Research · Methodology
This platform uses the taxonomy of the Decoding Antisemitism Lexicon (Becker, Troschke, Bolton & Chapelan, Eds., 2024, Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature, open access under CC BY 4.0), organizing hateful content into six categories and 40 concepts. Anywhere a category appears in the dashboard, hover its name to see this definition. Examples below are abstract paraphrases — they describe the form of each entry without reproducing hateful content.
Example · Depicting Jewish people as alien outsiders, inherently dishonest, or less than human.
The Other/Foreign· 1
Jews constructed as fundamentally alien, foreign, or non-belonging to any national, ethnic, or cultural in-group.
Evil/The Devil· 2
Jews depicted as evil incarnate or as allied with the Devil — the demonic register of classic antisemitism. Covers medieval Satanic imagery and its theological descendants (“synagogue of Satan”, deicide and Christ-killer accusations) as well as secular renderings of Jews as an ontologically malevolent force.
Blood Libel/Child Murder· 3
The accusation that Jews ritually murder non-Jewish children or deliberately target children, including contemporary claims that Israel deliberately kills Palestinian children.
Repulsiveness and Dehumanization· 4
Jews depicted as physically repulsive, subhuman, or animal-like; denial of full humanity through physiognomic, hygienic, or zoological framing.
Immorality· 5
Jews depicted as innately immoral, unscrupulous, or sexually deviant — moral deficiency as a fixed characteristic of the group rather than a judgement about individuals.
Lie and Deceit· 6
Jews, Israel, or Zionism depicted as essentially lying, deceitful, and treacherous — dishonesty as innate character.
Vengefulness· 7
Jews depicted as inherently vengeful, driven by disproportionate and eternal retribution.
Disloyalty/Jewish Loyalty· 8
Jews depicted as disloyal to the nation they live in, with primary loyalty to Israel, other Jews, or a secretive international Jewish interest.
Blame for Antisemitism· 9
Jews held responsible for provoking or causing antisemitism through their own behaviour, character, or actions.
Example · Claiming a hidden Jewish elite secretly controls banks, media, or world events.
Greed, Exploitation and Identification with Capitalism· 10
Jews depicted as innately greedy or money-obsessed, as parasitically exploiting others' labour or suffering, or as the embodiment and architects of capitalism as a system.
Power· 11
Jews, Israel, or Zionism depicted as possessing disproportionate, overwhelming, or omnipotent power over politics, media, economics, or society.
Conspiracy Theories· 12
Narratives claiming Jews or Israel exercise secret control over institutions, countries, or the world; events explained through a hidden Jewish role.
Disintegration· 13
Jews depicted as a destructive force undermining or corroding the social, cultural, moral, or racial fabric of nations.
Self-victimization· 14
A reversal of victim and offender roles: perpetrators of antisemitism or a broader in-group framed as faultless victims — silenced, ostracised, persecuted — at the hands of Jews, Israelis, or the fight against antisemitism, casting Jews as the true oppressors who merely “play the victim”.
Example · Claiming the Holocaust is exaggerated, or that Jews exploit its memory for political gain.
Rejection of Guilt· 15
Refusal to accept collective or national responsibility for the Holocaust or the historical persecution of Jews.
Demands for a Clean Break with the Nazi Past· 16
Demands to draw a line under the Nazi past — to stop commemorating, discussing, or drawing lessons from the Holocaust.
Holocaust Distortion and Denial· 17
Denying that the Holocaust occurred, or distorting, minimising, or trivialising its nature, scope, or significance.
Relativization and Denial of Antisemitism· 18
Denying that antisemitism exists, claiming it is exaggerated, or relativising it by unfavourable comparison with other forms of discrimination.
Instrumentalization of Antisemitism and the Holocaust· 19
Accusing Jews or Israel of exploiting the Holocaust or antisemitism as political tools — for financial gain, leverage, or to silence criticism.
Nazi-Jewish Collaboration· 20
Claims that Jews collaborated with the Nazis, contributed to the Holocaust, or that Nazism had Jewish origins.
