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Op-Ed: Why Didn’t I Become an Anti-Semite?
Anti-Semitism is the impotent anger of people who realize that they are incapable of competing with Jews for vital resources.
By: Pavel Kulyuk
We receive answers to many significant questions in life by chance, without even specifically seeking the answer. This happens when God decides the time has come. This is what happened to me when I unexpectedly took a test to determine whether I was an anti-Semite or not.
It all started with a Facebook post by Assemblymember Michael Novakhov representing District 45 in Southern Brooklyn. On March 8 he wrote: “We are seeing nonstop disturbing incidents of antisemitism and hate in our city, and too often the perpetrators are able to hide behind their age to avoid real accountability. That’s why I introduced Assembly Bill A10124, legislation that prohibits youthful offender status for individuals highlighting a hate crime under New York law Hate crimes are serious offenses, and those who commit them must be held accountable, regardless of their age.”(1)
Wow, I said to myself. Even children hate Jews. What’s going on? I became interested in the topic and began searching for information about Jewish life in New York. I managed to find the UJA-Federation of New York website. It reported, “Antisemitism isn’t just rising—it’s becoming normalized.”(2) It also contained information that 960,000 Jews live in New York City.(3) This is almost 9% of the city’s total population.(4)
Then I studied NYPD reports. Hatred against Jews is truly boundless in New York City. Although Jews make up less than 10% of the city’s population, almost half of all reported hate crimes involve them. In February 2026, 38 such crimes were recorded in the city, 21 of which were related to hatred of Jews.(5) In January, the ratio of both indicators was 58/31.(6) For all of 2025, 576 hate crimes were recorded, 330 of which were against Jews.(7) The year before, this ratio was 657/339.(7) And in 2023, there were 671 hate crimes, of which 323 were related to anti-Semitism.(8)
Unbelievable! Why is this happening? What have Jews done to make them so unpopular in New York? I couldn’t find any reports of Jewish crimes in New York. But when I was looking for information about the New York City population, I came across an interesting city government report for 2020. It was the “Detailed Race and Ethnicity” report. The document noted, “Detailed race and ethnicity data represent the count of people identifying with each group. This count includes people identifying solely with a particular group and people identifying with multiple groups.”(9)
But I didn’t find any Jews there! The only group that could be associated with them was “Israeli,” numbering 25,026 people, or 0.3% of the city’s total population. The report presented over 150 ethnic groups. But there were no Jews among them. Although, as I had previously discovered, the total Jewish population in New York City is approximately 960,000, or 8.8% of the city’s total population. What does this mean? The only logical explanation is that Jews identify with different ethnic groups but remain Jewish at heart. An incredible ability! To retain the spirit of their people within themselves, yet in official documents, list themselves as a representative of a different ethnic group. “Wow! How special these Jews are. It seems like they don’t exist, but they’re everywhere,” I thought. This discovery spurred me on a new search for information.
I decided to find Jewish newspapers in New York City to learn more about the life of this people. A new surprise awaited me. In the directory of local New York newspapers, (10) I discovered that at least six newspapers have names associated with the Jewish people. This is more than the number of newspapers associated with other ethnic groups. Of course, there are newspapers in New York City associated with Koreans, Chinese, and South Americans. But such newspapers are not numerous. One or two for each ethnic group. Jewish newspapers are most numerous in New York City. “Wow! Jews are better than other peoples at providing information support for themselves. They are the most successful in the newspaper business,” I thought.
But that wasn’t all. I remembered Michael Novakhov’s legislative initiative and decided to find out what laws had already been passed to protect Jews. What I learned shocked me. It turned out that Jews are the only ethnic group to have passed a law(11) for their own protection and even created a special department in the city government to combat anti-Semitism.(12) Of course, New York has laws(13) protecting the rights of other ethnic groups. However, these laws are aimed at protecting entire racial groups, such as blacks, and not specific ethnic groups like Jews. At least, I couldn’t find any laws aimed at protecting a single ethnic group. “And in this area, Jews are more successful than others!” I thought.
“In every field I’ve studied, Jews achieve more success than other ethnic groups. This people manages to do what other peoples can’t. And my ethnic group isn’t as successful as the Jews,” I thought. And then anger and hatred towards Jews began to emerge within me… Oh no! Fortunately, I understand the reasons for these feelings.
Suddenly, I understood the reasons for the popularity of anti-Semitism. Essentially, anti-Semitism is the impotent anger of people who realize they are incapable of competing with Jews for vital resources. And then I said to myself, “Stop. Just because Jews do something better than your people doesn’t mean you should hate them. It’s a reason to learn from Jews. Anti-Semitism isn’t for me. I’m not an idiot.”
This is a description of my personal experience searching for an answer to the question, “Am I anti-Semitic or not?” Fortunately, I’m not anti-Semitic. That means things aren’t all bad for me. How are you?
Pavel Kulyuk is a journalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee
References
1.https://www.facebook.com/
2.https://www.ujafedny.org/
3.https://www.ujafedny.org/
4.https://www.nyc.gov/content/
8.https://www.nyc.gov/site/
10.https://en.wikipedia.org/
11.https://www.nysenate.gov/
12.https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-
13.https://www.nyc.gov/site/
