Last Tuesday evening, the Riverdale Y, in partnership with Project Shema, hosted a workshop aimed at educating both Jewish and non-Jewish members of the Riverdale community about antisemitism. While the discussion was open to all, the primary goal was to provide non-Jews with a deeper understanding of antisemitism—its history, its modern manifestations, and the ways in which it is often misunderstood.

Rabbi Scott Kalminoff, the director of community engagement at the Riverdale Y, opened the program with a powerful message: “This training is so that people can see what antisemitism feels like, looks like, and sounds like. Especially with everything happening in Israel and the Middle East, people are confused. I hope everyone is here with open hearts and minds.”

With that, he introduced Sophia McGee, the senior program manager at Project Shema, who led the evening’s discussion. She shared her personal background, explaining how her diverse heritage—having a father from Guatemala and an Ashkenazi mother—shaped her understanding of her Jewish identity.

“Antisemitism can manifest differently,” McGee began. “It can be extreme and violent, as seen in right-wing extremism such as the neo-Nazis, which we know well. But it has also been bubbling up in left-wing spaces in recent years.”

McGee emphasized that Jewish identity is often misunderstood and flattened into oversimplified categories. Many people think of Jews solely in terms of religion. However, as participants pointed out, Jewish identity is multifaceted. There are Jews who do not practice religiously but still strongly identify as part of the Jewish people.

Another common misconception is that Jews are a monolithic white group. In reality, Jewish communities exist worldwide and encompass a vast diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds. In the U.S. alone, 16-18% of Jews are people of color, including Black, Latino and Asian-American Jews. “Flattening us into one skin color erases the identity of a significant portion of the Jewish community,” McGee stated.

This misconception is influenced by both implicit biases in media portrayals and historical factors. Many Jewish immigrants, upon arriving in the U.S., sought to assimilate into a predominantly white society as a survival strategy.

Participants in the workshop shared their own experiences with antisemitism. One young woman noted that she frequently witnesses antisemitism in New York City but sees none on her frequent visits to Florida. Another participant, who works at Columbia University and also attended Columbia as a student, reflected on the drastic change in campus culture: “When I was a student, we had Israeli dancing on campus. If they had Israeli dancing there now, it would be shut down as ‘Zionist killer dancing,’” she said sadly.

An elderly woman expressed her fear about how antisemitism has shifted in recent years: “I’ve lived in New York my whole life, and it was always safe for Jews. Now, it’s not.”

McGee provided historical context, explaining that antisemitism has always followed a cyclical pattern of acceptance, scapegoating, expulsion and migration. “Whenever something goes wrong—a crop failure, a plague, an economic implosion—Jews get scapegoated because they are always the ‘other.’”

This cycle dates back to 70 CE, when Jews began leaving Jerusalem after the destruction of the Second Temple. Over the centuries, Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, forced into ghettos in Europe during the 1600s, and later targeted in the Holocaust. In more recent history, Jewish communities have faced displacement, such as during the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Ethiopian Civil War, which led to Operation Solomon—a 1991 airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

McGee stressed that antisemitism is not merely religious intolerance; it is rooted in conspiracy theories and prejudices about Jewish people. For example, the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh was seen as an attack on Jewish worshippers. However, the shooter’s manifesto revealed something deeper: “He was angry at what he believed to be a secret Jewish power involved in bringing refugees into the country. It had nothing to do with the Jewish faith; it had to do with an antisemitic conspiracy about Jews controlling immigration.”

How Antisemitism Works

One of the key takeaways from the workshop was how antisemitism functions in society. It often thrives in binary thinking—dividing people into “oppressors” and “oppressed” with no room for nuance.

“The reason this gets Jews into trouble,” McGee explained, “is because if you perceive Jews as a monolithically white population with power and privilege, and then add the trope of ‘secret Jewish power’ on top of it, you forget that Jews are only 0.2% of the global population and have faced centuries of violence and bigotry.”

She shared her own family’s story: “My great-grandparents were doing well in Europe in the 1920s, but by 1945, they were gone. I had only three family members left.” A colleague of McGee’s had a grandfather who was a parliamentarian in Iran—until the Islamic Revolution, when he and his family had to pack a suitcase and flee as refugees within a week.

Recognizing Antisemitic Tropes

The workshop concluded with a discussion of common antisemitic tropes that have persisted throughout history:

• Secret Jewish power: The belief that Jews secretly control governments, media, or financial systems.
• Jews as untrustworthy: The idea that Jews are always plotting or manipulating others.
• Jews as greedy and corrupt: The stereotype that Jews control banks or are obsessed with money (e.g., the expression “Jew him down”).
• Jews as demonic or subhuman: The dangerous myth that Jews have horns or engage in evil practices—dehumanization that has historically led to genocide.

McGee emphasized how easily these tropes resurface because they have been ingrained in society for centuries. Even in the U.S., there have been many dark moments, such as the Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939 and legal discrimination against Jews in housing, education and employment.

After much discussion among the participants, McGee stated in her final thought that the key to combating antisemitism is meaningful dialogue. “Listening is the first step toward building relationships and fostering understanding.”