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“If You Prick Us, Do We Not Bleed?”: America’s Rising Tide of Antisemitism
In October 2018, a gunman attacked the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pennsylvania. Eleven people died; eight more were wounded. It was the deadliest attack ever on American Jewry. Shortly after the murders, antisemitic fliers were littered about the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, further inflaming the tragedy. The fliers cherry-picked controversial phrases from the Talmud, a common method of attacking Judaism (as well as Christianity, Islam and even Scientology).
Now, nearly seven years later, old wounds are being reopened. Antisemitic fliers have recently been scattered about the same Squirrel Hill neighborhood, and anti-Jewish epithets have been shouted at local residents from passing cars.
These acts were committed by people who measure their value by the amount of blood they spill.
The incident highlights the increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes committed since 2023. In fact, the Anti-Defamation League says that, in the 12 months since that date, it has recorded over 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. alone.
Amongst this year’s incidents:
On April 13, 2025, a man who blamed Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (who is Jewish) for Palestinian deaths broke into the governor’s residence in Harrisburg, setting multiple fires and committing significant vandalism.
On May 22, 2025, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were shot and killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
On June 1, 2025, firebombs were thrown into a group of pro-Israeli demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, injuring eight, one critically.
These acts were committed by people who measure their value by the amount of blood they spill. They are very much a minority, but they’re there, and high on their favored targets list are the Jews. The problem has been so prevalent that hundreds of years ago even Shakespeare addressed it, through his character Shylock, whose agony speaks to us down through the ages: “I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?”
And, like Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, die they do.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, spoke eloquently when he stated: “Yesterday, I stood among a crowd of friends in a plaza in Boulder, Colorado, and I shared my anger… I shared my anger that just weeks ago, two wonderful young people were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum. These attacks and many more in recent months—on campus, at Jewish institutions and this time at a peaceful gathering here in Boulder—have targeted people whose only ‘offense’ is that they are Jewish. Or someone thought they were Jewish. Or they were standing as allies alongside Jews.
“This needs to stop. It is way past time. It’s way past time for our political leaders, community groups, media outlets, tech platforms and faith leaders to take action before more Jewish blood is spilled.”
