Podcast Summary: Identity/Crisis Episode Title: Reporting on Antisemitism When No One Wants to Listen — with Jesse Brown
Host: Yehuda Kurtzer
Guest: Jesse Brown, host of “Canadaland Investigates: What Is Happening Here?”
Date: January 6, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode explores the challenges and complexities of reporting on antisemitism, especially in an environment where such conversations are frequently dismissed or unwelcome. Host Yehuda Kurtzer is joined by journalist Jesse Brown, who recently released a limited podcast series investigating the rise of antisemitic hate crimes in Canada. The conversation moves beyond mere data or news analysis, delving into journalism’s responsibilities, societal reactions, causes of the surge, intersection with anti-Zionism, and the uncomfortable alliances and narratives that shape public perception.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Focus on Antisemitism Now?

• Prevalence in Discourse: Yehuda reflects on how the word “antisemitism” dominated the podcast’s 2025 content, not by design but as an indictment of the present moment. He’s torn between seeing the focus as essential and as a “concession to our enemies that grants them a double win.”
  “Talking about antisemitism, allowing it to take central stage in the Jewish conversation... seems like a major loss of our ability to shape an aspirational agenda for our people.” [02:00]
• The “Red Pill” Effect: Once you begin closely examining antisemitism, you start to see it everywhere, in ways that can undermine optimism and foster societal pessimism.

2. Jesse Brown’s Motivation and Experience

• Personal and Professional Stakes: Brown describes how his impulse to dig into uncomfortable or taboo topics—his “stubbornness”—plus personal experiences with backlash, led him to produce the series, despite risks to his career, reputation, and his company’s business.
  “I have the tendency to not be able to stop myself from scratching at the thing you’re not supposed to scratch at... There was an incredible resistance to accepting there was anything (antisemitic happening), in fact, people were adamant that the opposite was true.” [06:56]
• Backlash: Raising questions about media bias regarding Jews after October 7 was received very differently than similar critiques about other minorities; Brown’s company faced attempted cancellations and advertiser/sponsor pressure.

3. Navigating Resistance and Self-Doubt

• Agency and Defiance: Producing the series felt like reclaiming agency, but Brown wrestled with self-doubt. Is he “losing it,” or is there genuinely something going unreported?
  “Are they right? Am I losing it or am I losing perspective?... It’s been very difficult.” [10:57]

4. Challenging the Collapse of Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism

• Careful Distinctions: The show gives significant airtime to opponents’ voices (i.e. proponents of violent anti-Zionism), probing differences between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
  “It may not be productive, it may not be accurate to simply collapse anti-Zionism and antisemitism. It doesn’t mean anti-Zionism doesn’t have its violent instincts and tendencies or results.” [12:13]

5. Changes in Canadian Jewish Identity & Society

• Feeling the Shift: Brown notes his evolving shock that basic assumptions he once shared with other Canadians about Jews (“the list of assumptions... did not exist anymore”) have vanished. The request for “equal standards” now seems undignified.
  “There is an ideology at play here... that seeks to recharacterize what Jews are and to remove from Jews the consideration that you would afford other minorities.” [13:27]

6. Surprise at Antisemitism’s Resurgence

• Historical Amnesia: The surprise among Canadian Jews, Brown suggests, comes from the community’s privileged, recent history of acceptance, which left many unaware of older, less tolerant patterns.
  “Jews have had a very privileged experience that has estranged us from our own history in Canada, our own recent history — we don’t remember it so well...” [17:25]

7. Causes of the Antisemitism Surge

• Complex “Cocktail” of Factors: Brown resists simple explanations, instead naming interlocking forces:
  • Post-national Identity: Canada’s self-conception as not-America and as post-national, pluralistic.
  • Intellectual & Political Climate: Post-colonial discourse, reconciliation focus, activism.
  • Police Response: Avoiding escalation causes authorities to remove Jewish bystanders rather than protestors, unintentionally silencing Jewish presence (“de-escalation means removing the Jew”).
  • Political Shifts: As politicians align with protestors, focus shifts to Jews themselves, not the government.
• “Once those political targets lose their vibrancy... The focus shifted, and the focus shifted to Jews.” [29:22]

8. The Role of Canada's Muslim Community

• Difficult Realities: While resisting right-wing narratives scapegoating Muslims, Brown acknowledges survey data showing higher antisemitic sentiment among Canadian Muslims, especially among younger generations and second-generation immigrants.
  “Yes, 48% of Canadian Muslims expressed at least moderate antisemitic sentiments... But that doesn’t mean they’re taking to the streets.” [33:06]

  • Important Distinction: Behavior and attitudes are not identical; meaningful contact with Jews mitigates prejudice.

