Law Center has tracked a marked increase in antisemitic actions in 2024. But antisemitism can also be especially dangerous in its subtler forms, where it is instrumentalized in conspiracy theories that cast Jews as societal or governmental manipulators. 

Antisemitic tropes about Jewish power, greed and influence have existed for millennia. Today, antisemites often pair these tropes with symbols and coded language. Common tropes involve Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and American philanthropist George Soros or the “Deep State,” reflecting long-standing stereotypes of Jewish power and control. Far-right actors frequently use Soros as a symbol of Jewish wealth and influence and regularly accuse him of sinister plots to destabilize America. By pairing age-old antisemitic tropes with modern symbols, antisemites can more easily disguise their true antisemitic intent and make their message more palatable to mainstream audiences.

The extremist concept of the “Deep State” — a supposed network of unelected officials within government agencies like the FBI, allegedly working to undermine American values and leaders — has been heavily embraced by Christian nationalists and some right-wing politicians, either ignorant or uncaring of its origins as a Jewish-led conspiracy. 

U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee) in June 2024 echoed these sentiments, criticizing the FBI as part of a “deep state” that is “compromised by a far-left agenda” and suggesting that the agency’s decisions reflect hidden agendas rather than transparent governance. The Deep State is continually presented as a near-supernatural force controlling government from within, fostering fears about American democracy being compromised by unseen actors.

White supremacists often portray Jewish people as simultaneously inferior and omnipotent, weaving an image of “globalist” agents wielding outsized financial influence to subvert European and white American cultural structures. Groups such as Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ movements are also depicted by white supremacists as tools in a Jewish-led plot to weaken and destabilize these structures. This tactic illustrates how antisemitism is used to amplify hate toward multiple communities, underscoring its adaptive quality as a unifying conspiratorial framework for hate-based ideologies and LGBTQ+ movements that are also depicted by white supremacists as tools in a Jewish-led plot to weaken and destabilize these structures. This tactic illustrates how antisemitism is used to amplify hate toward multiple communities, underscoring its adaptive quality as a unifying conspiratorial framework for hate-based ideologies.

Antisemitism has been exploited to discredit and undermine organizations or initiatives that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and LGBTQ+ rights. On their Telegram channel in 2024, South Texas Proud Boys shared memes and content linking an image of an orthodox Jewish person to progressive causes, stating, “But apart from financial scam, promote migration, porn, feminism, comunism, race mixing, paedofilia, holohoax, genocide and fake news. What have we ever done to you.” In the fall of 2024, they went on to post news articles about the large number of U.S. Jewish people who voted for Kamala Harris, stating, “If you’re still wondering if Trump was the right choice: 79% of Jews votes for their open border candidate.”

Antisemitism is at the heart of many conspiracy theories that have found widespread purchase among the American public, including claims that secret or nefarious powers are controlling or manipulating events from behind the scenes. For example, adherents of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory claim nefarious actors are orchestrating a plan to replace white populations with non-white immigrants. While the origins of this conspiratorial belief were not antisemitic, white supremacists quickly folded it into their worldview and pointed to Jewish people as the ones responsible for facilitating immigration and shifting demographics. Thus, Jewish people were targeted as scapegoats for societal changes and immigration concerns — a belief white power activists referenced when they shouted “Jews will not replace us” at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The theory has fueled other deadly attacks on marginalized communities, including the 2018 massacre at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, and the 2022 attack at a Buffalo grocery store.

Christian nationalists have increasingly framed their support for Israel in a self-serving manner, portraying it as biblically mandated rather than rooted in genuine alliance. This tactic positions Jews as fulfilling a prophetic role, with their support contingent on maintaining this biblical narrative.

Holocaust deniers form a notable segment of antisemitic groups and a concerning portion of individuals in the hard-right movement. Adherents seek to validate antisemitism and undermine the experiences of Jewish people by distorting the historical facts of the Holocaust or outright denying it ever happened.

Holocaust deniers spread such falsehoods as the claim that Jewish people died from disease, starvation and other indiscriminate challenges rather than a systematic genocide orchestrated and executed by the Nazi Party during its occupation of Europe during World War II.

Antisemitism as a Weapon Against Marginalized Groups

Unfortunately, bad-faith accusations of antisemitism are often made to further a reactionary political agenda. For example, during heightened political and military moments for Israel, right-wing actors have conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation have even encouraged the government to take legal action against protesters critical of Israel. The foundation’s plan, called “Project Esther,” serves to support its vision for a conservative, Christian America, similar in rhetoric and intent to its broader Project 2025. These bad-faith accusations of antisemitism are disproportionately deployed to silence and punish people of color, particularly Black and Arab people.

The persistence of antisemitism is due in part to its adaptability, enabling conspiracists to target not only Jews but also other marginalized communities. For example, anti-LGBTQ+ extremists have increasingly used antisemitic rhetoric, such as falsely blaming Jews for promoting the “gay agenda” and spreading sexual deviance. Extremists have taken to recent protests with signs reading “Judaism allows child rape” and “Jews run the pedo agenda.” Jewish people, these groups and individuals argue, manipulate society to undermine “traditional” norms of family and social life.

The Nation of Islam has similarly wielded antisemitism to support its agenda by reframing serious issues facing the Black community as the fault of Jewish people rather than white supremacy. This can be seen in its book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, which falsely claims that Jewish people were central to the transatlantic slave trade and other forms of Black oppression, such as Jim Crow laws and sharecropping. This narrative has been instrumental in efforts to create a division between non-Jewish Black people and Jewish people, as illustrated by Khalid Abdul Muhammad’s infamous antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ speech at Kean College in 1993, which drew heavily on these conspiratorial claims. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has also spread dangerous antisemitic myths, such as labeling Jews “bloodsuckers of the poor” and claiming that Jewish people spread pedophilia and sexual perversion through Hollywood.

Historical and contemporary anti-Jewish rhetoric has accused Jews of everything from the spread of diseases to the supposed cause of immigration issues. These narratives persist today, as seen when President Trump blamed Jewish voters for election outcomes. Whether deliberate or unconscious, such rhetoric serves to scapegoat Jewish communities and amplify antisemitic sentiments.

2024 Antisemitic Hate Groups  

CarolynYeager.net
Kerrville, Texas

Clemens and Blair
Hilton Head, South Carolina

Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust
Healdsburg, California

Independent History & Research
Coeur D’Alene, Idaho

Institute for Historical Review
Newport, California

Money Tree Publishing
Crestview, Florida

Nation of Islam
Los Angeles, California
Miami, Florida
Chicago, Illinois
New York, New York
Houston, Texas
Washington, D.C.

Network Radio
Hot Springs, Virginia

The Barnes Review
White Plains, Maryland