From.

City streets to college campuses, hate is on the rise.

I stopped.

At a gas station.

This morning and a fellow came up to.

Me and he.

Said, They let you.

In here? They let Jews in here? The war between Israel and Hamas fueling a spike in anti-Semitism. Jewish families.

Worried about wearing.

Symbols of their face walking down the street. Many Jewish Americans now fear for their safety.

There are Jewish.

Students who do.

Not feel physically safe.

On.

Campus. Some taking new precautions.

I.

Just want to be able to defend myself. What's driving the hate? Many of us feel a deep fear. And what can be done about it? This is an NBC news special.

Epidemic of hate.

Anti-semitism on the rise.

Reporting.

Tonight, Jacob Soberaw.

Tonight we look at a war abroad that is fueling conflict at home. It's been 40 days since Hamas staged a terrorist attack on Israel, marking the deadliest day-to-day life of all our Jewish people since the Holocaust. That attack there reignited deep divisions here, and it's drawn a century's old hatred out of the shadows and into neighborhoods and workplaces and onto college campuses. Last year we did part one of this special, as the numbers of anti-Semitic acts were ticking upwards. Now they're surging and Jewish communities across the country are on edge. Tonight, we'll investigate what's causing this rise in anti-Semitism, what is being done to combat it, and why it's not too late to stop it. We want to warn you that some of the languages and images that you'll see are disturbing. And we'll begin with Jesse Kirsch with a closer look at the incidents across the country that are spreading hate and fear.

These blatant acts of anti-Semitism are not from history. They should have all.

Finished the job. We didn't.

Want to do it. They're all from the last six weeks.

Homie is a tie-d-d-d-d. Hamas attacked Israel, sparking war on October seventh. In the following month, the Anti-Defamation League says anti-Semitic incidents in the US surged 316 %, compared to the same time period last year.

The plane is occupation. And the.

Plane is occupation. Even on a long list of flashpoints, America's College campuses stick out. People are.

Being spit on.

We're.

Seeing.

Swastika. At Cornell University, authorities say this student, now in federal custody, threatened online to stab and rape Jewish classmates. At Cooper Union, New York City, protesters moving through a school building with Jewish students sheltered inside. At George Washington University, the words 'glory to our martyrs', beamed on the side of a building.

Never before in my life have I felt under threat as a Jew.

On streets of cities like New York, confrontations as people tear down coasters of hostages taken from Israel. Why are you taking us off? From the river.

To the sea.

Pro-palestinian rallies often feature this slogan, seen by some as an anti-Semitic dog whistle, calling for the elimination of the Jewish state of Israel. And it's happening globally in Daegas, a Republic of Russia, a mob storming an airport looking for a flight from Israel and the Jewish passengers on board. Even with these renewed concerns about threats to Jewish-American communities in this turbulent moment, tens of thousands of people converged on the National Mall Tuesday in Washington, D. C, speaking out in support of Israel and against anti-Semitism. Many traveling from across the country, including Hedy Milgram, who rode a bus overnight from Cleveland. Both of her parents survived the Holocaust.

I cry that I'm thankful my parents aren't alive because if they were alive today, this would have killed them. They could never have imagined that this is happening all over again.

American anti-Semitism was festering even before war broke out in the Middle East. But now that hate is spreading even faster, inflamed by a war across the world that still hits home for many Americans. It's just.

Very sad to see the level of hate even.

In America. Jesse Kirsch, BBC News, Washington.

Let's turn now to our panel and try to better understand what is happening right now and how we will move forward. We've got Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of Truout, the Rubinik Call for Human Rights. Brett Stevens, New York Times opinion columnist and the former editor and chief of the Jerusalem Post, and Eric Ward, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and executive vice president of Race Forward. It's good to have all of you here. Rabbi, I want to start with you because you were at the March on Tuesday. It was just a really powerful moment to witness, even for people like me who were not there. What did you see and hear there and what are you hearing from people in your community about the ongoing fight against anti-Semitism?

