“The arsonist showing up with an empty fire extinguisher.” That was how New York State Assemblyman Kalman Yeger, a Brooklyn Democrat, described the Soros family’s new promise to fight antisemitism.
The promise is $30 million, to be spent over three years by Open Society Foundations on efforts against antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate. Alex Soros, who runs the network for his 95-year-old father George, announced it in a May 13 video. “This investment is about keeping people safe and pushing back against hate,” he said.
He also posted on X that his father, a Hungarian-born Jew and Holocaust survivor, “has been a target of antisemitism his whole life.”
The criticism
The New York Post, which reported the backlash on May 23, wrote that critics hold George Soros largely responsible for a rise in hate because of the anti-Israel causes he backs. The paper said he has given more than $15 million to groups behind pro-Palestinian protests after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District, took that line on X. “George Soros uses his Open Society Foundation to indirectly fund the anti-Israel protests and encampments on college campuses,” he wrote. Alex Soros complaining that his father is a target of antisemitism, Petlin said, is “the textbook definition of the word ‘chutzpah.’”
Trump and the FBI
President Donald Trump named George Soros in September when he told the FBI to crack down on what he called “left-wing terrorism.” The Open Society network has denied the accusation and says its mission is to strengthen democracy.
