Journal for Deradicalization

Antisemitism in Plain Sight: Introduction to the Special Issue, Part II

2026-08-27T11:52:13+00:00

This introduction to the second of two special issues of the Journal of Deradicalization examines contemporary antisemitism through six contributions. We first discuss the question of the scale and selectivity of anti-Israel mobilization since October 7, 2023: whether the phenomenon sometimes called “Palestinianism” acts, in part, as antisemitism in a more socially acceptable guise. Against that cultural and historic backdrop, we introduce six articles spanning visual, survey, experimental, and clinical case-study methods. This includes the first systematic analysis of offline, visual antisemitism: graffiti, defaced memorials, and marked Jewish space—as opposed to the online and rhetorical antisemitism that has dominated the literature. Complementing this visual analysis, contributions using population surveys, moral-psychology experiments, and clinical case material converge on a common finding: hostility toward Israel and hostility toward Jews are empirically separable yet functionally entangled, each capable of licensing the other under the right ideological and situational conditions. Turning to intervention, the issue offers evidence, some encouraging and some cautionary, on trauma-informed victim support, multidisciplinary disengagement work with radicalized youth, and biographical intergroup contact as a scalable prevention tool. For P/CVE practice, the collection suggests that countering contemporary antisemitism should include attending to where hate becomes visible in public space, disentangling anti-Israel sentiment from anti-Jewish animus in risk assessment, and investing in early, relationship-based prevention rather than relying solely on reactive security responses.

Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the Minerva Research Initiative, Department of Defense Grant No N000 14-21-275485. Any opinions, findings, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors alone and do not reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research, the Department of the Navy, or the Department of Defense.

Visual Antisemitism Across Europe During the Gaza War

2026-08-27T11:56:25+00:00

This chapter examines how antisemitism is visually expressed in public space in Europe against the backdrop of the war in Gaza. Drawing upon a qualitative analysis of publicly documented incidents, it focuses on offline, material, and symbolic acts such as graffiti, paint attacks, stickers, and the defacement or removal of memorials. The study analyses these incidents as communicative interventions that embed antisemitic meaning into everyday environments through repetition, placement, and symbolic association. The analysis identifies four recurring visual strategies: red symbolism and implied violence; Nazi symbolism and Holocaust inversion; desecration and overwriting of Jewish memory; and the marking and targeting of Jewish space. Together, these themes demonstrate how contemporary antisemitism operates offline by creating false and dangerous equivalences between European Jews and the actions of the Israeli state, thereby normalising hostility within shared public spaces. Rather than relying on explicit declarations of hatred, these visual practices often function through implication, collapsing distinctions between Jewish identity and geopolitical conflict. By foregrounding these visual strategies and their cumulative effects, the chapter contributes to a broader understanding of antisemitism as a historically adaptive form of political hostility that becomes normalised through everyday visual exposure.

Why Many Americans Identify Jewish Americans with Israel: Suggestions for Reducing This Source of Antisemitism and for Better Measures of Antisemitism

2026-08-27T11:58:52+00:00

Hostility toward U.S Jews has increased since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas. Polling research suggests that at least part of this increase stems from perception of U.S. Jews as responsible for Israel’s policies toward Palestinians, such that outrage against Israel’s treatment of Gazans is generalized to U.S. Jews. The first section of this paper reviews connections of U.S. Jews with Israel that might lead some of the larger U.S. public to see U.S. Jews as responsible for Israel’s policies, including polling data on U.S. Jews’ emotional attachment to Israel, behavioral connections with Israel, and in-the-news examples of devotion to Israel. The second section offers psychological analysis of the power of these connections, the third section considers possible directions for reducing antisemitism in the U.S., and the fourth section advances research directions that might support better understanding and more effective targeting of antisemitism in the U.S. A concluding section summarizes the contributions of the paper and several important limitations.

Villains in the Middle East: A Moral Typecasting Theory of Antisemitic Attitudes and Perceptions of Israelis

2026-08-27T12:01:17+00:00

We examined how right- and left-wing authoritarianism (RWA and LWA) predict intergroup prejudice in the U.S. during the Israel–Gaza conflict. Drawing on Dyadic Morality Theory (DMT) and the theorized asymmetry between RWA's norm-enforcement motivation and LWA's value-contingent egalitarianism, we predicted that each form of authoritarianism would produce ideologically structured moral typecasting of Israelis and Palestinians. We analyzed data from two U.S. surveys (Ns = 500 and 400) using path models that positioned moral typecasting as a mediating mechanism between authoritarianism and prejudice outcomes, with political orientation included as a covariate throughout. We found evidence that villain perceptions (maliciously causing harm) and victim perceptions (innocently suffering harm) of Israelis and Palestinians mediate the link between left- and right-wing authoritarianism (LWA & RWA) and Judeophobia (ethnic prejudice toward Jewish people), Antizionism (political intolerance of Israel and its supporters), and Islamophobia (ethnic prejudice toward Muslims). The most consistent mediational effects emerged between RWA and Islamophobia and LWA and Antizionism. The results suggest that moral typecasting of conflict parties is a meaningful mechanism through which authoritarian dispositions translate into prejudice, extending DMT to the domain of intergroup conflict and highlighting how moral narratives about ongoing geopolitical events can amplify hostility toward Jews and Muslims across the political spectrum.

