By Mark Goldfeder

To all who pretend that anti-Zionism is unrelated to anti-Semitism, and who fight against the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism because it contains some examples of problematic “anti-Zionism,” the last few weeks should’ve been clarifying — and embarrassing.

In countries around the world, anti-Semitic attacks have shot up over 400% since the most recent outbreak of violence in the Middle East. In cities across the country, including Los Angeles and New York, hundreds of synagogues, Jewish community centers, kosher restaurants, Jewish-owned businesses, and individual Jewish people have been targeted and attacked, beaten and bullied, cursed and demonized, all because they are Jewish.

In every instance, the thin veneer of “anti-Zionism” was shattered by the open expressions of enraged anti-Semitism, including the use of such classics as “kill the Jews,” “rape their daughters” and the ever-ready swastika, not to mention the simple pummeling of innocent (non-Israeli but clearly religious) Jewish people. On social media platforms the hate is even more transparent. In just one week, the phrase “Hitler was right” or some version of it was tweeted over 17,000 times.

On college campuses, in between dodging protests outside of Hillel buildings, ignoring death threats from fellow students and removing Nazi symbols, Jewish students have been subjected to campaigns supported by faculty and student groups alike that call Israel a colonialist settler state, negate the history of their people, deny the deep Jewish connection to the Jewish State, and dismiss the lives of their co-religionists as unimportant, if they are even worth mentioning at all.

Of course, none of this is really surprising- during the last war in Gaza there was also a predictable 400% increase in anti-Semitic incidents. And of course, politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who miss no opportunity to spread misinformation and malign the Jewish state, waited until after the ceasefire to forcefully condemn the attacks against innocent Jewish people taking place in their own backyards. AOC is quick to point out rhetoric on the right that makes her feel unsafe, but study after study has shown that the kind of inflammatory discriminatory anti-Zionist rhetoric that she and her colleagues spread eventually leads to anti-Semitic action.

For the record: This most recent conflict was not a battle between Israel and Palestinians, but between Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist organization, and Israel, a key U.S. ally.

But regardless of your politics and beliefs: If anti-Zionism is not related to anti-Semitism, why are all of these people suddenly attacking Jews around the world, collectively and at random?

There is no clearer demonstration than recent events as to why we need the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and why the IHRA definition includes examples of problematic anti-Zionism, such as “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.” It is high time for Congress to pass the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which allows the Departments of Justice and Education to use the definition in determining whether an investigation of an incident of anti-Semitism is warranted under their statutory anti-discrimination enforcement authority and for individual states to adopt the definition.

There is a reason why the IHRA definition is already used by our federal government, the 31 member countries of IHRA, all 50 countries (except Russia) that comprise the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Commission, Parliament, and all E.U. member states as well as Serbia, Bahrain and Albania. More importantly, there is a reason why hundreds of major Jewish organizations across the world, and across the political and religious spectrums, representing Jewish people of all ages and backgrounds, have adopted the definition and urge others to as well. It is because they all agree that it best reflects their shared lived experience and the realities of how anti-Semitism actually manifests today.

Our government has a responsibility to protect its citizens from acts of hate and bigotry motivated by discriminatory animus — including anti-Semitism — and they must be given the tools to do so. It is no longer acceptable for officials charged with protecting people from anti-Semitism to not have a valid definition of anti-Semitism. It is equally unacceptable to insist on a definition of anti-Semitism that does not include even the most troubling of anti-Zionist sentiments.

To be clear, anti-Semitic speech should not be criminalized or contained; it should just be labeled correctly. But what we are seeing across the country today is criminal activity, not protected speech. For too long, the conflation of speech with conduct, and anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel, has allowed anti-Semites to do what they want and then claim that they were merely expressing political views. When anti-Zionism crosses over into anti-Semitic acts, it can and should be stopped.

According to the FBI, the majority of religiously motivated hate crimes in the United States are committed against Jewish people, and that number is on the rise, despite the fact that they make up less than 2% of the population. There is much work to be done to reverse these terrifying trends. It starts by defining the problem.

Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfeder, Esq. has served as the founding Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series on Law and Judaism, a Trustee of the Center for Israel Education, and as an adviser to the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations. Read full bio here.