Well, first of all, October seventh was just a shattering day, both for Israelis and for Jews across the world. We were there as a group saying, we're not choosing sides. It's not either or. We were there with signs saying things like, I stand with Israelis. I stand with Palestinians. I stand for humanity. And that is where most of the Jewish community is. We are both shattered by what happened on October seventh. And we're also shattered seeing the images of the deaths of civilians, including thousands of children in Gaza. And we understand that there's ultimately no military solution to Hamas. There's no military solution to the conflict. Ultimately, we need a political solution, which has to be two states for two people.

Brett, just from reading your work, it's clear to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, you feel that this moment of anti-Semitism in American history is different from other moments. Why?

Well, I speak of October eighth, Jews. I don't mean, as the Rabbi said, about the shattering experience of watching the events unfold on October seventh. But for me, the shattering moment was on October eighth, when I went and looked at a protest in Times Square, and I saw the exhilaration on the face of protesters who were appeared to be euphoric in the moments after more than 1,000 Jews had been slaughtered, kidnapped, and raped. And that should be a moment of awakening for American Jews that anti-Semitism, even if it operates under various guises that don't call themselves anti-Semitic, usually anti-Zionist, that it is abroad. It is out there. It's not just marches at Charlottesville. It's a frightening number of students at places like Colombia and Harvard and Penn and Cornell and Stanford. It is, of course, a problem on the right, but it is also a problem that extends to every ideological corner in America. And it's happening here. It's happening in Europe. It's happening in places like China, where there effectively are no Jews. It is a worldwide phenomenon. So it feels very much like a repeat of the 1930s, where the Jews are being targeted by a wide array of enemies who know no particular ideological color, except in their shared animus and hatred of Jews.

Eric, you've been somebody who studied anti-Semitism for years, and I was looking at your social media and you made a callback recently to something that you had said not today in the wake of the war, but back in 2020, and I want to read that for folks, you said, anti-Semitism is emerging as an equal opportunity ideology. Anti-semitism crosses every line of race, political party, and primary stances on a wide range of issues. And you went on to write, It in fact, imperils us all. Speaking of anti-Semitism, in what ways? It's important to understand that anti-Semitism isn't simply a form of bigotry. It is an ideology. It is a worldview that places Jews as a conspiratorial other. That conspiracy is used to justify violence against African Americans, immigrants, and Muslims. And at the core of anti-Semitism is the belief that Jews and those are seen as their allies should be removed from any society and usually through violence and death. Do I hear you right, though, that you're saying anti-Semitism against Jews, Islamophobia, which is certainly a rise of as well, racism against black Americans, white nationalism, basically, it's all part of one similar ideology. There is an ideology within anti-Semitism.

It is the belief that Jews are secretly trying to control the world or manipulate the world through control of economy, through arts and culture. It is that conspiracy theory that is often used to explain Islamophobia or anti-black racism. But at its core, growingly and increasingly, are individuals who are taking those bigotries and justifying them through their hatred of Jews. You've been making the point in some of your recent writing that you see today, there's no longer a distinction between anti-Zionism, and anti-Semitism. But I read with interest basically a response, but not specifically by Charles Plo, your colleague, who divided anti-Zionism into different categories. He talked about political Zionism, cultural Zionism, religious Zionism. Those are not distinctions that you see when it comes to anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism?

I don't want to respond to Charles' column, but let me say this. Anti-semitism was just a 19th century word for Jew hatred. With a particular racialist coloration, which was in line with the racialism of Europe in its day, that became intolerable for most people after the Second World War and after the collapse of the Nazi regime. And so, hatred of Jews had to find a new vehicle. And in the main, that became anti-Zionism. Now it's true, you can absolutely find people who are Jews who are also anti-Zionists. There are always exceptions. But the tropes that anti-Zionism relies on to treat the Jewish state as the proverbial Jew of nations so often replicate the same kinds of tropes that were used against Jews in a previous generation. They're swindlers. They're imposterors. They're not really from here. They're trying to steal other people's lands. All of the things that were said about Jews in Europe in, say, the late 19th century are now said about Jews in the Middle East today.