• Burden of Dialogue: It’s demoralizing that “proving humanity” to antisemites is constantly foisted onto Jews.
  “If I’ve proved that I’m human, you’re not going to dislike me. That’s what it kind of comes down to.” [37:10]

9. Jewish “Permission Structures” and Allyship

• Uncomfortable Complicity: Some Jews’ public anti-Zionism provides rhetorical shelter for antisemites; Brown is wary of “good Jew/bad Jew” binaries, but recognizes the damaging effect.
  “The permission that a very small group of very overly represented Jews have to launder opinions — to make it permissible, it’s incredibly destructive.” [39:09]
  • This is compounded by constant debates over whether anti-Zionism “counts” as antisemitism, which distracts from confronting hate or hate-adjacent rhetoric directly.

10. Reframing the Focus and Solutions

• Towards Dialogue and Hope: The series concludes with an interview with Palestinian non-violence activist Ali Abu Awad, centering the idea that hating Jews is antithetical to Palestinian interests and advances no cause for peace.
  “It doesn’t help me for you to hate Jews. It doesn’t help us. It actually perpetuates things. It’s actually making it worse.” [46:00]
• Refusing to Center Only the Global Conflict: For Brown, it was vital to legitimize Jewish self-concern and local experience, but without ignoring larger, interconnected drivers.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments with Timestamps

• "Talking about antisemitism... seems like a major loss of our ability to shape an aspirational agenda for our people."
  — Yehuda Kurtzer [02:00]
• "I have the tendency to kind of not be able to stop myself from scratching at the thing you’re not supposed to scratch at."
  — Jesse Brown [06:56]
• "The appetite for hearing this was just not there. There was an incredible resistance to accepting that there was anything."
  — Jesse Brown [07:45]
• "There's something undignified about constantly begging for 'Please regard this group with the same set of standards...'"
  — Jesse Brown [13:27]
• "If you thought anyone had your back, think again."
  — Jesse Brown [21:33]
• "Our goal is not ceasefire, our goal is not a two-state solution. Our goal is to eradicate Zionism from the world."
  — Jesse Brown, analyzing protest rhetoric [29:00]
• "When you see significant chunks of your business disappear... you have to care what your audience thinks and what the world thinks."
  — Jesse Brown [11:00]
• "Antisemitism is not the study of Jews, it's the study of antisemites. That’s who we’re really talking about here."
  — Jesse Brown quoting a colleague [37:16]
• "Maybe it’s not always antisemitism. Maybe some of these people, what they hate is Israel. What they want to abolish is Israel. How did that become okay?"
  — Jesse Brown [41:00]
• "It doesn't help me for you to hate Jews. It doesn't help us. It actually perpetuates things. It's actually making it worse."
  — Ali Abu Awad (as quoted by Jesse Brown) [46:00]

Key Segment Timestamps

• Opening/Setting the Theme: 00:06-06:56
• Jesse Brown Explains Motivation & Media Landscape: 06:56-10:57
• Self-Doubt and Critical Reflection: 10:25-12:13
• Broadening to Social Phenomena: 13:27-17:25
• Canadian Jewish History & Identity: 17:25-21:33
• Analyzing Causes of Rise: 21:33-31:07
• Focus on Muslims and Immigration: 33:06-37:16
• Question of Jewish 'Permission Structures': 37:48-42:38
• Podcast’s Conclusion – Hopeful Vision/Ali Abu Awad: 44:46-47:50

Tone and Language

The conversation is inquisitive, self-reflective, critical, and unflinching. Both host and guest avoid triumphalism and slogans, aiming instead for nuance, complexity, and a refusal to settle for easy answers—fully aware of the discomfort this can produce.

Conclusion

This episode offers a thoughtful, layered analysis of antisemitism’s resurgence in Canada, the societal and personal challenges in talking about it, and the uncomfortable intersections with broader political and cultural currents. Brown’s experience, both as a reporter and as a Canadian Jew, personalizes an issue often reduced to numbers or slogans. By interrogating not only the external dynamics but also the roles played within the Jewish community itself—and by ending on a call for humanization from a Palestinian activist—the episode challenges listeners to move beyond binaries and foster deeper understanding.

Recommended for listeners seeking nuanced conversation about antisemitism, Jewish identity, and the complicated social forces shaping contemporary Jewish life in the West.