Introducing “The Courage to Confront”: AHA Foundation’s Campaign to Counter Islamist‑Driven Antisemitism

Courage to Confront

By Trey Dimsdale, AHA Foundation President

Each January 27, the world observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date marks the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp near Oświęcim, Poland. We remember the victims of the Holocaust. We honor those who resisted, survived, persevered, and liberated. They stood against a murderous regime driven by the world’s oldest hatred: hatred of the Jewish people simply for being Jews.

I wish I were writing today to celebrate the retreat of global antisemitism. I wish I could point to the security of the State of Israel and to Jewish people being fully embraced as valued citizens everywhere. But this vision has not been realized. In fact, it has never felt more distant.

Across the U.S., Jewish people are the target of nearly 70%1 of all religion‑based hate crimes. After October 7, 2023, antisemitic content on some social media exploded by 5,000%2, and campus incidents rose by more than 700%3.  Our responsibility to confront antisemitism has never been more urgent. Tragically, our failure to act has resulted in more dead Jews: in public parks in Boulder, Colorado; in synagogues in Manchester, England; and on the beaches of Sydney, Australia. 

These losses make it clear: the time for endless debate has long passed. The empty charge of “Islamophobia” must end. The deliberate confusion about the nature of antisemitism must also end.

For this reason, AHA Foundation’s founder, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has given our team a clear mandate. We must act to protect our Jewish neighbors. We must defend our cultural institutions from subversion. And we must do so without yielding to the dishonest sensitivities of Islamists who cloak themselves in the language of victimhood.

That is why Ayaan has worked closely with the AHA team to design The Courage to Confront, a strategic, multi-year initiative to address Islamist-driven antisemitism. Unlike efforts that merely try to manage antisemitism, this initiative asks a different question. Not how to keep Jews safe, but how to make the West wholly inhospitable to antisemitism and Islamism.

Together, we will equip and inspire people of goodwill to recognize antisemitism and challenge it in their circles of influence: in workplaces, on campuses, in schools, and across their wider communities. 

Each year of this ambitious four-year campaign will introduce new programs to restore institutions of moral formation that have been compromised and that have allowed antisemitism to take root. 

In 2026, we will focus on college and university students. We will help them restore their campuses to places where Jewish students are free from threat and intimidation. In the years that follow, we will extend this work to K–12 education, the media, and policymakers.

We will not do this work alone. Many of our friends and like-minded organizations have been laboring in this work for much longer, have notable competence in the various areas that we will engage, and share our goals. Over the course of the next year and beyond, we’ll announce formal and informal partnerships. The prescience and commanding convening power of Ayaan, coupled with the hard-earned expertise of our partners, will result in a formidable positive vision of what the world can and should be when the West believes that our cultural institutions, our liberties, and our Jewish neighbors are worth preserving.  

Over the next four years, AHA Foundation will raise $3.5 million for this important work. As we launch this campaign on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we are pleased to report that donors like you have already pledged toward this goal. Even before today’s public launch, we have raised $1,165,000.

With your support, we can:

  • Equip and embolden college students to recognize and confront antisemitism on their campus.
  • Support K-12 educators in identifying and correcting curricula, standards, and training shaped by antisemitic and pro-Islamist ideas.
  • Educate young journalists and media professionals on the geopolitical realities surrounding Israel, Islam, and the Middle East.
  • Amplify Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s voice on campuses, online, and before broader audiences to counter antisemitic and Islamist efforts to subvert Western institutions.

On this day or remembrance, please consider making a special gift. Together, we can stem the rising tide of antisemitism and help ensure that the West remains a place where hatred and violence are never tolerated.

1 ADL, “Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes Comprised Nearly 70% of All Religion-Based Hate Crimes in 2024,” https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/anti-jewish-hate-crimes-comprised-nearly-70-all-religion-based-hate-crimes.

2 Institute for Strategic Dialogue, “Rise in Antisemitism on Both Mainstream and Fringe Social Media Platforms Following Hamas’ Terrorist Attack,” Digital Dispatch, Oct. 31, 2023. https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/rise-in-antisemitism-on-both-mainstream-and-fringe-social-media-platforms-following-hamas-terrorist-attack/ 

3 Hillel, “Antisemitism on College Campuses: Incident Tracking,” https://www.hillel.org/antisemitism-on-college-campuses-incident-tracking/