From the Desk

August 2026 brought repeated incidents in which Jews and Israelis were targeted because of their identity, from physical assaults and threats to exclusion from everyday services. These incidents occurred in streets, tourist destinations and businesses, as well as in and around Jewish religious institutions. Synagogues featured prominently during the month, including an attack during Shabbat services at New York’s Central Synagogue. Swastikas, Nazi salutes and references to Hitler also appeared across several countries.

Online, longstanding antisemitic narratives continued to circulate alongside conspiracy theories built around current events. ICT monitoring identified the “109 expulsions” narrative, religious demonization and collective accusations against Jews in far-right spaces on Telegram and 4chan. The migrant crisis in Ceuta also became the subject of conspiracy narratives on X and in ICT-monitored Telegram spaces, where Israel, Netanyahu or Jews were portrayed as responsible for directing migration toward Spain.

Data published during August provided a broader picture of the scale of antisemitic activity. The Community Security Trust recorded 1,926 antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom during the first half of 2026, a 21% increase from the same period in 2025 and the second-highest total ever recorded for the first six months of a year. Physical assaults increased by 82% to 135, the highest half-year total recorded by CST. Incidents affecting synagogues and people travelling to or from them also reached a record level for the first half of a year, while more than one in five incidents involved Hitler, the Nazis or the Holocaust, Nazi salutes, swastikas or related imagery.

Longstanding forms of antisemitism remained closely tied to contemporary incidents in August. Nazi imagery and historical antisemitic tropes appeared alongside hostility directed at Jews and Israelis in everyday encounters, while current political developments were incorporated into familiar conspiracy narratives online. Across online and offline environments, different forms of antisemitism drew on many of the same underlying ideas: Jews as collectively responsible, Jews as hidden sources of power, and Jewish identity itself as a basis for hostility.

Dr. Liram Koblentz-Stenzler
Head of the Antisemitism & Extremism Desk
International Institute of Counter-Terrorism (ICT)

Key Trends

Trend 1: Jewish and Israeli Identity Continued to Be a Basis for Direct Targeting and Exclusion

A pattern identified in July continued into August, as Jews and Israelis were targeted in public and everyday settings because of their identity. Incidents ranged from physical assaults and threats to discriminatory treatment and exclusion from ordinary services.

In Venice, a visibly Orthodox Jewish couple visiting the city was verbally and physically attacked. In Surfside, Florida, a Jewish couple visiting South Florida was assaulted in an incident that resulted in charges including harassment based on religion or ethnicity. In France, a Jewish Australian couple was subjected to antisemitic threats, including references to Hitler, and a suspect was later arrested. In Sofia, Bulgaria, Jewish teenagers were confronted by individuals performing Nazi salutes and shouting “Sieg Heil.”

Other incidents involved exclusion rather than physical violence. In Alexandria, Virginia, an Israeli customer was denied further service after the business owner learned she was Israeli. In Les Deux Alpes, France, a business owner was recorded telling an Orthodox Jewish man that there were “too many” members of the Jewish community, prompting an investigation.

The incidents varied in severity, but identity was central in each case: those targeted were singled out because they were Jewish or Israeli, whether this was immediately visible or became known during the encounter.

Trend 2: Explicit Nazi Symbolism and Rhetoric Remained Highly Visible

August saw repeated use of Nazi symbols and rhetoric in antisemitic incidents across several countries. In Córdoba, Spain, a swastika was painted on a statue of Maimonides, while in La Flèche, France, antisemitic vandalism included swastikas and the number “88,” a neo-Nazi reference to “Heil Hitler.” In Sofia, Bulgaria, Jewish teenagers were confronted with Nazi salutes and shouts of “Sieg Heil,” and Nazi salutes were also reported near a synagogue in Pontoise, France. In Wheeling, West Virginia, a swastika was painted on a synagogue. References to Hitler also appeared in direct threats against Jews during the month.

The incidents show that Nazi imagery remained a readily recognizable language of antisemitic intimidation, appearing in attacks on Jewish individuals, religious institutions and sites associated with Jewish history and memory.

Campus Antisemitism and Institutional Responses

A national report published in Canada in August documented widespread experiences of antisemitism among Jewish students. The government-commissioned Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences (CASE) report found that 95.7% of Jewish student respondents had experienced or witnessed at least one instance of antisemitism during the previous 12 months. The classroom emerged as one of the areas of concern: 72% said they limit what they say in class about being Jewish, 36% reported encountering course content or classroom discussions they experienced as antisemitic or biased, and 18% of incidents described by respondents involved faculty members. Seventy percent said their university did not take antisemitism seriously, and among those who reported an incident, 63% were dissatisfied with how it was handled.