Rabbi, let me end with you and ask a question that I would probably ask my own Rabbi about a lot of different things. Where do we go from here? I dread Thanksgiving, honestly, sitting at the table, even with members of my own family, because these are hard issues to talk about. Our social media seems like we're screaming at one another. The fact of the matter is not all Jews agree about the state of affairs.

It's really important, especially in this moment when it's so scary and so many of us are in despair and we're surrounded by images of death and destruction, and so many of us are mourning to imagine that there can be a better future and to recommit to working on that. And that can only be a better future for both Israelis and Palestinians. There's no possibility that one people is going to live with safety, with dignity, with human rights there. It has to be that both people are going to either live together or die together. And unfortunately, right now people are dying together. And we need to look to the brave people who even in this moment are working to build that better future and to figure out how both people can be in that piece of land, each in their own state, living out their lives in dignity.

I'm very grateful that the three of you are here and I'm very grateful I got to hear from all of you. Brett Stevens, Rabbi Jill Jacobson, Eric Ward. Thank you again very much. Business leaders across the country have been quick to speak out against the rise in anti-Semitism. One of those leaders is Robert Kraft. He's the chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group and the New England Patriots. In 2019, he started the foundation to combat anti-Semitism, and it is investing $25 million to raise awareness about soaring incidence of anti-Semitism across the country. And Robert Kraft joins me now. Mr. Kraft, thank you so much for joining us. I want to get right into an issue that I know is deeply personal to you. Why did you decide to start this foundation? What's your organization doing right now to try and fight back against this increase in hate and anti-Semitism that we are seeing?

I had seen what happened in Charlottesville in '17 and then the Treaty of Life in '18, and I was privileged to get the Genesis Award in Israel. I wanted to give the money to some group fighting Jewish hate and anti-Semitism, which I saw the beginnings of really building. I worry, I love this country, and it reminded me of what happened in Nazi Germany in the mid-30s. Most of the people in America are great people, but they're not aware of the Jewish hate. We have created a multimedia campaign and created content to educate those people. We asked them all to adopt this blue square as a symbol of unity, solidarity and pushing back on all hate.

I get the sense. I mean, you said you were just in Germany. Also, my understanding is I have a long history with Israel. You first traveled there as a teenager. I get the sense that you think that the hate that we're seeing now is outside of the Holocaust, the worse that it's been. Am I right?

I've never seen what's going on now in the world. And it really is scary to me because I want our country to stay open. And for all people, I know I went to college on scholarship, and I live my dream. I own an NFL franchise in my hometown. And I did that because I was able to work hard and make things happen and opportunities were open to me. And I think with the hate going on now, that is changing. With hate, we're not born with hate, it's taught. And with hate comes violence. And we got to push back on it. Everyone who cares about America and the Western world, we have to stop what's going on.

We've been talking, Mr. Kraft, about the obvious context of the moment, the war between Israel and Hamas. But you yourself started this organization in 2019, and the anti-Semitism we're talking about right now obviously predates this moment. Why do you think more Americans, particularly young Americans, may not understand anti-Semitism in the way that you do? In other words, why do we need this campaign to educate people today?

What's happening in the country, unfortunately, now is most people under 30 are getting their news and updates from social media. Unfortunately, there's so much false narrative out there. We're told that on the two major sites, 25% are bots, and then 25% of that is repeated. And young people are hearing that, believing it, posting that. And it's unbelievable to me to see on college campuses throughout America, the support for a group like Hamas who has in their charter not just the eradication of the state of Israel, but Jewish people anywhere in the world and infidels.

The reality is hate begets hate, and we have seen so much hate against other ethnic groups, including Muslims and Arabs since the start of this war began. How do you think about that hate that you're seeing and how does this fit into the activism that you're doing to stamp out anti-Semitism?

