How to Fight Anti-Semitism

How to Fight Anti-Semitism is a 2019 book by journalist Bari Weiss that explores the history and current manifestations of antisemitism and attempts to provide strategies to oppose it. She identifies the main strains of antisemitism as left-wing, right-wing, and Islamic antisemitism, and tries to provide a history of each variety. Weiss said that the book discusses the "alarming rise of antisemitism in (the United States) and in Europe" and will propose ways to address the problem.

As of January 2022, the book was translated into French and Arabic.

Content
The book opens about Bari Weiss' recollection of the events of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, a synagogue that Weiss had attended years earlier for her Bat Mitzvah. Weiss recalls in horror that the shooting hit so close to home for her, but she uses the story of the shooting to launch into the larger picture of what might be a growing trend of antisemitism in the United States.

She touches on the notion of the different spellings of antisemitism from "'" to "'." Though Weiss does acknowledge Deborah Lipstadt's usage and Lipstadt's sound reasoning for choosing to drop the hyphen (there is no semitism, so how can there be an anti- to something that does not exist), Weiss evidently prefers the hyphenated spelling, though she does not explain why.

Weiss goes to great effort to point out in the book how Israel is uniquely singled out over and over by the United Nations and other critics in ways she considers to be unfair:"The suffering of the Palestinians...is a strain on the Jewish soul. Including mine. But it would be obscene to claim that Israel's flaws are indistinguishable from the killing fields of Sudan or the depravity of the North Korean slave state. And yet it is the Jewish state that is singled out for condemnation again and again. According to UN Watch, between 2006 and 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Council condemned Israel on sixty-eight different occasions. The country with the next most was Syria, with twenty. North Korea had nine. China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan: all zero."

Reception
How To Fight Anti-Semitism won the 2019 National Jewish Book Award of the Jewish Book Council.

Hillel Halkin writing in The New York Times (significantly the paper from which Weiss famously resigned in protest) opens his review saying that "Bari Weiss has written what must be judged a brave book. That it must be is a badge of shame for the 'progressive' America with which she identifies." Halkin praises Weiss for the "courage for a politically liberal American Jew like Weiss to point out that Jews, though a tiny percentage of the population of the United States, are the victims of over half of its reported hate crimes? That anti-Jewish rhetoric, once confined to right-wing extremists, now infests the American left, too?" Halkin goes on to explain the attacks Weiss received from progressives asking: "Should someone like Weiss, an editor and opinion writer at The New York Times, have to expect brickbats from her colleagues for observing that a vicious demonization of Israel and its supporters has become routine in much of the American left and endemic on college and university campuses?" This question asked in 2019 seems almost prophetic of the hundreds of anti-Israel protests—many slipping into anti-Jewish hate speech and actions —on college campuses following the October 7 2023 Hamas attack on Israel."

Yehudah Mirsky writing in The Guardian says, "Loosely written, going not deep but wide, she brings together trends whose crisscrossing makes for much current confusion. And her observations generally ring true. Her taking aim at both right and left will infuriate some but is on the mark."

Tal Lavin of The Nation says that Weiss presents an anti-intellectual argument in her exploration of antisemitism. Lavin says that Weiss presents simplistic caricatures of both the left and the right, and that the presentation of Muslim antisemitism suggests exclusion of Muslim groups from Europe under a veil of plausible deniability. Lavin concludes his review by stating that the "profound lack of intellectual curiosity, proportionality, and material analysis in the book renders it worse than simply useless."

Jordan Weissmann of Slate presents a sharp critique of Weiss's book. Weissmann highlights as his central criticism the false equivalence between antisemitism on the right and on the left. He argues that by reaching towards genocide as the endpoint of left-wing antisemitism, Weiss far overstates her case. However, the phrase, "When people are occupied, resistance is justified," became increasingly popular in the following years to justify attacks against Israeli civilians, most notably following the October 7 massacres by Hamas, when this chant could be heard at scores of anti-Israel protests and was used to justify the brutal onslaught. Weissman argues that Weiss often fails to present a complete picture of events and people, that Weiss never explores evangelical antisemitism, and that Weiss presents an oversimplified view of how antisemitic radicalization occurs.

Linda F. Burghardt of the Jewish Book Council commented: "Weiss's exposition of modern antisemitism deep and layered, and her multifaceted plan for Jews and their allies to fight it is creative and insightful." Burghadt summarizes Weiss's argument as advocating for Jewish authenticity, or positivity, to be proud of Jewish culture, and firm in respect and admiration for Jewish historical legacy. Strengthening Jewish identity will, in turn, strengthen Jewish image in the world. She refers to Weiss's book as "outstanding" in the face of rising antisemitism in the United States.