We must unite and fight hatred with one voice

This Passover, as Jewish families sit down to retell the Exodus, one fact stares back at us from the text: Hatred of Jews has never needed a reason. Pharaoh ordered every newborn Jewish boy drowned in the Nile simply because they were Jewish. That same blunt, no-exceptions evil runs through history: Haman in Persia, the Farhud pogrom and Hitler’s fantasy of a Judenrein world, among others. Today, in 2026, the pattern regrettably holds.

Just last month, synagogues and Jewish institutions faced violent attacks in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. From arson on Jewish ambulances in London to synagogue shootings and explosions across Europe, the targeting is blunt. Last May, a terrorist gunned down two young Israeli embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC The killer didn’t pause to check their passports or their politics. He believed he saw Jews and that was enough for him to shoot.

Antisemitic violence continues to surge: from Australia to France and Spain, hitting the observant and secular, left and right alike.

For years, the official Jewish community response has been the usual script: more conferences, more NGOs, more billions from philanthropists and governments funnelled into “fighting hate” through dialogue and failing multilateral institutions. The results speak for themselves: incidents keep climbing. In other words, the status quo is a failure.

Perhaps Passover can be seen as a juncture at which to consider a better model.