 | |
| Formation | October 2018 |
|---|---|
| Type | Advocacy organization |
Executive Director | Liora Rez |
| Website | stopantisemitism |
StopAntisemitism is an American nonprofit advocacy group focused on combating criticism of Israel by doxxing individuals whom the group accuses of being antisemitic. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Social media influencer Liora Rez founded StopAntisemitism as StopAntisemitism.org in October 2018 to monitor and expose online antisemitism. Rez was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, then a part of the Soviet Union, where her family experienced antisemitism. [6] [7] She started her social media career in 2013, under the name "Jewish Chick". [8]
Rez says the organization's goal is to "create consequences for those who espouse hatred and violence against Jewish people." [2] As of September 2019 [update] , the organization's social media posts were viewed more than 750,000 times per month. [9]
According to Rez, StopAntisemitism is 100% privately funded. [2] The Milstein Family Foundation, operated by Gila and Adam Milstein, is among the funders of StopAntisemitism. The Merona Leadership Foundation, where Gila Milstein is president, pays the salary of StopAntisemitism's executive director and provides about $270,000 to the organisation for expenses. [10]
StopAntisemitism receives real-time tips about possible antisemitic incidents via its website and social media accounts. The organization then vets the submission for accuracy, ensures it has not been edited, and confirms the location of the incident. According to Rez, the organization does not post all the submissions it receives and can take several hours to vet a submission. Next, StopAntisemitism researches the individual and their employers, both internally and using crowdsourcing. The organization then takes an assertive approach, seeking to create consequences and "expose antisemites" through a name-and-shame approach. [9] [2] In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, the number of reports submitted increased by over 1,500% to more than 500 reports of antisemitism per day. [2]
The organization releases an annual Antisemitism on U.S. College & University Campuses Report, using a report card-style grading system to assess 25 universities across the United States on their efforts to address campus antisemitism and protect their Jewish students. [11]
In October 2019, StopAntisemitism sent a petition with 2,000 signatures to the US Department of Education calling on the agency to keep the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) out of college campuses. The petition said CAIR pushes "Islamist propaganda, anti-Semitism, and anti-American bias" onto college campuses. [12]
StopAntisemitism has been criticized for conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, [13] [4] [14] and for targeting Muslims and pro-Palestinian activists in its activities. [15] The New Arab has described StopAntisemitism as "a right-wing organisation known for launching public smear campaigns against activists, artists, and academics critical of Israel". [13]
In November 2023, StopAntisemitism launched StopDontShop.org, a website that informs consumers about businesses which they believed supported Hamas in the Gaza war or which they believed express hatred towards the Jewish people or Israel. [16]
An article by The Washington Post in April 2024 revealed that over 36 people had been fired from their jobs after the group raised allegations of antisemitic comments made by the individuals based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, which includes denying Israel's right to exist. [3]
In September 2025, StopAntisemitism falsely claimed that a boycott of Israeli film companies by Film Workers for Palestine was targeted against Jews. [17]
After the Gaza war started in October 2023, StopAntisemitism promoted false claims that Palestinian babies killed by Israel during the war were actually dolls. [18] [19]
In April 2025, StopAntisemitism attacked children's YouTuber Rachel Anne Accurso, better known as Ms. Rachel, [13] after she publicly spoke out in support for the children of Gaza, posted on Instagram about the conditions of children in Gaza, and called for an end to the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip. [13] [20] StopAntisemitism claimed that children dying of hypothermia in Gaza were "fake cold deaths" and that the images were sourced from Wikipedia. [13] Freezing temperatures affected Gaza between December 2024 and February 2025, and several newborns and children had died from cold, as documented by the Gaza Health Ministry, Doctors Without Borders, and UNICEF. [13] [21] [22]
Each week, the organization's website highlights an "Antisemite of the Week." [9] According to Rez, the "Antisemite of the Week" notifications went to 50,000 people per week in 2022. [6] Since 2019, the organization has also selected a figure as the "Antisemite of the Year". [23] The effort has come under criticism, including in 2024 and 2025 for including progressive activists who had criticized Israel's actions in the Gaza war. [24] [4]
In 2021, Ben & Jerry's board chair Anuradha Mittal was named "Antisemite of the Year" for cutting off sales of their products in settlements internationally recognized as illegal in the West Bank in protest. Singer Dua Lipa was also nominated for criticizing civilian deaths during the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis. [25] In 2023, Rashida Tlaib was named "Antisemite of the Year" over Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. [26] In 2024, proponents of a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war such as activist Greta Thunberg, politician Cori Bush, and actor John Cusack were included alongside far-right commentators Candace Owens, Jake Shields and Jackson Hinkle, [24] with all being labeled "Jew-haters". [27]
In November 2025, StopAntisemitism shortlisted ten candidates for their "Antisemite of the Year" contest, one of whom included Rachel Accurso. [4] [28] StopAntisemitism defended their nomination by claiming that Accurso had engaged in "sharing debunked images, inflated casualty claims, and almost entirely ignoring Israeli child victims", while also accusing her of spreading "Hamas propaganda", as well as accusing Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian journalist who was hosted by Accurso, of being a "terrorist sympathizer". [29] The list of nominees was criticized for including pro-Palestinian celebrities such as Accurso, Cynthia Nixon and Marcia Cross alongside figures such as far-right personality Stew Peters, Holocaust denier Bryce Mitchell and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, while excluding white supremacist Nick Fuentes. [15] [30]
Accurso rejected the nomination, telling The New York Times that she has spent her life "committed to the learning and well-being of children." Congressman Ro Khanna also criticized the label, saying, "Ms. Rachel is a preschool teacher who speaks up for starving children in Gaza. That is not antisemitism". [31] [30]
A defamation and invasion of privacy lawsuit against the organization by a former university professor who had been named "Antisemite of the Week" was dismissed by a Pennsylvania court, which found that the organization's claims are "matters of opinion ... subject to disagreement and do not imply the presence of undisclosed facts" and are protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. [32] [33]
In December 2023, Johnny Druskinis, a former University of Michigan hockey player, sued StopAntisemitism and Rez for defamation after the group claimed that he had spray painted swastikas on the Jewish Resource Center (JRC) in Ann Arbor. The player had spray painted a homophobic slur on the sidewalk in front of the JRC but none of the graffiti was antisemitic. The JRC reached out to StopAntisemitism to inform them that their claim was false, but they did not respond. [34] [35] In May 2025 Druskinis dropped his lawsuit. [36]
Journalist Jonathan Tobin of the Jewish News Syndicate lauded StopAntisemitism for carrying forward the education effort of established civil rights groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League.[ citation needed ] As a result of her work with StopAntisemitism, Rez was chosen by TheAlgemeiner for its "J100" list of "The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life" [37] in 2019, [8] 2021, [38] and 2022. [39]
The group was criticized by Viki Auslender of Calcalist for its usage of a form of doxxing. [40]
Samer Kalaf of Defector said that the group "is often more interested in suppressing criticism of Israel or support for Palestinians" instead of fighting antisemitism after it complained about two Delta Air Lines flight attendants wearing Palestinian flag pins. [41] Kalaf also called StopAntisemitism a "nuisance group" and Liora Rez "baldly evil" after the group alleged that children's entertainer Ms. Rachel was being paid to spread Hamas propaganda. [42]
Libby Lenkinski wrote in Haaretz of StopAntisemitism including Ms. Rachel in its nominees for "Antisemite of the Year": "A group claiming to represent Jews can place a children's educator on an extremist blacklist for refusing to look away from Palestinian children and be taken seriously. This is not about protecting Jews. This is about safeguarding power." [43]