Executive Summary
This paper argues that current responses to violence-oriented antisemitic acts remain incident-led and do not focus sufficiently on the professionalized and organized actors who drive, coordinate, finance, and amplify the most serious threats. To close this gap, this paper proposes to differentiate between “general” and “organized” antisemitism for more effective preventive and repressive responses and measures. In addition, this paper proposes the operational use of a separate analytical threat category “violence-oriented antisemitic extremism (VAE)”.
The paper focuses on policy implications for the European Union, its Member States, and the United States, while drawing on a wider European threat picture where relevant to the underlying pattern of attacks, plots, and hostile activity. The recommendations are drawn from the findings of the April 2025 CEP study on the role of antisemitism in the mobilization to violence by extremist and terrorist actors in France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and the United States. In addition, the paper draws expert insights and recommendations from a CEP webinar series held in late 2025.
Key conclusions and recommendations include:
To increase conceptual and operational efficiency, a separate analytical VAE threat category could be created and operationalized to capture cases where antisemitic worldviews are central to the organization or justification of violence. This would not create a new criminal offense but change how authorities tag, prioritize, allocate resources, connect, and escalate cases across intelligence, prevention, prosecution, and policy.
Governments should implement an operational focus on analyzing and combating organized VAE to specifically disrupt “professional” VAE actors. Such an approach should leverage the full range of P/CVE/CT tools, administrative measures, Joint Task Forces, and lessons from the fight against organized crime.
Further policy recommendations include enhancing data collection and analysis and fostering international collaboration. The paper stresses the need for tailored preventative and educational initiatives and stricter online content moderation to combat the spread of violence-oriented antisemitism.
Introduction
Antisemitism is a persistent security problem across multiple countries and regions, with distinct manifestations shaped by specific historical, cultural, and political contexts. Shared patterns include the dissemination of conspiracy theories, targeting of Jewish communities, and the politicization of antisemitic narratives for extremist agendas. The conflict in the Middle East in general, especially since October 7, 2023, has led to a significant increase in reported antisemitic incidents in many countries. However, in contrast to other extremist ideological categories such as Islamism or right-wing extremism, antisemitism itself is currently not considered a separate threat category by many governments. This means that in most countries, neither prosecutors nor police or other authorities have a specialized unit targeting (organized) violence-oriented antisemitism.
The April 2025 CEP report "The role of antisemitism in the mobilization to violence by extremist and terrorist actors", commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office, focused on antisemitic threats, actors and networks across France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and the United States. The report documents antisemitic narratives that serve as tools to justify violence across ideological lines, framing Jewish communities and individuals as threats or scapegoats. Right-wing extremists propagate conspiracy theories like the "Great Replacement," portraying Jews as orchestrating adverse societal change. Islamist extremists often conflate Jewish identity with global oppression, particularly through the misuse of ideological narratives concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for their propaganda purposes. Some left-wing extremists link Jews to capitalism or imperialism, using anti-Zionism to mask their antisemitism. These narratives are adapted to local and geopolitical contexts, reinforcing the targeting of Jewish communities and individuals. Transnational networks facilitate the spread of antisemitic narratives. Linkages between antisemitic actors and organized crime are visible in various countries.
This paper also builds on a webinar series conducted by CEP and the German Federal Foreign Office throughout the fall and winter of 2025, building on central aspects and challenges identified in the CEP report. These webinars focused on three topics: transnational connections between antisemitic extremist and terrorist actors; linkages between antisemitic key actors and organized crime; and the need to rethink antisemitism after October 7.
The overall goals for these events were not only to raise awareness concerning these issues with international and multilateral policy stakeholders, as well as the international expert community. They also aim to initiate policy debates and to encourage concrete joint and coordinated action and policy development to prevent and counter the threat emanating from (organized) violence-oriented antisemitic extremism (VAE). Summaries of the webinar presentations can be found in the annex of this paper.
This paper focuses on policy implications for the European Union, its Member States, and the United States, while drawing on a wider European threat picture, including the United Kingdom, where relevant to the underlying pattern of attacks, plots, and hostile activity.
Author: Alexander Ritzmann