Rabbi Doron Perez, president of the World Zionist Organization, has argued that while anti-Semitic rhetoric has changed over the past nine decades, its underlying objective has remained the same.
According to a video shared by JNS on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, Perez, citing Israeli author Amos Oz, said anti-Semites in Germany in 1935 demanded that Jews leave for Palestine. He contrasted this with what he described as present-day calls by some critics of Israel for Jews to leave Palestine and return to countries such as Germany.
Perez said the shift in rhetoric suggests that the issue is not where Jews live, but an effort to deny them a place where they can live in security and with a sense of belonging.
He argued that this pattern indicates contemporary anti-Semitism is increasingly directed at Jewish statehood rather than based solely on religion or ethnicity. Perez added that recognizing the distinction can help differentiate between legitimate political criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism presented as criticism of Israeli policy.