Our foundation fights Jewish hate, but fights all hate. If you look at our ads that we pay for that ran nationally, it's against Muslim hate, against Asian hate, LGBTQ+, anyone who's different. And we all need that in the world we're living in, we all have to accept what's best from every group and listen and have empathy and understanding and appreciate what's there. But I don't know why someone, because of their skin color or the religion they were born into, people would hate them. It's not what American values are. And we have to push back on it. And that's what our foundation is committed to doing.

Robert Kraft, the man putting his money where his mouth is. Thank you very much, sir. We appreciate it.

My honor. Thank you.

And still ahead, we are going to dig into why anti-Semitism is rising on college campuses and where the line is between free speech and hate speech. We'll be right back. We have.

Another student, Tulane, as.

We saw in the video who was bashed in the head.

With a Palestinian threat.

This has turned into intimidation.

It's turned.

Into violence on campus.

I think a lot of Jewish.

Students.

Are very afraid.

I would say all.

Students are absolutely terrified. Cornell University has canceled classes tomorrow, citing extraordinary stress after anti-Semitic threats and the arrest of a student. We all heard the loudest.

Banging on.

Metal doors.

Floors shaking, walls shaking.

It's.

Heartbreaking. I don't feel safe on campus. It's scary sometimes. Welcome back. That's just some of what has played out on campuses across the country since the October seventh attack on Israel. Many Jewish students say that they no longer feel safe. Joining me now are Jessica Brenner, a sophomore from Barnard College at Columbia University; Allison Lax, a sophomore at NYU; and Davian Gechman, a freshman at Cornell. Thank you all so very much for being here. Jessica, I want to start with you. We just highlighted what's going on at Colombia in particular in that video. What's life like on campus right now?

Campus is very tense. I walk around feeling hunched over. You feel the tension in the air and there's something new every day. There's a protest. Lots of students speaking up against the Jews, spreading this anti-Semitic rhetoric. And it's very, very hard to walk around campus hearing these anti-Semitic statements from the river to the sea, Palisad will be free. Yesterday I was sitting in class and I hear it coming from outside through the walls. And it's very, very hard to be a student on campus right now. And thank God personally, I haven't had so many anti-Semitic incidents, but I have had people laugh in my face about denying that there are hostages in Gaza. So it's been extremely difficult to be on campus.

Alice, when I went to NYU, there were protests all the time. There were labor protests, there were protests, foreign against wars. What's it like on campus today? Is this what you expected when you enrolled to show up in downtown New York to go to college?

This is definitely not what I expected when I enrolled in NYU. These protests are not your usual protests. These are violent protests where they're screaming for the death of Jews. They say globalize the antifata, which is a call for violence against Jews. They give us death threats. They say, come over here. Let's see what happens when you come over here. That's not a peaceful discourse. That's not a regular protest. When I go to class, we have professors teaching absolute misinformation. I'm a biology student. We shouldn't be hearing about the Israel-Palestinian conflict in my classes, but somehow I am.

David, how do you square what's happening, what you're hearing happen on these campuses with what's happening not only where you are, but also with the idea that college campuses are supposed to be a place of free speech?

This is what's happening all across the United States, and in some ways, all of a sudden, campuses have become the front lines of the battle against anti-Semitism. It's the battle against really people call for the death of the Israeli state. College students who should be just going to class, having a good time in some ways living a college life are now facing this battle where every day it's something new occurring. It's a new event that needs to be organized to really counteract or in some ways, condemn the anti-Semitism that's happening on campus.

The Jewish community there at Cornell was facing a really serious threat. A few weeks ago, the FBI was even alerted. What was the moment like on campus for you? Do you remember what you felt like?

