To a growing number, every Jew represents Israel, making Jews everywhere a convenient target for Israel’s actions. Other nationalities, ethnicities and religions are not held responsible for the actions of foreign governments — not Iranian Americans, Russian Americans or Chinese Americans. Only Jews.

On a New York City subway recently, a 23-year-old Jewish nurse was choked by a stranger screaming false propaganda about Gaza. The nurse had no part in any war and was attacked for only one reason: she is Jewish.

Knicks star and music icon punished for ties to Jews

When the New York Knicks recently won the NBA championship, a conspiracy theory quickly spread online that the title had been rigged because the team’s star player is married to a Jewish woman. A love story between Jalen Brunson and physical therapist Dr. Ali Marks Brunson was twisted into an example of alleged “hidden” Jewish power.

Pop-music star Taylor Swift was not spared either. Anti-Israel activists turned on her for attending a Knicks game with sisters from the American rock band Haim — their father had served as a drummer in an Israeli army band during his mandatory military service decades ago.

Hotels of hate: Jews not welcome here

This hostility greets Jewish travelers at hotel desks around the world. In California, an employee recently confronted a Hebrew-speaking couple at check-in, demanding to know whether they were “baby killers” before bragging online about the encounter. In Britain, hotel chain Travelodge apologized after a clerk taunted a visibly Jewish guest and left “Free Palestine” messages in his room.

In Germany, a hotel turned Israeli guests away with the words: “There are no Jews allowed.” Israeli Consul General Talya Lador asked: “Are we back in the 1930s?” Booking.com promptly removed the property from its platform. In Kyrgyzstan, no clerk was needed at all — an engraved metal sign at the entrance barred “Jews and animals.”

An old hatred with new excuses

None of this started recently. The hatred is age-old, and it has always worked the same way. Signs banning “blacks, Jews and dogs” hung across hotels, stores and country clubs across America only a few decades ago. For centuries, Jews have been cast as the disloyal outsider and blamed for plagues, financial turmoil and wars.

The lies run from the medieval Christian blood libel to the forged Russian Protocols of the Elders of Zion propaganda. Holding every Jew responsible for Israel’s actions is textbook antisemitism. The attacks are not random — they are the work of an organized movement to isolate Jews, boycott them, ban them and drive them out of everyday life.

The firebombing at a pro-Israel march in Boulder, Colorado, the shooting of two Israeli staffers at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and a synagogue car-ramming attack in Michigan were all tragedies that occurred within the last year. Mohamed Soliman threw firebombs into a peaceful walk for Israeli hostages, burning more than a dozen people and killing 82-year-old Karen Diamond. On the recent anniversary of the attack, a banned University of Colorado Students for Justice in Palestine chapter publicly honored him as a hero.

Politicians and prosecutors respond

Jewish Americans are not facing this alone, and the pushback is bipartisan. In the U.S. Senate, Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced the Jewish American Security Act, which would strengthen civil-rights protections on campus, expand security funding for synagogues and other nonprofits, and require social-media companies to confront antisemitism. In the House, Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill to force universities to investigate antisemitism complaints or lose federal funding.

The courts are moving as well. The U.S. Department of Justice expanded its civil-rights case against Harvard and is pursuing action against the University of California, Los Angeles. Federal prosecutors indicted eight University of Michigan activists for threatening Jewish students and institutions.

Jews and their allies refuse to back down

The answer to these attacks is defiance, not fear. Recently, 50,000 Americans marched through New York City for Israel Day, and a record-breaking 60,000 turned out in Toronto for its annual pro-Israel walk.

American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council founder Dr. Anila Ali led the first-ever Muslim delegation in Manhattan. She marched proudly and declared that “Zionism is in the Quran,” despite threats from a city councilwoman who condemned her. Tens of thousands openly stood together against a hate movement that wants Jews to disappear from public life.