Wikipedia and antisemitism

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Antisemitic bias on has been raised as a concern over the conduct of some editors, systemic anti-Jewish bias, coverage of the Holocaust, source selection, and aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on English and other language s. Starting in the early years of , antisemitic misconduct was observed and penalized. Antisemitism-related research has examined 's treatment of the Holocaust and its policy of neutrality.
Scholars have also used data in sundry ways to research online antisemitism. The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure used Wikidata to improve its coverage on Nazi-era ghettos and camps. Richard Utz, a scholar of anti-Jewish medieval narratives, has called for editing to combat residual antisemitic sentiment and contemporary anti-Jewish propaganda.
Antisemitic misconduct
In the early years of , there were isolated cases of antisemitic misconduct by contributors, as well as a more large scale incident. Nonetheless, co-founder Jimmy Wales stated that he would set aside ordinary procedures, protect the encyclopedia, and ban users as needed "if 300 neo-Nazis show up and start doing serious damage." and the creation of accounts with antisemitic names, has responded, for example, banning a user for their anti-Jewish campaign.
Other anti-Jewish bias
Aside from explicit anti-Jewish misconduct on , concerns have been raised about other forms of anti-Jewish bias. In one study, the use of nouns in relation to Jews and Judaism on was found to exhibit a mix of positive and negative associations, though overall they lean slightly positive. Words like "scholar," "culture," and "heritage" often accompany "Jewish," presenting Judaism in contexts of intellectual and cultural contributions. However, certain terms, such as "lobby" and "conspiracy," reveal recurring biases and negative stereotypes that frame Jews as political entities with potentially undue influence. Nevertheless, the study concludes that the word "Islamic" is far more likely to be associated with a negative connotations than the word "Jewish" or "Christian".
The framing of articles can be biased against Jews, at times, as Wolniewicz-Slomka and Makhortykh found, for instance, when Jewish heroics was omitted or Jewish suffering marginalized. In a 2010 article on framing, the authors identified cases of "criticism elimination," such as the revision of accusation that the NGO War on Want employed "Holocaust and anti-Semitic themes."
's editing policy offers the opportunity for the creation of articles with antisemitic bias, an issue that editors resolve through processes of article deletion.
In other cases, references to the antisemitic views of notable individuals were deleted, such as Father Charles Coughlin and then restored. Due to such disruptions, periodically restricts editing on its otherwise open platform. In some instances, pages concerning popular individuals who maintain antisemitic viewpoints will be edited with a respectful tone. Compared to English , the Polish version was found to downplay the real or possible Jewish ethnicity of favored persons of note, such as Pola Negri, arguably reflecting Polish values and concerns. Conversely, the Polish version included the Jewish ancestry of , a victim of Communist antisemitism, which the English version did not acknowledge (at the time of the analysis). In response, the English 's Arbitration Committee opened a case to investigate and evaluate the actions of editors in the affected articles. Ultimately, the Committee banned two editors from the topic areas, although Klein criticized the proposed remedies as " depth and consequence".
Bias in Israel-related content
In editing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to Oboler, editors have "campaigned" for an Arab or Palestinian viewpoint without being antisemitic.
In 2024, faced accusations of bias based on changes to its article about Zionism. Some of the controversial language related to the framing of Zionism as colonization, as well as the statement that Zionists wanted "as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinians as possible". The Anti-Defamation League called the revised language "historically inaccurate" and "derogatory". Israeli writer Hen Mazzig called the entry "downright antisemitic", saying that it promoted the Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry. US congressman Ritchie Torres called it a "warped telling of history," counting "Israeli Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as from Ethiopia" among the "European colonizers."
Concerns were raised regarding editors removing antisemitism as one of the ideologies of Hamas. Other concerns raised related to the perception of editor behaviour on pages relating to Jewish community groups combating antisemitism.
Source selection
maintains a list of "perennial sources" whose reliability has been evaluated by a community of editors. Possible statuses include "generally reliable", "generally unreliable", and "deprecated".
In 2024, there was a controversial decision to deem the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as "generally unreliable" on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Editors supporting the decision argued that the ADL's credibility was undermined by an overly-broad classification of antisemitic incidents, as well as controversial statements by ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. The further decision that this unreliability "extend to 'the intersection of the topics of antisemitism and the Israel/Palestine conflict'" led some Jewish community members to fear this would provide cover for antisemitic editing and delegitimize what they viewed to be Jewish communal perspectives. Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. envoy on antisemitism, also raised concerns about 's action on the ADL.
A number of Jewish groups jointly wrote a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation, asking them to reverse the ADL decision which they said stripped "the Jewish community of the right to defend itself from the hatred that targets our community". The Foundation replied that it does not involve itself in such decisions, which are made by a community of volunteer editors.

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