An anti-Semitic America?

In 1790, George Washington sent a letter to the Jewish community of Newport, Rhode Island, thanking them for their welcome: "May the children of the line of Abraham who have settled in this land continue to deserve and enjoy the good feelings of its other inhabitants. When anyone lives in safety by his vine and fig trees, no one should frighten him." As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250thbirthday, the first president's wish has not come true. One only has to read the press to see that anti-Semitism in the country is experiencing a worrying upsurge. As the State Department wrote in a 2024 report, it can be found "on the right, on the left and in the middle". One might add: from top to bottom. That same year, a survey conducted on behalf of the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) showed that 55% of American Jews had experienced some form of anti-Semitism and said they had modified their behavior as a result.

Antisemitic acts on the increase

In early 2025, two attacks struck a chord with the public. In May, a young couple working at the Israeli embassy were shot dead as they left a reception at the Holocaust Museum by a man who shouted "liberate Palestine". A month later, in Boulder, Colorado, an Egyptian-born individual threw Molotov cocktails at a group of Jews demonstrating in support of hostages held by Hamas: fifteen people were burned, one of whom died the next day. The assailant had also shouted the battle cry "liberate Palestine". In the same vein, "I'm doing this for Gaza" was the motive given by a man who, in April, set fire to the residence where the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania was sleeping with his family. This was obviously no coincidence, since the governor, Josh Shapiro, is Jewish - although he takes no part in foreign policy. Far-left organizations even dubbed him "genocide Josh" for protesting the harassment of Jewish students at universities in his state.

Education is one of the preferred sites for anti-Semitism, whether disguised or not. In Fairfax County, an affluent suburb of the capital, the walls of several schools - which in France would be collèges or lycées - regularly displayed anti-Semitic graffiti, such as swastikas or statements like "I'm not racist, I love everyone except the yahoud" (an insulting term for Jews). Jewish students found maps of the Middle East in their lockers that no longer included Israel. These examples are cited in a November 2025 letter from a parliamentary committee to the Fairfax County Superintendent of Schools, the equivalent of an academy inspector. A similar letter reached the head of Berkeley County in California, in which the commission lamented that teachers had encouraged students to take part in anti-Israel demonstrations where the slogan "death to the Jews" was allegedly heard. One teacher posted a picture in his classroom showing a fist striking the Star of David. The same thing happened in Philadelphia, where teachers approved of "demonstrations designed to isolate …