I recently came across a powerful message delivered by British-Jewish comedian Sasha Baron Cohen, best known for his characters such as Ali G and Borat. Baron Cohen has long been an outspoken critic of the way in which social media platforms utilize algorithmic data to manipulate what users see, manufacturing fear, hate and outrage to garner more engagement.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington organized by the King family, he was invited to speak. One element of his message rang true then and even more so now. Talking specifically about antisemitism, he said “Don't believe it. Don't click on the conspiracy. Don't like the lie. Learn the facts.”

Now, as a comedian, you can imagine how wryly and darkly he sees how the world has responded in the last three years. Millions, tens of millions, continue to like the lies. But the message is sound. It is true, and as Shakespeare wrote in his Merchant of Venice (in which he was either calling out antisemitism, or encouraging it, depending on which scholar you follow), “but in the end the truth will out.”

It strikes me that we often look at our engagement on these platforms as ephemeral or even meaningless in the long run, especially if we are liking, disliking, and not even commenting. But that is not the case. Each click is a data point, each data point moves the algorithm, and like a tidal wave or an avalanche hate picks up momentum from the smallest tidal eddy or piece of rock. Moreover, this doesn’t only apply to social media. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that these very same manifestations of hate grow similarly in real life.

This week, a group of more than sixty Jewish teachers and early childhood educators from the tri-state area had planned to be in Reggio Emelia, Italy, where a world renowned early childhood curriculum has been developed and very successfully deployed. Ahead of their visit, it is reported, organizers in Italy did a deep-dive investigation of these Jewish participants on their public statements, posts, or support for Israel or Zionism, and in a shocking move, they were expected to sign a declaration that they did not support Israel or its reactions to 10/7, to occupation, and various accusations about children in Gaza. No other educators have been asked to make or sign any kind of statements on any conflict at any time, and in this declaration there was of course no reference to the rights of Jewish children like Kfir and Ariel Bibas to the life snuffed out by the murderers in Gaza who took their lives, their mother Shiri’s life, and held their father Yarden hostage for 448 days. Refusing to sign such a document, and concerned for their safety amid threats of demonstrations, the Jewish educators canceled their long planned trip.

Also this week, dozens of Jewish community leaders from around the world were in Ireland for a conference on antisemitism, following the J7 international Jewish leadership meeting with British Foreign Minister Ed Miliband in London a few days earlier. The Herbert Park hotel in Dublin canceled a 70 room block that had been arranged for conference participants, and Dublin Jewish leadership indicated that this was an intentional anti-Jewish act. Some of my colleagues and friends were among those affected.

Coming full circle back to where we started, with Baron Cohen’s “Don’t like the lie”, I also had an opportunity to listen to Dara Horn, the celebrated author of People Love Dead Jews, who was speaking about new book. She shared a central thesis of her evolving work, that antisemitism at its core is essentially a lie, or a collection thereof. Throughout history it has been built upon falsehoods, scapegoating, and conspiracy theories rather than a rational response to facts. She describes contemporary tropes—like denial of Jewish indigeneity, or the redefinition of Zionism as essentially evil—as contemporary versions of ancient ideas like the blood libel, and which consequently frame antisemitism as good and righteous.

Lies are easy to tell, and easy to believe. They are easy to spread, especially on fertile ground. We’re all aware of the ease with which these lies can be told and truth manipulated on social media. But we can’t forget that long before that, there was very fertile ground for the very same lie. It manifests in Ireland and Italy, in Spain and the UK, in France and Holland. In the places where our ancestors were tortured, abused, exiled and murdered for generation after generation. Where the very walls and roads are built and paved with the stolen headstones of our people, and the land fertilized with their blood. Having studied European Jew hatred for forty years, none of this surprises me.

We can have legitimate discussions or arguments over what the most effective response, if any, should be. Some will be insistent on dialogue, or education as the only response, even if there doesn’t seem to be a willing interlocutor. Others will determine that the only response that has a chance of being effective is a consequential one, with every legal, legislative, social, and economic response deployed to make such actions as described above costly enough for a perpetrator to second guess their recurrence. But it starts with understanding what is truth and what is a lie. Don’t like the lie. Don’t even give it oxygen. Blood libels and the costumed bigotry underlying so much of what we see around us endanger Jewish lives and should be viewed and responded to as such.

Don’t like the lie. Don’t be silent.

Here at the Federation, we encourage you to share your concerns with us. We have active investigations going on right now on apparent anti Jewish actions taken in places and at institutions across Rockland. We work with our network and law enforcement to assess and respond if there is a criminal or threatening aspect, and we work with agency partners to address these issues if they are not criminal or immediately threatening. Send us an email or give us a call if you encounter something that’s not right. We’ll answer the call.