On March 27, Kennan Institute scholar Izabella Tabarovsky led a discussion at the University of Miami concerning the Soviet roots of modern anti-Zionism sponsored by CAMERA on Campus, Canes for Israel, and UM Hillel. As Tabarovsky writes in an essay for Fathom, the Soviets’ overtly antisemitic campaign “succeeded at emptying Zionism of its meaning as a national liberation movement of the Jewish people and associating it instead with racism, fascism, Nazism, genocide, imperialism, colonialism, militarism and apartheid”. Not surprisingly, students on college and university campuses across the country often hear similar, if not identical claims from anti-Zionist groups like Students for Justice in Palestinian (SJP), Solidary for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

The Soviet propaganda campaign consisted of many elements and used many mediums to achieve its goals. In 1951, Rudolf Slansky, a leading Czech communist, was imprisoned and confessed to a Zionist conspiracy under extreme torture, for which he received the death penalty. In 1952, on the Night of the Murdered Poets, Stalin executed thirteen Jewish intellectuals who had supported the USSR, yet which Stalin believed to be guilty of placing their true loyalties with Israel and the “imperialist camp,” among other things.