How should we define antisemitism, a term that needs to be distinct from criticism of the Israeli government and its policies? In answer to that question, I recommend this short and compelling video from the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:

Sacks defined antisemitism as “persecuting Jews and denying them the right to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else.” Antisemitism is a prejudice “that, like a virus, has survived over time by mutating.”

In the Middle Ages, Jews were persecuted because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries they were reviled because of their race. Today Jews are attacked because of the existence of their nation-state, Israel. Denying Israel’s right to exist is the new antisemitism.

And just as antisemitism has mutated, so has its legitimation. Each time, as the persecution descended into barbarity, the persecutors reached for the highest form of justification available.

Even if you aren’t Jewish, Sacks says, rising antisemitism is an issue since it is “the world’s most reliable early warning sign of a major threat to freedom, humanity, and the dignity of difference.”