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From “innocent” phrases to emojis and numbers, antisemitic hate is increasingly coded online. Learn how to spot these signals—and how to respond effectively.
A range of innocent-sounding comments are being re-imagined as anti-Jewish memes, serving as antisemitic dog-whistles, evading sensors and spreading anti-Jewish slurs online.
Here’s a list of some seemingly benign comments that actually signify Jew-hatred, and a list of recommendations of what to do when you encounter them.
Some online haters disguise their anti-Jewish slurs as statements that they “notice” things.
What these users allegedly “notice” is that shadowy Jews supposedly control the world. Variations of this slur include saying something is "impossible not to notice” or that “the noticing will continue.” Some users label their antisemitic comments “#TheNoticing.” At times, “noticer” is misspelled “Nooticer” in order to evade detection online.
Antisemitic mentions of “noticing things” increased sharply over 2025. The phrase “noticing will continue” rose by 36%. The phrase “the noticing” rose by 92%. And use of the coded phrase "impossible not to notice” rose by a whopping 2,261% in 2025 over the last eight months of 2024.
This is another phrase that’s often weaponized against Jews (and at times against other ethnic groups too). It’s deployed in comments to indicate that it’s supposedly always Jews who are behind every negative story or happening that’s discussed online.
Related comments that convey a similar meaning include “well, well, well” or “what do you say 3 times?” This last comment allows online antisemites to provide a winking reference to “well, well, well” without alerting algorithms that are looking for hate speech. .
Another way antisemitic commentators get around regulators is by substituting pictures for words that might get their comments flagged by moderators.
Emojis of juice boxes are sometimes used to indicate Jews. More sinister emojis used to refer to Jews online include snakes, pigs, rats, and octopuses, allowing commenters to evade sensors.
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Emojis of the “ok” hand sign can increasingly be used to denote white power, an antisemitic neo-Nazi ideology.
Images of the popular cartoon character Pepe the Frog have been adopted by neo-Nazis as a symbol of their anti-Jewish and racist ideology.
Laughing emojis can have an anti-Jewish meaning, used as code for the more overtly antisemitic image of a “laughing Jew.” Images of Orthodox Jewish men with large noses laughing have been used since the Middle Ages as a way to smear all Jews and imply that unscrupulous Jews somehow laugh at other people’s misfortunes. With online sensors clamping down on overt expressions of antisemitism, posting a laughing emoji can be a subtle way of referring to this odious stereotype.
Palestinian flag emojis and watermelon emojis are sometimes used as comments underneath Jewish-themed stories. The subtext seems to be that Israel and Jews have no right to exist and ought to be replaced by a Palestinian state instead.
While it might sound innocuous, wishing someone a “totally joyful day” is an increasingly popular way to express raw hatred and to signal to others a dangerous obsession with Jews. To the initiated, its initials TJD stand for “total Jew death.” A variation is “totally kind day” which means “total Kike death.” Other variations can stand in for different ethnic groups, as well.
Immediately after Hamas’ deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, use of the phrase “totally joyful day” online spiked by 400%.
Another way online users signal their opposition to Jews and Jewish causes is by posting the phrase “our greatest Ally” in a sarcastic way. While this phrase can be used sincerely, it has emerged as an anti-Jewish comment, particularly on X.
Online, numbers often stand in for offensive anti-Jewish phrases, allowing posters to evade online sensors and signal their hatred to fellow users.
14 is sometimes used as a dog-whistle to fellow neo-Nazis: it stands for the fourteen words in the popular white supremacist slogan “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
88 can refer to “Heil Hitler,” as H is the eighth letter in the alphabet. (It is often combined with the above as “1488.”)
18 is at times used as a coded reference to Adolf Hitler, corresponding to the place of his initials in the alphabet.
Sometimes antisemites seek to discredit the fact that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. “6 gorillas” and “6 cookies” are comments used to make fun of or undermine this fact. Another common meme and/or comment is “217k,” referring to inaccurate claims that only 217,000 Jews perished in the Holocaust, not 6 million.
Amidst protests against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, some activists are directing their ire against Jews, using phrases such as “deadly exchange” to mean that any instances of joint US-Israeli law enforcement training mean that Israel is controlling American policing behavior.
Signs and graffiti have featured slogans echoing this claim, including “Free Palestine,” “Israel trains ICE,” and “From (insert the name of any locale where protests are taking place) to Gaza, globalize the Intifada.” Conflating local protests with Israel spreads hatred of Jews to new audiences, radicalizing them to view Israel and Jews as the root of all conflicts.
This is a coded way to draw attention to someone’s Jewish identity and is increasingly used as an antisemitic or racist dog whistle. It refers to Wikipedia entries, which often describe people’s ethnicities in their “Early Life” section of biographies. Writing “early life check” is often a precursor to harassing people online for their Jewishness or other characteristics.
Some antisemites signal their hatred of Jews by placing the names of Jews in two or three sets of parentheses. This slur has its origins in a decade-old antisemitic podcast which said the names of Jews it wanted to mock in a creepy voice that echoed. Now, some online users suggest a cartoonish echo around Jewish names by using parentheses every time they refer to a Jew. Once identified in this way, Jewish social media users can find themselves targeted for abuse by online trolls.
