Journalists gather to learn about Jew-hatred

Reporters from almost 20 countries came to the United States this month for a US State Department Foreign Press Center program on the steps government and law enforcement are taking to protect Jewish communities from pervasive antisemitism.

“The United States is aggressively combating antisemitism not only here at home but in every corner of the globe,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told JNS. “This important program is just one small reflection of how we are working to stop hate in its tracks and to share best practices with other nations confronting this grave threat.”

The State Department said it gave priority to countries with higher rates of Jew-hatred. Only four of the 19 countries — Germany, Mexico, Norway and South Africa — were represented by Jewish journalists.

“Normally, when you speak about global antisemitism, you find that the majority of authors or writers or columnists are Jews,” said Pablo Quiroz Zepeda, a Guadalajara-based journalist and analyst at Diario Judío, Mexico’s main online media outlet for the Jewish community.

“Finding that Catholics, Christian Orthodox, atheists or even Hinduists are covering this important topic, I think that we are making a further step in understanding what is the concern about antisemitism,” he said.

The tour included stops in Washington and the Miami area. In Washington, the delegation met with Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights; and survivors of Oct. 7. Rabbi Hyim Shafner of Kesher Israel, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Georgetown, spoke about interfaith dialogue, and the group attended an event with Jewish communal security officials.

In Miami, the group met with representatives of the Secure Community Network; Florida International University leaders and security personnel; police from Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County; and representatives of the Chabad-Lubavitch community, the Hillel at FIU and the Jewish Museum of Florida.

“For many of my colleagues, it was the first time to have an encounter with real Judaism, in every aspect, even to have a kosher meal,” Zepeda said. “Also Jewish jokes, even from rabbis. So they found the human contact.”

Sarah Carey, an Irish Independent columnist, said access to professors and Jewish community representatives was “really enlightening and informative about America, and not just about Judaism but, for instance, policing,” she said.

Carey, who was invited by the US Embassy in Dublin, has written about Jew-hatred and the Holocaust.

“I will say that Irish people will angrily deny that they’re antisemitic,” Carey said.

JNS and other publications have often reported on antisemitic rhetoric from Irish officials and Jew-hatred in the country — including, last week, an Irish hotel canceling reservations for a delegation of antisemitism envoys.

“They will be absolutely adamant that their only issue is with the government of Israel and the conduct of the war,” Carey said. “We have a tiny Jewish community in Ireland, and many of them would say they’ve had a very happy life here, and whatever antisemitism they have encountered would generally be around kind of the old ignorant remarks about financial conspiracies and that.”

“Most of them would say they’re not directly subject to certainly any kind of violence or graffiti or the kind of things that we heard about in America,” she said. “But mainly they would be asked to account for Israel and the actions of the State of Israel. That’s the pressure that they find themselves under.”

Carey said she was particularly struck by the armed presence at Jewish institutions.

“It really made me realize how much under threat Jews are when they’re outward facing and practicing their faith,” she said. “That was very sad.”

“All the police forces were explaining how deep their connections are with the communities, so that when there’s some kind of emergency or a threat, there are very clear lines of contact,” Carey said. “I thought that was very positive, not just for the Jewish community but as a blueprint for policing.”

The journalists also told tour organizers they would have welcomed a wider range of perspectives on Israel from American Jews.

“We felt the representatives that we met all were on a very similar message about Israel,” Carey said. “Whereas I know from my own personal contact that there are many Jews in America who are horrified at how the government has evolved over the years in Israel.”

“We would have liked more of an opportunity to meet with members of the American Jewish community who were more critical,” she said.

Zepeda said the invitation to participate “surprised” him. “After 15 years of my work as a journalist on this side, I never expected that antisemitism in Mexico could be something that the US embassy here in Mexico could express an interest in opening for a program in the United States,” he said.

“Antisemitism years ago wasn’t something really tangible in Mexico, which was really welcoming with the Jewish community,” Zepeda said. “But since 2018, because of the new regime that we have in power, the left-wing party, which is Morena, things have changed so much, and after Oct. 7, even more.”

The program’s final day offered another chance to discuss antisemitism and Israel, after South African jurist Navi Pillay was announced as winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. Zepeda recalled that someone on the bus asked Nicola Miltz, a prominent Jewish journalist from South Africa on the tour, whether she was happy about the announcement.

“She said, ‘No, I’m not happy at all,’” Zepeda said.

B’nai B’rith International was among the organizations that decried the selection, saying it was “appalled and dismayed” that Pillay, who has a “longstanding animus to the Jewish state,” received the award.

Zepeda said the exchange sparked another discussion among the journalists about the award, Pillay’s record and the differing perspectives on the tour. —JNS