An unnamed witness testifying before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) warned that global antisemitism has surged since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and now poses a major threat to liberal democracies, the witness said.

The witness said the scope of contemporary antisemitism includes hostile rhetoric, discriminatory initiatives and outright violence, and argued that the phenomenon’s conspiratorial character makes it especially dangerous to pluralistic societies.

The testimony cited multiple indicators of the trend and explained why it matters. The witness quoted the OSCE Berlin declaration that “antisemitism following its most devastating manifestation during the Holocaust has assumed new forms and expressions” and cited FBI data saying that although Jews represent about 2% of the U.S. population, they account for nearly 70% of all religiously motivated hate crimes.

In the testimony the witness linked the post-Oct. 7, 2023 environment to an increase in antisemitic acts and rhetoric worldwide. “I would have hoped that the largest single day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust would have resulted in an outpouring of sympathy for the Jewish state and the Jewish people,” the witness said, and added that instead the attack “also ignited an explosion of antisemitism here in the United States and around the world.” The witness referenced an incident near the Capitol Jewish Museum in May in which a pro-Palestinian activist shot and killed two employees of the Israeli embassy after a reception for young diplomats.

The witness characterized antisemitism as distinct from other prejudices because it often alleges that Jews occupy a secretly powerful position in society. The testimony cited the early 20th-century fabrication The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a foundational antisemitic conspiracy text and argued that modern conspiracy theories draw on that tradition.

The witness pointed to examples across the political spectrum to show the ideology’s adaptability. The testimony quoted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 2018 denunciation of George Soros as an example on the political right and cited academic critiques and public figures on the left and right—naming Tucker Carlson and referencing Rutgers scholar Jasbir Puar’s scholarship—as illustrating how disparate actors can converge on antisemitic themes. The witness also discussed how the Jeffrey Epstein case has been recast by some as an antisemitic conspiracy theory alleging Mossad involvement, despite an FBI announcement in July finding no evidence that Epstein possessed a client list or blackmailed the individuals in question.

The witness framed broader drivers of the trend as a decline in global U.S. leadership, growing authoritarian influence, political polarization at home, and declining trust in institutions such as the mainstream media and academia. “Declining trust in our sense making institutions has created fertile ground for the rise of a new discourse increasingly popular among young people that sees no problem in peddling hoary tropes about malign Jewish power,” the witness said.

The testimony emphasized mitigation rather than eradication as a realistic policy goal. “While [eradicating antisemitism] is a noble goal, it is a utopian one,” the witness said, adding later, “If there's one message I would like to leave you with today, it is that antisemitism starts but never ends with the Jews.”

The witness concluded by saying the prevalence of antisemitism is a barometer of societal health and offered to answer questions from the commission. No formal action, motion or vote was recorded in the transcript of the hearing.