Across the West, synagogues and Jewish institutions are increasingly being targeted. Yet the way these attacks are covered often shifts the focus away from the victims and toward Israel.
Media reports frequently frame violence against Jews in cities like New York, Amsterdam, or Michigan as a reaction to events in the Middle East. The implication is that these attacks are a form of spillover, rather than acts carried out by individuals making deliberate choices. In the process, responsibility becomes blurred.
Coverage often emphasizes the background or motivations of the attacker. Descriptions highlight personal details or grievances, while the victims are reduced to brief mentions. The broader pattern is rarely named directly, even as Jewish communities respond by increasing security, raising funds, and reinforcing their institutions.
This framing also reinforces another idea: that Jewish communities outside Israel are somehow extensions of the Israeli state. That perception surfaced again recently when a synagogue in Michigan was referred to on air as an “Israeli temple,” suggesting a political identity rather than a religious one.
But Jewish communities in the diaspora are not representatives of a foreign government. They are local communities, practicing their religion and maintaining their institutions. Treating them as stand-ins for Israel blurs an essential distinction.
Support for Israel among Jews does not make Jewish institutions legitimate targets. Violence directed at them is not a political statement. It is antisemitism.
As attacks continue, the question is not only why they are happening, but why the coverage so often struggles to say exactly what they are.
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