Yeah, I mean, it was very tense. I had my parents called me and they said, I think we need to start talking about whether you can stay on campus. I found it as really a chance to really in the light of these attacks, we must stand up. So the following day, it was Monday morning, it was raining, it was cold. I stood with a sign that's right behind me and says, We are Jewish. We are proud, we will not be afraid. I stood out that sign with 15 other people on the main plaza in the rain and cold, but we realized that rain or shine, we're still Jewish. No matter the hatred, we are still Jewish. And that's what I've seen all around in campuses, all across America. The Jewish community has really united to go against and fight against this anti-Semitism. It's what we must continue doing.

Allison, you're one of the presidents of Jews. I want to make sure I get this right, president of Jews, students supporting Israel, excuse me, at NYU, which makes you a pretty public face in this moment. Are you scared on a daily basis?

Absolutely, I'm very scared. I get death threats daily over Instagram, over email. Students, my peers recognize me and say disgusting things to my face.

Just on the street?

On the street. People say really nasty things in class. I had to drop one of my organic chemistry classes, actually, because it was such a hostile environment for me personally. I had my NYU email hacked, actually, and people were reporting hateous things in my name. And NYU has yet to take any of my concern, my safety concern, seriously.

Jessica, before we go, social media. What does your feed look like right now? I'm curious.

A lot of misinformation. People see anything online. They don't even look to see if it's a reputable source and they just believe it as fact. Especially, we saw yesterday with Bin Laden's letter to America, and all of these Gen Zers are saying, I really resonate what he's saying. I understand why 9/11 happened. And that's very scary. It's very scary to be part of this generation that just reads, they believe whatever they read. I think that it's very, very harmful, especially with other platforms like Sidechat, where people can just anonymously spread hate. Jewish students at Columbia University have been targeted on Sidechat. People have said terrible things about the Jews. I think it's very, very harmful.

I'm so sorry to all three of you that you're in a situation where you feel the way that you feel, and I hope that it doesn't stay this way for long. Jessica, Allison, Davian, thank you all very much for being here. And we want to give the last word tonight to the people who experienced anti-Semitism at its worst, Holocaust survivors. It's been 78 years since 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during World War II. For survivors, the terror and the pain is still raw today. And now new fears that the hate they saw so long ago never fully went away.

It was just unbearable. I still don't believe that it was me.

I don't know how I survived.

I was a kid.

I didn't know what hit me. I didn't know what's going on. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. You do have some people who are denying that and say, It's not true. It never happened. I know it happened. I'm watching television what's going on. My God. It's the same thing like Hitler time. I'm worried for the new generation that was coming out. It's a terrible, terrible thing that we are Jews. We have to hide ourselves. All it takes is a spark. It's a century's, million years old cancer in society. And now I see it happening again. I'm worried for my children and grandchildren. They don't deserve it. We had anti-Semitism all the time, but it wasn't in style. Right now it's style. When you're young and you're not educated yet, you tend to follow the others. And if you follow a mob, a mob has its own mind, own characteristic. You lose your own. When it comes to it and people don't feel safe walking on the street, then it's not the America I used to know. Evil destroys you inside and out. We have to starve for the goods in people. I am cautiously optimistic.

I hope that America will deal with it. And I hope that the turnaround will come real soon so that my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren could live in peace. The Jewish people have always hope, okay? Because of our religion, we feel that we belong, we have a purpose. Now the whole world knows what's going on. So I think it's now is different. I like to recall the phrase, Never again, which is now. Even if things happen to us, at least we didn't go down without a fight. You can never forget, okay? Never forget. If you forget then it will happen again. Again. And it will very easily happen again. If you don't remember, then it will happen again.

A powerful reminder from those who know what happens when hate goes unchecked. Never again. Our thanks to Nahas Health and Family Network for connecting us with these survivors. Our thanks, of course, to you for watching. These are frightening times, and frightening times often require difficult conversations. I want to thank also all of our guests who had those tough conversations with me tonight. And as we promised you a year ago at the conclusion of our first special, we will continue to cover these stories and we'll continue to listen to you, our viewers. Thank you and good night. Thanks for watching. Stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBCnews app or follow us on social media.