Ms Rachel faces scholar criticism over Gaza messaging amid antisemitism surge

An interesting and highly symbolic moment took place on the internet recently; What some jokingly call “the war of the Rachels.”

On one side, there is “Miss Rachel,” a YouTube personality with millions of followers whose recent social media posts about Gaza have gone viral, generating tremendous engagement and emotional response. Me, on the other hand: an educator, a scholar of Zionism and Israel, and someone who has spent his career thinking about how narratives about Jews and Israel shape the moral imagination of our society.

The opposition is not personal. But it is instructive.

Ms. Rachel’s platform is phenomenal. Its audience includes parents, teachers, and young children who rely on it as a source of safety, warmth, and moral clarity. This confidence is what makes his recent political involvement so important. When influencers with this reach engage in complex geopolitical conflicts, their framing matters. Their negligence is significant. And even their casual interactions — their “likes,” reshares, and approvals — matter.

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In recent months, Ms. Rachel has increasingly used her platform to promote a unique narrative about the war in Gaza that emphasizes Palestinian suffering and largely ignores the context of Hamas terrorism, the October 7 massacre, and the hostage crisis. Even more troubling is his engagement in online rhetoric that many Jews experience not as political criticism but as delegitimizing and dehumanizing.

When a public figure even indirectly endorses or engages with language that targets Jews as a group, it does not exist in a vacuum. It becomes part of a broader cultural ecosystem in which antisemitism is increasingly normalised, excused, reframed as “activism” and made socially acceptable.

We must be absolutely clear: criticism of Israeli policy is legitimate and necessary in every democratic society. Debate, dissent, and protest are vital tools for moral accountability. But when criticism turns into rhetoric that erases Jewish history, denies the Jewish people, or echoes exclusionary language, it ceases to be political criticism and turns into something much older and more dangerous.

ANTISEMITISM: FACE IT. FIGHT HIM. FINISH

Rachel Griffin-Accurso attended the 2025 Glamor Women of the Year Awards held at the Plaza Hotel on November 4, 2025 in New York City. Miss Rachel wore a dress embroidered with children’s drawings from Gaza, featuring Palestinian flag colors, watermelons and olive branches. Watermelons are widely used on social media and in anti-Israel protests, including pro-Palestinian demonstrations. (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)

This is where the irony of “Two Rachels” makes sense.

A Rachel represents the power of mass influence without historical basis. The other represents the slow and often unglamorous work of education: teaching individuals how antisemitism mutates, how language circulates, how narratives shape belonging and exclusion.

And this is a deeper problem; If any influencer were to engage in content perceived as hostile towards another minority group, the backlash would be swift and clear. Sponsors will respond. Media organizations demand accountability. Platforms will intervene.

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But when it comes to Jews, the answer is often silent. Antisemitism is assessed as ambiguous. Jews are told to be less sensitive. The rhetoric is excused as “fair politics.”

Memorials at the site of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, Israel, on Monday, May 27, 2024. (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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This double standard is not accidental. This is part of a long history in which Jewish vulnerability has been minimized, fear of Jews ignored, and Jewish identity treated as uniquely contestable.

We are witnessing the consequences of this today. Antisemitism is increasing worldwide. Synagogues need armed guards. Jews are being killed and synagogues are burned at a Hanukkah gathering in Australia, in front of a synagogue on Jewish Holiday in the United Kingdom, at a hostage rally in Boulder, and in front of the Capital Jewish Museum in DC. Parents now need to think twice before allowing their children to wear visible Jewish symbols in public.

In this environment, influence is not neutral. And silence is not harmless.

Jewish tradition teaches us to grapple with complexity, pursue justice, and preserve human dignity, including that of ourselves and others. It requires moral seriousness, not slogans. Education, not anger. Responsibility, not performative activism.

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So perhaps the real “Rachels’ battle” is between two models of social engagement: One based on outreach without depth. The other is in-depth without spectacle. The question is which one we, as a society, will choose to reward.