The State Department has incorporated "Great Replacement" theory language into official U.S. communications on migration and refugees, according to NPR. The "Great Replacement" concept, which holds that nonwhite immigration is deliberately engineered to displace white populations, originated in white nationalist movements and has been cited by perpetrators of mass shootings including the 2019 El Paso attack.
The Justice Department charged an Iraqi national with plotting terrorist attacks on U.S. targets, including a planned synagogue bombing in New York and the European offices of two American banks, according to Bloomberg Politics. The suspect is alleged to have links to an Iran-backed militant network.
Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the man charged with fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., according to The Hill. The formal notice came from U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro's office, filed with a federal judge.
William Paul, son of Sen. Rand Paul, confronted Rep. Mike Lawler at a Washington bar and made antisemitic remarks, according to CBS News. Said Lawler: "He yelled out, 'Jews'" when asked who he meant by "my people" — then went on what Lawler described as a "10-minute diatribe about Israel, about Jews" and said he "hates Jews, hates gays and doesn't care if they die." William Paul posted an apology on X, saying he was seeking help for his drinking problem.
William Paul, son of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), apologized after reportedly directing antisemitic attacks at Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) at a Capitol Hill bar, according to The Hill. Said William Paul: "Last night, I had too much to drink and said some things that don't represent who I really am."
A super PAC with Republican ties is intervening in Democratic primary races, including backing a Texas candidate — a sex therapist facing antisemitism accusations — according to The New York Times. The PAC's involvement raises questions about outside money shaping which Democrats appear on general-election ballots.
The Hill is running an opinion piece asking whether the Democratic Party's drift on Israel has made a Jewish candidate unelectable in a 2028 primary — a question with precedent older than the modern primary system itself.
The argument, in brief: Jewish voters remain among the most reliably Democratic blocs in the electorate, yet activist energy inside the party has shifted sharply against Israeli government policy in ways that could make a Jewish candidate's identity a liability rather than an asset.
Abraham Foxman, who led the Anti-Defamation League as national director for nearly three decades and built it into one of the country's foremost civil rights watchdog organizations, has died at 86, according to the Washington Post. During his tenure, Foxman made the ADL a central institution in the fight against antisemitism and other forms of prejudice in the United States.
At the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills this week, the concern animating many Jewish executives and philanthropists was not a panel topic — it was the hallway conversation, Jewish Insider reports.
Said TD Bank Vice Chair Jeffrey Solomon: "Antisemitism is a manifestation of extremism and populism. Extremism on the left and extremism on the right, neither one of those is good for us as Jews, but it's not good for a lot of people."
He added: "The policies that have gotten us to this place have not been inclusive enough for enough people."
The pattern Solomon is describing is not new. It is one of the most reliably recurring sequences in the history of democratic societies under economic stress — and American history is no exception.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington is demanding that Montgomery County Public Schools — Maryland's largest district — adopt a zero-tolerance policy on antisemitism after a documented wave of incidents including physical threats, 'Heil Hitler' gestures at middle school events, and antisemitic graffiti at Greenwood Elementary School, the Times of Israel reports.
Said Guila Franklin Siegel, the JCRC's chief operating officer: "While the details vary, these incidents reveal a harsh truth: too many Jewish students and educators at too many MCPS schools continue to face too many threats."
The district already has a federal Title VI investigation on its books — opened by the Department of Education over antisemitism allegations — and four educators were placed on administrative leave in December 2023 for sharing antisemitic content on social media. The JCRC says MCPS's incident count is "significantly higher than other school districts across our region." That's not a trend. That's a management failure.
Morton Schapiro — economist, former Northwestern president, and pro-Israel Jewish voice in higher education — withdrew as Georgetown Law's May 17 commencement speaker after a student petition with 282 signatures called his views "controversial, Zionist, and harmful," the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports.
Said Schapiro to the Jewish Journal: "Given Georgetown Law's desire to keep politics out of its commencement ceremony, I am a little surprised by their choice of a speaker to replace me."
The replacement: David Cole, a Georgetown professor and former ACLU national legal director who compared congressional hearings on campus antisemitism to "McCarthyism" and cautioned universities against restricting pro-Palestinian student speech after October 7. That's not keeping politics out. That's picking a side under cover of neutrality.
Physical assaults against American Jews reached their highest level since 1979 last year, according to the latest data. Antisemitism is rising on the right and the left — from a president who dined with Holocaust deniers to progressive lawmakers who downplay the targeting of Jews on college campuses. Same standard for both. Name it. Cite it. Don't let either side off the hook.