WASHINGTON, D.C. — The head of one of the most prominent Jewish advocacy organizations in the world says the war against antisemitism has entered a dangerous new phase — one where Jew-hatred is no longer a fringe phenomenon lurking on the dark edges of society, but a normalized, weaponized force embedded in mainstream politics, media, and international institutions.

Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), made the sobering assessment in a candid interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod this week at AJC’s Washington offices — just days before AJC’s annual Global Forum kicks off Sunday in the nation’s capital.

Deutch, who served 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives before taking the helm at AJC in 2022, said the transformation has been both swift and alarming. “The threat of antisemitism has evolved,” he told Jewish Insider, “and I think our response has to evolve as well.”

The veteran lawmaker and Jewish advocate said he is genuinely stunned by how casually dangerous lies about Israel and the Jewish people are now spread by prominent public voices. “What is astounding to me is the cavalier way in which so many public voices so freely spread dangerous lies about Israel and the Jewish people,” Deutch said — pointing to rhetoric he believes has real-world consequences in blood and fear.

Those consequences were brought into sharp, heartbreaking focus just recently when two young Israeli Embassy staff members — Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky — were murdered outside a Washington, D.C. event hosted by the AJC itself. Deutch connects such tragedies directly to the normalization of genocidal rhetoric that, he says, has crept from campus protests and social media feeds into the talking points of serious political figures.

Deutch’s warnings are not merely impressionistic. They are backed by devastating data. The AJC’s own State of Antisemitism in America 2025 report found that 91% of American Jews feel less safe in the wake of recent violent attacks, while 86% say antisemitism has increased since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel. More than half — 55% — have changed their daily behavior out of fear.

The Anti-Defamation League’s 2025 Audit recorded 6,274 antisemitic incidents — an average of 17 every single day — including 203 assaults, the highest assault rate in decades. Alarmingly, 2025 also marked the first year since 2019 that antisemitic murders occurred on American soil.

Deutch is not coming to the Global Forum empty-handed. AJC plans to unveil a major new initiative at next week’s conference, one that Deutch says will go beyond the traditional focus on physical security to target the culture and ideology driving the hatred — and the institutions that are providing it cover.

The forum itself reflects the moment’s gravity. Speakers include Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), Senator David McCormick (R-PA), university leaders, families of hostages still held in Gaza, and international dignitaries — a bipartisan assembly that Deutch says is essential to fighting a threat that must not become a partisan football.

“Security alone isn’t enough,” Deutch told Jewish Insider. The new plan will address ideology, cultural counter-efforts, and institutional accountability — what AJC sees as the roots feeding the violent branches.

For Christians and people of faith who care deeply about Israel and the Jewish community, Deutch’s call is a summons to engagement. The AJC’s message is clear: silence, even well-meaning silence, is no longer sufficient. Institutions, leaders, and communities of conscience must be willing to name what is happening and push back — across party lines, across cultural divides, and at every level of public life.

The Global Forum begins Sunday in Washington, D.C., coinciding with AJC’s 120th anniversary and America’s 250th birthday. At a moment when history is being made and rewritten simultaneously, the question Deutch is pressing on leaders of every background is a simple but urgent one: Whose side are you on?

Read the full Jewish Insider interview with Ted Deutch:
jewishinsider.com — “AJC’s Ted Deutch on the Mainstreaming of Antisemitism”