In a ceremony full of symbols and memory in the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Airesthe presentation of “(They shout at us) Shitty Jews – the same old hatred burns again”the journalist’s book David Kavlin, It became more than just an editorial launch. It was a wake-up call about the resurgence of a hatred that many believed had been overcome. There, before an attentive and reflective audience, Kavlin placed his work at the center of an uncomfortable debate about identity, prejudice and coexistence in contemporary Argentina, just when statistical data reveal a worrying growth of anti-Semitism in the country.
The most recent report of the DAIA, The main Jewish representation organization in Argentina, documents a sustained increase in anti-Semitic incidents, with around 678 complaints in 2024, 15 percent more than the previous year, and demonstrations that include everything from hate messages on networks to physical attacks in public and educational spaces. This phenomenon, which had already shown a 44 percent jump in 2023 after the October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas in Israel, is a mirror of what Kavlin tries to narrate. The persistence of prejudices that did not disappear with the Shoah, but rather metamorphosed into new forms of intolerance.
With a prologue from the journalist Alfredo Leucothe book does not seek to comfort but to challenge. Through six fictional life stories inspired by real experiencesKavlin gives voice to people who have experienced hostility due to their Jewish origin—from explicit insults to social and professional exclusion—and traces a story that combines testimonies with social and political analysis. Each narrative core functions as a document of a reality that refuses to be read only in historical terms. Contemporary antisemitism is alive, and deeply intertwined with current debates about identity, nation, and power.
In interviews he conducted in different promotional settings, Kavlin emphasizes that “Anti-Semitism is not a criticism, it is not a political opinion: anti-Semitism is hatred for identity”a phrase that resonates as an ethical axis of his book and his public discourse. A phenomenon that should not be confused with legitimate political discussions about the Middle East, but rather understood as a form of discrimination that, like all forms, erodes the foundations of a pluralistic society.
This point inevitably leads to confronting complex notions such as Zionism. Historically, the term designates a movement that, born at the end of the 19th century, advocated the creation of a Jewish State as a response to centuries of persecution and exclusion. With the creation of Israel in 1948, Zionism was consolidated as an aspiration for national self-determination. Today, however, the term is the subject of intense debate. For many Jews and defenders of Israel it continues to be an expression of national legitimacy, while for others – both outside and inside the Jewish world – it may seem synonymous with a controversial political project, especially in the context of the prolonged dispute between Israel and Palestine after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. That event marked a before and after in the global perception of the conflict, generating a polarization where criticism of Israel’s policies often overlaps, or is confused, with discourses that end up fueling prejudices. anti-semites.
Kavlinwhose career in the media spans radio, television and digital platforms, appears with this book as a voice that challenges indifference. More than an academic essay, his work is a fabric of narratives that invites us to look squarely at what is often hidden under euphemisms or complicit silences. The title, aggressive and disturbing, is not an empty provocation, but a call to listen to what is still being shouted in the streets, in public spaces and on social networks in Argentina and the world.
At a time when data show that expressions of hate are not a marginal phenomenon but a social concern, as shown by the statistics indicating that the proportion of Argentine adults with anti-Semitic prejudices rose from 24 to 38 percent in a decade, Kavlin’s book proposes an urgent reflection. It is not enough to condemn hate rhetorically, it is then necessary to understand it, name it and confront it with the force of memory and reason.
