Concern is growing over anti-Semitism emerging from the fringes of the far-right, threatening to erode long-standing conservative alliances with Jewish communities and Israel.

This was the urgent focus of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism (NTFCA), which put together an event Tuesday afternoon in Washington, D.C., titled “Exposing & Countering Extremism and Antisemitism on the Right.” The gathering featured Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and other distinguished guests, including NTFCA co-chairs Luke Moon of the Philos Project and Rabbi Aryeh Schelnberger. Moon described this rising tide of right-wing anti-Semitism as one that has “manifested itself quite aggressively” in recent months, from online conspiracy theories to platforming of Holocaust deniers. Among those concerned, the consensus was stark: While troubling and somewhat surprising given historical conservative support for Israel, this strain of hostility is not inevitable — and it’s not too late to confront it head-on.

To be sure, anti-Semitism on the Left has been and remains a dominant force, exploding in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the 2023-2024 academic year alone saw a staggering 2,087 anti-Israel incidents on U.S. campuses, which included assaults, vandalism, harassment, protests, and divestment resolutions — a 477% surge from the previous year. Over a broader period from October 7, 2023 to September 2024, ADL found at least 1,200 anti-Semitic incidents on campuses, with 83% of Jewish students reporting they had personally experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism.

In addition, campus encampments also disrupted classes and glorified Hamas with chants like “We are Hamas.” Some protests even featured October 7 survivors, labeling them “complicit in genocide.” Jewish students have had to grapple with the fact that even their own campuses are full of peers who openly protest their existence. And that’s only on college campuses. Globally, the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) tracked 6,326 incidents in 2024, which was a 107.7% rise from 2023, with 68.4% linked to far-left ideologies, often masked as “anti-Zionism.”

Yet, even amid this left-wing surge, Mario Bramnick, president of Latino Coalition for Israel, issued a stern warning: If the plague of anti-Semitism infiltrating the Right is to be halted, conservatives must act decisively now. Bramnick, drawing parallels to the Left’s failures, argued that the Democrats’ unwillingness to police their own party turned anti-Semitic acts into the “new normal.” “We cannot flirt with anti-Semitism,” he emphasized, calling the Right to demand accountability within its circles before fringe voices gain mainstream traction. As Ellie Cohanim, former deputy anti-Semitism special envoy in the first Trump administration and NTFCA co-chair, stated, “Anti-Semitism is not a Jewish problem, it is a societal problem.”

Offering an additional perspective, Perkins didn’t mince words: “I don’t want to have to repent … for my silence. I do not want to repent for failing to raise objections to the planting of the seeds that could produce the next October 7th, one even more catastrophic than what we saw two years ago.” As he explained, “I believe we have an obligation … to stand with Israel and the Jewish people.” And yet, “I think we have an educational problem in our own community” — a problem rooted in one misunderstanding. As Perkins put it, “[W]e have to push back on this idea that Judea and Samaria is up for sale.”

When considering the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists, Perkins asserted that the two-state solution many have been pushing for is no solution. Moreover, he explained how the land of Judea and Samaria, which mainstream media commonly calls the “West Bank,” is where roughly 80% of biblical history took place. As Perkins argued, even the misunderstanding concerning this piece of land is enough to sow seeds of anti-Semitism. “As we continue to foster this false idea that there is this land available that belongs to the Jewish people, to the Palestinians, we will continue to foment anti-Semitism and hatred for the Jewish people, who are seen as an obstacle to something they will never achieve, as long as they want to pursue it, by taking away what God has given to the Jewish people.”

In addition, data shows that the rise of anti-Semitism on the Right is coming from Gen Z. Polls confirm that younger Americans, such as Gen Z and Millennials, are now more likely to endorse anti-Jewish tropes than older generations. On the Right, this has been showcased through favorable views young people have of podcasters like Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens, all of whom have expressed anti-Israel views that blend isolationism with conspiracy theories about “Jewish influence” in policy and culture.

As MRCTV Host Justine Murray said during the panel discussion concerning Gen Z, it always comes back to free speech. Young people, she said, want to be free, and they tend to want to rebel as well. As Isaac Woodward, director of the Philos Leadership Institute, noted, President Donald Trump has inspired many in the younger generations to break away from what mainstream media is telling them to believe. And yet, with the “shyness … not there” anymore, sometimes a dangerous level of boldness enters the scene. As Murray stated, young people must “break away from the Left’s script,” but not so far that the pendulum swings all the way to the other extreme side of the spectrum.

Ultimately, the NTFCA event served as a blueprint for the discussion going forward. As the experts each addressed, conservatives must be educated on biblical history, denounce fringe voices, and foster coalitions that prioritize shared values concerning Israel and fighting anti-Semitism. As Perkins warned, silence sows catastrophe. In a turbulent 2025 landscape, the Right’s moral clarity on Israel and Jewish safety isn’t optional but existential. This, Perkins concluded, “is a decisive moment for America, for the Middle East, for the Jewish people.”