During the Russo-Ukrainian conflict that erupted in 2014, Putin and his supporters raised the specter of historic Ukrainian Antisemitism to tar those defending the country’s independence in the 21st century. This was not the first time Putin used Antisemitism for political purposes, but it had special potency given Ukraine’s genuine history of genocidal Jew-hatred, and its modern efforts to whitewash that past.

Now, as Putin’s forces move on Ukraine once more, the region’s approximately 200,000 Jews — and their history — are back in the news. According to Ukraine’s Chief Rabbi, Yaakov Bleich, “What’s good for Ukraine is good for the Jews of Ukraine. What’s bad for Ukraine is bad for the Jews of Ukraine.” Yet the leader of the pro-Russian separatists of the Donetsk People’s Republic in East Ukraine, a Russian Jew named Aleksandr Kofman, says it is Ukraine that is “being provocative” and “using weapons prohibited under the Minsk Protocol.” So it is a very uncertain time for the Jews of Ukraine, and we pray for their safety as well as all those currently in danger.

On the other side of the globe, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly accused anti-mandate protesters of Antisemitism, as well as Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and other bigotry. For weeks, he has used those allegations to dismiss the Truckers’ Convoy and its supporters as a radical “fringe minority.” But In a heated debate in Parliament last week, Trudeau doubled down on that rhetoric. In response to criticism from Conservative Party MP Melissa Lantsman, Trudeau remarked, “Conservative Party members can stand with people who wave swastikas, they can stand with people who wave the Confederate flag.”

The statement drew an instant, blistering rebuke from Lantsman. “I am a strong Jewish woman and a member of this House and a descendant of Holocaust survivors and … It’s never been singled out, and I’ve never been made to feel less,” she told the Parliament. “Except for today, when the Prime Minister accused me of standing with swastikas.”

Such accusations have become a familiar feature of American political theater as well. In a January interview on NPR’s Florida Roundup, Florida gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Fried compared Governor Ron DeSantis to Adolf Hitler. The ADL’s Florida representatives condemned her statements, calling them “offensive,” and CJV’s Rabbi Menken called upon Fried to apologize. The ADL, however, has itself been part of the problem, forcing CJV to call it out more than once for “misuse of Antisemitism for partisan purposes.”

Growing antisemitism is far too serious to be misused as a political football. CJV will continue to set the record straight.