Admonishers· 21
Jews who speak out against antisemitism framed as annoying, self-righteous, or harmful — the “admonishing Jew” who won't let society move on.
Taboo of Criticism· 22
The claim that criticism of Jews or Israel is prohibited, censored, or punished — that a “taboo” prevents free discussion.
Jews Have Not Learned From the Past· 23
The accusation that Jews or Israel, having experienced the Holocaust, should know better than to perpetrate violence — Jewish suffering framed as an obligation to moral perfection.
Example · Holding every Jewish person responsible for Israel's actions, or openly praising Nazism.
Holding Jews Collectively Responsible for Israel's Actions· 24
Holding all Jews, including diaspora Jews, collectively responsible for the actions of the State of Israel.
Jewish Privilege and the "Free Pass"· 25
The claim that Jews enjoy special privileges, preferential treatment, or a “free pass” from criticism, often attributed to Holocaust guilt or Jewish influence.
Affirmation of Nazis, Hitler and the Holocaust· 26
Explicit endorsement, glorification, or positive evaluation of Nazism, Hitler, the Third Reich, or the Holocaust — approval of the persecution and murder of Jews, as opposed to its denial or minimisation. Includes admiring invocation of Nazi symbols, slogans, and figures.
Example · Comparing Israelis to Nazis, or denying Israel any right to exist — beyond ordinary policy criticism.
Nazi Analogy/Fascism Analogies· 27
Comparing Israel, Israelis, or Israeli policies to Nazi Germany, Hitler, the Holocaust, or other fascist regimes in essentialising, totalising terms.
Apartheid Analogy/Racist State· 28
Characterising Israel as an “apartheid state” or as inherently, constitutionally racist — defining the state's nature rather than criticising specific policies.
Colonialism Analogies· 29
Framing Israel as a colonial project — equating Zionism with European colonialism in essentialising terms.
Terrorist State· 30
Characterising Israel as a “terrorist state” — terrorism as the state's essential nature rather than criticism of specific actions.
Genocide· 31
Accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in essentialising, generalising terms — genocide as Israel's nature or intent.
Double Standards· 32
Applying different standards of judgment to Israel than to other states — demanding behaviour of Israel not demanded of others.
Denial of Israel's Right to Exist· 33
Denying that Israel has a right to exist as a state — not criticising policies but denying its legitimacy as such.
Calls for Boycott of Israel and Support for BDS· 34
Calls for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel, when they target Israel's existence rather than specific policies.
Israel's Sole Guilt in the Conflict· 35
Attributing sole responsibility for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Israel — denying any Palestinian agency or responsibility.
Example · Insults, curses, explicit threats, or calls for violence directed at Jewish people.
Insults· 37
Denigrating utterances targeting Jews or Israelis through derogatory language, slurs, or degrading characterisations.
Threats· 38
Explicit or implicit threats of violence, harm, or negative consequences directed at Jews, Jewish institutions, or Israel — the speaker is the agent of the harm.
Curses· 39
Imprecations invoking divine, supernatural, or cosmic punishment against Jews.
Death Wishes· 40
Expressed desires for the death, suffering, or destruction of Jews, without direct threat capacity.
Affirming, Desiring, Calling for Violence· 41
Affirming past or ongoing violence against Jews, expressing a desire for future violence, or calling on others to commit it. One category spanning retrospective celebration and justification, real-time endorsement, and directive incitement addressed to an audience.
Source & licence
Becker, M. J., Troschke, H., Bolton, M., & Chapelan, A. (Eds.) (2024). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature. Read the open-access edition.
Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, and reproduced here under its terms.
Changes · The six categories and 40 concepts are reproduced from the Lexicon in its own order and numbering; concept 36 of the published edition, “Introduction to Aggressive Speech Acts”, is a chapter heading rather than a codeable concept, so the numbering runs 1–41 with 36 omitted. The one-line definitions and examples on this page are AddressHate's plain-language summaries written for a general audience, not the Lexicon's own text.