August also brought a series of institutional and legal responses. The U.S. Department of Education opened Title VI investigations into San José State University and San Francisco State University following allegations involving the treatment of Jewish students, faculty conduct and hostile academic environments. At Haverford College, a legal settlement led to new measures aimed at protecting Jewish, Israeli and Zionist students from discrimination and exclusion, including an antisemitism committee, training and reporting mechanisms. In Portugal, authorities requested a criminal investigation into reported threats, harassment and physical violence against an Israeli doctoral student at the University of Coimbra. At Harvard, a federal court dismissed the government’s antisemitism case, addressing the evidentiary standard required to establish an institutional civil-rights violation.

The developments in August show increased use of investigations, legal proceedings and formal institutional measures to address campus antisemitism. The Canadian findings, however, also document low levels of confidence in existing university responses among the Jewish students surveyed.

Key Incident | Antisemitic Attack During Shabbat Services at Central Synagogue, New York

On August 14, an antisemitic attack disrupted Shabbat services at Central Synagogue in Manhattan, where approximately 375 people were gathered for Friday night services. A man damaged ceremonial objects and punched a congregant in the face before assaulting a security guard as he was being removed from the synagogue. He was arrested at the scene and later charged with federal hate crimes and damage to religious property. According to the federal complaint, he explicitly described his actions as racially and religiously motivated and made antisemitic statements following his arrest.

The attack brought antisemitic violence directly into an active place of worship, during Shabbat services and with hundreds of people inside. It was one of several incidents reported in or around synagogues during August, highlighting the continued vulnerability of spaces at the center of Jewish religious and communal life.

Online Dynamics | August 2026

Contemporary Events Reframed Through Antisemitic Conspiracy Narratives

The migrant surge into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta became the focus of widespread antisemitic conspiracy narratives in early August. On X, posts attributed the crisis to Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu or Jews more broadly, with some claiming that Israel had engineered the migration in retaliation for Spain’s criticism of Israeli policy. Others drew on a broader conspiracy narrative portraying Jews as responsible for encouraging Muslim migration in order to destabilize European societies. Research by the Combat Antisemitism Movement identified 173 posts from 119 influencer accounts, generating 57.5 million views. The narratives circulated among both right- and left-wing accounts in and outside Spain.

The same narrative also appeared in far-right spaces monitored by ICT on Telegram, where imagery portrayed Netanyahu as directing migrants toward Spain. Its appearance across X and Telegram illustrates how a current political crisis was incorporated into longstanding narratives of hidden Jewish or Israeli control.

Longstanding Antisemitic Tropes Persisted in Far-Right Online Spaces

ICT monitoring in August documented the continued circulation of longstanding antisemitic narratives across 4chan’s /pol/ board and far-right spaces on Telegram. On /pol/, users invoked the “109 expulsions” trope, which presents the historical persecution and expulsion of Jewish communities as evidence that Jews themselves were responsible for their treatment. Other posts used the “Synagogue of Satan” trope, collective accusations against Jews, and explicitly antisemitic and violent rhetoric. On Telegram, monitored channels and chats similarly included direct expressions of hatred toward Jews and Holocaust-related and genocidal references.

The material shows the continued presence of older antisemitic narratives alongside contemporary Israel-related discourse, with religious demonization, collective blame and references to the Holocaust remaining part of the vocabulary used in far-right online spaces.

Responses and Regulatory Developments| August 2026

August saw several significant legal and governmental developments in response to antisemitism and extremist threats.

In Australia, the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion devoted a major block of hearings to the drivers of antisemitism and radicalization, examining far-right and religious extremism, online radicalization, incitement, and the effectiveness of government and law-enforcement responses. The Commission concluded its public hearings later in the month and will now prepare its final report.

In the United Kingdom, four men pleaded guilty on 28 August to charges stemming from the March arson attack that destroyed four ambulances operated by the Jewish emergency service Hatzola in Golders Green. The attack caused approximately £1 million in damage and was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command. The guilty pleas marked a new stage in the legal proceeding in a case linked to a wider series of attacks targeting Jewish and Israel-linked sites in London.

In the United States, federal prosecutors charged the suspect in the Central Synagogue attack with two hate crimes and destruction of religious property resulting in bodily injury, bringing a federal civil-rights prosecution within days of the attack.