The South Pool of the 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade Center are illuminated at night in lower Manhattan. Photo: Bethany Blankley / For The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A tech non-profit dedicated to tracking anti-semitism online identified a number of resurfaced antisemitic conspiracies ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, such as tropes that Jews are secretly responsible for major world events including the tragic terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Center.
Founder and CEO of CyberWell – the tech non-profit in question – Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor told The Center Square that “the significance of these 9/11 conspiracy theories goes far beyond the specific allegations about 9/11.
“Conspiracy-driven scapegoating that portrays Jews as secretly and maliciously responsible for major world events, tragedies and social problems has become one of the most prevalent forms of online antisemitism CyberWell has tracked in recent years,” Cohen Montemayor said.
“Unlike most event-driven antisemitic conspiracies that spike around a major event and then fade, 9/11 scapegoating has endured for decades and become a reference point for newer antisemitic narratives, used as supposed proof that Jews were behind past crises and must therefore be behind the next one,” Cohen Montemayor said.
CyberWell identified “scores” of recent social media posts from Meta, Reddit, TikTok and more blaming the Jewish people for 9/11 or claiming they had advance notice.
Some posts simply blame Israel for orchestrating 9/11, some accuse the World Trade Center leaseholder, who is Jewish, of having prior knowledge about the terrorist attack, and some bring back up the “Dancing Israelis” conspiracy that baselessly alleged Israeli men near the World Trade Center were celebrating the attack, as explained by CyberWell.
Some posts “used a juice box emoji, a coded reference based on the phonetic similarity between ‘juice’ and ‘Jews,’ while others paired 9/11 images with the antisemitic ‘Happy Merchant’ caricature to evade automated moderation systems,” a CyberWell news release said.
“Other posts harassed individual Jews by accusing them of involvement in the attacks and used antisemitic slurs, including ‘kike,’” the release said.
Beyond 9/11 accusations, CyberWell “has documented similar scapegoating around major events,” the release said, including “the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, the 2025 Minneapolis shooting, the hantavirus outbreak, the migrant crisis in Ceuta, and wildfires in Europe, Los Angeles, and Argentina.”
“In each case, antisemitic narratives falsely blamed Jews for causing, orchestrating, or profiting from events with which they had no connection,” the release said.
CyberWell’s Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor told The Center Square that “blaming Jews for major tragedies reinforces the longstanding antisemitic trope that Jews are a secretive and powerful group responsible for society’s problems.”
“By exploiting major tragedies to deepen distrust and division, these narratives can destabilize societies, sow hatred and can lead to violence,” Cohen Montemayor said.
“When these narratives are repeatedly spread and amplified online, they normalize hatred and hostility against Jews and can contribute to real-world harassment, threats and violence,” Cohen Montemayor said.
