A ‘tsunami’ of antisemitism is on the rise across Latin America, U.S. officials warn

The oldest synagogue in Santiago was defaced last week with graffiti calling for the “overthrow of Zionism.” Earlier this month, a Jewish center in Buenos Aires that was the target of a deadly attack in 1994 received a new bomb threat vowing “death to the Zionist Jews.”

One of Peru’s largest newspapers ran a cartoon in November of Adolf Hitler giving a Nazi salute to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And in Brazil, a ring of individuals with suspected ties to Hezbollah were arrested for allegedly planning attacks on Jewish institutions across the country.

Those incidents are part of a growing pattern of antisemitic activity across Latin America that is alarming U.S. officials, who toured the region in early December to meet with local officials and members of the Jewish community to discuss a threat that has markedly increased since Hamas’ brutal attacks on Israelis on Oct. 7.

“Antisemitism is on the rise in Latin America,” Aaron Keyak, U.S. deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said in an interview with McClatchy. “Antisemitism, unfortunately, was on the rise before Oct. 7. What we’ve seen since is a tsunami.”

Keyak returned from the trip hopeful that regional governments are taking the phenomenon seriously. He found a clear consensus in his conversations with local leaders that the security threat to Latin American Jews was real and increasing.

That assessment tracks with a spike in antisemitic rhetoric from regional social media accounts and at antiwar protests monitored by local U.S. Embassy staff, the Latin American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League, and local Jewish organizations.

In Brazil, for example, the local Brazilian Israelite Confederation was tracking slightly more than one complaint of antisemitism per day in October 2022. By the end of this October, the total number of complaints received was an average of 15 complaints per day — an increase of nearly 1,000 percent, according to the organization.

“We can say with confidence that the spike is real, and that we’re seeing things that we have not seen before,” Fernando Lottenberg, commissioner to monitor and combat antisemitism for the Organization of American States, or OAS, said in a phone interview.

“It’s not that because Israel responds, antisemitism grows,” Lottenberg said. “It’s that antisemitism is already there, and that an event like this makes them feel free to speak out.”

Brazil, Chile, Argentina on U.S. visit

Keyak’s tour through Brazil, Chile and Argentina was planned well before the Oct. 7 attacks. But the trip took on added urgency in the aftermath, when Israel launched a military response against Hamas by bombarding Gaza. The deputy special envoy met with local government officials, law enforcement, university students, Jewish leaders and U.S. Embassy staff during each stop.

“There’s a renewed understanding that these local governments need to keep these communities safe, and I saw that across the region,” Keyak said in his office at the State Department. “The law enforcement officials I spoke with seem to be taking it seriously, whether it’s online incitement or threats to the local Jewish community.”

The office of the U.S. special envoy to combat antisemitism, led by Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, a renowned Holocaust historian, was first established by Congress in 2004 to advance U.S. policy against antisemitism, provide foreign governments with a point of contact in Washington and make clear that it is a priority of the U.S. government.

The office has emphasized to foreign governments that criticism of the Israeli government and its handling of the Gaza war is a legitimate exercise.

But regional embassy staff and the special envoy’s office have monitored a surge in rhetoric at protests against the war that Keyak said crosses the line into antisemitism.

“What concerns us is justification for what Hamas did on Oct. 7,” Keyak said. “They sought out to kill Jewish civilians. So one of the things we’re on the look out for in these meetings, and all of our engagements internationally, is whether there are government and civil society leaders who are justifying what are simply antisemitic attacks and murders.”

“Assaulting a Jew walking down the street is not an act of protest. It’s not standing up for Palestinian rights. It’s antisemitism,” he continued. “To hold any Jew accountable for the actions of the Israeli government, or any government, is both ineffective and antisemitic. It would be like protesting outside a Chinese restaurant because you disagree with how the PRC is treating the Uyghurs. It doesn’t even compute.”

A study conducted by the Latin American Jewish Congress and Observatorio Web, an organization that monitors discrimination online throughout the region, found a 12 percent increase in antisemitic rhetoric on social media platforms after the Oct. 7 attack over 2022 levels, matching a similar pattern they observed after conflict previously erupted in the Gaza Strip in 2021 and 2014.

Jewish, Palestinian communities in Latin America

The Latin American Jewish community is relatively small, with various academic studies estimating a population between 300,000 and 500,000 across the region, over half of whom reside in Argentina.

The region also has a significant Palestinian population, with Chile home roughly to 500,000, the largest Palestinian community outside of the Middle East, according to a report by the U.N. Division of Rights of the Palestinians and the Palestinian Federation of Chile.

“As you know, we face a very unique situation in our country given the presence of a large and influential Chilean Palestinian community that challenges us every day,” Ariela Agosin, president of the Jewish Community of Chile, said at a regional summit on antisemitism in Santiago on Dec. 3 attended by U.S. officials.

Antisemitic incidents have increased sharply over the past decade across Europe and the United States — home to the largest Jewish communities in the world outside of Israel — leading law enforcement to tighten security at Jewish synagogues, cultural centers and other institutions. The United States and European governments have boosted security funding for Jewish institutions to post armed guards and install bulletproof doors at their facilities, among other security measures.

Latin American synagogues have increasingly adopted these security precautions, Keyak said.

“Us coming in after a terrorist attack, after antisemites are killing Jews, is too late. The idea is to have these conversations beforehand, to make sure the security apparatus is taking those threats seriously,” Keyak said. “Some of the governments are quite harshly critical of Israel. But we see local law enforcement protecting local Jewish institutions.”

The security concerns are focused both on local antisemitic threats as well as the specter of international terrorism.

Brazil, home to Latin America’s second-largest Jewish community, foiled an alleged plot last month against Jewish targets that included suspected local Hezbollah recruits as well as individuals flying into the country after meeting with Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon, according to Brazilian federal police and the Israeli prime minister’s office, which said in a statement that Israel’s intelligence services assisted in the operation.

Hezbollah, a militant group backed by Iran and designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, has a longtime presence throughout Latin America. Keyak said that he and his Latin counterparts “definitely talked about Hezbollah and the danger of terrorism” throughout his trip.

“That’s very much part of the conversation. Government to government, we talk about these international threats and share information,” he said. “Obviously, throughout Latin America, the security intelligence apparatus of our countries are intimately linked.”

For the most part, the State Department has found willing and active partners in the fight against antisemitism across the region, Keyak said. But several countries have been forceful in their condemnations of Israel. Chile and Colombia recalled their ambassadors, and Bolivia severed diplomatic ties outright.

“In Latin America, you have countries recalling ambassadors and excusing language accusing Israel of performing a genocide or massacres, and that goes on the shoulders on the local Jewish communities,” Lottenberg of OAS said. “Jews are being held collectively responsible for what’s happening in the Middle East.”

Argentina has its own office devoted to combating antisemitism, and has adopted a standard international definition of antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

But Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, described Israel’s preparations for a military response as “Nazism” in a social media post just two days after the Oct. 7 attacks. The Biden administration expressed dismay at Petro’s message through multiple private channels before publicly condemning it, Keyak said.

“The U.S. government has a wide range of tools — some are public, some are private — to push forward on these issues,” he said. “By the time you read about it, it just shows the other levers weren’t responded to in the right way.”