America has an antisemitism problem. It’s an issue we’ve covered extensively here at The Free Press. Most recently, with an investigation by Rupa Subramanya into one high school in Virginia, and how it failed to protect its Jewish students from harassment and intimidation. Today, we’re publishing an essay by Leo Lewis, a high school student writing about the antisemitism he sees spreading through his generation. His message to anyone older than him is stark: it is worse than you think. We came across Leo’s writing on Substack and were impressed by what we found. We are publishing an adapted and expanded version of his essay: a sobering account of the prejudice taking hold among young Americans, why it has flourished, and what must be done to confront it.
—The Editors
As a high schooler, I can tell you the scale of antisemitism among my generation is far worse than any adult realizes. Among young men, a new, mainly right-wing brand of Jew-hatred has become omnipresent and is calcifying into an insurgent political movement. And despite how widespread it’s becoming, it’s newer and far less understood than the more pervasive antisemitism on the left.
One word captures this new form of antisemitism: goy. A Hebrew word used to refer to non-Jews, it has been captured by the fringe right and used to imply that Jews see non-Jews as subhuman cattle to be controlled. A pro-Israel non-Jew, for example, might be called a “goy slave,” to indicate that he is loyal to his Jewish overlords.
Today, the word has migrated—through memes and TikToks—into the everyday vocabulary of young American men who in large part have no idea what it means. The chemistry teacher who gives too much homework might be called a goy. Bad food is called goyslop. There are TikToks with millions of views claiming that kosher-labeled food is healthier because Jews deliberately made non-kosher food into goyslop to keep non-Jews unhealthy, weak, and easier to control.
