StopAntisemitism

StopAntisemitism is a privately-funded American advocacy group focused on combating antisemitism by exposing and shaming those that it considers antisemites on social media. The group also targets groups and individuals critical of Israel. The group's strategy has been described as doxxing; its CEO describes what she does as exposing its targets and showing them that their actions have consequences.

History
Social media influencer Liora Rez founded StopAntisemitism as StopAntisemitism.org in October 2018 to monitor and expose online antisemitism. Rez was born in the Soviet Union, where her family experienced antisemitism.

As of September 2019, the organization's social media posts were viewed more than 750,000 times per month. According to Rez, the organization is 100% privately-funded.

Activities
StopAntisemitism receives real-time tips about antisemitic incidents via its website and social media accounts. The organization then vets the submission for accuracy, ensure it has not been edited, and to confirm 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 "offensive" approach, seeking to create consequences and "expose antisemites" and a name-and-shame approach.

The organization states "By publicly exposing antisemites, StopAntisemitism has created an environment where those who propagate hatred against the Jewish people are met with real-world consequences including but not limited to job loss and school expulsions."

According to Rez, "We're not trying to stifle their first American speech. If you want to spew hatred and act in a hateful way, you have that right. However, we have that equal right to showcase it to millions of people on social media and make your employers aware and make your community aware and make your and make society aware". In the aftermath of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, StopAntisemitism reported receiving more than 500 reports of antisemitism per day, a 1,500% increase in submissions from before the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Each week, the organization's website highlights an "Antisemite of the Week." According to Rez, the "Antisemite of the Week" notifications went to 50,000 people per week in 2022.

In April 2019, StopAntisemitism's tweet decrying Yale's invitation of French author Houria Bouteldja was viewed over 100,000 times and led to backlash against Bouteldja for comments interpreted as homophobic and antisemitic.

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.

In November 2023, StopAntisemitism launched StopDontShop.org that offers the ability to filter businesses based on their perceived stances towards the existence of Israel.

An article by The Washington Post in April 2024, revealed that over 36 people had been fired from their jobs after the group exposed allegedly antisemitic comments made by the individuals based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, which was disputed by a substantial proportion of academics critical of Israel. For example, one individual was publicized on StopAntisemitism's social media pages after allegedly threatening Jews. After the post, they were sacked. In another instance, StopAntisemitism revealed a professor to have allegedly threatened Jews, who was later terminated.

StopAntisemitism has reported instances of alleged antisemitism from people such as Ferris State University professor Thomas Brennan, activist Marc Lamont Hill, and journalist Christiane Amanpour.

Antisemite of the Year
Starting in 2019, the organization began a yearly competition to select a figure to be named "Antisemite of the Year". Thousands of people voted in a poll, which resulted in Ilhan Omar beating out Louis Farrakhan and Richard B. Spencer as the inaugural winner of the contest.

In 2020, StopAntisemitism named CUNY School of Law student and Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani "Antisemite of the Year"; StopAntisemitism.org accused Kiswani of glorifying Islamic terrorism in her social media's posts and public speaking, and posted a video of Kiswani pretending to threaten to set on fire an Israel Defense Forces hoodie worn by a friend. Kiswani said the video was three years old, and criticized the organization. The organization's naming of Kiswani came in response to an effort by a group of anti-Zionist CUNY students, many of them Jewish, to pass an alternate definition of antisemitism in the student senate rather than the IHRA definition.

In December 2022, StopAntisemitism named Kanye West the "Antisemite of the Year".

In 2023, Congressman Rashida Tlaib was named "Antisemite of the Year" by StopAntisemitism. Tlaib beat out Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and model Gigi Hadid.

A frivolous lawsuit by a former university professor labeled "Antisemite of the Week" was dismissed by a court in Pennsylvania in 2023. CTECH questioned the organization's methods of doxxing "pro-Palestinian" protestors in a 2023 article without criticising members of the opposing side who engaged in similar behaviour.

Reports
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.

Reception
Journalist Jonathan Tobin has lauded StopAntisemitism for going beyond the education work of groups like the Anti-Defamation League. As a result of her work with StopAntisemitism, Rez was selected by Algemeiner in 2019 as one of 100 people "positively influencing Jewish life".

As an anti-racist group dedicated to the elimination of systemic antisemitism, StopAntisemitism has been accused by "anti-Zionists" of "advocating" for Israel by combating antisemitism that has long put diaspora Jews in danger. They criticised the group's support for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism that classifies the opposition to the right of Israel to exist as antisemitic, when such consensus has never been reached in academia due to systemic antisemitism. In its archive of groups deemed as extremists, "pro-Palestinian" groups, such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, are listed alongside groups like the Atomwaffen Division, a violent international neo-Nazi network that is classified as a terrorist group by three countries and accused of murdering 14 people. Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, StopAntisemitsm has focused on antisemitic hate crimes in protests against Israel, particularly the protests on college campuses which saw several reports of antisemitic hate crimes.