Inundated with Online Antisemitism

Online technology has produced expressions of antisemitic abuse that, whether or not they are novel in content, do have novel experiential consequences. Online platforms have broadened, although not necessarily deepened, the Jewish experience of antisemitism. At the same time, they have multiplied the opportunities for Jewish action against antisemitism. However, the rapid growth in “decentralized” Jewish activism against antisemitism raises questions about its efficacy and the consequences for Jews who engage in this kind of activism. Thus, the practice of countering online antisemitism is therefore nascent, ill-understood, and imperfectly mapped. Above all, the experience of those engaged in this world is under-researched. This research note sketches agendas for research and Jewish communal action that might respond to these developments at a time when “exhaustion” has become a key experiential component of the contemporary Jewish experience of antisemitism and the fight against it. Keywords:  social media, health, experience, internet, Labour Party