NR | 1h 21m | Documentary | 2026
Throughout history, the rise of antisemitism, more accurately labeled “Jew Hatred,” has been a better indicator of civilizational decline than a plague of locusts. Yet, like the Black Plague, Jew hatred is an ancient evil that just won’t die.
Such hatred has reached almost mainstream levels of acceptance with younger generations in the West, following the coordinated Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians.
Several dozen respected historians, journalists, and national security experts unravel the origins of this surge of hatred and warn of its potentially dire consequences in Gloria Z. Greenfield’s new documentary, “A Collective Descent Into Evil: The Lethal Obsession With Jews and the Jewish State.”
Perhaps no modern commentator better understands the historical precedents for contemporary geopolitical challenges than Victor Davis Hanson. Fittingly, he provides one of the film’s significant voices explaining how the widespread embrace of Jew hatred has always heralded the death of societies, through their own internal corruption and dysfunction. Sadly, the Jewish people have always represented convenient scapegoats for despots and kleptocrats.
Indeed, Greenfield’s assembled experts trace back the roots of the problem decades. They show how current so-called anti-Zionist activists rely on arguments and vocabulary that bear an eerie similarity to the Soviet Union’s explicitly anti-Jewish propaganda.
The same expert witnesses single out the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist internationalist organization that allegedly controls several constituent groups that the federal government recently recognized as terrorist organizations. Witnesses call them the architects behind the rise of campus Jew hatred, through their sponsorship of Palestinian advocacy student groups.
The hateful, violent rhetoric disseminated by Muslim Brotherhood-funded organizations ought to have no place in institutions of higher learning. Yet, Greenfield’s experts subsequently expose how their proxies exploit student activists’ preoccupation with racial power dynamics and post-colonial politics. They libel Jewish Israelis through an Orwellian inversion as white colonial occupiers.
The experts Greenfield interviewed have the receipts for their assertions, particularly Mark Tapson of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He cites an internal Muslim Brotherhood document, uncovered during a federal terrorism trial, which details the Brotherhood’s long-term plan to promote anti-Jewish, anti-Zionism ideology in America.
To their credit, Tapson and other commentators also condemn the concurrent emergence of vitriolic Jew hatred expressed within the right-wing fringe dubbed the “woke right.” Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens personify this view in the film.
Some critics might dismiss the film as alarmist, but they cannot accuse it of hypocrisy, because it denounces hate-mongers at both extremes of the political spectrum.
Emet’s Latest
“A Collective Descent Into Evil” is the sixth documentary produced by Doc Emet Productions. All films have examined how persistent threats to the state of Israel, the rise of violent antisemitism around the world, and the moral decay of the West are intrinsically linked.
Many of Greenfield’s expert commentators have appeared in Emet’s previous films. For instance, law professor and defense attorney Alan Dershowitz serves as the lead voice in “The Case for Israel,” literally acting as the persecuted nation’s advocate and defense counsel. Returning again in the newest Doc Emet production, Dershowitz now convincingly indicts so-called anti-Zionists as rebranded anti-Semites.
Indeed, it’s a distinguished, nonpartisan panel of experts, including Irwin Cotler, the former Canadian Liberal Party (center-left) justice minister. Sadly, the film represents one of the final on-camera appearances from the late Olga Meshoe Washington, one of Israel’s most prominent South African allies. Washington formed DEISI (Defend, Embrace, Invest, Support Israel) to vigorously defend the nation against local propaganda.
There are also highly credible national security experts, including former Reagan Administration Defense Department official Frank Gaffney and retired British Army Col. Richard Kemp CBE, who possesses a commanding on-screen presence.
Chilling Question
Perhaps the most chilling question is the one posed by Melanie Phillips (past winner of the British Orwell Prize for Journalism) and Ruth Wisse (Harvard professor and recipient of the National Humanities Medal). Why did so many in the West deny, obscure, justify, and even celebrate the Oct. 7 slaughter rather than express solidarity with the victims?
Hamas livestreamed the killing of innocent Israeli civilians and the acts of sexual violence against women. To a great extent, the entire film constitutes an attempt to understand this disconnect from small “l” liberal values.
Although Doc Emet’s first documentary was released over 15 years ago, Doc Emet Productions’ filmography, most definitely including “A Collective Descent Into Evil,” is timelier than ever, given current events.
Like its predecessors, Greenfield’s latest film completely avoids current controversies. Names such as President Donald Trump and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are never mentioned. Instead of personalities and legislation, it focuses on a bigger picture, encompassing the clash of ideologies and civilizations.
The film delivers another urgent warning regarding the rise of liberal extremism. Highly recommended for those who value genuine constitutional freedoms. Many festival and institutional screenings will follow the scheduled release.
“A Collective Descent Into Evil” premieres in America on April 21.
‘A Collective Descent Into Evil: The Lethal Obsession With Jews and the Jewish State’
Documentary
Director: Gloria Z. Greenfield
Not Rated
Running Time: 1 hour, 21 minutes
Release Date: April 21, 2026
Rated: 4 stars out of 5
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