Lesson Duration: 60–75 minutes
Target Audience: High School (10–12th), College, Adult Learning
Essential Question: How does Jew-hatred evolve across time, and why does antizionism appear as a virtuous moral cause today?
Learning Objectives
By the end of the lesson, students/ participants will be able to:
Define the three major historical forms of Jew-hatred (Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, Antizionism).
Explain how Jew-hatred evolves by cloaking itself in the dominant moral values of each era.
Identify recurring libels (e.g., blood libel, world domination, dual loyalty, etc.) and recognize their modern forms (e.g. colonizer libel, apartheid libel, genocide libel, racist libel, etc.) and know that libels are the delivery mechanism of constructing villains.
Be able to determine when antizionism is functioning as a structural form of Jew-hatred.
Opening Activity— “What Looks Moral?”
Display the following slogans (no commentary yet):
“Free the people”
“End occupation”
“Decolonize everywhere”
“End genocide”
Ask students:
What emotions or moral frameworks do these slogans evoke?
Who is presumed to be the victim? Who is the oppressor?
After hearing from students, ask whether they think a hate movement can ever appear to be a moral movement. Can hate be misidentified as something good or virtuous? Use this question as a bridge to introduce the lecture on the three eras of Jew-hatred.
Mini Lecture: On the Three Eras of Jew-Hatred
Begin by showing the diagram below and explaining that anti-Jewish hate is a most complicated and durable hatred precisely because it mutates. As it evolves (mutates), the Jew is constructed as a villain in different ways, making it challenging to identify. Still, our goal is to enable you (the students) to recognize this hatred easily. Stress that in each era, the Jew is depicted as violating the virtues of the time.
1. Set the Frame (1 minute)
Today, we are going to look at how Jew-hatred changes shape across history. Not because the hatred disappears, but because it must continuously reinvent itself to appear morally righteous. Like a virus, it mutates to survive. Critically, in each era, the Jew was seen as violating the moral authority of its time.
2. Introduce the Viral Analogy (1 minute)
Say: “A virus cannot survive unless it can attach to the host. Jew-hatred works the same way. It needs to attach itself to whatever society believes is morally good to present the hatred as just.”
Era 1: Anti-Judaism (5 minutes)
Point to the first row.
Say: “In Christian Europe, the highest moral good was spiritual purity and salvation.
So the Jew had to be re-coded as the opposite of that good.”
Jews become Christ-killers
Jews are framed as demonic corrupters, enemies of God
Say: “This ideological move did not say, ‘Hate Jews because they are Jews.’
It said, ‘Hate Jews because they threaten your salvation.’”
Ask the class (1-2 minutes):
Why would framing Jews as demonic corrupters make persecution appear righteous, not hateful?
Expected answer: Persecution becomes a defense of the sacred.
Result: Expulsions, forced conversions, ghettoization.
Era 2: Antisemitism (5 minutes)
Move to the second row.
Say: “By the 19th century, religion was no longer the dominant source of morality.
The new moral language was race, science, and nationalism.”
So the Jew was re-coded again:
Now as racially impure
A threat to national strength
A manipulator of global power
“This made persecution seem like self-defense of the nation.”
Ask the class (1-2 minutes):
What does it mean that the Holocaust was carried out as a “public-health” campaign to eliminate a ‘disease’?
Expected insight: Jews were not killed as individuals, but as a constructed racial threat.
Result: Pogroms, racial laws, genocide.
Era 3: Antizionism (5 minutes)
Now point to the third row.
Say: “After World War II, race-based hatred became immoral. So the virus mutated again.
Today’s highest moral values are:
Decolonization
Indigeneity
Anti-power / Anti-dominance ethics”
Therefore, the Jew is re-coded as:
Colonizer
Oppressor
Genocider
Say: “But notice, the target is still the Jew. The language changed, the moral justification changed, but the structure of the hatred stayed the same.”
Ask the class (1-2 minutes):
Why does calling Israel ‘colonizer’ or ‘genocider’ function as a moral permission slip?
Expected answer: Because if someone is colonizing or genociding, violence against them appears righteous.
Result: Rising attacks on Jews and Israel worldwide.
3. On Constructing Villains: Libels
Ask the class (1-2 minutes):
If you wanted to construct a villain, how would you go about doing that? Imagine you wanted to start a bullying campaign in your school. What types of things would you say about a particular student in the school?
Expected answer: Student X is bad; He/she is a gossiper; He/she cheats on tests.
Result: First, try to get the students to determine what is cool or what the school’s values are, and then ask them to create a bullying campaign in which the student they are targeting violates the school’s mission or the cool factor of the student body.
Jewish Villains in the Antijudaism Era:
Jews killed Christ (Christ-killer/ deicide libel)
Jews drink the blood of Christian children (blood libel)
Jewish Villains in the Antisemitism Era:
Jews are race-polluters/ subhuman (race-polluter libel)
Jews control the world (world domination libel)
Jews are disloyal (dual loyal libel)
Jewish Villains in the Antizionism Era:
Zionists/ Israel is/ are colonizers (colonizer libel)
Genocide Libel
Israel is an Apartheid State (apartheid libel)
Israel is a Nazi State (Nazi libel)
Zionism is racism (racist libel)
Israel is an ethnostate
Guided Discussion:
Reflection Question: How do you understand this?
“Society never kills Jews as Jews — Jews are always cast as violating whatever the era defines as sacred good. Provide examples from the lesson that support this claim.”
Use the image below to discuss that Jew-hatred, in all three eras, was a demonology project.
Case Study Analysis (10 minutes)
Show one contemporary image, e.g.,
“From the River to the Sea”
“Zionism = Racism”
“Stop the Genocide”
Ask students:
Which libel is present?
What action does this libel morally justify?
Students must articulate the implied violence behind the rhetoric.
Closing Reflection (5 minutes) – Written or Verbal Exit Ticket
Prompts:
Why does antizionism seem moral to many people today, and why is that precisely what makes it dangerous?
Why do you think someone would say, “We no longer live in the antisemitism era?”
WORKSHEET: Identify the libel
Directions: Next to each statement, write the libel and what action does it explain?
1. “Israel harvests Palestinian organs.”
2. “Zionists control the media.”
3. “You can’t be a real American and support Israel.”
4. “They stole the land; the settlers must be removed.”
5. “Israelis are nothing but bloodthirsty monsters.”
6. “They care more about money than human lives.”
7. “Israel is committing genocide.”
8. “The Zionists are infiltrating our government.”
9. “Zionism is Racism”
10. “Zionists are parasites feeding on others.”
© 2025 Dr. Naya Lekht. All rights reserved.
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Further Reading on Antizionism
Antizionism and Antisemitism: the Two Faces of Jew-Hatred by Amir Epstein and Roman Osman
“The Long Duree of Gazology” by Kile B. Jones
“The Antizionism Liturgy” by Kile B. Jones
Naya, This is such smart, powerful work! You’ve made something incredibly complex into something clear and deeply relevant, conceptually powerful and pedagogically elegant.
This is excellent!