Antisemitism is Un-American

The Center for Human Equality stands for a simple yet revolutionary idea: every human being possesses inherent dignity as an individual, not as a member of any collective.

Grounded in Ethical Individualism as articulated by McAlmond, our philosophy holds that moral treatment arises from the recognition of each person’s unique existence, character, and actions. This framework flows directly from the founding American principle that all of us are “created equal,” endowed with unalienable individual rights that no group, government, or ideology may lawfully override.

When we judge or condemn people according to their membership in a religion, ethnicity, or civilization, we abandon that principle.

Antisemitism is one such violation.

It is no different in structure from racism, and both are incompatible with the American experiment.

The Declaration of Independence did not proclaim that groups are equal or that rights attach to races, religions, or nations. It declared that individuals are created equal and that governments exist to secure the rights of individuals.

Ethical Individualism makes this concrete in daily life. It insists that we evaluate one another by conduct, integrity, and respect for the rights of others—not by ancestry, scripture, or collective identity.

This is not abstract theory; it is a pragmatic program for ethical relations. When applied consistently, it prevents the slide into collective blame that has repeatedly produced catastrophe.

History demonstrates the lethal consequences of group judgmentalism. The Holocaust stands as the most systematic example: millions of unique human beings were murdered because they were classified as members of the Jewish people rather than judged as individuals. The same logic of collective guilt has justified pogroms, expulsions, and discrimination across centuries and continents.

Ethical Individualism rejects this logic at its root.

It refuses to allow any person’s rights or safety to be determined by the real or imagined actions of others who share a label. Once we accept that Jews, or any other group, may be held collectively responsible, the door opens to the same reasoning against every other group.

The Center therefore opposes group judgmentalism in every form. Antisemitism fits this pattern exactly. It judges Jews as a monolithic entity—whether defined by religion, ethnicity, or supposed civilizational traits—rather than as distinct individuals. This is structurally identical to racism, which assigns moral or legal status according to skin color or ancestry instead of personal character.

Both practices substitute group identity for individual evaluation. Both violate the American commitment to equality under law and the ethical demand that we treat each person as an end in himself or herself. The Center opposes antisemitism for the identical reason it opposes racism: because both represent the moral error of collective judgment.

This error is being promoted by the Democratic Socialists in New York in today's USA. It is also showing up in the Republican and Libertarian parties. Elements within various political parties have at times trafficked in antisemitic tropes, whether through conspiracy theories about Jewish power or through selective demonization of Israel that collapses into prejudice against Jews as such.

Certain followers of Islamic ideology and activism present in the United States have likewise promoted antisemitic narratives that portray Jews collectively as enemies or conspirators. In each case the mechanism is the same: individuals are reduced to their group membership and held accountable for the supposed sins of that group. Such views are immoral because they negate individual rights. They are un-American because they contradict the founding rejection of hereditary or collective guilt in favor of personal liberty and responsibility.

America’s strength has always rested on its refusal to organize society around group entitlements or group condemnations. When we allow antisemitism—or any parallel prejudice—to gain ground, we erode the very foundation that makes peaceful coexistence possible among people of different backgrounds. Ethical Individualism offers a clear alternative.

It calls us to build relationships and institutions on the basis of mutual respect for individual rights. It asks each of us to judge our neighbors by how they treat others, not by the accidents of birth or the doctrines they inherit. This approach does not require us to ignore real differences in belief or behavior; it requires only that we refuse to punish or demonize people for belonging to a category.

The practical program is straightforward.

Reject every appeal to collective Jewish guilt or collective Jewish power.

Refuse to accept antisemitic reasoning whether it comes from the political left, the political right, or from religious or ideological sources.

Insist that criticism of any government or policy—including the policies of Israel—must be directed at specific actions and leaders rather than at Jews as a people.

Extend the same standard to every other group.

In this way we defend the individual rights of all Americans while preserving the moral clarity that group-based hatred destroys.

The Center for Human Equality therefore affirms without qualification that antisemitism is un-American. It contradicts the Declaration’s assertion of individual equality. It repeats the historical pattern of group judgmentalism whose worst expression was the Holocaust. It cannot be justified by political expediency, religious doctrine, or cultural grievance.

The only consistent American response is to meet it with the same principled opposition we direct against every other form of collective prejudice.

To secure a future worthy of the American founding, we must choose Ethical Individualism over identity-based enmity. We must see one another not as representatives of tribes but as fellow individuals possessing equal claim to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Only then can the United States fulfill its promise as a society in which no person is condemned for the group into which they were born.

This is not a partisan demand. It is a demand of conscience rooted in the principles that define us as a nation.