Trauma-Informed Victim Support and Reporting of Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes: Bridging Deradicalization, Justice, and Community Resilience

2026-08-27T12:04:46+00:00

Antisemitism remains a persistent and growing challenge across Europe and beyond, despite strengthened legal frameworks and national strategies aimed at combating hate and supporting Jewish communities. Recent evidence, including findings from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), demonstrates that many Jewish individuals continue to experience harassment, discrimination, and hostility in both online and offline environments. These experiences often result in fear, concealment of identity, avoidance of Jewish spaces, and significant psychological distress. This paper examines antisemitic victimization through a trauma-informed lens, arguing that both overt hate crimes and cumulative forms of everyday prejudice can produce profound and lasting psychological harm. Drawing on trauma studies and victimization research, it explores common responses to antisemitic experiences, including avoidance, shame, anxiety, social withdrawal, and identification with the aggressor. The analysis further considers how historical trauma, competitive victimhood, conspiracy beliefs, institutional failures, and the politicization of antisemitism contribute to the persistence of anti-Jewish prejudice and hinder victim recovery and reporting. The article advocates for a trauma-informed, human rights-based approach to victim support that prioritizes safety, validation, empowerment, and access to justice. It identifies barriers to reporting, including fear of retaliation, lack of support, and low institutional trust, and highlights the importance of community engagement, trauma-informed policing, and accessible reporting mechanisms. Overall, the paper argues that victim-centered approaches can contribute not only to recovery and reporting outcomes but also to broader prevention efforts. Finally, practical recommendations are offered for policymakers, law enforcement agencies, judicial actors, educators, and civil society organizations.

Extremism and Antisemitism: Pathways to Disengagement and Recovery, A Program-Based Practice Report.

2026-08-27T12:07:28+00:00

Antisemitism remains a persistent feature across contemporary extremist movements, including far-right, jihadist, and certain far-left ideological ecosystems. This article examines antisemitism as a cognitive and narrative accelerant within radicalization pathways and explores how multidisciplinary, trauma-informed interventions may disrupt these processes. Drawing from intervention work conducted through Parents for Peace, we analyze two case studies involving radicalized adolescents whose trajectories included antisemitic ideation, online extremist exposure, identity-based grievances, and social isolation. We further examine the role of Exit Peer Specialists (“formers”) within clinically supervised disengagement models and discuss both the potential benefits and ethical challenges associated with former-led intervention work. Across the cases, antisemitism functioned less as an isolated prejudice and more as a mechanism for organizing grievance, moral certainty, and out-group hostility. Findings suggest that relationship-based interventions combining psychological support, family engagement, religious literacy, and supervised lived experience may weaken extremist identification more effectively than ideological refutation alone. We conclude with recommendations for integrating public health, trauma-informed care, and early-intervention frameworks into contemporary P/CVE practice.

Reducing Antisemitism and Other Prejudices: Can Biographical Intergroup Contact Help to Prevent Radicalization?

2026-08-27T12:11:55+00:00

Biographical intergroup contact, through which participants learn about the life and perspective of a real outgroup member, is potentially a powerful new prejudice reduction tool which challenges antisemitism as a means of reducing extremism initially against Jewish people, and by extension to other stigmatized groups. Impact evaluation of two field studies tested the effects of biographical contact on children and adolescents’ willingness to have intergroup contact with Jewish people and six other groups that are commonly the target of extremism. Biographical contact was implemented through an anti-prejudice education program led by the charity the Anne Frank Trust UK and was based on the life and diary of the Jewish teenager Anne Frank. In Study 1, with young people between the ages of 12 and 15 years (N = 122), pre- and post-measures showed that the program significantly improved young people’s willingness for contact with Jewish people, and that change predicted 43% of the variance in improvement in attitudes towards the six other groups. Study 2, with children aged 8 to 12 years (N =330) confirmed significant improvements in three hypothesized mechanisms: knowledge, intergroup empathy and confidence in intergroup communication. Theoretical and practical implications for preventing extremism and radicalization are discussed.