The basis of antisemitism is the Jewish people having yet to realize their true identity and role in humanity: that by uniting above their differences, they become a conduit for unity to spread throughout the world.
The Jewish people received their name from attaining a state of spiritual unity (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [𝘠𝘦𝘩𝘶𝘥𝘪] comes from the word for “united” [𝘺𝘪𝘩𝘶𝘥𝘪] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, 𝘋𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩 no. 2]). They share no biological connection as Jews, since they are a people that came from all parts of ancient Babylon, gathered into Abraham’s tent, and became united when they, using Abraham’s method of unification, set their sights on attaining the spiritual state of unity, purified from any self-centered motives.
Why is this non-biological, spiritual form of unity so important today?
It is because precisely today, the human ego has grown to overblown proportions, and humanity experiences increasing social division and other problems on personal, social and global scales, stemming from increasing disengagement among people.
Moreover, the increasing social diversity and mingling of cultures, economies and technologies into a globally-intertwined blend demands a method that can glue together the thickening tangle by making sense of it.
As people suffer more from increasing social division, they instinctively feel that the Jews are to blame for their problems. That is because, since the Jewish people had once achieved a unified state “as one man with one heart,” the nations of the world have a gut feeling that the Jews are holding back something positive from them. And both the nations of the world and the Jews are unconscious as to what that positive thing actually is: a harmoniously unified society, the key to everyone’s happiness.
The more the nations of the world feel their lives fill up with problems, the more they will unconsciously blame the Jews, pointing out any dirt on Jews that they can get their hands on—or fabricate—without knowing that there is a deeper hatred within them preceding its many corporeal manifestations. As social division and its byproducts of anxiety, stress, xenophobia and extremism increase, and as the suffering in the world rises, the Jews will be circled out more and more, and we can expect an intensification of attacks and threats on Jews.
Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) describes this phenomenon at length in his article, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”:
“In such a generation, all the destructors among the nations of the world raise their heads and wish primarily to destroy and to kill the children of Israel, as it is written (𝘠𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘵 63), ‘No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.’ This means, as it is written in the above corrections, that they cause poverty, ruin, robbery, killing, and destruction in the whole world.”
Today, the nations of the world unconsciously sense that the Jewish people, or Israel, are failing to implement and exemplify a unity worthy of replication in human society. The natural reaction is for them to apply pressure on the Jews, which boosts antisemitism. On the other hand, as soon as Jews unite, it will also bring about the unity of humanity and they will feel a wealth of goodness and well-being streaming from the Jewish people.
Therefore, combating antisemitism at its basis means implementing a single comprehensive solution: the education and promotion of unity above division. Such education needs to focus on uniting the Jewish people under the law, “love your neighbor as yourself,” which made them the people of Israel to begin with, in order for them to become a conduit for unity to spread worldwide, i.e., to become “a light unto the nations.”