A popular quote shared online seeks to slander Jews who speak out against anti-Israel marches and online activity. Many antisemites share the quote: “If you want to know who controls you, look at who (sic) you are not allowed to criticize,” and attribute it to the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire. It is frequently employed in anti-Jewish contexts, suggesting that a shadowy group of powerful Jews is quashing legitimate criticism of them.
In reality, this quote was coined by an American neo-Nazi seeking to spread anti-Jewish hate. In a bizarre example of the horseshoe theory of government - which holds that both far-right and far-left wing political extremists begin to resemble each other - this quote has been embraced by far-left anti-Israel activists.
These sorts of cryptic antisemitic signals can be hard for online algorithms and content moderators to detect. Yet it’s important that we call them to account whenever we see them.
Online users who employ the types of coded language described above aren’t going to argue with you in good faith. Engaging with them could be dangerous. Resist the temptation to jump into political conversations with extremists online.
Screenshot posts that use this type of antisemitic language so that you have proof of what you saw.
Social media platforms have broad policies against hate on their sites. Reporting offensive material can aid them in taking it down and even blocking offensive users.
Send your screenshots to organizations that document and fight antisemitism online such as the Anti-Defamation League in the USA to the FBI, in Britain to the Community Security Trust, or to local law enforcement.
You are the best advocate for fighting antisemitism in your own social network. Speak up about offensive content with your friends and colleagues. Let other people know why coded antisemitic slurs are problematic, and teach those around you to identify them too.
You forgot EATERS OF WHITE CHILDREN, NOSE-HATS, and '109' (the number of evicting nations)!
Facebook no longer has sensors monitoring language, etc. Its anything goes! In one discussion this week in a post about International Holocaust Remembrance Day, one commenter responded to every comment I wrote by calling me a "dir*ty Jew". I ignored the first three times he did this, then after the fourth time, I responded, "So is your mother", and he stopped. Im not particularly proud of it, but I will not cower and hide who I am! Most of the symbols mentioned in the article I have never seen, but the palestinian flag is a dominant one on FB. If FB wasn't the only way to keep in touch with cousins and high school friends across the country, I'd get off it. As it is, I'm on less and less since 10/7/23.
Why do modern Jewish organizations continue to use the term anti-semitism to cover it's true and clear meaning, JEW HATRED.
I agree with you, and besides Nazis ( Y"S) claim Islamphonia if you call out their Jew hatred, this is called gaslighting, as a child a Holocaust Survivor ( obm) I am disgusted and horrified what is going on around 80 years since the Holocaust, it is like we are in a time warp being in Nazi ( Y"S) Germany in the 1930s/ 1940s before the Holocaust then the Holocaust happened, pretty scary and frightening for me
This is why I'm not ANY social media. I cannot deal with all this stuff. It's amazing how ignorant people can be.
If you write against the hate they say you can't use Facebook, it us against the community standards, it is more like double standards to me
Not anymore. They don't censor anything!
The bad consequence of online antisemitism is the bias of puting all Jews inside the same stereotype. Deshumanization is the essential element of that poisonous hatred.
Another word for spreading hatred : ASHKENAZI!
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Just terrible, terrible the evil Northern European Heritage folk!
Funny. 'Report offensive language on social media platforms.' I'm guessing that the author has not actually tried that. I have. It's ALWAYS shot down as a 'non-violation of our policies' BS.
Report to the ADL? When was the last time the ADL had any real authority? Circa 2009 it became part and parcel of the Democrat party and has effectively neutered itself. I wish I could call on the ADL for help. The hatred that exploded on October 7 in the U.S. which has largely caught us unprepared and unaware was in no small part due to our watchdog orgs like the ADL pretending not to see the antijewish and antiIsrael propaganda being spread on our universities campuses, in the halls of Congress, in state legislatures etc etc. when you start having American kids indoctrinated to jew hatred in k-12 schools and universities as they have for decades now you can be sure that the old bipartisan support for Israel and for the Jewish community is a thing of the past. Let us not be naive
💯 ADL is a joke
In College (2001), I had a public back and forth with a college newspaper columnist that was blatantly anti semitic. No one else would call him out. After a few of those back and forth, I got a call from the ADL asking me to stop. I asked why they didn't get involved. They said it was not worth their time. What a bunch of self-hating clowns.
My dad, a WWII vet, habitually used the ok sign, as do I. Some of the other phrases are likewise innocuous, an to equate any whole number with hate speech is absurd.
Rather than policing words, letters, numbers, etc, let’s police whom we hang out with! Social media is a scourge. Get off it; give someone a call, go out for coffee, send photos of your kids via email to a select few.
Awareness of those numbers and phrases and emojis are a tool for law enforcement agencies. In the old days, watchdog organizations had a proactive relationship with law enforcement at all levels, local, state and federal and helped keep an eye out for certain groups or people who were putting out certain rhetoric to make sure it didn’t end up erupting in violence at our expense. It does not mean that you can’t use those same emojis or numbers to mean something completely innocent. Context matters.
Cant do that with my cousins in Alaska, Colorado, and Texas!! Or friends in California and Israel-- although I do call Israel a lot, since calling them is free!!