Antisemitism in the 21st Century: Harnessing Cutting-Edge Technology for a Resilient Response

Antisemitism in the 21st Century: Harnessing Cutting-Edge Technology for a Resilient Response

Rivka Rosenberg, PhD Rome, Italy Oct. 22nd, 2025

Plan

Antisemitism in the 21st Century

Q&A

Harnessing Innovation: Resilient Responses

Antisemitism since 7 October

Recommended tools

Case-Studies: Success Stories

Origin of Antisemitism

• Since the 3rd century BCE in the city of Alexandria in Egypt. Initial responsible for anti-Jewish propaganda: the Egyptian priest Manetho.
• Spread of hostility against the Jews.
• Subsequent anti-Semitic edicts.
• Issued by Antiochus Epiphanes in 170 and 167 BCE.
• Consequence: Antiochus's edicts sparked the Maccabean revolt (167 BCE).
• Historical significance: These events represent the deep roots of anti-Semitism, which evolved over the centuries.

Medieval Antisemitism

Jew-Hate Propaganda Throughout the Decades

• Antisemitism is a vicious prejudice filled of hatred against Jewish people.
• It was at the foundation of the Holocaust as historical event
• Antisemitism did
• not begin or end
• with the Holocaust
• Antisemitism has existed for thousands of years
• It is a systemic discrimination and persecution against Jews
• Antisemitism has repeatedly led to serious and deadly violence against Jewish people

Source: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2014/11/14/invention-jewish-nose/

Propaganda in the Third Reich: Manipulating Minds and Shaping Reality

Antisemitism- IHRA Definition

• A certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.
• Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property,
• Toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.
• The IHRA definition includes illustrative examples to help identify analyze contemporary forms of antisemitism
• Included some manifestations that target the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collective.

Antisemitism often starts:

• As rhetoric
• With slurs
• Scapegoating
• Insults
• Escalates to broader

Antisemitim Since the 21th Century

Digital Disinformation and Distortion

• Online hate speech and memes
• Deepfakes and disinformation
• Intersection with broader hate networks: misogyny, racism, denialism

Antisemitism within anti-Israel activism and conspiracy ecosystems

Echoes of Hatred: The Return of Antisemitism After 7 October

Since the Hamas’ massacre in Israel on October 7th, 2023, there has been an undeniable tsunami of unprecedented global antisemitism, hatred and killings.

Antisemitism that vandalizes

• Lyon: The synagogue was vandalized with "Free Gaza"
• London: a Jewish primary school was attacked
• Greece: A mural of a Holocaust memorial was defaced with "Jews= Nazis"
• The Anne Frank statue in Amsterdam was vandalized with the words "Gaza".
• Italy, a French tourist with a kippah and his 7-year-old son were physically assaulted at a gas station

Antisemitism that kills

2 Jews who were going to pray on Yom Kippur in Manchester, October 3, 2025

2 Israeli Embassy staffers killed in shooting outside Jewish Museum in D.C. 22 May 2025

Glorifying Terrorism and Justifying the October 7th Attack. The distortion of words

• 9 October 2023: a French MP said that Hamas was a "resistance" Movement
• 4 October 2025: in a pro-Palestinian demonstration a poster in Italy was displayed " 7 October Palestinian Resistance Day".
• Presenting Hamas as a resistance movement means legitimizing violence against civilians and distorting historical truth.
• Resistance is legitimate only when it defends human life and dignity
• Hamas terrorism represents the very negation of humanity

Examples of Denials

• Jordan's Queen Rania expressed skepticism over accusations that Israeli children had benn butchered by Hamas
• Former Algerian MP Benhadida said that "there were no rapes

Questions

Are these Antisemitic or not?

Who is it this ?

Actions

• The tsunami of global antisemitism following October 7th should once again serve as a grim reminder
• Governments and international organizations need to take concrete action to fight antisemitic hate and extremism
• To mitigate the risks Jewish communities and institutions face on a daily basis.

How can we harness the very technologies that spread hate to build empathy, resilience,and truth?

Answer on Padlet

Harnessing Innovation: Resilient Response

• Technology created a new battlefield
• The most powerful toolkit humanity
• To fight ignorance
• Education: Gamified learning fostering critical reflection
• Virtual classrooms: linking Jewish and non-Jewish students globally
• Social / Cultural: Digital storytelling and memory projects as counter-narratives.

• Creative activism (art, music, AR).
• Bar Ilan University
• Institutional / Policy: Tech regulation and hate-speech detection.
• NGO–tech: partnerships and digital literacy in education systems.

Case Studies & Success Stories

• Digital tools as bridges of memory, not walls of division
• “Names, Not Numbers" Community-based VR heritage restoration
• "Whistle. My mother was Mengele's Secretary". A play in Theater with its technology workshops

Activity on ???:

• How would you design a digital campaign to counter hate?
• What can resilience look like in your context?

Recommended Tools

• Collaboration Tools: Padlet
• Creation: Genially, Canva
• Virtual Reality: Virbela

• AI

The Opposite of Love is not Hate. It is indifference

Elie Wiesel

Thank you Grazie