(Jewish Group) 'Viral' Explores the Origin and Impact of Global Anti-Semitism
In Jewish communities across the United States, the signs are literally on the wall. Anti-Semitism is on the rise and attacks against Jews are becoming more violent. In 2014, 609 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents were reported to the FBI. By 2018, that number had risen by 40%. And it’s estimated that 75% of these hate crimes go unreported. The global statistics are just as alarming. A 2018 study by the European Union found that 40% of European Jews live in fear of being attacked. Through archival video and images and interviews with notables including former President Bill Clinton, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, journalist and author Fareed Zakaria, political commentator and author George Will and historian and author Deborah Lipstadt, the documentary “Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations” explores the sources of and reasons behind anti-Semitic hate.
“We wanted to pick the most visible and clear examples of how anti-Semitism is presenting itself today,” filmmaker Andrew Goldberg told the Journal. “There are thousands and thousands of mutations. We chose four, but we could have done 400 or 4,000.” He zeroed in on the far right in the U.S., the anti-Israel far left in England, Islamist extremists in France, and the Hungarian government, where a propaganda campaign has made Jewish billionaire George Soros the scapegoat for the country’s problems. “In every case, the Jews are seen as a power working behind the scenes, controlling the economy,” he said. “It’s a spoke of a conspiracy wheel. And it never changes.”
Goldberg began the project in 2017, when reports of anti-Semitic vandalism and bomb threats escalated and personal attacks and rallies like Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Va., became more common. “It was not hard for us to see it coming. We thought it was time to make a film,” he said. “I thought there was a hole that needed to be filled. I don’t think the mainstream media particularly cares about this issue and the Jewish community doesn’t have a lot of allies in this fight. I wasn’t able to fundraise from a single non-Jewish organization or foundation.”
Goldberg spent three years on the project, continually researching and updating as more hate incidents occurred. More than 100 people worked on the film, including three full-time archivists. His biggest challenge was changing “very preconceived notions about what anti-Semitism is, how it works, where it comes from and what needs to be done about it. Those narratives vary greatly across the population and many of them are wildly inaccurate. It’s a struggle that we have as journalists to report things when people don’t want to hear it.”
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Just a reminder, The Plot Against America is coming next week to HBO.